Best Feel-Good Books for Women: Warm, Funny Novels to Lift the Mood
Novels with a warm heart: friendships, small kindnesses and a good laugh. These are books to settle into after a long day. Every book here is in the Tori catalog, and each line says why it fits.
Warm and funny novels
2017Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely FineGail Honeyman
Literary Fiction · WarmA woman with a carefully ordered life starts to change when a colleague shows kindness.
2020Anxious PeopleFredrik BackmanLiterary Fiction · WarmA failed bank robber flees into an apartment viewing and takes everyone hostage.
2014The Storied Life of A. J. FikryGabrielle ZevinLiterary Fiction · WarmA bookseller’s life changes when a package arrives.
2013The Rosie ProjectGraeme SimsionLiterary Fiction · LightA professor sets out to find a wife by questionnaire.
1996Bridget Jones’s DiaryHelen FieldingLiterary Fiction · LightA single woman’s year in a diary of calories, cigarettes and Mr Darcy.
1999ChocolatJoanne HarrisLiterary Fiction · WarmA chocolate shop opens in a French village during Lent.
Cozy and charming
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society2008The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie SocietyMary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
Historical Fiction · WarmA writer finds a friend in a Guernsey literary society.
2010Major Pettigrew’s Last StandHelen SimonsonLiterary Fiction · WarmA widower and a Pakistani shopkeeper in an English village.
1938Miss Pettigrew Lives for a DayWinifred WatsonLiterary Fiction · LightA governess has one day of glamour.
1958Mrs. ’Arris Goes to ParisPaul GallicoLiterary Fiction · WarmA London cleaning lady dreams of a Dior dress.
197084, Charing Cross RoadHelene Hanff
Nonfiction · WarmLetters between a New York writer and a London bookseller.
1998The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective AgencyAlexander McCall Smith
Mystery & Thriller · WarmA woman opens a detective agency in Botswana.
