How about the Maisy Dobbs mysteries by Jacqueline Winspear or the Aunt Dimity’s series by Nancy Atherton? Both along a similar vein and easy to read. I will warn you that Aunt Dimity has a ghost for a character but I found the books lighthearted and amusing. I hope you get back on your feet soon!

Oh, poor you! I have some favourite books on hand when I can't cope with anything heavy but I don't know if they would suit you.

P.G. Wodehouse for laughs, especially the Blandings Castle series. Maeve Binchy, Marion Keyes' Walsh family series, Jennifer Crusie and Kerry Greenwood's Corinna Chapman series.

I also dip into classics like Vanity Fair and Jane Austen.

Any Georgette Heyer's Regency or Mystery novels.

Spencer Quinn's Chet and Bernie series.

Laura Levine's Jayne Austen mysteries (and her parent's emails are good for a laugh!)

I like having series when I am not well. If you get interested in a group of people you want to go on reading about them, I find.

I hope something in my choice will cheer you up.

Headlong by Michael Frayn

Headlong begins when Martin Clay, a young would-be art historian, believes he has discovered a missing masterpiece. The owner of the painting is oblivious to its potential and asks Martin to help him sell it, leaving Martin with the chance of a lifetime: if he could only separate the painter from its owner, he would be able to perform a great public service, to make his professional reputation, perhaps even rather a lot of money as well. But is the painting really what Martin believes it to be? As Martin is drawn further into this moral and intellectual labyrinth, events start to spiral out of control . Headlong is an ingeniously comic thriller that follows a young philosophy lectuerer's obsessive race through the art world in search of an elusive masterpiece.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion or Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson (and the similar names are purely coincidental :) )

I hope you are feeling better really soon!

I always enjoy Mary Kay Andrews. The books I've read have all been different stories set in different locales. Her characters' relationships have ups and downs, but the stories don't get heavy.

If you want humorous stories, try Sophie Kinsella. She wrote "Confessions of a Shopaholic".

Donna

Thanks so much, everyone, for the recommendations. I'll try them. Msmeow, I do love Mary Kay Andrews/Kathy Hogan Trochek and have many of her books. Unfortunately, I think I've read them all. And have read many or most of Maeve Binchy, but Annpan and vee_new's suggestion reminded me that I should check, maybe there's one I haven't read or don't remember. Christine_a, have read all of Maise Dobbs but will definitely try Aunt Dimity. And thanks, astrokath, for reminding me about Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, which I have been meaning to read but just forgot. I read The Rosie Project.

Thank you all again, I see many great suggestions. Looks like I've gone from a desert to a positive jungle of good choices. Now my dilemma is which one to try first!

The "Miss Read" series is very calming and restful. Good to read before going to sleep. Have you tried the Isabel Dalhousie series by Alexander mcCall Smith? These are set in Edinburgh and quite charming, In my view. I also like "Cider With Rosie" by Laurie Lee ( about his idyllic and eccentric boyhood in the Cotswolds, England).

Let us know what you have liked.

A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles

One of my very favorites.

I so hope you feel better soon!

I've recommended these books before, but they are perfect for when you're feeling low and low energy: the Brendan O'Carroll books starting with The Mammy. The characters are wonderful, they are short, and they made me laugh out loud.

A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman about a Swedish curmudgeon.

Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown is a fun historical romance with a woman pirate

I also love Maisy Dobbs and they are wonderful to listen to if you like audio books.

Trevor Noah's book Born a Crime about his life growing up in South Africa was fascinating and funny. This book is stories from his (very mischievous) childhood and not current politics.

You mentioned Christie & Sayers; I’d put Ngaio Marsh in that group, along with Patricia Moyes and Elizabeth Lemarchand. And I second the suggestion for Georgette Heyer. Her romantic comedies are frequently laugh out loud funny - a good start might be These Old Shades, The Grand Sophy or The Reluctant Widow.

Have you read the Raffles books? They are spoofy but fun.

I like mysteries, and Frances Brody has two series, one set in Wales and one in the Catskills, that have murder and mayhem but in the manner of cozy mysteries.

Thank you so much for the recommendations. Donnamira, I don't know how I've never heard of Ngaio Marsh before but she sounds like an author I'd love to try. Thank you all for the suggestions, they all sound great. Except A Gentleman in Moscow ;). Thanks again!

Daisy Have you come across Gladys Mitchell? Also a prolific Golden Age mystery writer.

Sorry, the author of those books is not Frances Brody but Elizabeth J. Duncan. Frances Brody writes the Kate Shackleton books set just after WWI.

