Most uplifting book

[heartsinvisiblefury]

What's the most uplifting, cheerful book you've read and why?

I'm looking for something to make me smile and help get me through January do any recommendations very much welcome!

Following - need a bit of cheer

Oh god me too! Please anyone suggest something!

Miss Benson's Beetle might fit the bill!

Random but I felt really uplifted by Sara Cox’s book, Thrown. I found it in the charity shop and it’s a really lovely book.

Oh and the Lido by Libby Page, this was wonderful too x

Tully - Paulina Simmons, Where Rainbows End - Cecilia Aherne, The Power of One - Bruce Courtenay

My list may seem a bit odd, but these are the books that have cheered me up the most:

Brian Blessed: Absolute Pandemonium (get the audio version – with Blessed himself reading it)

Patrick Fermor: A Time of Gifts

P. G. Wodehouse: Right Ho Jeeves

P. G. Wodehouse: Joy in the Morning

Alan Watts: The Way of Zen

Bertrand Russell: Autobiography, essays and journalism

Aldous Huxley: The Doors of Perception

Aldous Huxley: Chrome Yellow

Evelyn Waugh: Decline and Fall (especially the first half...oh, and try Michael Maloney's audiobook recording, it's a masterpiece )

Evelyn Waugh: The Sword of Honour

Anthony Burgess: Enderby novels, especially the first one

Robert Graves: Goodbye to all That

The Sherlock Holmes books, read by Stephen Fry

Harold Bloom: Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (especially the chapter on Henry IV)

Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe

Eckhart Tolle: The Power of Now

Bill Bryson: A Short History of Nearly Everything

Anything by Nancy Mitford or Jilly cooper.

Following

The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle is lovely

Eleanor Opliphant is completely fine

A Good girl's guide to Murder - brilliant whodunit although sad and a bit creepy in places. I felt so uplifted after reading it and wanted to share it with anyone and everyone!

Anything by Lucy Dillon for light fiction especially if you like dogs. Walking back to Happiness is a good place to start.

A Spring Affair by Milly Johnson (obviously as long as an affair isn't part of your worries), an uplifting chicklit book about love and cleaning.

Mrs Harris Went to Paris and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day for some retro escapism.

I know it's a massive cliche but I found Eat Pray Love very uplifting

I always find myself going back to my absolute favourites...The Diary of a Provincial Lady by EM Delafield and Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe.

Both gently amusing and comforting and lovely to dip in and out of.

All of Austen.

www.billywhippet.com

Chris is a great illustrator and he tells the tale of his beloved Whippet Billy who suffered an injury but lives his life to the fullest.

Wonderful true tale of the love and dedication of the owner Chris and the pure joy of Billy who's zest for life is an inspiration to us all.

I also follow them on Facebook.

Bernadette Evaristo - Girl, Woman, Other.

It's beautiful

Also Victoria Clayton, Moonshine

It's a large book but don't be put off, it's a bloody good read, great characters and story

Agreed. Wonderful book.

Oo thanks for the recommendation. I’ve had it sitting on my bookshelf for a few years. I’ll dig it out after my current read. I won’t recommend my current book as uplifting, given the authors previous work!

My bookclub has just read one that was lovely (deliberately picked because it was supposed to be uplifting after a few very heavy choices)

The Lost Bookshop - Evie Woods.

Supersimkin7

Anything by Nancy Mitford or Jilly cooper.

Agree, although the earlier JC's are the best, imo. Riders followed by Rivals would be a good, escapist read. Her non-fiction collections are good too, although usually only found 2nd hand and very much "of their time" as the warning goes.
I also love the Mapp and Lucia books by EF Benson and anything by Eva Ibbotson (even her books for older children are good, if you like that sort of thing). My favourite is "A Countess Below Stairs" aka "The Secret Princess" followed by "Madensky Square".

Only came out last year but I loved The Wedding People by Alison Espach - starts off quite dark with a woman intent on ending her life but becomes very positive and laugh-out-loud funny. I came across it because it made several best-book-of-the-year lists in 2024.