Looking at my bookshelves and realizing that a lot of my TBR contains very heavy subject matter or depressing stories or general things that would take a lot of emotional investment to get into. Hoping to find some good books that'll help me get away from the world being awful right now. I like fantasy, sci-fi, and general fiction, not a fan of romance. Love the Found Family trope. Please do not recommend anything HP related.
Some books that I like/generally use for escapism:
Raptor Red by Dr. Robert Bakker
Radio Silence by Alice Oseman
Daughter of Smoke and Bone series by Laini Taylor
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Lord of the Rings
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Pride and Prejudice
The OG Warriors series
Legends and Lattes
Various fairy tale and mythology collections. I've also started reading The Witcher.
Thank you all <3
by creaturesonthebrain
6 Comments
If you’re open to very long books, I highly recommend [The Hands of the Emperor](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/af2bba9c-8f41-4a3e-b87a-8532a44ccb67) by Victoria Goddard. It’s a beautifully written slice of life book about the personal secretary to the emperor of the world, with a heavy focus on platonic relationships.
Most of Tamora Pierce’s books might fit your bill; my favourites were the Circle of Magic series (YA fantasy).
You should check out Becky Chambers. Queer, scifi, excellent found family trope. Her first is A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. Her genre is called solarpunk, which has a hopeful attitude towards the future.
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
Jeeves and the King of Clubs by Ben Schott
You might enjoy some old-fashioned British murder mysteries, such as novels written by Michael Innes, Ellis Peters, or Josephine Tey, or the Father Brown short stories of GK Chesterton. Although a murder happens (but not always), it’s not a gore fest, and though motives might be murky, they’re never perverted or unnatural. Sometimes they’re also witty. Generally they do have human interest—they’re not as schematic as, say, Agatha Christie. And if you like foreign titles in translation, the novels of Georges Simenon are amazing; complex without ripping your soul apart.
All of these works are in the library, being old standbys.
Name of the Wind