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.
488 Rules for Life - The Thankless Art of Being Correct by Kitty Flanagan
$29.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Non-fiction | Reading Level: very good
RICHARD GLOVER: ''You won’t agree with all her rules – I, for one, am a great believer in the word “pash” – but there is a good laugh, and a lively argument, to be had on every page.'' 488 Rules for Life is Kitty Flanagan's way of making the world a more pleasant place to live. Applying truth and wit to ...Show more
It Happened One Summer: Tik Tok Made Me Buy It by Tessa Bailey
$22.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction | Series: Bellinger Sisters Ser. | Reading Level: very good
Tessa Bailey is back with a Schitt's Creek-inspired rom-com about a Hollywood "It Girl" who's cut off from her wealthy family and exiled to a small Pacific Northwest beach town... where she butts heads with a surly, sexy local who thinks she doesn't belong.Piper Bellinger is fashionable, influential, an ...Show more
Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey
$29.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction | Reading Level: near fine
One of the most hotly anticipated, hilarious and addictive debut novels of 2023, from Schitt’s Creek screenwriter and electric new voice in fiction, Monica Heisey. I feel like when you get a divorce everyone’s wondering how you ruined it all, what made you so unbearable to be with. If your husband dies, ...Show more
The No-Show: The utterly heart-warming new novel from the author of The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
$22.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
'Ingenious, heartwarming and romantic' Sophie Kinsella'Surprising and deeply satisfying' Emily Henry'The kind of book that leaves an impression on your heart' Holly Miller'Such a clever, finely woven, sweet and heart-rending story' Bolu BabalolaThe funny, heart-breaking and uplifting new novel from the ...Show more
One Good Turn (Jackson Brodie #2) by Kate Atkinson
$19.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction | Series: Jackson Brodie | Reading Level: very good
It is the Edinburgh Festival. People queuing for a lunchtime show witness a road-rage incident - an incident which changes the lives of everyone involved. Jackson Brodie, ex-army, ex-police, ex-private detective, is also an innocent bystander - until he becomes a suspect. With Case Histories, Kate Atkin ...Show more
The Last Voyage of Mrs Henry Parker by Joanna Nell
$19.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
A poignant ode to love and the memories that make a well-lived life, from the author of THE SINGLE LADIES OF JACARANDA RETIREMENT VILLAGE As the wife of retired ship's doctor Dr Henry Parker, Evelyn is living out her twilight years aboard the Golden Sunset. Every night she dresses for dinner - gown, ti ...Show more
Remainders of the Day - More Diaries from The Bookshop, Wigtown by Shaun Bythell
$34.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Non-fiction | Reading Level: very good
The Bookshop in Wigtown is a bookworm's idyll - with thousands of books across nearly a mile of shelves, a real log fire, and Captain, the bookshop cat. You'd think after twenty years, owner Shaun Bythell would be used to the customers by now. Don't get him wrong - there are some good ones among the ant ...Show more
This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay
$18.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Non-fiction | Series: Diaries of a Junior Doctor | Reading Level: very good
'Painfully funny. The pain and the funniness somehow add up to something entirely good, entirely noble and entirely loveable.' - Stephen Fry Welcome to the life of a junior doctor: 97-hour weeks, life and death decisions, a constant tsunami of bodily fluids, and the hospital parking meter earns more tha ...Show more
Audrey's Gone AWOL by Annie de Monchaux
$34.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
It’s never too late to reinvent your life Audrey Lamont has happily devoted herself to family life for the best part of 40 years, but lately she’s become aware that she lost herself somewhere between 'I do' and the weekly shop. Worse, her academic husband Simon has found time for romance – just not w ...Show more
The Deed by Susannah Begbie
$32.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
'Now that's the way to bury your old man ... he sank into his Jason recliner, wincing. A burial: a body wrapped in handwoven cloth, women dancing and wailing. Too much, in Tom's opinion, but at least they were mourning. To hell with that, at least they showed up.' Tom Edwards is dying, and cranky. He's ...Show more
A Thousand Boy Kisses: The unforgettable love story and TikTok sensation by Tillie Cole
$22.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
Discover the TikTok sensation that has captures hundreds of thousands of hearts. TWO HEARTS. ONE LOVE STORY. AN ENDING YOU WILL NEVER FORGET. A kiss lasts a moment. But can change a lifetime . . . Rune Kristiansen and Poppy Litchfield met as children and swore to be friends forever. As teenagers, that g ...Show more
Lucky Jim: Popular Penguins by Kingsley Amis
$14.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction | Series: Popular Penguins Ser. | Reading Level: good
'His mouth had been used as a latrine by some small creature of the night, and then as a mausoleum. During the night, too, he'd somehow been on a cross-country run and then been expertly beaten up by secret police. He felt bad.'Jix Dixon has a terrible job at a second-rate university. His life is full o ...Show more