Recommend an uplifting book?

[123LuckyMom]

I need a good book (or several) with kind characters and an uplifting story. I'm thinking in the line of Fannie Flagg or Alexander McCall Smith (I've only read the No. 1 Ladies Detective series). Jan Karon's a little too sappy. I'm coming off a run of pretty dark books, and I need some kindness and light. Any suggestions?


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[twowhat?]

What about Three Cups of Tea, if you haven't already read it?

[Meatball Mommie]

What about Three Cups of Tea, if you haven't already read it?

Not sure if you are aware that the author of this was outed as a fraud and that he made up a lot of the book.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/three-cups-of-tea-author-greg-mortenson-to-retire-from-charity/

[american_mama]

Not sure this qualifies, but "Picking Cotton" is a non-fiction book that ends with a great story of redemption and making the world better. I haven't read it yet. It is about a rape victim who incorrectly identified her attacker, and an innocent man went to jail for many years until DNA evidence exonerated him. The rape victim and wrongly accused man eventually connected and wrote this book together, as well as lecturing police departments and law schools and DA associations about their experiences. Their goal is to improve eyewitness interview techniques in very concrete and doable ways. They also appear to be an amazing story of forgiveness and reconciliation, and from what I've seen of them in interviews, they seem to have a comfortable friendship now. It is that reconciliation, and their ability to work together to make good come out of bad, that I find inspirational.

[123LuckyMom]

Thanks for these recs! I'm hoping for fiction, though. I'm already reading Barbara Brown Taylor's Learning to Walk in the Dark. I'm hoping to live with some nice, fictional people! I miss Mma Romatswe.


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[baymom]

I'm a huge Ladies #1 Detective Agency fan as well. :) If you enjoy that leisurely pace in a novel, you might like Mr. Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson or The Storied Life of A.J Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. Also, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. I also really liked Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jaime Ford, but it's a bit heavier than the first three.

[twowhat?]

Not sure if you are aware that the author of this was outed as a fraud and that he made up a lot of the book.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/three-cups-of-tea-author-greg-mortenson-to-retire-from-charity/

NO, I wasn't aware! Wow!!!

[rlu]

I'm a huge Ladies #1 Detective Agency fan as well. :) If you enjoy that leisurely pace in a novel, you might like Mr. Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson or The Storied Life of A.J Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. Also, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. I also really liked Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jaime Ford, but it's a bit heavier than the first three.

seconding all these and putting in a plug for, with the note I'm less than half-way through, When I Found You. Also, if up your alley, Flash the Homeless Donkey (spiritual in nature and non-fiction).

eta: When I Found You, uplifting, not light-hearted.

[urquie]

These were both fun lighthearted reads...

http://smile.amazon.com/100-Year-Old-Man-Climbed-Window-Disappeared/dp/B010HE5JM2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457575001&sr=8-1&keywords=100-year-old+man


http://smile.amazon.com/Unlikely-Pilgrimage-Harold-Fry-Novel/dp/0812983459/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457575042&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=The+unlikely+pilgrimage+of+Harold+Frei

[toby]

My mom just suggested The Storied Life of AJ Fikry

[AnnieW625]

Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I have yet to truly dislike one of her characters, although I couldn't get into Heroes Are My Weakness or the one about the rich heiress who runs away with man who runs a circus (forgetting the name of the circus one......both seemed too far fetched for me).

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

Joyride by Anna Banks

The Year We Fell Down by Sarina Bowen (this is eerily creepy now (but still a great book) as the female main character of this book suffered the same kind of injury that an up and coming female hockey star Denna Laing suffered on New Years Day during a hockey game)

North of Normal by Cea Sunrise Person (autobiography of author who grew up with a mother and grandparents who lived off the grid in Western Canada from 1972 to 1980, I think)