can anyone suggest some good, uplifting, books to read, please????????????

[veryhungrycaterpillar]

I'm off work due to illness, loving the chance to get my head stuck into books again, but starting to feel quite lonely and depressed, and really want some ideas of books that will lift my mood. nothing too heavy going though as I'm pretty tired at the moment

currently reading 'so many ways to begin' by jon mcgregor, good, but making me feel quite down, as did 'brightness falls' which i read before that....

thank you!

[Nighbynight]

No I Dont Want To Join A Bookclub by Virginia Ironside. Chicklit gets old, funny, experienced and oddly optimistic.

[barbarianoftheuniverse]

Comfort reads:
I Capture the Castle: Dodi Smith
Love in a Cold Climate, and The Pursuit of Love: Nancy Mitford
Anybody Can Do Anything etc. Betty McDonald (nobody will have heard of that)
Gaudy Night Dorothy Sayers

[barbarianoftheuniverse]

And early Jilly Cooper

[daffodill6]

I love to re-read Arthur Ransome - Swallows and amazons etc, Agatha Christie - I re-read lots of her stuff during and after a miscarriage. I was also a big Alistair Mclean fan years ago ( guns of navarone and Road to a dusty death were made into films ..Steve Mcqueen was in the latter) but I'll save them for a re-read next time I'm ill!!

[daffodill6]

Another thought - to cheer - depending on your sense of humour any of the Tom Sharpe novels - Wilt etc (always found the earlier ones better though... used to read them out loud ... cracked me up!)

[jollydiane]

Anything by Ben Elton

[starbear]

2nd No 1 Ladies Detective Agency books. Lovely with a cup of tea and biscuits.
Love in the Present Tense, Catherine Ryan Hyde
Anything by Eric Newby
Jean de Florette and Manon of the Springs by Marcel Pagnol.

[Baffies]

the dud avocado by elaine dundy
young american goes to live in Paris in the 1950s...great comedic book

(virago modern classic)

[FairyTaleEnding]

Barbarian - love your choices. Me too, every time.

My 2pworth: Elizabeth Jane Howard - The Cazalet Chronicles. There are four of them and you get really drawn into the stories.

[seeker]

I can't tell you how delighted I am to find other people who know Other Men's Flowers! Such a wonderful book. The modern equivalent, I suppose has to be The Rattlebag.

[seeker]

And don't forget Elizabeth Gouge!

[thumbElf]

I know it's chicklit but I quite like it none the less - Christina Jones' stuff is lighthearted and can be uplifting, but no good to you if you don't like hippies/ hedge witchery/ aromatherapy!

Gerogett Heyer romance novels are always a good bet when I need cheering up - I read my entire collection this time last year, in the last couple of weeks of pg and then the first 4 weeks of bf'ing.

[barbarianoftheuniverse]

Yes, Elizabeth Goudge. The Dean's Watch is a good book for illness. But I don't know if libraries stock those old books any more.

I must look for Elizabeth Jane Howard. And what is The Rattlebag?

[seeker]

I knew I'd spelled her wrong!

The Rattlebag is an anthology by Seamus Heaney where all the poems are arrange in alphabetical order, rather than by date or poet. It means you find some lovely juxtapositions!

[veryhungrycaterpillar]

just a quick message to say thank you for all the suggestions so far, I'm sure I won't be the only one who feels cheered up just reading through this list , glad to see old favourites (dodie smith, elizabeth gouge, jane austen) and names I wouldn't have thought of and am going to look up!

pg wodehouse and heidi already working their magic, still ill but definitely much less gloomy about it...

mrs babookaloo, hope its cheering you up too

[veryhungrycaterpillar]

seeker - love the Rattlebag too

[ggirlsbells]

the memory of running

[swanriver]

LOOONG. I Promessi Sposi, or The Betrothed by Manzoni. very uplifting classic. I can't read italian by the way.

[seeker]

Other Men's Flowers

Give this a go - it's lovely, honestly!

[overthemill]

prayer for owen meany - john irving
e nesbit - any
anne tyler - any

ooh loads actually and cant wait to try some of these suggestions and to reread some children's classics. i'm forever pushing my poor dd towards these!

[subtlemouse]

seeker - my grandma gave me OMF for my 18th birthday. She used to be able to quote loads of it; I try too!

VHC - do you like detectives? Lindsey Davis's Falco series are cheery, with good jokes and no real gore. I also have a passion for Malcolm Pryce's Aberystwyth Mon Amour (and the rest of his series) and anything by Martin Millar, especially The Good Fairies of New York and Lonely Werewolf Girl.

Must go and read them now!

[LostLauren]

5 People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom

Wonderful!

[janeite]

Echo lots here already:

P&P (but of course); Ballet Shoes; Bill Bryson; The No 1 Ladies' Detective.

Would also add:

Re: childhood faves: Charlotte Sometimes / Tom's Midnight Garden / Goodnight Mr Tom (although it always makes me howl, it is ultimately heart warming).

The Five People You Meet In Heaven (I loved this, although I really didn't expect to); Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day.

[janeite]

Snap!

[blackrock]

Cloudstreet Tim Winton