Feel-Good Fiction

Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon – someone with staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. Add in boisterous new neighbors and a flattened mailbox and you’ve got the start of a comical and heartwarming tale of unexpected friendship mixed with the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. This read is life-affirming, relationship-driven, and thoughtful exploration of the profound impact one life has on countless others.  In other words, it’s perfect!

A hilarious and crazy fun obstacle course of old money, new money, nosy relatives, and scheming social climbers. This bestselling novel turned motion picture darling is an over-the-top romp through the unbelievable jet-setting lives of Asia’s super-elite. It’s wickedly funny, decadent, and delightfully soapy. A must-read even if you didn’t watch the movie adaptation over and over and over again.

A beautiful portrait of a woman finding her strength and shaping her own destiny. Trapped in a life of servitude, a young Nigerian woman determined to fight for her dreams and future paints a story of relentless hope amidst the struggles of living in a toxic patriarchy. This bold debut is lyrical in its prose and captivating in its journey.

So, we might be biased here — a feel-good read about a mysterious, possibly magical bookstore! While all true, this literary adventure is much more than that. Part old-fashioned fantasy, part technological meditation on the quest for permanence in the digital age, this love letter to books is delightfully funny, clever, and just like a great bookstore, one you’ll never want to leave. “A book about passion—for books, for history, for the future…There is nothing about Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore that I didn’t love.” —Cory Doctorow

Earthy, magical, and utterly whimsical, this tale of family, forbidden love, and food in turn-of-the-century Mexico blends poignant romance and bittersweet wit. A quick and delicious page-turner that reads like a soap opera and swirls with the flavors and spirit of Mexico. Lovingly atmospheric, this is a story that will remind you just how beautiful language can be. So, if you’re looking for an epic romance in under 300 pages that’s literally told through food this book is chef’s kiss!

Carlos Ruiz Zafón is one of the world’s most beloved and most-read authors. The Shadow of the Wind and the entirety of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series are in a special league of rare magical reads — books you just want to read, share and repeat. This literary gem set in 1945 Barcelona, in the direct aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, follows the discovery of a forgotten book that leads to a thrilling adventure of passion, guile, and murder. Perfect for “anyone who enjoys novels that are scary, erotic, touching, tragic and thrilling.” —Michael Dirda, for The Washington Post

If you discovered a library full of an infinite number of books that tell the story of what could have happened if you had made any other choice, would you try to lead a different life? This is exactly the dilemma Nora faces as she tries to decide what makes life fulfilling in Matt Haig’s beloved and charming The Midnight Library.

Eowyn Ivey’s 2012 debut novel is a retelling of a Russian fairy tale about a girl made from snow who comes to life. Jack and Mabel, homesteaders in the 1920s, move to the Alaskan wilderness to build a new life and escape their heartache. On a whim, they build a child out of snow that mysteriously disappears. Not soon after, a seemingly magical child enters their lives. But the girl, Faina, is not what she seems. This tale of love and family beautifully blends magical realism and historical fiction and will hook you from the first page.  

Bernadette is a brilliant, reclusive former architect whose crippling misanthropy has alienated her from her husband and her work. When she vanishes without warning just before a family trip, her grieving daughter, refusing to believe she’s really gone, compiles the book you’re reading — a hilarious epistolary novel that bursts at its seams with email exchanges, IM conversations, and other pieces of unconventional storytelling. After reading this you’ll want Bernadette to be your best worst friend.

This brilliant story starts out with a literal bang when a church deacon shoots a local drug dealer in 1969 Brooklyn and will captivate you until the last page. In his first novel since his National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird, McBride once again delivers the kind of novel you’ll never want to end. This is a story told with a lot of love for its characters and steadfast faith in humanity. Bum-Bum, Hot Sausage, Hurly Girl. You’ll fall for every one of them. Hands down, one of the best books we’ve ever read.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is a story that loves stories, and it’s a book that loves books. It celebrates the broken places between people in quiet moments, and it puts a sharp focus on the ways that stories and the people who love them can change communities and lives. It’s a close-up kind of book, not a broad, sweeping narrative. It’s about the families we have and the families we make along the way. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is the best kind of cathartic read and you won’t want it to end.  

A concierge at a Parisian apartment building that has gone to great lengths to maintain her carefully constructed persona strikes up an unlikely friendship with a twelve-year-old girl determined to avoid the pampered and vacuous future before her by ending her life on her thirteenth birthday. This clever, moving and very French novel about time, beauty, and the meaning of life helps us see that the beauty of art, literature, and music is in how it connects us to each other.