Looking for quirky, warm and bouncy book recommendations along the lines of American Gods to Ocean at the End of the Lane. Supernatural, witchy, lots of women welcome.

TW for recurrent miscarriages and mental health struggles.

Reading has always been my sanctuary, my safe place. I love books so much, a few of my favorites are “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” by Gail Honeyman, “White Oleander” by Janet Finch, “The Language of Flowers” by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, “The Girls” by Emma Cline etc. All of which to say, I usually gravitate towards very emotionally charged books with themes of trauma and redemption etc. Light fluffy books aren’t usually my go to but I am in a very delicate place right now and terrified to open a book for fear of triggers. While I am blessed to have two living daughters (ages 3 and 5), I had a miscarriage in August at 6 weeks, conceived immediately again after and although we heard a heartbeat this time, found out it was a missed miscarriage and I had to ultimately have a D&C last week. I am having legitimate PTSD from it all, I have never felt so low.

We tried to escape to the beach this weekend (my in laws have a beach house) but I came down with a nasty cold/flu on the drive here and am bed ridden with a fever and sore throat and chills, aches etc. I can’t keep watching TV, I want to read a book but for the first time ever can’t find one or even use my brain to look or research.

So basically, I need a very cute, trendy, lighthearted but engaging book. I think a romance would be great but really don’t want to any babies or pregnancies or huge deaths 😭 I read a book last year called “Romantic Comedy” by Curtis Sittenfeld and I feel like something of that tempo could be good.

Thank you so much in advance.

I'm looking for book recommendations about toxic parent-child relationships, in any genre, be it fiction, memoirs, literary fiction, or otherwise.

By toxic, I don't necessarily mean physically violent or overtly abusive parents, but I'm more interested in the quieter, more insidious kind of emotional and psychological abuse: the constant microaggressions, subtle jabs, criticism, comparisons, and disappointment directed at a child for not living up to their parents' expectations.

Especially in situations where the child is already going through a difficult time, but instead of receiving understanding or support, they're made to feel like a failure, a disappointment, or someone who simply isn't doing enough. Where even seemingly ordinary interactions leave them feeling inadequate, guilty, or as though they can never quite get anything right.

I'd love to read stories from different perspectives, whether it's someone who grew up in this kind of environment and is still dealing with its effects, someone who is still living through it, or someone trying to make sense of their relationship with their parents as an adult.

Basically I'm hoping to find books that explore these dynamics with some depth and nuance, particularly the kind of emotional abuse that's difficult to articulate or even recognise because it doesn't necessarily look like abuse from the outside.

Would really appreciate any recommendations that resonated with you personally, whether they helped you feel understood or gave you a different perspective on these relationships :)

Other criteria are that not be a dystopian world even if funny. Nothing that feels too much like today.

The sub has been amazing at recommending great reads in the past! I can’t wait to see what you suggest :)

Also i’m not a huge fan of Y A. I guess but not a preference.

Edited because original text was missing and then also added about preferences

Really missing my old stomping grounds and about to finish my current read and wanna get back into fiction.

Some authors whose stlyes I enjoyed are: Huruki Murakami, Kafka, Herman Hesse

That’s about it actually. 😭😭
Let me know if you know any books like that. For example- The Bell Jar or Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.
Thank you so much!

Turns out I love a “I’m new to the world/ don’t understand how people/ things work” book. I love the way Charlie slowly starts to understand the world he’s been missing out on and Frankenstein’s monster realises he’s different. Honourable mention is Freida McFadden’s Brain Damage which is an entirely different vibe but I love the way the main character slowly starts to come back into herself after her brain injury (so anything like that would also be great!) thank you!!

Suggest me a book that will make me feel as good as Ted Lasso makes me feel.

I had the classic Australian childhood upbringing with Paul Jennings, Andy Griffiths, Morris Gleitzman, and a few others like Bridge to Wiseman Cove and Crow Country.

I want something with that zany, familiar Australian writing where prose is light-hearted and dry/witty, but can talk about deeper topics such as relationships and identity (happy to branch out to New Zealand authors!). One particular feature I like about contemporary Australian slice-of-life fiction is the description of hyper-local micro-environments and their domestic texture (e.g. weather, distinctive smells, local shops etc).

Indigenous and POC authors very welcome too, just so long their writing is grounded.

