Although it is not contemporary, I would nominate Mrs. Miniver. That is my go-to book when I need "stiff upper lip, face what's coming with fortitude and grace."

Cece, I was just introduced to Mrs. Miniver this past year and I absolutely loved that book. It's definitely a stirring inspiration for fortitude and grace.

From the list above, I've read only a few, but anything by Barbara Pym is good for the soul. And I think I actually read The World According to Garp right around 1985 - 86.

I'd have to include The Good Earth and Richard LLewelyn's How Green Was My Valley. They are right up there with The Grapes of Wrath in terms of some grinding hardships. I'm taking the list to the library with me--it has a lot of interesting suggestions.

I've read the following:
Angelou - "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" - loved it
Crichton "The Secret of Santa Vittoria" - really liked it at the time
Ellison "Invisible Man" - read it for a college class - thought it powerful at the time
Heller "Catch 22" - saw the movie, then read the book - great book about insanity of war
"To Kill a Mockingbird" - one of my all-time favorites
Morrison "Song of Solomon" - love this book - just learned it's one of Obama's favorite novels, too.
Naylor - read her book "Mama Day" and really liked it
Stegner - "Angle of Repose" - liked it
Steinbeck - "Grapes of Wrath" - great writing, so depressing
Tyler "Celestial Navigation" - I think I've read all of her books.
Walker - "The Color Purple" - I think I'm one of the few who has never read the book or seen the movie.

Haven't read any of the others - or "Mrs. Miniver."

In hard times I tend to go for lighter, more humorous fare. The heavier themes just bring me down further.

I would add a few more titles to your list:

"Giants in the Earth" - O.E. Rolvag (Norwegian pioneers in the harsh climate of the mid west struggle as a family)

"Lark Rise to Candleford" - Flora Thompson (the English class system in small villages and how the people lived)

"O Pioneers" - Willa Cather

"The Emmigrants" - W.G. Sebald (German life around the time of WW II)

"Austerlitz" - W.G. Sebald (the fate of a Holocaust victim)

"Nicholas & Alexandra" - Massie (the fate of the last Tsar of Russia)

"A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep" - Rumer Godden (the story of her life as lived in England and India, ending in a remote part of the highlands of India with her young children,as a divorcee.)

"Gone With the Wind" - Margaret Mitchell

I know I will think of more titles. I've never read "Mrs. Minerver."

I've only seen the film, "Mrs. Miniver". Worth watching just for Greer Garson.

Maybe the title of the book list should have been Novels about Hard Times rather than for. There were a few on this list I hadn't heard of, so I'll have to investigate.

Sheri, if you enjoyed Mrs Miniver look out for The Real Mrs Miniver: The Life of Jan Struther by Ysende Maxtone-Graham.
Jan Struther (real name Joyce Maxtone-Graham) wrote the fortnightly 'Times' column about the goings-on of Mrs M and her family, upon which the film was loosely based.
The real-life of JS was far more racy and interesting.
A highly recommended book . . . and the next time you watch the 'Simpson's' credits look out for Ian Maxtone-Graham JS's grandson.

Interesting list. It includes books I've loved, such as All the King's Men and the only Anne Tyler book I've disliked which is Celestial Navigation? It also includes a number of books with which I am not familiar.

Has anyone read At Play in the Fields of the Lord? This is one I've wanted to read so am going to get it from the library. And are there really two Ultramarine books, one written by Margaret Atwood, an author I enjoy, and I've never heard of either?

I consider The Dollmaker to be a tragedy in the classic sense of the word; i.e., not just a sad event but a disastrous, cathartic happening affecting several people or even a nation.

I've read several of the others on the list but not nearly all.

As I've mentioned before, Janice Holt Giles is a comfort read for me.

bookmom, I think Atwood's Bodily Harm and Piercy's Vida were put out by Ultramarine, the publishing company.

Carolyn, I get a kick out of Janice Holt Giles, especially 40 Acres and No Mule and A Little Better Than Plumb. I tend to like her biographical accounts better than her fiction; but some of her novels are very appealing to me, too; e.g., Miss Willie, which is about a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse. I think you were the one who turned me on to JHG.

Wasn't D.M. Thomas's The White Hotel discredited in some way? I can't recall the details, just the fact of a controversy of some kind.

Frieda,
It is good to see you posting again; you were missed.
Regards,
Bob

Another comfort read for me are Elswyth Thane's Williamsburg novels.

Frieda, good to hear from you. Hannah Fowler is my favorite Giles book.

Thanks for posting this list! I love these types of books, and there are many on here I haven't read, and several I haven't even heard of!

I've read 15 total from the list; my favorites being Song of Solomon and The Grapes of Wrath. The only one I didn't care for was I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

I'm currently reading Intruder in the Dust, which is very good, but dense so it's taking me a while to get through it.

Kelly

Thank you, Bob and Carolyn. It's good to see the regulars I remember are still around. There are lots of new names, too. Everyone's still chawing about books...finest kind of folk, in my opinion.

I have to agree with georgia peach that the list would be better titled "Good Novels about Hard Times" since most of the ones I've read on it are real downers. Downers may be good reads, of course, but when things are tough I prefer optimism and a bit of humor. Guess that's why I enjoy so much Betty MacDonald's hilarious accounts of the Great Depression and a bout with the White Plague.

I have only read a few of those books, one of which (The World According to Garp) I actively disliked. From what I know of them, they are not what I personally would choose to read during hard times, especially a prolonged period of hard times. I might want to read a book or two or three that provided understanding about what I was going through, but mostly I would like to remind myself that times had once been better, and possibly would be again one day. When I am worried and depressed and struggling, I don't want to read that life is all about fear and sadness and endless difficulty, whether those books tell me that patient endurance and courage will eventually see me through, or whether they tell me there's no hope at the end, anyway.

So yes, books about hard times, best read in retrospect, when life is a bit more bearable.

rosefolly,
I very much agree with you wrt "The World According to Garp"; while I do not recall much about the book, I do remember a feeling of mild disgust. I also recall wondering why I persevered in reading it to the end. It seems to me there was a great deal of "family disfunction" in that book.
Regards,
Bob

Mrs. Miniver is about Britain during the "phantom" part of WW II, so it is about a bad time in history, but the book is uplifting and even funny at times. More about coping nobly rather than how asful it all was.
Very much like the Angela Thirkell books set during WW II.

OH GOOD GRIEF!!!!

Thank you, Frieda. What can I say? It's been a hectic week and I clearly was not paying attention...

I just want to say that Wendell Berry's books are among my very favorites. He is a champion of agrarianism and his novels all center on the fictional Kentucky town of Port William. He absolutely captures a community with a lot of sensitivity and wisdom. If you have any interest in farming or the small-town community life that we are losing, then I definitely recommend any of his novels.

My nomination for a "hard times" book would have to be A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I don't see it as depressing at all.