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.
Cold Comfort Farm: Popular Penguins by Stella Gibbons
$14.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction | Series: Popular Penguins Ser.
A hilarious and merciless parody of rural melodramas and one of the best-loved comic novels of all time, Cold Comfort Farmby Stella Gibbons is beautifully repackaged as part of the Penguin Essentials range.'We are not like other folk, maybe, but there have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm... ...Show more
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
$14.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Non-fiction | Series: Popular Penguins Ser. | Reading Level: very good
My Family and Other Animalsis the bewitching account of a rare and magical childhood on the island of Corfu by treasured British conservationist Gerald Durrell. Escaping the ills of the British climate, the Durrell family - acne-ridden Margo, gun-toting Leslie, bookworm Lawrence and budding naturalist G ...Show more
Vile Bodies: Popular Penguins by Evelyn Waugh
$14.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction | Series: Popular Penguins
In the years following the First World War a new generation emerges, wistful and vulnerable beneath the glitter. The Bright Young Things of twenties Mayfair, with their paradoxical mix of innocence and sophistication, exercise their hedonistic whims and vile bodies in every kind of capricious escapade. ...Show more
Happy Hour by Jacquie Byron
$22.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
Elizabeth Strout meets Marian Keyes in this wonderful, joyful, funny debut novel from Australian author Jacquie Byron. 'This is really good fun' - Jane Harper 'Thoroughly charming' - R.W.R McDonald, bestselling author of The Nancy's 'Hilarious and poignant' - Mary Moody, bestselling author of Au Revoir ...Show more
Killing Floor: (Jack Reacher 1) by Lee Child
$19.99 AUD
Category: Crime & Mystery | Series: Jack Reacher | Reading Level: very good
"This was the first Jack Reacher novel and with its lean, spare prose it has one of the most intriguing heroes of our times and displays a gift for explosive drama." (Daily Express) Jack Reacher jumps off a bus and walks fourteen miles down a country road into Margrave, Georgia. An arbitrary decision he ...Show more
Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect: Can you solve the cleverest murder mystery of the year? by Benjamin Stevenson
$32.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
Ernest Cunningham returns in a deliciously witty locked room (train) mystery. When the Australian Mystery Writers' Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time- ...Show more
Catch-22: As recommended on BBC2's Between the Covers by Joseph Heller
$19.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction | Series: Vintage Classics Ser. | Reading Level: very good
This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller's masterpiece with a new introduction; critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos; and much more. Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great America ...Show more
The Man with the Silver Saab (#3 Varg) by Alexander McCall Smith
$32.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction | Series: Detective Varg Ser.
Perplexing, unfathomable and perhaps unimportant, the cases that Malmo's Department of Sensitive Crimes take on will test them to their limits. Life - and crime - is not always as it seems for Ulf Varg and the other fearless detectives in Malmo's Department of Sensitive Crimes. There are always surpris ...Show more
All Adults Here by Emma Straub
$22.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
Astrid Strick has always tried to do her best for her children. Now, they're finally grown up - but you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise.Elliot doesn't have any idea who he really is, or how to communicate with his sons. Porter is, finally, pregnant - but feels incapable of rising to the challen ...Show more
The Wake-Up Call by Beth O'Leary
$32.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
Two sworn enemies. A failing hotel. One chance to save the season... It's the busiest season of the year, and Forest Manor Hotel is quite literally falling apart. So when Izzy and Lucas are given the same shift on the hotel's front desk, they have no choice but to put their differences aside and see it ...Show more
Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris
$22.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Non-fiction | Reading Level: General Adult
A new collection of essays from the #1 New York Times bestselling author who has been called "the preeminent humorist of his generation" (Entertainment Weekly). From the unique perspective of David Sedaris comes a new collection of essays taking his listeners on a bizarre and stimulating world tour. F ...Show more
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
$19.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
Read the New York Times bestseller that has taken the world by storm! Meet Ove. He's a curmudgeon--the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him "the bitter neighb ...Show more