Looking for good, cheerful book suggestions.
January 31, 2023 7:52 PM Subscribe
My book club's last three books were The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, and The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See. All great, but also quite bleak, violent, or depressing, or a mix of the three. Looking for a more light-hearted or cheerful suggestion for our next book. Any recommendations? Fiction and under 400 pages are the only two requirements.
I'm not sure if her work quite tracks as cheerful per se, but everything I've read thus far by Becky Chambers makes me feel a bit better about people and the world. A Psalm for the Wild-Built in particular is so dang good.
posted by xenization at 8:12 PM on January 31, 2023 [13 favorites]
posted by xenization at 8:12 PM on January 31, 2023 [13 favorites]
Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson
My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite - dark comedy, inspired a very good discussion at my book group
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
posted by lizard music at 8:22 PM on January 31, 2023 [3 favorites]
My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite - dark comedy, inspired a very good discussion at my book group
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
posted by lizard music at 8:22 PM on January 31, 2023 [3 favorites]
Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce prompted discussion of childhood dreams, workplace mishaps that really aren’t what they seem, and friendship. There is a quick rough bit at the beginning but by chapter 2 we’re on to Miss Benson.
Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radish
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray is historic fiction, while it’s suspenseful and was more of a page-turner than I was expecting.
posted by childofTethys at 8:51 PM on January 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radish
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray is historic fiction, while it’s suspenseful and was more of a page-turner than I was expecting.
posted by childofTethys at 8:51 PM on January 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
Violeta
[Edit: I am realizing that some might find this depressing because it contains some difficult topics, but I found it heartwarming for there to be love and happiness in the midst of difficult times.]
posted by Bottlecap at 9:07 PM on January 31, 2023
[Edit: I am realizing that some might find this depressing because it contains some difficult topics, but I found it heartwarming for there to be love and happiness in the midst of difficult times.]
posted by Bottlecap at 9:07 PM on January 31, 2023
The Hearing Trumpet - Leonora Carrington
Circe - Madeleine Miller
The Extra Man - Jonathan Ames
posted by Leontine at 9:20 PM on January 31, 2023
Circe - Madeleine Miller
The Extra Man - Jonathan Ames
posted by Leontine at 9:20 PM on January 31, 2023
Susan Juby's Home to Woefield
Jude Morgan's An Accomplished Woman is very Austen-esque.
Eva Rice's The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets
posted by Constance Mirabella at 10:27 PM on January 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
Jude Morgan's An Accomplished Woman is very Austen-esque.
Eva Rice's The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets
posted by Constance Mirabella at 10:27 PM on January 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
My book club all loved A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. It's not exactly light-hearted, but I did find it heartwarming.
posted by suelac at 10:32 PM on January 31, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by suelac at 10:32 PM on January 31, 2023 [7 favorites]
- Fight Night by Miriam Toews
- Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
- The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
On preview: seconding Nothing to See Here, Home to Woefield and A Gentleman in Moscow.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:38 PM on January 31, 2023
The Thursday Murder Club series is not the most literary collection but my book club read it for similar reasons to giura and we all loved it.
posted by jojobobo at 10:55 PM on January 31, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by jojobobo at 10:55 PM on January 31, 2023 [5 favorites]
A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark has a very cheering effect and is also nice and short. Another Spark novel, Loitering With Intent, also makes you feel as if you’ve had a good stiff gin and tonic, and things are going to be OK after all.
posted by Grunyon at 3:59 AM on February 1, 2023
posted by Grunyon at 3:59 AM on February 1, 2023
This is an off-beat book - Ella Minnow Pea. This is what my own book club read when we got to the same point (and we're a post-apocalyptic fiction book club so we get there a lot) and everyone thought it was hands-down adorable. (I'd brought a tender-hearted friend along to that meeting; she read it along with us, and later declared it "the cuddliest dystopia I've ever read").
