Feel Good Reads
American humourist P.J. O'Rourke once said, "Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it." But sometimes we simply feel like reading something other than all those worthy and impressive literary award winners - something lighter but still well-written, something wonderfully witty which makes us laugh out loud, or maybe just a cracking good adventure. So for all of you who wander in and tell us that you're looking for something different to read, but you don't really know what you want; or who need something for a friend in hospital; or a book to take on holiday; or just something to escape from the grimness of the nightly news - we are delighted to present a new area in our bookshop entitled "Feel-Good Reads."
Titles include both fiction and non-fiction options - beloved classics from P.G. Wodehouse, Barbara Pym, and Nancy Mitford; hilarious travel narratives from Bill Bryson; amusing essays from David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs; modern Australian classics from John Clarke, Shane Maloney, and Thea Astley; plus many more from Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions to Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole series; from Alexander McCall-Smith's warm and witty Scottish tales to Paul Carter's gripping and often hilarious true-life adventures.
We will also be promoting Feel-Good Friday where we will feature a chosen title from these shelves and posting on facebook, twitter and instagram so keep an eye out for your next great read.
Three Women and a Boat by Anne Youngson
$29.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
A hugely charming, genuinely uplifting story that shows it's never too late for new adventures and unexpected friendship - for fans of HAROLD FRY, DEAR MRS BIRD and THE LIBRARIAN. Meet Eve, who has departed from her thirty-year career to become a Free Spirit; Sally, who has waved goodbye to her indiffer ...Show more
Acknowledgments: Stories of Friends, Enemies and Figuring Things Out by Becky Lucas
$29.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Non-fiction
From critically acclaimed comedian Becky Lucas comes a funny, consoling and very candid collection of stories and essays about friends, enemies and figuring it out that establishes her as one of today's most original comedy writers. There's no such thing as a perfect life, but there are perfectly hilari ...Show more
Small Miracles by Anne Booth
$32.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
'Charming, witty and warm, Small Miracles is a gentle gem of a novel, a cheery balm in troubling times.' AJ Pearce, bestselling author of Dear Mrs Bird Three nuns play the lottery to save their failing convent, resulting in a story of friendship, community, faith and love. The 1990s are proving tough fo ...Show more
A Glass Of Blessings by Barbara Pym
$22.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction | Series: Virago Modern Classics Ser.
WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY CLARE CHAMBERS'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' RICHARD OSMAN 'The subtlest of her books . . . the sparkle on first acquaintance has been succeeded by the deeper brilliance of established art' PHILIP LARKINWilmet Forsyth is well dressed, well looked after, suitably husbanded, go ...Show more
This Has Been Absolutely Lovely by Jessica Dettmann
$29.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
Family is forever, and there's nothing you can do about it.The charming, hilarious and all-too-relatable new novel from the author of How to be Second Best Molly's a millennial home organiser about to have her first baby. Obviously her mum, Annie, will help with the childcare. Everyone else's parents ar ...Show more
The Angry Women's Choir by Meg Bignell
$32.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
By the acclaimed author of Welcome To Nowhere River comes a heart-warming and uplifting story about a remarkable group of women who discover they are all capable of incredible things - if they're strong enough, and angry enough, to take up the cause.Once in a while, everyone needs to be heard.Freycinet ...Show more
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
$22.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction | Series: An Arthur Less Novel | Reading Level: very good
Arthur Less is a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the post: it is from an ex-boyfriend of nine years who is engaged to someone else. Arthur can't say yes - it would be too awkward; he can't say no - it would look like defeat. So, he begins to accept the invitations on ...Show more
The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien
$22.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction | Series: Harper Perennial Modern Classics Ser. | Reading Level: Adult
The Third Policeman is Flann O'Brien's brilliantly dark comic novel about the nature of time, death, and existence. Told by a narrator who has committed a botched robbery and brutal murder, the novel follows him and his adventures in a two-dimensional police station where, through the theories of the sc ...Show more
Case Histories: (Jackson Brodie) by Kate Atkinson
$19.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction | Series: Jackson Brodie | Reading Level: very good
Cambridge is sweltering, during an unusually hot summer. To Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, the world consists of one accounting sheet - Lost on the left, Found on the right - and the two never seem to balance. Jackson has never felt at home in Cambridge, and has a f ...Show more
State of the Union: A Marriage in Ten Parts by Nick Hornby
$19.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
*THE SIDE-SPLITTING NEW COMIC SHORT FROM ONE OF BRITAIN'S BEST-LOVED WRITERS, SOON TO BE A MAJOR BBC TV SERIES*______________________________ Each week, Tom and Louise meet for a quick drink in the pub before they go to meet their marriage counsellor. Married for years and with two children, a recent i ...Show more
The Switch by Beth O'Leary
$22.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
Leena is too young to feel stuck. Eileen is too old to start over. It's time for The Switch... After blowing a big presentation at work, Leena takes a two-month sabbatical and escapes to her grandmother Eileen's house for some overdue rest. Eileen is newly single and about to turn eighty. She'd like a ...Show more
The Road Trip: an hilarious and heartfelt second chance romance from the author of The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
$22.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
Addie and her sister are about to embark on an epic road trip to a friend's wedding in rural Scotland. The playlist is all planned and the snacks are packed.But, not long after setting off, a car slams into the back of theirs. The driver is none other than Addie's ex, Dylan, who she's avoided since thei ...Show more