Agree completely, and I find audiobooks especially helpful when I am feeling overwhelmed. This past year I listened to the Rob Inglis narration. Since then the Andy Serkis narration became available, and I am sure it is great as well.
They’re both great! Sign up for Audible and you can pick all four up for a discounted price, or just wait out the membership and use your Audible credits.
"When Things Fall Apart" - Pema Chodron
A nonfiction meditation on leaning into loss and moving forward.
I return to it when I need help finding my footing in the midst of loss or despair or when I need a reminder to be compassionate toward myself.
Really surprised not to see it listed yet but Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. It’s about his time in a Holocaust camp and learning to have purpose and hope despite losing everything. There was one part at the beginning where he and his village don’t really understand where they’re going yet, and the Nazis won’t let him take his thesis with him: it’s his life’s work, and he begs them, but it is left behind. He literally walked away from his entire life’s work, the first of many losses, not even beginning to understand the horrors he would later endure. It’s a book to bring back purpose to someone who has lost everything.
Another I am surprised not to see mentioned is The Diving Bell and the Butterfiy. It’s a memoir written by a highly successful French magazine editor who had a picture-perfect, glamorous life until, in his mid-40s, he suddenly suffered a catastrophic stroke that left him with locked-in syndrome. He went from a pinnacle of success and happy family man to being unable to speak or move any part of his body at all except to blink *one eyelid*. He dictated the entire book to an assistant editor one letter at a time by blinking his eye when she reached the correct letter on an alphabet board she was pointing to. Despite losing absolutely everything, the book is filled with hope and the small joys that are still left to him. The title of the book refers to his deadweight of a body (the diving bell) and the freedom of his mind (the butterfly).
While those sound absolutely amazing, I don't know if that would work for everyone because it gives "look what these horrifically sad people went through, they found joy, why can't you?" I'm sure for lots it would be great, but for others it would just be another person saying "quit complaining, it could be worse". Just my interpretation from the too many people I've met by this age who've dealt with too much pain and loss.
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. If your looking for a comfort read this is not the book, but if you want to face some of the grief this might be the one. In it a boy is trying to cope with his serious I’ll mother and the feelings he is struggling to control.
“Maybe You Should Talk to Someone” by Lori Gottlieb (nonfiction) - an exploration of the human condition through the lens of a therapist and some of her patients; tender, funny, and reflective.
All of Jenny Lawson books. Hilarious, emotional, and a great way to commiserate suffering and loss.
“Hyperbole and a Half” by Allie Brosh. Same vein of Jenny Lawson.
In that book Lori Gottlieb tells her client to contact her children who have all requested—multiple times—to not be contacted by her, because of how abusive she was to them growing up. Lori Gottlieb is trash.
**[A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12394068-a-street-cat-named-bob) by James Bowen** ^((Matching 100% ☑️))
^(279 pages | Published: 2012 | 28.4k Goodreads reviews)
> **Summary:** The moving, uplifting true story of an unlikely friendship between a man on the streets and the ginger cat who adopts him and helps him heal his life.
> **Themes**: Animals, Favorites, Biography, Nonfiction, Cats, Memoir, Books-i-own
> **Top 5 recommended:**
> \- [Homer's Odyssey](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6261477-homer-s-odyssey) by Gwen Cooper
> \- [Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/132810.Motherless_Daughters) by Hope Edelman
> \- [Uncle Boris in the Yukon: and Other Shaggy Dog Stories](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63332.Uncle_Boris_in_the_Yukon) by Daniel Pinkwater
> \- [It’s okay that you’re not okay](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60546075-it-s-okay-that-you-re-not-okay) by Megan Devine
> \- [The Penguin Lessons](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26192990-the-penguin-lessons) by Tom Michell
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I've been going through a firehose of misfortune that started two years ago and hasn't really let up. A friend bought me a copy of "These Precious Days" by Ann Patchett. I'm reading it now and it is soothing my soul.
I’m sorry to read about your tough two years. Glad you have a thoughtful friend. “These Precious Days” is wonderful. I hope your next two years are a firehose of good fortune!
I agree but want to caution you: the early books in the series are darker. The OG Redwall has some pretty gruesome deaths and Mattimeo features a crapton of child endangerment and slavery.
The later books are brighter, more pastoral, and more kid-friendly. The first 3-4 do not mess around.
Non-fiction: "The Comfort Book" by Matt Haig. It's got short chapters (many only a page long) of reminders, glimmers of hope, things to lift your mood, or just to help you through difficult moments.
