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!

The Ten Thousand Doors of January is a good one! I think maybe some people are mean to children but it all turns out okay in the end so it's not in a bleak way. Fantasy adventure girl power book.

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine was so bleak and depressing and I was in a pretty good place when I read it so I don't recommend that.

Always recommend The Midnight Library for a really good life affirming book.

I think I'd go for a classic children's book like Five Children and It maybe? Or Swallows and Amazons?

'Eleanor Oliphant' is the worst book I have ever read. My go-to when I'm down is Jilly Cooper because it's so ludicrous, but I agree with PPs that Miss Marple or Lord Peter Wimsey are most definitely called for

Definitely Anne of Green Gables!

I also enjoyed Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Perhaps one of The Dales series by Gervase Phinn, e.g. Head over Heels in the Dales. They're about a school inspector working in Yorkshire. There's a sub-plot about the inspector's impending marriage but the main topic is funny and strange things that happen to a school inspector.

Chronicles of St Mary's - perfect escapism. Read one or read many.

Not sure Hearts Invisible Furies or Eleanor Oliphant meet your brief.

Absolute twaddle - Agatha Raisin in order!
Slightly less twaddle - Elly Griffiths - any if the 3 series
Sentimental but lovely- Three Things about Elsie (Joanna Cannon of Goats & Sheep fame)
Old School- Malory Towers!
Bit more worthy- Circe - Madeleine Miller
Quirky Modern -The Authenticity Project

Wilt by Tom Shape

You won’t regret it

Driving Over Lemons is nice.

I capture the castle, Dodie Smith.

You need The Enchanted April! If you really want to avoid any human complications at all, Elizabeth in her German Garden is even more serene. Both those are great for cheering up when low because they are so undemanding and cosseting.

The James Herriot vet series is lovely and at times laugh out loud funny. Really good escapism for a low time.

@Winniewonka

Bill Bryson. His earlier travel accounts might be a bit dated but his wit makes me laugh out loud.

Came on to say this. I once embarrassed myself on a plane because I was hysterically laughing while reading Notes from a Small Island. I've since read it again and I still laughed out loud at the same places

Lots of these.

In the same state I definitely reach for Cold Comfort Farm.

Barbara Pym?

Some of my favourite comfort reads on this thread. What good taste we all have ;)

Adrian Mole is an old favourite of mine for comfort reading and also love Jilly Cooper's novels

@SailYourShips

Old comfort reads for me are The Diary of a Nobody and the Mapp and Lucia novels by E.F. Benson. They've got me through many a crying and bleak day.

Hope you come through whatever is making things dark.

I was going to suggest Mapp and Lucia too . It's perfect pick-me-up reading.

I second Adrian Mole, Agatha Christie, Swallows and Amazons, Bill Bryson, Hitchhiker's Guide, Anne of Green Gables, Jeeves and Wooster

Also would recommend: My Family and Other Animals, Cranford, Harry Potter, 84 Charing Cross Road, All Creatures Great and Small, Three Men in a Boat, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Railway Children, Terry Pratchett, Treasure Island, The Hobbit.

Frank n Stans Bucket list - lighthearted fun

Island of the Sequined Love Nun. Or anything by that author. Exactly what you are looking for!

Seconding (thirding?!) Adrian Mole, excellent comfort reading and there are lots in the series if you get on with it.

Just William books are also great (excellent audiobooks too).

Wonder by RJ Palacio

Then watch the film but book first 💕

I hope you feel more uplifted soon.

One of my favourite books of recent years is old baggage by Lisa Evans (I think) it's about a suffragette in the 1930s trying to get a youth group off the ground - I found it really heart warming and interesting

There is a list of uplifting books on Goodreads too, it's called Uplit. 😊