Give me so happy easy reading please

[polkadotorganisedchaod]

My friend died this weekend and I'm so sad. I've just gorged on a couple of kindle free romances but need a slight chance. Either something more thriller or something with a twist or indeed another cheesy book but not as formulaic. Although credit where it's due, the fluffy warm hearted tale of a dog sanctuary was just what I needed. No illness in it please. Reading is my escape when not watching master chef and reading the threads that accompanied it. Thank you 🙏

Not cheesy but an uplifting, gentle read which should be perfect for you: here.

I am sorry about your friend.

So sorry to hear about your loss

When a good friend passed last year Cold Comfort Farm and P. G. Wodehouse
massively helped me through it

My favourite such book is ‘A Month in the Country’ by JL Carr.

I am very sorry about your friend.
Perhaps have a look at these .
Miss Read books set in small villages where nothing much happens. Dated but very gentle.
A series by Jack Sheffield written from the perspective of the head teacher of a small village school in the 1970s
The Number One Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith.

Georgette Heyer is immensely comforting Regency romance. I'd recommend pretty much any of her Regency novels.

The Number One Ladies Detective Agency is a good shout too

I'm sorry for your loss.

Portuguese irregular verbs, Alexander McCall Smith

The orange and other poems, Wendy Cope
Stardust, Neil Gaiman

Stardust is a lovely read

I love it @Mothership4two, I've read the book and watched the film, and I've just listed to the Audiobook as well. It's beautiful.

Sorry about your friend.

The Magic Apple Tree by Susan Hill is my go to comfort read - countryside, nature, gardening, cooking, the year turning, feasts and festivals.

Patrick Dennis' Auntie Mame books or HE Bates, The Darling Buds of May. Flora Thompson, Lark Rise.

I agree with Blackcountryexile about this Miss Read books - the Fair acre series are gently, wryly humourous.

Nancy Mitford, perhaps.

@TwigTheWonderKid I got a link to exam papers ?! Would take my mind off things I guess!

How strange! Link works for me.

Link took me to an Amazon page for Found in a Bookshop by Stephanie Butland

@TwigTheWonderKid this is the sequel to Lost For Words. Does it matter if you haven't read that one first?

Crossposted!

Sorry, meant to put them in the correct order. The second book definitely stands alone but if you do read the second one and then want to read the first it might have been better to do it the other way round.

Fran Smith, Sister B Letters (on Kindle unlimited). Sequel is The Power of Cake.

Set in a convent, they are letters written by a nun to her penpal, and very easy to pick up and put down. Gentle and humorous.

Romance: The Bridgerton book series is great for easy distraction, the Maiden Lane series by Elizabeth Hoyt or anything by Sarah Morgan for formulaic romance.

Cosy crime: Richard Osman makes me laugh out loud. Marlowe murders. Anthony Horowitz the word is murder series is excellent. SJ Bennett's the queen investigates series.

Feel good: The Rosie Project. The flat share. Peter Murphy"s Walden of Bermondsey series.

The Harry Potter series is my go to when I am going through a tough time. Generally listening to it on Audible.

P G Wodehouse is the true master of joyful escape. Stephen Fry called his language “sunlit perfection,” and someone else described reading him as “like swimming in champagne.” For me, pure bliss is laying in a hot bath listening to Stephen Fry read Sherlock Holmes or P G Wodehouse.

I also find Patrick Fermor’s A Time of Gifts a total joy.

Jodi Taylor. Chronicles of St Mary's. Fabulous, funny, contemporary books. I love them, my daughter loves them. I recommended to a friend and she has now bought more.

They are fun, daft, intelligent and full of disasters, relationships (broad spectrum) and just so real. Please give them a go.

Also Terry Pratchett Disc World books - I was hooked, until I read them all

Seconding Georgette Heyer. Like Bridgerton but better written and no sex.

I third her.

Also enjoy Miss Read.

Also Mapp and Lucia series is gentle but sharp humor.

Thirding Georgette Heyer. Laugh out loud funny in places. She writes terrific secondary characters, and some of her books have a mystery element as well as a romance.

Jodi Taylor is also very funny, but be warned, characters do die.

Chronicles of St Mary's are a great series.

Three Things About Elsie

The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy

@DelurkingAJ Was that book made into a film with the very young Kenneth Branagh restoring/painting a mural.? It was briefly at the cinema where I saw it at the time and remember loving it. For some reason I thought it was by the author of "A Room with a View".