Jumping in to add the Rhys Bowen mysteries. There is a Scottish mystery series starring Hamish MacBeth which is set in the Highlands, and a series starring Lady Georgianna, 34th in line for the throne, which generally takes place amongst the aristocracy. Both series are rather gentle, and wrap things up with a tidy bow at the end.

Wishing you better tomorrows,

PAM

Oh, and for mysteries, what about Elizabeth Peters? Isn't she the author whose first mystery was The Crocodile on the Sandbank? Set, I think (searching my memory - always a dusty place), in the late 1800's Nile Valley, the main character is Amelia ... uh... forgot her last name... and she is an archaeologist.

PAM

How about some real classics? It's a bit early, but A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens always cheers me up. Or...

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit.

Get well soon!

BigDogsTwo, Amelia Peabody! and The Crocodile in the Sandbank kindle edition is currently on sale for $2.99.

Have you ever tried any Patricia Wentworth? Think Agatha Christie but a bit watered down.

Also Romances by Betty Neels. She wrote romances for Harlequin from the 60s- 90s (until she was in her nineties) Not earth shattering but very soothing. No sex , lots of tea drinking and walks in the country. They are very formulaic but good books to read before bed.

Books by Peter Mayle. They are light hearted, well written and they take place in sunny southern France.

How about Jan Karon's books - the Mitford series?

I will second books by Peter Mayle, laugh out loud fun and

Jan Karons Mitford series is delightful

I third Georgette Heyer, and second Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody series. If you can get the audiobooks of the Amelia Peabody books (narrated by Barbara Rosenblat) you will enjoy them. I used to work in a library and a woman who was home on bed rest for several weeks, ordered them on ILL and told me later that they had passed the time for her very well. That's how I started listening to them.

My husband even liked reading the Amelia Peabody books a few years back when he was recovering from a shoulder injury. He hasn't read them since, but he enjoyed them while he felt under the weather.

Thank you so much for all the recommendations. I'll be traveling a lot soon and I'm sure I'll read a lot of these. I have Aunt Dimity queued up to read, along with the first Ngaio Marsh book. I'll probably try Miss Read next and/or Major Pettigrew's Last Stand.

Many of those mentioned I have read. Rhys Bown mysteries, Amelia Peabody mysteries, Georgette Heyer, Mitford books, etc. But it was helpful to have those recommendations because it was lovely to see there are others who enjoyed those books as well. And I will try the audiobook of the Amelia Peabody mysteries because I often fall asleep to an audiobook, so it's helpful to have a good recommendation.

I tried A Man Called Ove and I'm sure I'll finish it, but it is unbearably sad to read it right now so I laid it down. I have a friend who has cancer and also a suspicious spot on her liver and she is the light of her husband's life. I want to escape from pain and loss right now. A murder mystery like Agatha Christie writes should be sad, I guess. It's murder, but somehow that doesn't reach out and snatch my heart out like the pain of Ove losing his wife. Another time in my life I would probably have liked A Gentleman in Moscow and A Man Called Ove.

So thank you so much to all of you for taking the time to respond. It will be nice to have this thread to check when I finish the stack of books I have now.

Daisy, no more suggestions to offer, but I wanted to say that I do hope things are going better for you in this new year.

I am catching up on all my web surfing and will also join in and hope things are going better. When I saw that you loved Guernsey (which I did as well) I thought to suggest the Miss Read books which I see have been suggested already. I stumbled on those several years ago and devoured them. So sweet and enjoyable. I hope you tried and enjoyed them. I do have a few other suggestions -- (and for anyone following along) - The Mapp and Lucia series by E F Benson. I don't now how I found them but adored them and did not know that there was a tv series of them. Talk about delightful.

I also really loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Frye and loved even more the companion piece The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy.

And one more recent one, Saints for All Occasions.

Did we mention The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie ?

I really enjoyed the heroine so much, especially when I read that the author was a 70 year old man who began writing late in life ! They are light, witty mysteries.

Thank you so much for the additional suggestions and the wishes for better things this year. I have high hopes for 2018. I wound up having surgery at the end of November, so 2017 didn't go great in a minor sort of way, but I did get a lot of reading done while I was recovering.

sheilaaus122, I will try those suggestions. I've avoided The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Frye because, if I remember correctly, his friend was dying or had cancer? I don't want to read anything with a sad ending or having to do with a cancer scare right now.

Yoyobon, I loved all the Flavia de Luce books, I have them all.

I've referred to this thread several times when looking for my next book to read and I'm very appreciative of the new suggestions.