Happy, uplifting fiction

[hippywife]

I'm enjoying reading Carrie Brown's books, they are well written and stories well told. However, they are very sad.

Please share with me the best fiction you've ever read that made you feel really good at the ending.

:hi:

[Fridays Child]

Recently...

Open House and Range of Motion, both by Elizabeth Berg

[gblady]

3. my favorite....

Elizabeth Berg story is "Talk before sleep".....
It has a sad context, but is beautifully written.

[Fridays Child]

16. I'll have a look.

I love her writing style. :hi:

[bluethruandthru]

21. I just finished Elizabeth Berg's Home Safe.

So nicely written and quite uplifting.

[hippywife]

27. Read both this one

and Open House since Wednesday. I like her. Nice easy reads when you just want a little diversion. Thanx for the suggestion. :hi:

[hippywife]

23. I just went on line to the library

and requested Home Safe and Open House. Thanx for the suggestions. :hi:

[On the Road]

1. This May Seem Like a Strange Choice

but Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet had a relatively feel-good ending. In the fourth book, all the characters experience various kinds of rebirth. Not what you expect from a writer like Durrell who focuses on the bizarre, colorful, and misshapen.

[hippywife]

14. You know I was looking at those

and I just didn't feel like investing myself in a series again at the moment, but I may do that later.

I requested and received the beginnings of the Avalon series and it was so unlike Mists of Avalon, a little too sci-fi for me. I tried getting through the first one and it was a struggle. Made it about two or three chapters and returned both of the books unread and way before they were due. While Mists isn't very realistic, either, it at least had one foot in this world. The other didn't.

Thanx for you suggestions. :hi:

[Captain Hilts]

2. That's a tough call. Most fiction is pretty darned sad. nt

[hippywife]

17. I'm thinking you're probably correct. n/t

[raccoon]

4. I can't think of any I've read recently.

Right now only one I can think of is

"Spoonhandle" by Ruth Moore (1946).

[grasswire]

5. I love Ruth Moore books!

They came immediately to mind when I read HW's OP.

[raccoon]

6. Thank you! I'm so glad to hear that.

see also,

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=208&topic_id=18532

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=208&topic_id=7447

[grasswire]

8. ha!

You finally found a Ruth Moore fan.

My favorite was "A Fair Wind Home." It's the first one I read.

[raccoon]

9. That's one I haven't read. Read "Second Growth" and I really liked it.

That's another one you'll feel good when you finish.

Read "A Walk Down Main Street" but I don't remember as much about that one.

[hippywife]

15. Great! Thank you! n/t

[hippywife]

22. I just finished this,

and really did enjoy it. Thank you so much for the recommendation. They had to haul it out of storage for me and it was a little beat up, so I almost didn't check it out (pages falling out!) but I'm glad I did.

:hi:

[pscot]

7. Pride and Prejudice

and pretty much anything by P.G.Wodehouse.

[Jim__]

10. Have you read any Richard Russo?

"Bridge of Sighs" has a happy ending. I didn't exactly like the ending but the book was good and the ending happy.

I think "Empire Falls" may be his highest rated book, but I haven't read it so I'm not sure if the ending is happy or not.

[hippywife]

13. Thanx!

I'll look for some info on his books. :hi:

[grasswire]

11. Cold Sassy Tree made me actually LOL

Here's part of the plot summary from wikipedia:

On July 5, 1906, Enoch Rucker Blakeslee announces that he intends to marry Miss Love Simpson, a milliner at his store who is years younger than he. This news shocks his family, since his wife Mattie Lou died only three weeks earlier. Rucker’s daughters, Mary Willis and Loma, worry about what the gossips of Cold Sassy, Georgia, will think of their father’s impropriety.

Will Tweedy, Rucker’s 14-year-old grandson and the narrator of the novel, supports his grandfather’s marriage. Will thinks Miss Love is nice and pretty, even though she comes from Baltimore and therefore is practically a Yankee. Will thinks that Rucker needs someone to look after him now that Mattie Lou is gone. On the afternoon Rucker announces his engagement, Will sneaks off to go fishing in the country despite the fact that he is supposed to be in mourning for his grandmother. He walks across a high, narrow train trestle and nearly dies when a train speeds toward him. He survives by lying flat between the tracks so the train passes just overhead without touching him. Will becomes a sensation after his near-death experience, and the whole town comes to his house to ask him about the incident. Rucker shocks everyone by arriving with his new bride, Miss Love.

The people of Cold Sassy disapprove of Rucker’s hasty marriage, and rumors spread quickly in the small town. Will, however, spends a great deal of time at the Blakeslee house and becomes friends with Miss Love. Will likes her because of her candid opinions and open personality. He also has a little crush on her, often spying on her and thinking about her large breasts, which he says looked like puppies peeking over a fence. Will soon learns that the marriage is one of convenience and that Rucker and Miss Love sleep in separate rooms. That means no sex. Miss Love tells Will that she married Rucker only because he promised to deed her the house and furniture. For his part, Rucker married Miss Love to save on the cost of a housekeeper. One day, Clayton McAllister, Miss Love’s former fiancé from Texas, shows up and tries to persuade Miss Love to leave with him. He kisses her, but Miss Love sends him away contemptuously after kissing him.

The author is Olive Ann Burns. This is the only book published before her death, but a sequel was published after. I have not read the sequel.

[hippywife]

12. I read that one long ago and

really enjoyed it. I enjoyed all of Fanny Flagg's books and thought they were fun, and all of Billie Letts' books which I also enjoyed. I actually got to know her for awhile while working in the local peace group. She's a wonderful lady. I've read all of Barbara Kinsolver.

I guess right now that's the kind of thing I'm looking for.

:hi:

ETA: I found a new(er) Billie Letts book! Yaaaaa!

[DUgosh]

18. Christopher Moore

Mind Candy

[PuraVidaDreamin]

19. Breakfast with Buddha

Roldand Merullo,

fun, uplifting- I didn't want it to end.

[hippywife]

20. I read that not a month ago.

Loved every minute of it. I didn't want it to end, either. Excellent rec, tho. :hi:

[raccoon]

24. Not fiction, but I recommend DEWEY, about a cat that lived in a library in Iowa. nt

[hippywife]

25. I just saw that this last week or so.

Plan on putting it on my list. Thanx! :hi:

[burrfoot]

26. If you don't mind feeling

sad along with your happy (but feel-good, overall); please allow me to humbly suggest The Art of Racing in the Rain.

[Tesha]

28. "The Fifth Sacred Thing" by Starhawk. (NT)

[Tesha]

29. "The Fresco" by Sheri S. Tepper (NT)