About a Boy (1998) by Nick Hornby

Absolute Truths (1996) by Susan Howatch

The Abstinence Teacher (2007) by Tom Perrotta

The Accidental Tourist (1985) by Anne Tyler

Ahab's Wife (2005) by Sena Jeter Naslund

All Passion Spent (1931) by Vera Sackville-West

American Princess (2019) by Stephanie Marie Thornton

Angel (1957) by Elizabeth Taylor

Another Brooklyn (2017) by Jacqueline Woodson

Arabella (1949) by Georgette Heyer

Arundel (1929) by Kenneth Roberts  

Arthur and George (2014) by Julian Barnes

At Freddie's (1982) by Penelope Fitzgerald

The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971) by Ernest Gaines

Bachelor Brothers' Bed & Breakfast (1993) by Bill Richardson

Back When We Were Grownups (2001) by Anne Tyler    

Banishing Verona (2004) by Margot Livesey

Barchester Towers (1857) by Anthony Trollope

Barren Ground (1925) by Ellen Glasgow

The Bean Trees (1988) by Barbara Kingsolver

The Big Over Easy (2006) by Jasper Fforde

Bless Me, Ultima (1972) by Rudolfo Anaya

Breathing Lessons (1988) by Anne Tyler

Burr (1973) by Gore Vidal

Cane River (2001) by Lalita Tademy

Cannery Row (1945) by John Steinbeck

Changing Places (1975) by David Lodge

A Christmas Carol (1843) by Charles Dickens

The Chosen (1967) by Chaim Poto

The Cider House Rules (1985) by John Irving

Clear Light of Day (1980) by Anita Desai

Cold Comfort Farm (1932) by Stella Gibbons

Commonwealth (2016) by Ann Patchett

The Convert (1907) by Elizabeth Robins

The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896) by Sarah Orne Jewett

Cranford (1853) by Elizabeth Gaskell

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003) by Mark Haddon

Dandelion Wine (1957) by Ray Bradbury

The Dante Club (2006) by Matthew Pearl

Daughter of Fortune (1998) by Isabel Allende

The Daughter of Time (1951) by Josephine Tey

David Copperfield (1850) by Charles Dickens

A Day Late and a Dollar Short (2001) by Terry McMillan

The Dean's Watch (1960) by Elizabeth Goudge

Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) by Willa Cather

The Diary of a Nobody (1892) by George and Weedon Grossmith

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1982) by Anne Tyler

Dreaming of Babylon (1977) by Richard Brautigan

Dr. Thorne (1858) by Anthony Trollope

Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson (2009) by Lyndsay Faye

The Dutch House (2012) by Ann Patchett

The Edge of Sadness (1961) by Edwin O'Connor

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine (2013) by Gail Honeyman

11/22/63 (2011) by Stephen King

Elizabeth and Her German Garden (1896) by Elizabeth von Arnim

Emma (1815) by Jane Austen

Empire (1987) by Gore Vidal

The Enchanted April (1923) by Elizabeth von Arnim

Enemy Women (2002) by Paulette Jiles

The Eustace Diamonds (1873) by Anthony Trollope

Evelina or the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World (1778) by Frances Burney

Evensong (1999) by Gail Godwin

Eventide (2004) by Kent Haruf

Excellent Women (1952) by Barbara Pym

False Colours (1963) by Georgette Heyer

The Family Fang (2012) by Kevin Wilson

Family Happiness (1982) by Laurie Colwin

The Family Man (2009) by Elinor Lipman

Fanny Herself (1917) by Edna Ferber

Father Melancholy's Daughter (1991) by Gail Godwin

Fathers and Sons (1862) by Ivan Turgenev

The Feast of Love (2000) by Charles Baxter

A Few Green Leaves (1980) by Barbara Pym

The Fields (1946) by Conrad Richter

Fifth Business (1970) by Robertson Davies

Foreign Affairs (1984) by Alison Lurie

Forrest Gump (1986) by Winston Groom

The Fountain Overflows (1956) by Rebecca West

Framley Parsonage (1860) by Anthony Trollope

Franny and Zooey (1961) by J. D. Salinger

Frederica (1965) by Georgette Heyer

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café (1986) by Fannie Flagg

The Friendly Persuasion (1945) by Jessamyn West

The Gate of Angels (1990) by Penelope Fitzgerald

Gaudy Night (1936) by Dorothy L. Sayers

A Gentleman in Moscow (2016) by Amor Towles

The Getting of Wisdom (1910) by Henry Handel Richardson

Gilead (2004) by Marilynne Robinson

A Glass of Blessings (1958) by Barbara Pym

Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse (2015) by Faith Sullivan

Grand Opening (1987) by Jon Hassler

The Grass Harp (1951) by Truman Capote

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2008) by Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Happy All the Time (1978) by Laurie Colwin

Harry and Catherine (1990) by Frederick Busch

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (1997) by J. K. Rowling

The Help (2009) by Kathryn Stockett

The Hidden Light of Northern Fires (2017) by Daren Wang

The History of Love (2005) by Nicole Krauss

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) by Douglas Adams

The Holy Man (1995) by Susan Trott

Homegoing (2016) by Yaa Gyasi

Hope Leslie: Or, Early Times in the Massachusetts (1827) by Catharine Maria Sedgwick

