Hi!
I started my semester abroad a few days ago and I'm currently feeling pretty homesick. Going outside helps and university starts next week, where I'll hopefully meet new people, but reading has always been very favourite form of comforting myself:)
So, as the title says, suggest me a book, that is so entertaining that I can forget I'm homesick for a few hours. Fortunately, I brought my kindle, so it's very convenient to get my hands on any kinds of books in my native language or English.
I'm open to any genre, as long as it makes me forget I'm reading.
Thank you!
by stinkywatermelonlul
10 Comments
Sorry about feel homesick! Hope these books help. They’re mostly thrillers so hopefully they take your mind off of things.
*The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency* by Alexander McCall Smith. It’s about a lady in Botswana who opens the first female detective agency and all the cases she investigates. It’s delightful, beautifully written and lighthearted.
*The Quality of Silence* by Rosamund Lupton. It’s about a mother and her young daughter who go into the Alaskan wilderness alone to find her husband and on the way solve the mystery of his disappearance. It’s told from both the mother and daughter’s perspective, which was quite interesting since the daughter is deaf. It’s very well written.
My mum’s advice is to read the biographies of people you admire. Or are similar to people you admire.
She also recommends:
*The Hare with the Amber Eyes* by Edmund de Waal.
*Botany of Desire* by Michael Pollan
*Ice Station Zebra* by Alistair McLean
The Guncle, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Good Omens – my favorite 3 books. Hang in there! And don’t wait for school to start – go outside or to a coffee shop to be with people (even if you’re just next to people and not talking to them)!
Everybody Rise by Stephanie Clifford
Reputation by Lex Croucher
Privileged by Zoey Dean
A Perfect Proposal by Katie Fforde
Free Country by George Mahood
Congratulations on choosing to study abroad for a semester! I did the same in the fall of 1983. It is normal to feel homesick, but I quickly made friends, traveled throughout my “new” country and, yes, learned a few things from my classes!
I distinctly remember reading The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles while alone on a train for a weekend trip before I met many new people. I was so engaged in it that I forgot about being homesick. It is an older book (published 1969) but the story is timeless. I rarely see it mentioned on any book sites so am happy to bring it up to potential new readers.
If you are like me and countless others, you will treasure your study abroad experience for the rest of your life!
I thought A Walk in the Woods was entertaining and humorous.
A Discovery of Witches kept me hooked until I finished the trilogy.
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriott. You’ll literally laugh out loud when you read it. It’s his memoirs of his time as a rural vet in the 1930s. He’s more than a little bumbling and surrounded by people who range from eccentric to downright weird. He’s also new to the area, so you’ll benefit from his misadventures in fitting in without worrying that you’ll have the same problems
John Scalzi’s **Starter Villain** is the most entertaining book I’ve read recently. It’s a spoof of the early James Bond movies. A substitute teacher inherits his estranged uncle’s villainy which comes complete with a secret volcanic lair.
I saw you’re in France in the comments, so would recommend A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke and its sequels, about a British man’s experience moving to France. It’s very funny, although, written (and read by me) about 20 years ago so some of the humor/cultural observations may not hold up.
Dungeon Crawler Carl if you’re willing to try fantasy, and it isn’t even close. There are 7 books out and they are devour-able.