Readers around the country have read and selected these mood-boosting books. Why not try one? Or, if you have read one of them, login and leave your comments.
Libraries, other organisations and groups can buy copies of these booklists in packs of 100 – so if you would like to buy printed copies see the bottom of this article.
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Recommended by a reader, Kent: “The book is about looking closer to home to find contentment; it gives a positive outlook…It made me appreciate the more fundamental things in life. Easy to read with mass appeal.”
• All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West
Recommended by Joy, Southend: “Everyone over 60 should read this book. I found it quite uplifting. You don’t have to be young to have a life.”
• Attention All Shipping: A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast by Charlie Connelly
Recommended by Simon, Southend: “Interesting, easy read. Engaged you from the start. Quirky, fun, uplifting, thoughtful – and a great travel novel for the armchair sailor/explorer.”
• The Bad Dog’s Diary: A Year in the Life of Blake: Lover… Fighter… Dog by Martin Howard
Recommended by Lisa, Southend: “It was a lighthearted read and I felt relaxed reading the story – helpful to read about a very different perspective on life!”
• **Bird Cloud: A Memoir of Place* by Annie Proulx
Recommended by a reader, Kent: “The whole book was uplifting as you share her journey to the dream house. Beautifully written and set in gloriously described Wyoming.”
• *The Builders_** by Maeve Binchy
Recommended by a reader, Dial-a-Read, Southend: “A good human interest story, an everyday family situation – about a future for two hardworking ordinary people who had both suffered betrayal by loved ones.”
• Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth
_Recommended by a reader, Dial-a-Read, Southend: “I was a midwife in training at the same time as the book is based. It makes me laugh and cry. This book takes me back to the happiest times of my life.”
• **Gilead** by Marilynne Robinson
• Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
• A Long Lunch by Simon Hoggart
Recommended by Margaret, Southend: “Easy to just sit and read for half an hour. Very well written, amusing, thought provoking.”
• Penguin’s Poems for Life selected by Laura Barber
• Reading in Bed by Sue Gee
• Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
• Selected Stories by Anton Chekhov
Recommended by Simon, Southend: “The stories are timeless – written in mid-Victorian era they have a relevance today and deal with emotions, frustrations, misfortune and the human condition – a story for every mood & emotion… the stories suit all sorts of moods – happy, sad, fatalistic, tragic, comic, evocative.”
• A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
• The Snow Goose and The Small Miracle by Paul Gallico
Recommended by a reader, Dial-a-Read, Southend: “To read about so much goodness, faithfulness and devotion in both Philip and Pepino, can only have the effect of lifting one’s spirits. Both these stories lifted my mood, a feeling which stayed with me for some days afterwards.”
• **Somewhere Towards the End** by Diana Athill
• A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
Recommended by Trefena, Birmingham: ‘It made me feel that it is worthwhile living…. It’s comical – keeps you thinking of what next and how it will end – we can think of the good times and the bad times with family and friends. Just forget your troubles and smile, smile, smile.’_
• Two Cures for Love: Selected Poems 1979-2006 by Wendy Cope
• **_Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees** by Roger Deakin
On sale now
All the reading recommendations have been made by readers and reading groups.
New Mood-boosting Books lists
* Pack of 100 leaflets (A5, 2pp) of list chosen by young people
* Pack of 100 leaflets (A5, 2pp) of list chosen by older people
Cost: £4.50 per pack
Mood-boosting Books core packs
* 10 x A4 posters
* 5 x A3 headers
* 100 x A5 (4pp) leaflets (of the original list chosen by eight reading groups)
Cost: £10 per pack.
Postage and packing is calculated according to how many items you order.
Material ordered before 22 June will be dispatched at the end of June.
How to place your order
Please note that our online shop is not currently in operation while we change over to a new system. Please place your order by email [email protected] with the following information:
* Number of packs you require of each list (either chosen by young and/or older people)
* PO number
* Delivery address
* Contact phone number
Read a mood-boosting book?
* Email [email protected] with the title and short comment
* Tweet your suggestions using #moodboosting
* Login and leave your own mood-boosting suggestions below
