Your question is in my "Top Five Questions I love to be asked." (along with "Would you like a martini? How much weight have you lost? Have another chocolate? and Wouldn't a lazy day be a good idea?)

Three books I would recommend wholeheartedly-all are enfolding stories that invite pondering:

In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Lisa See
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher Kate Summerscale

ccrdmrbks - I appreciate your prompt reply. I feel like I'm missing a piece of myself when I finish and put down a good book. I like to take a little while to let it settle in, but at the same time there's that empty spot.

I got a chuckle from your questions, and will search out the titles you provided. Thank you!

Here are 4 I liked:

"The Greengage Summer" by Rumer Godden
"Peace Like a River" by Leif Enger
"Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper " by Hariet Chessman
"The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova (this one is long).

China Court, Rumer Godden
Green Darkness, Anya Seton
Bootlegger's Daughter, Margaret Maron

Hmmmm....3 out of 3 responses include a book by Rumer Godden, and I've never read that author. I must be missing something good.

Have you read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak? I don't remember when I was more 'swallowed up' by a book. The day after finishing it, I started rereading it again, page by page.
Another book I really loved was Shantaram by David Gregory Roberts.
Something entirely different was One Thousand White Women-The Journals of May Dodd. I began it thinking it was pure fluff but it made me cry.
Hope you find something you like.

I second the recommendation for "One Thousant White Women."

Here are some more books I was enthralled by:
"A Thousand Splendid Suns" - K. Hosani
"My Antonia" - Willa Cather
"People of the Book" - Geraldine Brooks
"Birds Without Wings" -

Thank you, thank you for all the great suggestions. I wish summer was endless so I could read them all! We've been rained out for days (weeks..months, it seems) where I live, and the one consolation has been more time for reading. More rain's in the forecast for next week, so I hope to get to the bookstore.

You could devote a summer to just Rumer Godden-what bliss!

I chose not to read this book because it sounded really depressing. So I have a couple of questions........

Why do you (RPr's) choose depressing books? After reading them do feel that you carry that sadness with you into your life for awhile? Or do you feel hopeful that humans overcome difficulties?

I'm just wondering because I avoid sad or depressing books whenever I can. I don't mean that every book has to have a fairytale ending for me either but I do have to leave the book with some sense of hope.

This book has yet to hit the English book shops, but I never knowingly chose to read a depressing book; there is enough real-life misery going on in the world around us.
I have noticed that the movers and shakers of the literary world, the people that write the book reviews in the papers, appear on 'Arts' programmes on the radio/TV, feel that extolling depressing works, especially in translation from Russian or an obscure Central European language, lends them a certain gravitas.
Possibly this is why the Booker Prize committee hypes-up this type of work so heavily. :-)

We don't "choose" depressing books. I consider myself a realist and like to have my thoughts challenged and my mind opened up. This is one reason I enjoy reading about other cultures than our Western one. The most depressing work I have ever read in my long life was Cormac McCarthy's "The Road". While I cannot say I enjoyed it (it is not that sort of book), I will say I found it well-written and thought-provoking. I am still thinking about the author's premise.

I feel like I am wasting my time if I read Jan Karon or Nicholas Sparks sort of "fluff." Life is too real to be sugar-coated, IMHO.

Amck, I'm probably not the best at recommending books, because so many that other readers love I haven't been as enamored with (such as Edgar Sawtelle, One Thousand White Woman, and Peace Like a River).

Here are a few I did love:

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimanda Adichie (this one was excellent, IMO)
The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue

Hope this helps!

Kelly

Books, and movies, are so subjective. What one person considers depressing, someone else might find insightful and enlightening.

I didn't find Edgar Sawtelle to be a depressing book. There were some bad/sad things that happened in the story, but at its heart, to me, it was a coming-of-age book that centered on an extraordinary young boy and his relationship his dogs.

When I finished the book I didn't carry sadness in me, more just a feeling of loss that I couldn't come back to the story and the characters at the end of the day when I sat down to read.

I make an effort to stay away from books with disturbing themes of child abuse, grisly murders, etc. because those bad images tend to stay with me. Since I usually read at night before bed they usually lead to bad dreams.

Some books that sound like they might be depressing often are not. One I read recently, I think the title was "A Spot of Trouble" about a man who thought he had a cancerous growth, turned out to have me laughing out loud.

I like to mix up my reading. If I've read something heavy, I will usually follow it with something like Austen, or a historical fiction, that puts me in another place and time.

