Start your reading year on a positive note with something uplifting! From comforting translated fiction, to inspiring stories of hardships overcome, to whimsical looks at life's lows, we've got books that will change your outlook and (hopefully) leave you feeling good!
The Lucky Ride
Yasushi Kitagawa, translated by Takami Nieda
Go on a road trip unlike any other in this whimsical, surprising story about the most unlucky man in Japan and the unusual car ride that sets him on a new path.
Shuichi is an insurance salesperson being slowly worn down by the pressures of his industry and the constant stress of making money. Just as he seems about to hit rock bottom, a mysterious taxi appears, offering him a ride that will change the direction of his life.
Perfect for fans of Matt Haig's The Midnight Library, with elements of A Christmas Carol, this magical story is about changing your perspective on the past and approaching the future with hope and positivity. Read it to start the new year with joy, determination and gratitude.
The Transformations
Andrew Pippos
This book isn't exactly fluffy, but it is a beautiful story of personal healing and connection that will remind you that all wounds heal with time.
George is a world-weary subeditor in his thirties, and a survivor of childhood abuse. While the newsroom offers him a rare place where he feels at home, his life is still a lonely one, until an expected encounter with a magnetic reporter sparks the first real connection George has had in years. The relationship that follows isn't conventional – Cassandra is married with children, though she and her husband are non-monogamous – but it opens George up in a way he hasn't been in years. Perhaps now, he's ready to reconnect … with himself, with those around him, and with his estranged daughter.
This book is both a captivating story and testament that change is inevitable, love is precious and healing is possible.
Soyangri Book Kitchen
Kim Jee Hye, translated by Shanna Tan
If you've ever dreamt about abandoning your life to move to the countryside and open a quaint bookshop, you have to read this book for the vicarious wish-fulfillment, as well as the general mood boost.
Yoojin is exhausted by her busy life in Seoul, so she moves to a small village and creates a sanctuary for others worn down by modern life. She opens the Soyangri Book Kitchen, which is part bookshop, part cafe, part hotel; it's a place where book lovers can read, rest and eat to their heart's content.
Over the course of the book we meet Yoojin's customers, who have all come to the Book Kitchen while struggling with some sort of internal dilema – from a troubling diagnosis to a failing professional dream. We see how the escape offered by the Book Kitchen helps them all, and how the kindness of Yoojin's pocket of the countryside can be carried with the visitors, back into their everyday lives.
Might Cry Later
Kay Kerr
Having just survived the whirlwind of the festive season, now is the perfect time to read Might Cry Later, a hilarious and painful story of one hellish Christmas.
Nora is a mess, both internally and externally. Her mental health is in the gutter and her sense of self is hanging by a thread. She's moved home to Queensland to lick her wounds and hopefully regain a sense of normalcy, but unfortunately her retreat home has coincided with Christmas, bringing a house full of siblings, meals eaten off the good china and lots of festivities to smile through. When you can't even recognise your face in the mirror, it's hard to bring the expected level of Christmas spirit.
This is a life-affirming story of self-discovery that revels in the messiness of what finding yourself actually looks like, and offers a candid look at mental health and neurodivergence. If you've ever been treated as the problem child or felt like the family disappointment, this novel is sure to both resonate and lift your mood.
Buckeye
Patrick Ryan
If you want an immersive story with characters that will feel like real-life friends, read Buckeye, a family saga set in small-town Ohio.
In the wake of the Allied victory in the Second World War, two residents of a midwest town have a chance encounter that binds them together for decades, through love, hate and everything in between. Their marriage and the lives of their children unfurl intricately across the 400-plus page novel, as Ryan explores the seemingly small encounters that shape his characters' lives.
Described by Ann Patchett as 'a glorious sweep of a novel', the plot is too broad to easily summarise, but it also isn't really the point of a novel like this – the point is to read it, to feel the connections between the characters, to see the highs and lows of their lives, and to come away with a better understanding of the human spirit. That may seem like a high order, but Buckeye certainly delivers.
The Pearl of Tagai Town
Lenora Thaker
This is a beautiful story of love triumphing in the face of prejudice, poverty and war, from a debut Torres Strait Islander author.
Pearl is a Torres Strait Islander girl living in a shanty town called Tagai Town in northeast Queensland. When a dangerous accident leads to Pearl getting a job in a nearby white town – where she's the first Islander woman to work with white customers – a new set of possibilities is suddenly open to her. There's plenty of disapproval and intolerance to deal with from the white customers, but not everyone is unwelcoming, and Pearl is determined to make a place for herself. A budding romance with Teddy, a well-off man in town, has the potential to open up Pearl's world, or to bring violence crashing down on her and Tagai town. When the war separates Pearl and Teddy, it's up to her to fight for the life she deserves and the happiness she and Teddy hoped for.
While this book is a tale of racism and violence in Australia's recent history, it is also an inspiring story of love, persistence and community. As with other books on this list, you may need to brace yourself for the darker parts of the story, in order to get to the uplifting results, but if you're willing to experience the initial discomfort, the payoff is well worth it.
Dwelling
Emily Hunt Kivel
If you're one of the many Australians who have been hoping to buy a home but are being pushed to deepening despair by the housing market, then this is the perfect book for you. A seemingly dystopian take on the housing crisis that then turns into a whimsical, magical realism version of small-town life, Dwelling will offer both sympathy for your pain and a delightful look at what can happen after everything falls apart.
Evie has no close friends or family, and since all of New York's renters have been evicted in order to turn the city into one giant Airbnb, she now has nowhere to live. That is until she remembers a second cousin living in a small town called Gulluck, Texas. With no other ideas for what to do next, Evie seeks him out and finds herself in a town that's entirely bizarre, but full of a tantalising sense of community.
Frankie
J.M. Gutsch & Maxim Leo
This beautiful, funny story is a reminder that pets can literally save our lives.
Frankie is a cat, a mischievous stray who prefers life on the street to belonging to anyone, and the narrator of this story. On a walk through his familiar neighbourhood, Frankie spots something strange – a man in a previously abandoned house, standing on a chair with an unsually thick length of string around his neck. Frankie might not know enough about humans to see the situation for what it is, but his desire to play with the thick string ends up stopping the man from doing something drastic.
And so it is that Frankie meets Richard, a lonely widower left hopeless by the death of his wife. And while becoming a pet certainly wasn't Frankie's plan, and adopting a cat wasn't Richard's, fate seems to have its own plan for the duo. They're drawn together in spite of themselves to form a partnership that is utterly heartwarming and will have you laughing.
