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.
Nancy Business by R W R McDonald
$29.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction | Reading Level: very good
Tippy, Uncle Pike and Devon are back for another camp cozy crime mystery from the award-winning author of The Nancys. The gripping, heart-warming and hilarious sequel to R.W.R. McDonald's smash hit The Nancys, winner of the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel. It's been four months since Tippy, ...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 Shelly Bay Ladies Swimming Circle by Sophie Green
$19.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
It's 1982 in Australia. THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER is a box office hit and Paul Hogan is on the TV. In a seaside suburb, housewife Theresa takes up swimming. She wants to get fit; she also wants a few precious minutes to herself. So at sunrise each day she strikes out past the waves. From the same beach, ...Show more
When Will There Be Good News? (Jackson Brodie #3) by Kate Atkinson
$19.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Reads | Series: Jackson Brodie | Reading Level: very good
In rural Devon, six-year-old Joanna Mason witnesses an appalling crime. Thirty years later the man convicted of the crime is released from prison. In Edinburgh, sixteen-year-old Reggie works as a nanny for a G.P. But Dr Hunter has gone missing and Reggie seems to be the only person who is worried. Acros ...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 Funny Thing about Norman Foreman by Julietta Henderson, Julietta Henderson
$32.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
It will make you laugh, it will make you cry - definitely one of the best books we've read! What do you get when you cross a painfully awkward son, lofty comedic ambition and a dead best friend? Norman. Norman and Jax are a legendary comedic duo in waiting, with a five-year plan to perform at the Edinbu ...Show more
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
$11.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction | Series: Alma Classics Evergreens
Purporting to be an autobiography of the antihero Tristram Shandy, Lawrence Sterne's novel is a comic masterpiece of digression, egoism and sensationalism, as its hilarious asides, explanations and host of memorable secondary characters - such as Uncle Toby, Dr Slop, Parson Yorick and Widow Wadman - tak ...Show more
Started Early, Took My Dog (Jackson Brodie #4) by Kate Atkinson
$19.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction | Series: Jackson Brodie Ser.
A day like any other for security chief Tracy Waterhouse, until she makes a purchase she hadn't bargained for. One moment of madness is all it takes for Tracy's humdrum world to be turned upside down, the tedium of everyday life replaced by fear and danger at every turn. Witnesses to Tracy's Faustian ex ...Show more
Full Bore by William McInnes
$32.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Non-fiction
A chance encounter in an auction house is the jumping-off point for William's inimitable take on our sport-obsessed nation, Australian popular culture and the artefacts and memorabilia that both make us cringe with recognition and laugh with warm affection. His trademark humour and anecdotes litter this ...Show more
Today Will be Different by Maria Semple
$19.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
* Instant New York Times Bestseller *Named a Notable Book of 2016 by the Washington Post, one of Amazon's Top 100 Books of the Year, one of New York Times Book Review's 100 Notable Books, one of The Guardian's Best Books of 2016, one of NPR's Best Books of 2016, a Must-Read Book of 2016 by PopSugar, one ...Show more
Dear Mrs Bird (#1 The Emmy Lake Chronicles) by A J Pearce
$24.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction | Series: Emmeline Lake 1 | Reading Level: very good
This charming, irresistible debut novel set in London during World War II about a young woman who longs to be a war correspondent and inadvertantly becomes a secret advice columnist is "a jaunty, heartbreaking winner" (People)--for fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and Lilac Girl ...Show more
The Good Son by Greg Fleet
$29.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
When James Rogers is ninety-three minutes late to farewell his mother on her deathbed, he's riddled with guilt. To make up for that missed final conversation - and in the hopes of impressing beautiful nurse Sophie - he engages in some good-willed acts of deception- posing as the neglectful relatives of ...Show more