It isn't a world-is-collapsing dystopia as such. The premise is: it's set in a town on a small barrier island off the coast of South Carolina, one that claims to be the birthplace of the guy who came up with the phrase "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog". There's a statue of the guy in the town square and everything, with his famous phrase on the base in raised gold lettering. And - one morning someone notices that the "X" has fallen off the statue. When people discover that, someone in the town government declares that this is a Sign From Beyond, and outlaws use of the letter "x" in town henceforth. Everyone else sort of chuckles and goes about their business for a few days - but then the "z" falls off the statue. The town council makes a similar declaration about use of Z. And a few days later, the "G" falls. And then another letter. And....
It's an epistolary novel, so you get to see the ridiculous lengths people go to as they lose letters; and there's also a curiously Victorian-romance tone to the letters (the main character is a young woman who's just fallen in love with a local guy, and so some of the letters are between them). There's some elements of people-coping-with-totalitarianism (because the town council are all NUTS), including a Brave Team Of Rebels (a secret program trying to find another sentence that uses all 26 letters of the alphabet), but the fact that people are fighting for the right to spell "thorough" properly or whatever instead of fighting zombies keeps it from feeling bleak, if that makes sense. And it's pretty darn short.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:12 AM on February 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
It isn't a world-is-collapsing dystopia as such. The premise is: it's set in a town on a small barrier island off the coast of South Carolina, one that claims to be the birthplace of the guy who came up with the phrase "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog". There's a statue of the guy in the town square and everything, with his famous phrase on the base in raised gold lettering. And - one morning someone notices that the "X" has fallen off the statue. When people discover that, someone in the town government declares that this is a Sign From Beyond, and outlaws use of the letter "x" in town henceforth. Everyone else sort of chuckles and goes about their business for a few days - but then the "z" falls off the statue. The town council makes a similar declaration about use of Z. And a few days later, the "G" falls. And then another letter. And....
It's an epistolary novel, so you get to see the ridiculous lengths people go to as they lose letters; and there's also a curiously Victorian-romance tone to the letters (the main character is a young woman who's just fallen in love with a local guy, and so some of the letters are between them). There's some elements of people-coping-with-totalitarianism (because the town council are all NUTS), including a Brave Team Of Rebels (a secret program trying to find another sentence that uses all 26 letters of the alphabet), but the fact that people are fighting for the right to spell "thorough" properly or whatever instead of fighting zombies keeps it from feeling bleak, if that makes sense. And it's pretty darn short.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:12 AM on February 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Loved: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (2022) by Gabrielle Zevin (I listened to the audiobook)
posted by pjenks at 5:29 AM on February 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by pjenks at 5:29 AM on February 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
I would also like to recommend Convenience Store Woman
posted by phunniemee at 5:30 AM on February 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by phunniemee at 5:30 AM on February 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
I enjoyed Followers, which fits into the post-apocalyptic vibe (although there is not an apocalypse) and also more lighthearted.
posted by nkknkk at 6:32 AM on February 1, 2023
posted by nkknkk at 6:32 AM on February 1, 2023
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series is fun.
posted by FencingGal at 7:11 AM on February 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by FencingGal at 7:11 AM on February 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
I just finished reading Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and it was quite enjoyable. As the narrator, she is entrenched in her crotchetiness in a way that's more amusing than dark and overall it's a heartwarming and positive book. And it comes in at 383 pages!
posted by DrGail at 7:49 AM on February 1, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by DrGail at 7:49 AM on February 1, 2023 [5 favorites]
Yes to Nothing to See Here!
Also consider The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal. "Cheerful" is exactly how I'd describe it, but it's not overly light or empty feeling.
posted by catoclock at 8:08 AM on February 1, 2023
Also consider The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal. "Cheerful" is exactly how I'd describe it, but it's not overly light or empty feeling.
posted by catoclock at 8:08 AM on February 1, 2023
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
posted by togdon at 8:08 AM on February 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by togdon at 8:08 AM on February 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
A Man Called Ove (which was just made into a movie starring Tom Hanks) is a cozy, cheering read.
posted by CiaoMela at 9:03 AM on February 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by CiaoMela at 9:03 AM on February 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
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posted by kat518 at 8:06 PM on January 31, 2023