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.
Kaddish.com by Nathan Englander
$29.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction | Reading Level: near fine
The Pulitzer finalist delivers his best work yet--a brilliant, streamlined comic novel, reminiscent of early Philip Roth and of his own most masterful stories, about a son's failure to say Kaddish for his father. Larry is an atheist in a family of orthodox Memphis Jews. When his father dies, it is his r ...Show more
Die Trying (Jack Reacher #2) by Lee Child
$19.99 AUD
Category: Crime & Mystery | Series: Jack Reacher | Reading Level: very good
Featuring Jack Reacher, hero of the new blockbuster movie starring Tom Cruise.Jack Reacher, alone, strolling nowhere. A Chicago street in bright sunshine. A young woman, struggling on crutches. He offers her a steadying arm.And turns to see a handgun aimed at his stomach.Chained in a dark van racing acr ...Show more
Grown Ups: An absorbing page-turner from Sunday Times bestselling author Marian Keyes by Marian Keyes
$19.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction
PLAYTIME IS OVER. BUT WHERE ARE THE GROWN-UPS? Meet brothers Johnny, Ed and Liam Casey. Married to Jessie, Cara and Nell. Three very different women hitched to three very different men. Every family occasion is a party - until the day the secrets spill out. And the family feuds are laid bare . . .
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
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 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
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
The Revolving Door of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
$19.99 AUD
Category: Feel Good Fiction | Series: 44 Scotland Street
For seven-year-old Bertie Pollock, life in Edinburgh's most celebrated fictional street has just got immeasurably better. The enforced absence of his endlessly pushy mother Irene - currently consciousness-raising in a Bedouin harem (don't ask) - has manifold and immediate blessings: no psychotherapy, no ...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