Keeping Our Spirits Up - Suggestions from You

Last week I listed the books I was using to make up my Happy Pile  - books to Keep My Spirits Up. I invited a few bloggers and others to send me recommendations and the favorites that never fail to uplift and comfort them.

It seems many return to treasured tales from childhood and the ever comic Bill Bryson was on many a list. Helene Hanff's 84 Charing Cross Road and Gladys Taber of Mrs. Daffodil fame each garnered two mentions.

There are several authors and series listed below that I am not familiar with and I am happy to learn of them. Always on the lookout!

Joan at Planet Joan

Childhood favorite: Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

"They're the only books I re-read and re-read, often when I'm feeling particularly stressed. I once told a co-worker that if he ever saw me toting around the Alice books, he would know I was headed for a meltdown!"

Ruth Galloway mysteries by Elly Griffith

Cork O'Connor mysteries by William Kent Krueger

Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris 

Brother of the More Famous Jack, Temples of Delight, and Juggling by Barbara Trapido

Greengates, Chedworth, The Hopkins Manuscript or anything else (although hard to find) by British playwright and novelist R.C. Sherriff

A Rope - In Case and The Hills Is Lonely by Lillian Beckwith

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Kathy at Catching Happiness

Childhood favorite:  Anne of Green Gables series

"I've loved Anne since childhood, and the books are true comfort reads."

Fifty Acres and a Poodle by Jeanne Marie Laskas

By Brother Michael, This Rough Magic, and The Moon Spinner by Mary Stewart

Shut Up and Live! by Marion P. Downs "A 93-year-old's guide to living to a ripe old age - offers optimism on aging."

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

P.G. Wodehouse and cozy mysteries

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Kat at Mirabile Dictu

Stillmeadow series, a collection of magazine columns, and the novel Mrs. Daffodil by Gladys Taber

Home Life books by Alice Thomas Ellis - domestic columns written for The Spectator

Fashion is Spinach by Elizabeth Hawes. Kat writes: "She was a twentieth-century fashion sketcher, reporter, and critic for The New Yorker. Part autobiography, part critique and history of the fashion industry in the 1920s and '30s, this engrossing book sparkles with wit."

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Penny at Life on the Cutoff

Childhood favorite: Little House Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder

"I find myself picking up The Long Winter when a blizzard overcomes the Chicago area."

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

Poets Billy Collins and Mary Oliver

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Lavada

The Corfu Trilogy by Gerald Durrell, a memoir of his childhood on the Greek island of Corfu. "It kept me entranced and amused immediately following the Christmas holidays, a true spirit lifter. Some episodes are laugh-out-loud hilarious."

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Joyce in KC

Another vote for Gladys Taber. "Her writing is so calming - tragic things might happen but they are just part of life...she shares her life and you just feel like you have enjoyed a visit in person."

Novels by Maeve Binchy, Rosamunde Pilcher, Marcia Willett are a few of her favorite comfort authors 

Cozy mysteries and the deeper mysteries of Louise Penny and Jacqueline Winspear

In the Company of Others by Jan Karon (audio book)

Irish country doctor series by by Patrick Taylor

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Thanks for all the suggestions. Hope this helps. My Happy Pile grows and grows.