The House of the Spirits (1982) by Isabel Allende

The House on Mango Street (1984) by Sandra Cisneros

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901) by Arthur Conan Doyle

The House of the Seven Gables (1851) by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Human Comedy (1943) by William Saroyan

Human Voices (1980) by Penelope Fitzgerald

How I Became a Famous Novelist (2009) by Steve Hely

The Hummingbird's Daughter (2005) by Luis Alberto Urrea

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (2009) by Jonas Jonasson

I Capture the Castle (1948) by Dodie Smith

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (1979) by Italo Calvino

I Heard the Owl Call My Name (1967) by Margaret Craven

The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln (2012) by Stephen L. Carter

In Country (1985) by Bobbie Ann Mason

The Inn at Lake Devine (1999) by Elinor Lipman

An Instance of the Fingerpost (1998) by Iain Pears

The Interestings (2013) by Meg Wolitzer

The Intuitionist (1999) by Colson Whitehead

Jane and Prudence (1953) by Barbara Pym

The Jane Austen Society (2020) by Natalie Jenner

Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Bronté

Johnny Tremain (1943) by Esther Forbes

The Killer Angels (1974) by Michael Shaara

Kitchen (1988) by Banana Yoshimoto

Kate Vaiden (1986) by Reynolds Price

Lady Audley's Secret (1862) by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

The Last Chronicle of Barset (1867) by Anthony Trollope

The Last Hours (2018) by Minette Walters

Last Orders (1996) by Graham Swift

The Last Runaway (2013) by Tracy Chevalier

Les Misérables (1862) by Victor Hugo

Less Than Angels (1955) by Barbara Pym

Lessons in Chemistry (2022) by Bonnie Grams

Life after Life (2013) by Kate Atkinson

Life of Pi (2001) by Yann Martel

Like Water for Chocolate (1989) by Laura Esquivel

Lila (2014) by Marilynne Robinson

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk (2017) by Kathleen Rooney

Lincoln (1984) by Gore Vidal

The Lincoln Highway (2021) by Amor Towles

Lincoln in the Bardo (2017) by George Saunders

Little Fires Everywhere (2017) by Celeste Ng

Little Women (1868) by Louisa May Alcott

The Lives and Loves of a She-Devil (1983) by Fay Weldon

Lives of Girls and Women (1971) by Alice Munro

Loitering with Intent (1981) by Muriel Spark

Lolly Willowes (1926) by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Longbourn (2014) by Jo Baker

Long Man (2014) by Amy Greene

The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen (2008) by Sylvie James

The Lost Stradivarius (1895) by J. Meade Falkner

Love among the Ruins (1947) by Angela Thirkell

Love in a Cold Climate (1949) by Nancy Mitford

Love Is Eternal (1954) by Irving Stone

Lying Awake (2000) by Mark Salzman

Main Street (1920) by Sinclair Lewis

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand (2010) by Helen Simonson

Mansfield Park (1814) by Jane Austen

The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) by G. K. Chesterton

March (2005) by Geraldine Brooks

Mariette in Ecstasy (1991) by Ron Hansen

Maud Martha (1953) by Gwendolyn Brooks

Maurice (1971) by E. M. Forster

Midwinter Break (2017) by Bernard MacLaverty

Miss Jane (2016) by Brad Watson

Miss Marjoribanks (1866) by Margaret Oliphant

Miss Mole (1930) by E. H. Young

A Month in the Country (1980) by J. L. Carr

Mother and Son (1955) by Ivy Compton-Burnett

Mothering Sunday: A Romance (2016) by Graham Swift

Motherless Brooklyn (1999) by Jonathan Lethem

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (1971) by Elizabeth Taylor

My Antonia (1918) by Willa Cather

My Brilliant Friend (2012) by Elena Ferrante

My Name Is Red (2000) by Orhan Pamuk

The Name of the Rose (1980) by Umberto Eco

The Namesake (2003) by Jhumpa Lahiri

News of the World (2016) by Paulette Jiles

The Nice and the Good (1968) by Iris Murdoch

The 19th Wife (2008) by David Ebershoff

The Ninth Hour (2017) by Alice McDermott

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (1998) by Alexander McCall Smith