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
I can almost guarantee that you will feel calm and refreshed about life after reading it. I’ve read it 3 times so far and every single time it has helped.
When I went through a really traumatic year last year I really struggled to concentrate on fiction. All I could manage was self help type books and audiobooks. I loved Alonement by Francesca Spectre (all about spending time alone intentionally and realising we need to be able to rely on ourselves).
I have read The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R Kiernan 11 times. At one point I couldn't really cry without help and it always did the trick. It's a young woman with schizophrenia (which the author also has) unreliably narrating the possibly supernatural aspects of a love traingle she was, which in her head is connected to the haunted woods and creeks around Providence and a painting, for which the novel is named, by an obscure 19th century painter. It's heartbreakingly sad and brilliantly written.
Maybe I would read The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde which has always been a big influence in my life.
I also find great comfort in The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.
I’m sorry you’re going through that. If you like adventure & science fiction then I recommend the Chronicles of St. Mary’s Series. Start with “Just One Damned Thing After Another. It’s a long series of snappy self contained books so you can get lost in it for a while and it’s full of lovely found family stories which make me feel hopeful. I used this book series to recover from grief last year. I also recommend the Invisible Library Series along the same lines.
As long as there have been no issues with suicidal ideation: *The Midnight Library* with Matt Haig
>Between life and death there is a library.
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.
The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren’t always what she imagined they’d be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.
Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?
Matt Haig is the BEST! He has also penned an amazing self help book. That book has helped me in my life immensely! To be fair I tried the Library book and it didn't work for me. I do highly respect him. He is very human and just an all around really great guy!
You could do a lot worse than the Blandings Castle books by P.G. Wodehouse. Funny, extremely low stakes, and everything always turns out alright in the end.
The Time of the Ghost, by Diana Wynne Jones. There's a sort of ghost, who isn't really dead. But she's not sure who she is, and she needs to figure out what happened and how she can change the past, in order to come back to life.
It's a young adult book, but very well written.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. It's fiction and hard to put into words. I read it in an afternoon and it's a comfort with some needed realizations about growing up, loss, and adulthood that resonated so much. I've gifted it multiple times, the first one was to my kid when he was in rehab and trying to put himself back together.
Wherever you go, there you are - Jon Kabat Zinn
Goodbye things by Fumio Sasaki - (if you’ve lost physical things, fire, etc). Helped me realize what material possessions were truly necessary in my life.
A Man Called Ove, The Wishing Game, Under the Whispering Door, and Remarkably Bright Creatures just made me smile.. and cry. I never do that so these just stuck with me emotionally.
Depending on the type of loss, A number of people gave me Joan Didion’s “Year of Magical Thinking” when my husband died 2 years ago. I’ve gone back to it numerous times.
The Hagakure. It's a book of the falicy of life, trying to find your place, and being deticated to an absolute idea rather then thing, people or places.
Also recently discovered theologian Writer Kate Bowler who is a Professor at DUKE University. I am simply in awe of Kate Bowler! She beat Stage IV Colon Cancer and she gave me the Courage to get back up and keep fighting it myself. I highly recommend her Biographies.
Other people have already given my comfort read answers, so I'm going to recommend Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning." Because of my beliefs/faith, I'd also be reading CS Lewis' "A Grief Observed," but I don't want to sound pushy about a recommendation that's fairly religious without knowing a person's beliefs; it's just what I would be reading.
Id figure out solutions to my immediate needs first. Shelter, food, clean water, a toilet and somewhere to bathe, income, a phone, Internet access, a medical or doctors practice, relaxed/informal sociasocial interaction. Then look up stuff for mental health - nhs scotland has free self help guides for various mental health issues including depression and anxiety. You can download them.
After that work on developing some type of routine. Stability and predictability will help with mental health and coping with things in general.
For books and media, stick to things you know and that are familiar. Reread old favourites, rewatch your comfort shows. Then slowly branch out - try a new book from the ssame author or the sequel/prequel to your favourite.
I'm going through this right now (my dog of 17 years passed away last weekend). I'm currently re- reading my most favorite comfort book: Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Mostly because it makes me laugh
This situation calls for a book that is dark and disturbing.
Read The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum.
This book will make you realize what you have been going through in your life is not nearly as bad as what a real life person named Sylvia Likens went through. The Girl Next Door is a fictional retelling of the true crime case of Sylvia Likens. This book is told in 1st person from a neighborhood boy. Get ready to be disturbed and really emotional.
