Starship Asterisk*

Posted: **Wed May 29, 2013 6:36 pm**

I learnt about this project when reading a review of Helen Simonson's "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand". (A book that I read with great pleasure last year and am about to read again.)

The list of Self-help books is available as a pdf download, but I thought I'd post the 2012 list of Mood-Boosting books here, for interest and, possibly, for comment. And adding to?

The 2013 list is due out in June.

http://readingagency.org.uk/adults/tips ... -list.html

Poor mental health and well-being costs the NHS £14 billion a year.

Our Reading Well work with libraries consists of two strands: Books on Prescription and Mood-boosting Books.

There is strong evidence that self-help reading can help people with common mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression, sometimes on its own or with other forms of treatment. Reading Well Books on Prescription and Mood-boosting Books take the following studiesinto account.

In January 2012 we launched
Mood-Boosting Books

The Beach Café by Lucy Diamond

Being Human by Neil Astley

The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani

Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee

Couch Fiction by Philippa Perry

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

Hector and the Search for Happiness by Francois Lelord

Life According to Lubka by Laurie Graham

Life with the Lid Off by Nicola Hodgkinson

A Little History of the World by E. H. Gombrich

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Men at Work by Mike Gayle

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford

Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman

A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon

Tackling Life by Charlie Oatway

That Awkward Age by Roger McGough

To the Moon and Back by Jill Mansell

Trouble on the Heath by Terry Jones

A Winter Book by Tove Jansson

Stop What You're Doing and Read This - Various contributors

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

Waterlog by Roger Deakin

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Of these books, I know the Simonson one, and the books by Bill Bryson, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Laurie Lee and Lucy Diamond. And, yes, all of them are definitely books that left me with a good mood!
Margarita

Posted: **Wed May 29, 2013 6:59 pm**

Norman Vincent Peale

Posted: **Wed May 29, 2013 7:18 pm**

bystander wrote:Norman Vincent Peale

Good ideas just get recycled don't they? Or re-discovered.

What I found intriguing about this project was that it affirms the fact that reading positive fiction is good for mental health.

I pretty much stopped reading new novels some years back because they were so often just so depressing. And life was doing a good job depressing me as it was, without having help from elsewhere!

I continue to read and re- read Terry Pratchett's earlier and middle novels, as they both make me think and make me laugh. Especially 'Good Omens' the one he wrote with Neil Gaiman. His later work has become somewhat sadder and more angry, which is both understandable (he has early onset Alzheimer's) and a pity.

Margarita

Posted: **Wed May 29, 2013 7:57 pm**

If you enjoy Terry Prachett's Discworld series, you might also enjoy Piers Anthony's Xanth, Terry Brooks' Magic Kingdom, or Peter David's Apropos of Nothing series.

Posted: **Wed May 29, 2013 8:29 pm**

bystander wrote:If you enjoy Terry Prachett's Discworld series, you might also enjoy Piers Anthony's Xanth, Terry Brooks' Magic Kingdom, or Peter David's Apropos of Nothing series.

I loved Piers Anthony's "Out of Phaze", and, coincidentally, have it off the shelf in my re-reading pile. But I hadn't realised how many books he has written. So thanks for the recommendation and reminder.

The other two authors are new to me and I will check them out.

What I like so very much about Pratchett is the blend of lightly worn erudition, excellent plotting, often/usually a serious (but not solemn) underlying 'message' - and the splendid sense of humour. I rate him in the same class as Douglas Adams.

Margarita

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