Northanger Abbey (1818) by Jane Austen

North of Hope (1990) by Jon Hassler

Norwood (1966) by Charles Portis

Oh What a Paradise It Seems (1982) by John Cheever

Old Filth (2004) by Jane Gardam

Old Lovegood Girls (2020) by Gail Godwin

Olive Kitteridge (2008) by Elizabeth Strout

On Beauty (2006) by Zadie Smith

On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon (1998) by Kaye Gibbons

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985) by Jeanette Winterson

Orlando (1928) by Virginia Woolf

Orley Farm (1861) by Anthony Trollope

Out of This Furnace (1941) by Thomas Bell

The Painted Veil (1925) by W. Somerset Maugham

Paradise Postponed (1985) by John Mortimer

The Patron Saint of Liars (1992) by Ann Patchett

A Peaceful Retirement (1996) by Miss Read

Persuasion (1817) by Jane Austen

Pigs in Heaven (1993) by Barbara Kingsolver

The Pillars of the Earth (1989) by Ken Follett

The Plague of Doves (2009) by Louise Erdrich

Plainsong (2000) by Kent Haruf

Pnin (1957) by Vladimir Nabakov

The Ponder Heart (1954) by Eudora Welty

Possession (1990) by A. S. Byatt

Practical Magic (1995) by Alice Hoffman

Praisesong for the Widow (1983) by Paule Marshall

A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989) by John Irving

Precious Bane (1924) by Mary Webb

Pride and Prejudice (1813) by Jane Austen

The Princess Bride (1973) by William Goldman

The Pursuit of Alice Thrift (2003) by Elinor Lipman

The Pursuit of Love (1945) by Nancy Mitford

Quartet in Autumn (1977) by Barbara Pym

Queen Lucia (1920) by E. F. Benson

The Queen of the Tambourine (1991) by Jane Gardam

Rabble in Arms (1933) by Kenneth Roberts

The Razor's Edge (1944) by W. Somerset Maugham

Rebecca (1938) by Daphne du Maurier

The Rector's Wife (1992) by Joanna Trollope

Redhead by the Side of the Road (2020) by Anne Tyler

The Red Tent (1997) by Anita Diamant

The Republic of Love (1992) by Carol Shields

Right Ho, Jeeves (1922) by P. G. Wodehouse

The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) by William Death Howells

The Road Home (2008) by Rose Tremain

The Road to Wellville (1993) by T. C. Boyle

A Room with a View (1908) by E. M. Forster

Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976) by Alex Haley

The Rosie Project (2013) by Graeme Simsion

The Round House (2012) by Louise Erdrich

Roxanna Slade (1998) by Reynolds Price

Rules of Civility (2012) by Amor Towles

Saint Maybe (1996) by Anne Tyler

Scoop (1937) by Evelyn Waugh

The Screwtape Letters (1942) by C. S. Lewis

Search (2022) by Michelle Huneven

The Secret Life of Bees (2002) by Sue Monk Kidd

The Secret Magdalene (2005) by Ki Longfellow

The Semi-Attached Couple (1860) by Emily Eden

Sense and Sensibility (1811) by Jane Austen

The Seven Sisters (2002) by Margaret Drabble

Seventh Heaven (1990) by Alice Hoffman

Sex Wars (2005) by Marge Piercy

The Shadow of the Wind (2001) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Silas Marner (1861) by George Eliot

The Small House at Allington (1854) by Anthony Trollope

Some Tame Gazelle (1950) by Barbara Pym

The Spectator Bird (1976) by Wallace Stegner

A Spool of Blue Thread (2015) by Anne Tyler

A Spot of Bother (2007) by Mark Haddon

The Stone Diaries (1993) by Carol Shields

Stones for Ibarra (1984) by Harriet Doerr

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry (2006) by Gabrielle Zevin

The Sweet Dove Died (1978) by Barbara Pym

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane (2017) by Lisa See

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) by Anne Bronte

Theophilus North (1973) by Thornton Wilder

Therapy (1995) by David Lodge

This Book Will Save Your Life (2006) by A. M. Homes

Three Junes (2003) by Julia Glass

Three Men in a Boat (1889) by Jerome K. Jerome

Time and Again (1986) by Jack Finney

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974) by John le Carré

Toasted English (1949) by Marghanita Laski

To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by Harper Lee

To Say Nothing of the Dog (1998) by Connie Willis

The Town (1950) by Conrad Richter

A Town Like Alice (1950) by Nevil Shute

Tracks (1980) by Louise Erdrich

Travels with My Aunt (1969) by Graham Greene

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943) by Betty Smith

The Trees (1940) by Conrad Richter

The Turn of the Screw (1898) by Henry James

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie (2013) by Ayana Mathis

Uncle Silas (1864) by Sheridan Le Fanu

The Uncommon Reader (2007) by Alan Bennett

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (2013) by Rachel Joyce

Vein of Iron (1935) by Ellen Glasgow

A View of the Harbour (1947) by Elizabeth Taylor

Waiting for the Mahatma (1955) by R. K. Narayan

Walking Across Egypt (1997) by Clyde Edgerton

The Warden (1855) by Anthony Trollope

Water for Elephants (2006) by Sara Gruen

When God Was a Rabbit (2011) by Sarah Winman

Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2012) by Maria Semple

Where the Crawdads Sing (2018) by Delia Owens

The Whistling Season (2006) by Ivan Doig

White Teeth (2000) by Zadie Smith

The Winds of War (1971) by Herman Wouk

Wives and Daughters (1866) by Elizabeth Gaskell

Wolf Hall (2009) by Hilary Mandel

The Woman in White (1860) by Wilkie Collins

The World My Wilderness (1950) by Rose Macaulay

Some might not find these upbeat

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