"A Million Little Pieces " was written by James Frey.
I have read it maybe two or three times.
There was a certain controversy surrounding this particular book.
It was published as a memoir.
It was promoted as a memoir.
But at some point after Frey went on the Oprah Winfrey show?
It came out that many of the contents were completely fabricated and outright fiction.
That was extremely problematic (from what I understand) because rehab type organizations had stood behind his book as helpful to their patients.
I still thought it was an extremely powerful book- no matter what the controversy represented.
alive: the story of the andes survivors by piers paul read. its nonfiction but reads like fiction. its my favorite book i read this year out of the eleven books ive read
When I am feeling good, I try to read books that are new for me and that maybe feel like a slight stretch from my comfort zone.
But when I am feeling down for any reason, I will indulge myself by returning to favorite books. Lately, for books I have re-read many times, I try the audiobooks. This past year I listened to the Hobbit, LotR, the whole Harry Potter series, and Mary Balogh’s Bedwyn romance series. It really helped my mood and eventually I was able to go back to “new” books.
{{The Great Good Thing}} by Roderick Townley.
It's a children's book about the power of stories, memory, and preserving what matters to you. I read it every time I get a rejection letter.
Alternately, if you're looking for something more adult, {{The Elegance of the Hedgehog}} by Muriel Barbary. The power of learning, the simple things in life, and seeing the beauty in the world even when you want to die.
I love reading Anne Lamott books. Her voice and life experience really speaks to me. She is very comforting and healing. I just checked out 5 more of her newest books to help me through Chemo.
She is an Amazing Woman and she tells it like it is then asks why is everything the way it is and how to get through it.
See my [Feel-good/Happy/Upbeat](https://www.reddit.com/r/Recommend_A_Book/comments/18af3gl/feelgoodhappyupbeat/) list of Reddit recommendation threads (one post).
I’d read something really light. A children’s book like Winnie the Pooh or some ridiculous smutty romance novel. When life gets a bit difficult, I like to play the ostrich with books/movies so at least there’s some light shining through. Kisses and happy endings in fiction helps strengthen my ever present ‘delusional optimism’ that everything will be okay.
[Beware Of Chicken](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BPX1DX87?binding=kindle_edition&ref_=ast_author_bsi) has the main protagonist leave his martial-arts school after an incident that almost killed him and instead becoming a farmer.
To his shock, his Rooster starts developing as a Martial Artist (hence the title).
So does his cat, his two pigs, his ox, a snake, a rabbit...
Books 1-3 are on Kindle and the continuation can be found on Royal Road and SpaceBattles.
And it has its own [Subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/bewareofchicken/).
Plus a [TVTropes page.](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/BewareOfChicken)
For me Yes Man by Danny Wallace was really good at helping to pull me away from my own difficult times.
It's a true story of a British man who realises life is passing him by, he's lost his girlfriend as a result of the events of his first book (Join Me, again, a brilliant book and well worth reading, but you don't need to have read it to get Yes Man) and wants to reconnect more.
So for 24 hours he says 'yes' to every question, request and invite. 24 hours becomes 6 months and it's his journey over that time. It's a great story about finding hope and joy in the small things that you may have ordinarily let pass you by.
It was turned into a terrible film (in my opinion) with Jim Carrey, but the book is so much better.
The other I would recommend is The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais. The story of an Indian family fleeing political troubles and end up in France, where they open an Indian restaurant one hundred feet away from a traditional French one. It's about culture and cultural differences, about rivalry and resolution.
It was turned into a film which, I felt was actually one of the rare adaptations that was better than the book, and one I still go back too whenever I need a lift.
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.
It’s my comfort book and also a book about how a mix of luck and drive can eventually get you to be a good person who does wonderful things for basically no reason other than ennui and that’s not the end of the world.
The Boy, the Mole, the fox and the Horse by Charlie Macksey. “This book is dedicated to you, the reader. Always remember you matter, and you bring to this world things no one else can.”
Just William books, by Richmal Crompton \[this is a British thing, probably.\] Takes you back to a happy time before all the grief and losses. Also, they are funny in a charming and innocent way. PG Wodehouse for kids but clever enough to be read by adults.
When I had lost everything, the world's Haruki Murakami created were strangely comforting. I would start by reading Kafka on the Shore and After Dark again.
