Please find me a happy fiction book

[ritzbiscuits]

Any suggestions please? I read a lot of non fiction and have just finished The Choice about the holocaust. Prior to that I read the second Elena Ferrante novel that seemed to drag. I've gone to my TBR shelf and it's more WW2 stories, adoption gone wrong, man dies of cancer etc.

Anything that is a happy story, potentially funny, relatively light but not trash.

Not Eleanor Oliphant, will buck the trend but found it was overrated.

I liked Hearts Invisible Furies last year if that's useful?

The keeper of lost things by Ruth Hogan. Really touching. The Rosie Project is a little lighter.

Mr penumbras 24 hour bookstore by robin sloane, all about love of books and reading and a secret organisation of readers! Kooky and charming.

The Observations by Jane (not Joanne) Harris

Entertaining and engaging, but not fluffy.

Thanks I’ll take a look at these

Reading with interest. I've just about had it with WWII, domestic violence and child abuse being peddled for entertainment. Some well-written fluff would be nice.

Can I recommend The Salt Path? A factual and uplifting travelogue and story of homelessness in modern Britain.

And for fiction (which is what you were after), I'm enjoying True Grit by Charles Portis. My kind of dark humour and dry witty dialogue.

The Martian by Andy Weir is my current "cheer up" book.

I enjoyed Maggsie McNaughton's Second Chance By Frances Maynard. Far fetched in places but definitely upbeat.

@KitchenDancefloor Ahh The Salt Path, I presumed that was a depressing book?!

I found The Salt Path really uplifting. If you enjoy stories of struggles against adversity, then you'll like it and there is some gentle humour and wry observations too. With a heavier hand it could have been a bleak book though.

It's a book that I keep buying for birthday presents and it seems to go down well.

I'm setting up camp here to see if there are a few more suggestions. I've had issues with insomnia and can't concentrate on anything heavy for the time being, so some lighter (but still interesting) writing would be appreciated.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles is a huge hearted novel, funny and life affirming.

Towles' first book the Rules of Civility was also superb.

Ritzbiscuits - just to say that I too found Eleanor Oliphant to be over rated. I'm also currently reading The Heart's Invisible Furies and really enjoying it. I recently read Any Human Heart by William Boyd - I couldn't stop thinking about it for days.

@LondonLass61Sounds like we have similar taste. I've had Any Human Heart in the depths of my Amazon wishlist, so will have a read up about it.

Gonna go against a PP and say that while the Salt Path has got a (sort of) uplifting message, I found it a bloody depressing read. Good, but gloomy.

Agree re: Rules of Civility.

I also loved A gentleman in Moscow.

I also love A Gentleman in Moscow and agree it fits the bill.

Interested to see the comments on Rules of Civility as it was the only book I failed to finish last year. Perhaps I need to give it another go.

Saturdays At Noon by Rachel Marks. Not unrelentingly cheerful, but funny in places and ultimately uplifting.

I second A Gentleman in Moscow- also Where the Crawdads Sing. Poignant and lovely