I'm so down right now, please help me find a book to read

[adaptiveness]

I'm not going into the details, but I'm not in a good place right now and I badly need a good book.

I have 5 mins to write this, so am going to be really unreasonable and just list the stuff that I can't deal with reading about right now.

No sex, suicide, romance, bad stuff happening to kids, sad endings, books that will make me think about the fucked up state of the world. No kooky, random, wet, indecisive protagonists. No 'hilarious' bad parenting.

Any genre fine: fiction, literature, sci-fi, fantasy, non-fiction, historical, comedy, biography, sport. Whatever. I just need to disappear into a good book.

Please help!

My go-too books for gentle escapism are things like The Making of a Marchioness, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and Miss Buncle’s Book. Agatha Christie is good escapism - go for some of the ones that are completely daft but fun reads like The Secret of Chimneys or The Man in the Brown Suit.

If you don't mind a teenage view on romance my go to for a book to cheer me up is Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging, I've read it multiple times and it still makes me laugh out loud

Alexander MacCall Smith’s Sunday Philosophy club series. Ellis Peters Cadfael series. Sending fortitude.

Another one here who can't understand why Diary of a Nobody is a sad book. I think it's hilarious and definitely inspired Adrian Mole.

Miss Pettigrew is bloody marvellous and never fails to cheer me up. Also Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons.

I second Miss Marple. My heroine.
The Elly Griffiths Ruth Galloway books got me through lockdown, and beyond.
The diary of a country lady by EM Delafield is very soothing too.
I also enjoyed the Thursday Murder Club.
Hope things cheer up for you

3 1/2 Pillars of Wisdom by Alexander McCall Smith.

I Capture the Castle.

Or any Wodehouse

Diary of a Nobody is marvellous. I first read it as a teenager and now in my 40s it's still wonderfully funny. Very Adrian Mole of his time.
David Sedaris "Dress your family in corduroy and denim" is very funny short essays on things that happened to him. But I can't remember the whole contents of the book. This is his one on Christmas customs which I always enjoy www.stnicholascenter.org/around-the-world/customs/netherlands/sedaris

Oh goodness definitely not Elenor Oliphant or The hearts invisible furies!

Another vote for Agatha Christie or the Richard Osmans? Inoffensive crime, old golden age or good copies
Do NOT go near Eleanor Oliphant or Small Pleasures.

@littlepinkseals yes, miss Pettigrew lives for a day is the first one I thought of!

@adaptiveness hope you're ok. Miss Pettigrew is wonderful.

Also, I haven't read it in years and am not completely sure it isn't sad in parts, but if I remember right Seabiscuit by Laura hillebrand (sp?) is a really great book.

The Midnight Library. It is a bit grim at the start (attempted suicide) but it’s really life affirming. I just finished it and it’s given me a real boost.

The Diary of a Provincial Lady , Miss Pettigrew lives for a day. Very enjoyable safe reads.
Maybe some Barbara Pym? Or My Family and Other Animals.
Slightly at a variant, I’ve found the Becky Chambers sci-fi Wayfarers series very good when I want to escape.

Came on to say the keeper of lost things but beaten to it - it really is a lovely story

Is based around romance though

If you want something which is an easy read but gives you something to think about, I recommend Matthew Syed's books. I read one almost by accident last year and then read everything else he'd written over the next couple of months. I found it bizarrely fascinating learning about things like the transformation of the training of hopeful English Olympic athletes over the last few years.

Yes to Enchanted April
Thursday Murder Club is a joy.

I aleays re read Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy when i'm in a bad place

All of Ruth Hogans books are a delight, great characters and always uplifting.

I’m just reading the Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt Cain and it’s really enjoyable so far.

I agree - Diary of a Nobody and the Mapp and Lucia novels - total blissikins. I also like the Dear Lupin letters.

I love Agatha Christie too.

I've just finished The Appeal by Janice Hallett. I absolutely loved it. It's told mostly via emails between characters which is an unusual format, but very clever. You glean loads of stuff from the emails - not just their contents, but the way they're written too.

The premise of the book is that a man launches an appeal for his granddaughter who has a rare brain tumour - but it really isn't what you would think at all.

Another vote for Miss Pettigrew

But I also find great comfort in revisiting favourite children's books: Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, What Katie Did, The Hobbit

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is an excellent suggestion!

I've recently finished The Ocean at the end of the lane by Neil Gaiman and loved it.

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim, Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons or Hector and the Search for Happiness by François Lelord.

Another vote for Anne of Green Gables. Just lovely