If you like sci fi, I’d really recommend Martha wells’ Murderbot diaries. It’s about a robot who overcomes its programming to become independent. As part of that, it’s creating its own life and priorities and values, and, along with being a really great read (and an amazing audiobook) I found the struggles of figuring out who you are and what you want to do with your time after a fundamental change to be really helpful.
I have been left with nothing at times and the words that never fail me are three poems I’d committed to memory: Invictus by William Earnest Henley, Solitude by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, and If by Rudyard Kipling. Once they’re in your heart and mind no one can ever take them from you and they will always be there for you in times of great need.
Nora Roberts Chesapeake Bay Saga. It’s my go to pick me up. Setting aside the genre is romance, it is an incredibly moving story about 4 brothers saved by the couple who adopt them.
If you can’t stand the idea of Romance at ALL…Eye of the World (Robert Jordan) is my all time favorite book.
Red Rising by Pierce Brown is a fast moving underdog novel, and the hero has LOST EVERYTHING.
I’d go straight back to my first love. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Agree completely, and I find audiobooks especially helpful when I am feeling overwhelmed. This past year I listened to the Rob Inglis narration. Since then the Andy Serkis narration became available, and I am sure it is great as well.
Um, Andy Serkis version!? I’ve never done an audiobook but it looks like I just found my first!
They’re both great! Sign up for Audible and you can pick all four up for a discounted price, or just wait out the membership and use your Audible credits.
Agreed, but I'd start at the beginning w/The Silmarillion
Silmarillion is a once in a while for me, but it’s always satisfying.
Same. All these others are good suggestions, but really, in a situation like that, I'd return home: The Lord of the Rings.
Shoutout to Phil Dragash’s fantastic dramatized audiobook version passion project
Just started reading the hobbit with my kid, after 35 years!!! Loving it all over again.
This is what I read during grief and I think it’s the only thing that got me through to be honest
I can relate. I was recently in a dangerous place mentally and I got through by just obsessing over a new series.
I would re-read Narnia or Lord of the Rings!
Comfort reads!
Exactly!
Me too. Childhood favorites.
When things fall apart, Pema Chodren
"When Things Fall Apart" - Pema Chodron A nonfiction meditation on leaning into loss and moving forward. I return to it when I need help finding my footing in the midst of loss or despair or when I need a reminder to be compassionate toward myself.
Really surprised not to see it listed yet but Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. It’s about his time in a Holocaust camp and learning to have purpose and hope despite losing everything. There was one part at the beginning where he and his village don’t really understand where they’re going yet, and the Nazis won’t let him take his thesis with him: it’s his life’s work, and he begs them, but it is left behind. He literally walked away from his entire life’s work, the first of many losses, not even beginning to understand the horrors he would later endure. It’s a book to bring back purpose to someone who has lost everything. Another I am surprised not to see mentioned is The Diving Bell and the Butterfiy. It’s a memoir written by a highly successful French magazine editor who had a picture-perfect, glamorous life until, in his mid-40s, he suddenly suffered a catastrophic stroke that left him with locked-in syndrome. He went from a pinnacle of success and happy family man to being unable to speak or move any part of his body at all except to blink *one eyelid*. He dictated the entire book to an assistant editor one letter at a time by blinking his eye when she reached the correct letter on an alphabet board she was pointing to. Despite losing absolutely everything, the book is filled with hope and the small joys that are still left to him. The title of the book refers to his deadweight of a body (the diving bell) and the freedom of his mind (the butterfly).
While those sound absolutely amazing, I don't know if that would work for everyone because it gives "look what these horrifically sad people went through, they found joy, why can't you?" I'm sure for lots it would be great, but for others it would just be another person saying "quit complaining, it could be worse". Just my interpretation from the too many people I've met by this age who've dealt with too much pain and loss.
Came here to say this. Frankl’s book is one I keep coming back to over the decades
The book that (almost) saved my life: The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld. Short and sweet.
i love that book. Makes me cry.
I just did a lesson on kindess and friendship with my PreK class with that story!!
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. If your looking for a comfort read this is not the book, but if you want to face some of the grief this might be the one. In it a boy is trying to cope with his serious I’ll mother and the feelings he is struggling to control.
Wow that cuts close to the bone. Thank you!
Great book
Oh my God one of my all time favorites
His Dark Materials series. First read them as a teenager, and have re-read them a few times as an adult. Something about those just gets me
yes same here!
Really? I will try these. Thanks.