Edgar Sawtelle is so rich with things to ponder, I wouldn't write it off as a "depressing" book. But that's just me!

Deborah, in response to your question about depressing books, I really think a lot of it just has to do with personal taste. I loathe with a passion chick lit, or really any type of "light" reading. So, many of the books I read could be called depressing, although I don't ever think of them that way:-). I consider them thought-provoking rather than depressing. They are the books that get me thinking about what we need to change in this world; and about how fortunate those of us are who have relatively "easy" lives.

I just remembered, the correct title of the above book I mentioned was "A Spot of Bother."

Woodnymph- I agree I don't read Karon or Sparks either, too cheesy.

Kren- The Thirteenth Tale is one of my favorite books. While there is saddness, there is also hope for the futrue in it and it isn't predictable.

Amck- I also mix up my reading, something heavy then something light, etc.

It is a personal choice, I know, I have been told by many people who love me that I am 'too sensitive". I guess I read to escape the realities of the world. For example, I have never seen Titanic and when people ask me why not I say, "How can a movie about the Titanic end well?" LOL

Deborah-it is definitely personal choice. I think I probably come down more on your side of "read for escape"-for example, I refused to read The Lovely Bones because I have a daughter...so didn't need those mental images swirling around. On the other hand, Night by Weisel is one of the most powerful, difficult books I have ever read. I can not say I enjoyed it-but I am so glad I read it. Suite Francaise had the same effect.

I try to read according to my mood. If I am depressed or feeling ill, I do not read anything heavy. Also weather makes a difference for my reading choices-for some reason I tend to read lighter in the summer. (Maybe to go with all those salads and fruit!). I love to read my mystery cozies and heavy dramas in front of the fire in the winter. It adds good atmosphere. I think picking your books is like picking an outfit, it needs to reflect your current mood. Good luck!

I do like to read true stories about realistic people and places and usually find them amazingly meaningful even though they are not necessarily uplifting. Schindler's List, Undaunted Courage, A Beautiful Mind are all well written, entertaining and inspiring stories about human perseverance.
But fiction created to do so leaves me anguished most of the time. Rape and abuse are so horrible I never ever want to read about it in fictionalized graphic detail ever and if I find it in a book, sometimes I cut out the page. Or throw out the book. Karon may be syrupy ( no, not saccharine, to me anyway!) but I do have a sweet tooth.

Karon doesn't make my teeth hurt as much as Secret Life of Bees did. She just got a bit samey and repetitive.

I agree re Karon's work now being so predictable. She should have quit while she was ahead (a few novels back).When I read her first book, eons ago, I found it refreshing. Now it is the same old, same old....

I enjoyed Karon's latest book about Father Tim's childhood.

Is that the one set in Ireland, Carolyn? Have only read reviews of it.

No, it's in Mississippi and he has to deal with some problems he had with his father.

Carolyn, by the way, have you read the work of Gail Godwin? IMHO, this writer deals with similar themes of Karon, but far more skillfully, with more depth and nuance. I recommend "Father Melancholy's Daughter" and "The good Husband." She also wrote a very short memoir I liked. I think it was called "Evensong."

The only Godwin book I have is Southern Family, published in 1987; and I have completely forgotten it. I glanced at the end papers, and I still don't remember it--must not have made much of an impression, as I didn't try anything else by her. I'll keep your recommendations in mind for a future trip to the library. Thanks!

Carolyn, as I recall, "Southern Family" was one of her earlier novels, before she became more polished, as a writer. I remember not liking it very much, along with a couple of earlier works. She just got better and better, as she went along, IMHO.

Try Gail Godwins The Good Husband; Ive read several of hers, and think its her best.

I have Sawtelle on my TBR shelf and really need to read it soon.

I choose books by mood as well. There are some I just can't read (still wish I could remove certain images from my mind: Fall on your Knees and Pillars of the Earth, Im looking at you!) I do agree that fiction that

>well written, entertaining and inspiring stories about human perseverance. ...But fiction created to do so leaves me anguished most of the time

I know exactly what you mean (see my examples above, but don't read them!) And yes, non fiction is amazing in its ability to inspire as well as entertain and teach. But good authors no how to inspire as well as entertain. I can think of many who do this. For example, I just finished Guernsey Literary Society, about the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands, and for all the brutality, found it a splendid read. Not heartwarming or twee, as I feared, but a good read about people who do overcome great odds, and do so without bitterness, and with compassion for their fellow man.

Here is a link that might be useful: Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society