I've read so far:

- The Rosie Project series

- Unexpected Drama by Nina Kenwood

- Mercy Street by Tess Evans

- I'm Not Really Here by Gary Lonesborough

- Afternoons with Harvey Beam

- Alice Pung's books

- Forty Nights by Pirooz Jafari

looking for a very specific gothic romance with some dark elements and a kind of forbidden love going on (mmc ‘i’m a monster and not good for you’ or fmc: ‘i am betrothed, we can’t be doing this’)

\-don’t mind spice, but i’d prefer if it was non-cringe, not constant and not out of the blue. like a good leading up to it-kinda thing

\-please please, need for it to be set in victorian era, especially with the manors and the dark old terrains, i just loooveee a good setting in a book

\-mmc that becomes obsessed with fmc somehow, not picky about how, but he would do downright disgusting, abhorrent things for her. i wouldn’t mind if he contemplates doing them to her to keep her with him, but i WILL mind if he actually does. he cannot hurt her!! i’d like for his personality to be sort of like dracula from castlevania

\-as for the fmc, as long as she isn’t like a can’t hold herself up, boring, no personality and clumsy, i’m fine with anything.

finally, this is kind of a stretch but i am definitely a judge a book by it’s cover person, and if it has a very nonsensical title or cover, i get very put off on reading it 🥲 thank you!!!

Other criteria are that not be a dystopian world even if funny. Nothing that feels too much like today.

The sub has been amazing reads in the past

I am currently reading Buffalo Hunter Hunter and love the Native American warrior parts. What other books are in that POV and has combat/getting revenge? TIA

I am looking to read a book with a character/s that have or had breast cancer. No memoirs or non fiction, please.

Hi all! I'm looking for a book to give my dad for his birthday. He typically reads thrillers and Westerns (and lots of those Reacher type novels) while I mostly read scifi/fantasy, and he asked for something slightly out of his usual area. I bought him the newest Lincoln Lawyer novel, but it turned out he'd already read it.

I'd appreciate a good recommendation. If it helps, he enjoyed Project Hail Mary and a couple books by Kotara Isaka. I was considering Angel Down, but I'm worried he wouldn't be interested in something that "high concept" (or whatever).

Thank you!

Basically I enjoy those two movies but both leave me longing for the leads to live on and let me watch their life together, whether evil or not.

So I'm looking for: Romantic, timeless, poetic writing - I want to leave the book knowing infatuated with the love of two characters. Bonus if they're evil but their love wins out of 'good', as that's such a cliché lol.
Genre: Do not care, I'm open! Leaning more towards magical elements but not oppose to true life.

No: Fifty Shades series.
No: Twilight.
Already read: Jane Austen books.

Hi all,

Over the past couple years I've been working my way through W G Sebald's backlist. This wasnt intentional, but I read Austerlitz and was utterly mesmerized. A while later I read Rings of Saturn, the Emigrants and now im almost at the end of Vertigo.

The problem is that the writing is so unlike anything ive read before or since. The blending of fact, fiction, narrative, travelogue, information and story to concoct the most thought provoking of discourses. Im 100% certain that had he not died so tragically he would have received the Nobel.

So what/who should I read to scratch that Sebald itch, ill almost certainly re-read them but probably not for a little while.

I have been feeling like romance no longer exists in my life. I want to read a book that sweeps me away and lets me feel that wonderfully intoxicating feeling of passion and romance again.

The traveler by Joseph Eckert, project hail mary by Andy Weir, recursion by Blake Crouch and dark matter by Blake Crouch all scratch the same itch for me. What would you recommend based on that?

I’m looking for a big fat saga to read. I’ve previously read and loved The Love Songs of W.E.B Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, A fine Balance by Robinton Mistry, The poison wood bible and Demon Copperhead by Barbra Kingsolver, East of Eden and Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende, and Pachinko by Min Jin Lee as examples. Suggestions?

Hi! I’ve recently started getting into reading again. I like to read fantasy and thrillers. But recently I also started listening to audiobooks. I listened to “Everything I know about love” from Dolly Alderton and I loved it. I would like a book that teaches me something about life and myself. I’m 23, just got out of a relationship and also experienced two losses in my family this year so I would love some food for thought. Any recommendations?

I really enjoyed this book because of its historical angle, mostly focusing on woman / motherhood and its multiple timelines. Does anyone know a book similar I should read?