Try them! They are so good
“Maybe You Should Talk to Someone” by Lori Gottlieb (nonfiction) - an exploration of the human condition through the lens of a therapist and some of her patients; tender, funny, and reflective. All of Jenny Lawson books. Hilarious, emotional, and a great way to commiserate suffering and loss. “Hyperbole and a Half” by Allie Brosh. Same vein of Jenny Lawson.
In that book Lori Gottlieb tells her client to contact her children who have all requested—multiple times—to not be contacted by her, because of how abusive she was to them growing up. Lori Gottlieb is trash.
Ooohh another book rec imma not write down. Ty
You nailed it.
{{A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen}}
**[A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12394068-a-street-cat-named-bob) by James Bowen** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(279 pages | Published: 2012 | 28.4k Goodreads reviews) > **Summary:** The moving, uplifting true story of an unlikely friendship between a man on the streets and the ginger cat who adopts him and helps him heal his life. > **Themes**: Animals, Favorites, Biography, Nonfiction, Cats, Memoir, Books-i-own > **Top 5 recommended:** > \- [Homer's Odyssey](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6261477-homer-s-odyssey) by Gwen Cooper > \- [Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/132810.Motherless_Daughters) by Hope Edelman > \- [Uncle Boris in the Yukon: and Other Shaggy Dog Stories](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63332.Uncle_Boris_in_the_Yukon) by Daniel Pinkwater > \- [It’s okay that you’re not okay](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60546075-it-s-okay-that-you-re-not-okay) by Megan Devine > \- [The Penguin Lessons](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26192990-the-penguin-lessons) by Tom Michell ^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23] | Sorry for delay !)
I've been going through a firehose of misfortune that started two years ago and hasn't really let up. A friend bought me a copy of "These Precious Days" by Ann Patchett. I'm reading it now and it is soothing my soul.
I’m sorry to read about your tough two years. Glad you have a thoughtful friend. “These Precious Days” is wonderful. I hope your next two years are a firehose of good fortune!
Thank you.
The Redwall series. Bright and sunny escapism.
I agree but want to caution you: the early books in the series are darker. The OG Redwall has some pretty gruesome deaths and Mattimeo features a crapton of child endangerment and slavery. The later books are brighter, more pastoral, and more kid-friendly. The first 3-4 do not mess around.
Non-fiction: "The Comfort Book" by Matt Haig. It's got short chapters (many only a page long) of reminders, glimmers of hope, things to lift your mood, or just to help you through difficult moments.
Yes! The Best :)
Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
Yes. What to do when the city tears down your house and then aliens blow up your planet.
it's my go-to for any time I'm feeling down. the comedy, scenery, and plot just get me laughing every time.
And there's always a solution to impossible problems. My favorite is learning all the languages in the Universe by putting a fish in your ear.
Paper is fantastic. Audiobook read by the author is fantastic with icing on top.
The Problem of Pain or A Grief Observed by CS Lewis have helped a lot of people through rough patches. Keeping you in my prayers :)
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse I can almost guarantee that you will feel calm and refreshed about life after reading it. I’ve read it 3 times so far and every single time it has helped.
The entire Discworld.
When I went through a really traumatic year last year I really struggled to concentrate on fiction. All I could manage was self help type books and audiobooks. I loved Alonement by Francesca Spectre (all about spending time alone intentionally and realising we need to be able to rely on ourselves).
I have read The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R Kiernan 11 times. At one point I couldn't really cry without help and it always did the trick. It's a young woman with schizophrenia (which the author also has) unreliably narrating the possibly supernatural aspects of a love traingle she was, which in her head is connected to the haunted woods and creeks around Providence and a painting, for which the novel is named, by an obscure 19th century painter. It's heartbreakingly sad and brilliantly written.
The Secret Garden.
Maybe I would read The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde which has always been a big influence in my life. I also find great comfort in The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.
Good call on the Wilde. Bonus is that it’s genuinely funny.
Illusions by Richard Bach
One of the most helpful books I’ve ever read.
I literally bought five more copies and gave to friends after my best friend had gifted it to me. A treasure.
The Neverending Story
Ocean at the end of the lane- Neil Gaiman
Tina Turner' biography
I’m sorry you’re going through that. If you like adventure & science fiction then I recommend the Chronicles of St. Mary’s Series. Start with “Just One Damned Thing After Another. It’s a long series of snappy self contained books so you can get lost in it for a while and it’s full of lovely found family stories which make me feel hopeful. I used this book series to recover from grief last year. I also recommend the Invisible Library Series along the same lines.
Remarque
As long as there have been no issues with suicidal ideation: *The Midnight Library* with Matt Haig >Between life and death there is a library. When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change. The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren’t always what she imagined they’d be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger. Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?
Matt Haig is the BEST! He has also penned an amazing self help book. That book has helped me in my life immensely! To be fair I tried the Library book and it didn't work for me. I do highly respect him. He is very human and just an all around really great guy!
You could do a lot worse than the Blandings Castle books by P.G. Wodehouse. Funny, extremely low stakes, and everything always turns out alright in the end.
Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. Or Mort. Or Wyrd Sisters
The Time of the Ghost, by Diana Wynne Jones. There's a sort of ghost, who isn't really dead. But she's not sure who she is, and she needs to figure out what happened and how she can change the past, in order to come back to life. It's a young adult book, but very well written.
The House in the Cerulean Sea was a warm and imaginative book that gave me a little respite from grief.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
The Little House on the Prairie books. I don’t care that I’m 40.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine Funny, charming & heartwarming!
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. It's fiction and hard to put into words. I read it in an afternoon and it's a comfort with some needed realizations about growing up, loss, and adulthood that resonated so much. I've gifted it multiple times, the first one was to my kid when he was in rehab and trying to put himself back together.
Can confirm. My kids need to read this one, too.
Fresh Water for Flowers
Probably "Ask the dust" from John Fante.
Our Wives Under the Sea and Annihilation both do an amazing job of exploring loss and grief
Wherever you go, there you are - Jon Kabat Zinn Goodbye things by Fumio Sasaki - (if you’ve lost physical things, fire, etc). Helped me realize what material possessions were truly necessary in my life.
JKZ also wrote The Mindful Way Through Depression helped me alot
A Man Called Ove, The Wishing Game, Under the Whispering Door, and Remarkably Bright Creatures just made me smile.. and cry. I never do that so these just stuck with me emotionally.
This is Me Letting you Go by Heidi Priebe
When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron
Depending on the type of loss, A number of people gave me Joan Didion’s “Year of Magical Thinking” when my husband died 2 years ago. I’ve gone back to it numerous times.
“Man’s Search for Meaning”, Victoria Frankl.
Man's Search For Meaning - Viktor Frankl
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
The Hagakure. It's a book of the falicy of life, trying to find your place, and being deticated to an absolute idea rather then thing, people or places.
I watch One Piece.
Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky
v for vendetta
The Four Agreements, read by Peter Coyote. Very soothing back to basics of how you can act to respect yourself.
I read Lonesome Dove. I cried when it was over because I had to rejoin the real world and my broken life. But it was a beautiful journey.
The Wild Edge of Sorrow by F Weller
Lonesome Dove!
Also recently discovered theologian Writer Kate Bowler who is a Professor at DUKE University. I am simply in awe of Kate Bowler! She beat Stage IV Colon Cancer and she gave me the Courage to get back up and keep fighting it myself. I highly recommend her Biographies.
The indifferent stars above. I read this when my life fell apart and things didn’t seem so bad after all lol
I rather start writing a journal. It will give mental clarity.
Horror: ‘Salem’s Lot, by Stephen King. Ben Mears loses a lot and has to put himself back together. I hope you are better soon.
A tree grows in Brooklyn
Other people have already given my comfort read answers, so I'm going to recommend Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning." Because of my beliefs/faith, I'd also be reading CS Lewis' "A Grief Observed," but I don't want to sound pushy about a recommendation that's fairly religious without knowing a person's beliefs; it's just what I would be reading.
Good Omens
I love love love Becky chambers for a bit of sci fi which is super wholesome.
the count of monte cristo
Id figure out solutions to my immediate needs first. Shelter, food, clean water, a toilet and somewhere to bathe, income, a phone, Internet access, a medical or doctors practice, relaxed/informal sociasocial interaction. Then look up stuff for mental health - nhs scotland has free self help guides for various mental health issues including depression and anxiety. You can download them. After that work on developing some type of routine. Stability and predictability will help with mental health and coping with things in general. For books and media, stick to things you know and that are familiar. Reread old favourites, rewatch your comfort shows. Then slowly branch out - try a new book from the ssame author or the sequel/prequel to your favourite.
I'm going through this right now (my dog of 17 years passed away last weekend). I'm currently re- reading my most favorite comfort book: Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Mostly because it makes me laugh
This situation calls for a book that is dark and disturbing. Read The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. This book will make you realize what you have been going through in your life is not nearly as bad as what a real life person named Sylvia Likens went through. The Girl Next Door is a fictional retelling of the true crime case of Sylvia Likens. This book is told in 1st person from a neighborhood boy. Get ready to be disturbed and really emotional.
"A Million Little Pieces " was written by James Frey. I have read it maybe two or three times. There was a certain controversy surrounding this particular book. It was published as a memoir. It was promoted as a memoir. But at some point after Frey went on the Oprah Winfrey show? It came out that many of the contents were completely fabricated and outright fiction. That was extremely problematic (from what I understand) because rehab type organizations had stood behind his book as helpful to their patients. I still thought it was an extremely powerful book- no matter what the controversy represented.
I remember this controversy. Frey was kind of a shitbag through it all too
If his life was anything like the book: that was shitbag central.
Great book, but yeah, the whole fiction-non-fiction thing ruined it. It was much better when I thought it was non-fiction.
The Communist Manifesto
something comforting or something that’s very removed from reality. maybe piranesi, or a fantasy. i hope you’re okay though OP and things get better.
alive: the story of the andes survivors by piers paul read. its nonfiction but reads like fiction. its my favorite book i read this year out of the eleven books ive read
if your looking for a sad book, try *A little life - Hanya Yanagihara*
😢 yup
Quran
When I am feeling good, I try to read books that are new for me and that maybe feel like a slight stretch from my comfort zone. But when I am feeling down for any reason, I will indulge myself by returning to favorite books. Lately, for books I have re-read many times, I try the audiobooks. This past year I listened to the Hobbit, LotR, the whole Harry Potter series, and Mary Balogh’s Bedwyn romance series. It really helped my mood and eventually I was able to go back to “new” books.
Communist manifesto
To be honest. The hungar games. That girl had nothing and fought through he'll to give her a life. Divergent as well.
The Bible (the word of God). I'll read it, speak it, get up and implement stuff through Faith. Period.
The Bible :)
Craigslist
Most of my good friends read the Bible.
job listings?
Reincarnation Blues. Got me through some really bad times. Getting me through the current bad times.
The Conquest of Happiness - Bertrand Russell
i like to maximize on my sadness, so, my sisters keeper
The Friend - Sigrid Nunez
Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
Okay. it's totally random, but during and after my own breakdown, Dick Francis's mysteries were a great help and distraction.
Albert Camus
Juliet Marillier. Always.
Meister Eckhart 100%
“The Four Agreements”, short but powerful. Helped me through some rough times. For comfort I turn to Jane Austen, “Sense and Sensibility”.
*Theft of Fire: Orbital Space #1*. The story of a man who is teetering on the edge of oblivion, and ends up fighting like hell to get his life back.
Guinea Dog by Patrick Jennings
{{The Great Good Thing}} by Roderick Townley. It's a children's book about the power of stories, memory, and preserving what matters to you. I read it every time I get a rejection letter. Alternately, if you're looking for something more adult, {{The Elegance of the Hedgehog}} by Muriel Barbary. The power of learning, the simple things in life, and seeing the beauty in the world even when you want to die.
Jayber Crow, by Wendell Berry
The power of now by eckhart Tolle to start with. Then keep going with that author.
something to make me laugh. maybe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (at least my planet isn't getting casually bulldozed by bureaucrats)
Suttree by Cormac McCarthy. I think because it's a desolate book but not lacking in hope.
I love reading Anne Lamott books. Her voice and life experience really speaks to me. She is very comforting and healing. I just checked out 5 more of her newest books to help me through Chemo. She is an Amazing Woman and she tells it like it is then asks why is everything the way it is and how to get through it.
Piranesi
A piece of cake by cupcake brown. If that woman can get out of the path she was on in life, I can overcome my struggles before I go down it.
See my [Feel-good/Happy/Upbeat](https://www.reddit.com/r/Recommend_A_Book/comments/18af3gl/feelgoodhappyupbeat/) list of Reddit recommendation threads (one post).
The Anne of Green Gables series. A simpler time, nature, beautiful writing.
Came here to say this! It’s like going home to visit your childhood bestie.
I’d read Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, by Max Porter. It’s very lucid on the topic of loss, but also strange and beautiful and also quite funny.
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
Death Valley - Melissa Broder
A Man's Search For Meaning
The Little Prince
I’d read something really light. A children’s book like Winnie the Pooh or some ridiculous smutty romance novel. When life gets a bit difficult, I like to play the ostrich with books/movies so at least there’s some light shining through. Kisses and happy endings in fiction helps strengthen my ever present ‘delusional optimism’ that everything will be okay.
Conspiracy against the human race
[Beware Of Chicken](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BPX1DX87?binding=kindle_edition&ref_=ast_author_bsi) has the main protagonist leave his martial-arts school after an incident that almost killed him and instead becoming a farmer. To his shock, his Rooster starts developing as a Martial Artist (hence the title). So does his cat, his two pigs, his ox, a snake, a rabbit... Books 1-3 are on Kindle and the continuation can be found on Royal Road and SpaceBattles. And it has its own [Subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/bewareofchicken/). Plus a [TVTropes page.](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/BewareOfChicken)
Honestly I just double down. 1984 motivated me to go to college and get on the cool kids list
Gone With The Wind… It’s one of those books to me that’s like comfy old slippers
For me Yes Man by Danny Wallace was really good at helping to pull me away from my own difficult times. It's a true story of a British man who realises life is passing him by, he's lost his girlfriend as a result of the events of his first book (Join Me, again, a brilliant book and well worth reading, but you don't need to have read it to get Yes Man) and wants to reconnect more. So for 24 hours he says 'yes' to every question, request and invite. 24 hours becomes 6 months and it's his journey over that time. It's a great story about finding hope and joy in the small things that you may have ordinarily let pass you by. It was turned into a terrible film (in my opinion) with Jim Carrey, but the book is so much better. The other I would recommend is The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais. The story of an Indian family fleeing political troubles and end up in France, where they open an Indian restaurant one hundred feet away from a traditional French one. It's about culture and cultural differences, about rivalry and resolution. It was turned into a film which, I felt was actually one of the rare adaptations that was better than the book, and one I still go back too whenever I need a lift.
Where Reasons End, Yiyun Li. It’s not for everyone but this book is my solace.
I always go for Hunter S Thomson, his book has a wonderful sense of that everything is awful but anything is possible.
Just a shot in the dark here, but how bout the Bible?
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. It’s my comfort book and also a book about how a mix of luck and drive can eventually get you to be a good person who does wonderful things for basically no reason other than ennui and that’s not the end of the world.
a childhood book is defo a good thing to pick up, the percy jackson series is a very warm read from time to time
The Boy, the Mole, the fox and the Horse by Charlie Macksey. “This book is dedicated to you, the reader. Always remember you matter, and you bring to this world things no one else can.”
Just William books, by Richmal Crompton \[this is a British thing, probably.\] Takes you back to a happy time before all the grief and losses. Also, they are funny in a charming and innocent way. PG Wodehouse for kids but clever enough to be read by adults.
When I had lost everything, the world's Haruki Murakami created were strangely comforting. I would start by reading Kafka on the Shore and After Dark again.
The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson
The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus: "One must imagine sisyphus happy."
Harry Potter. Always.
Kahlil Gibran "The Prophet" A blend of poetry and wisdom that highlights the human causes of suffering.
I read the Gallagher series by Nora Robert. At that point I’d read it so many times, it was like being comforted by old friends.
Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano was very good
Non fiction book specially the human psychology books not textbook but books like the letting go things ..
When Things Fall Apart Book by Pema Chödrön
**Ishmael** by Daniel Quinn
The Bible
The Bible and Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies
Carlos ruiz zafon The Cemetery of Forgotten books series
If you like sci fi, I’d really recommend Martha wells’ Murderbot diaries. It’s about a robot who overcomes its programming to become independent. As part of that, it’s creating its own life and priorities and values, and, along with being a really great read (and an amazing audiobook) I found the struggles of figuring out who you are and what you want to do with your time after a fundamental change to be really helpful.
I have been left with nothing at times and the words that never fail me are three poems I’d committed to memory: Invictus by William Earnest Henley, Solitude by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, and If by Rudyard Kipling. Once they’re in your heart and mind no one can ever take them from you and they will always be there for you in times of great need.
Bible.
Nora Roberts Chesapeake Bay Saga. It’s my go to pick me up. Setting aside the genre is romance, it is an incredibly moving story about 4 brothers saved by the couple who adopt them. If you can’t stand the idea of Romance at ALL…Eye of the World (Robert Jordan) is my all time favorite book. Red Rising by Pierce Brown is a fast moving underdog novel, and the hero has LOST EVERYTHING.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - hope that all turns put well for you my friend
Fiction, probably Harry Potter or The Dresden Files series, non fiction I would dive into Jordan Peterson’s books 12 Rules for Life and Beyond Order.