Heartwarming Novels
A blanket, something warm to drink and a novel whose pages seem to turn themselves. This list stretches from the softening hearts of grumpy neighbors to little cafés in Tokyo, from the sweet muddle of the English countryside to friendships on faraway planets. Novels that feel good to read.
-
1 Book
Letter from an Unknown Woman
Shows how deep and transforming love can be, even when it goes unreturned.
-
2 Book
Norwegian Wood
A melancholy yet healing portrait of loss and growing up.
-
3 Book
Pride and Prejudice
A novel that shows, with witty elegance, how love and understanding bloom once we get past our prejudices.
-
4 Book
Emma
A warm, cheerful, laughter-filled coming-of-age story about a young woman learning to laugh at her own mistakes.
-
5 Book
Sense and Sensibility
A gentle story of two sisters who find a balance between sense and feeling and reach for happiness.
-
6 Book
Persuasion
A heartwarming tale of a second chance arriving years later and a quiet love that never faded.
-
7 Book
Northanger Abbey
A joyful Austen novel that sweetly pokes fun at the gothic fears of a girl with a runaway imagination.
-
8 Book
The Pickwick Papers
A classic that smells of friendship, raising smiles page after page with the adventures of kind-hearted Mr. Pickwick and his friends.
-
9 Book
Three Men in a Boat
A timeless holiday, rowing down the Thames with three friends and a dog, and laughing at their mishaps.
-
10 Book
Travels with Charley
A peaceful book in which the author travels across America with his faithful poodle, sharing his curiosity about people and roads.
-
11 Book
My Family and Other Animals
A feast of a book, recounting with laughter a childhood spent under the Corfu sun with an eccentric family and countless animals.
-
12 Book
A Room with a View
A refreshing love story about a young woman who dares to listen to her heart in the light of Florence.
-
13 Book
What Men Live By
A touching Tolstoy story that tells, in a simple and profound tale, how people live by love at their core.
-
14 Book
The Importance of Being Earnest
An undying Wilde comedy, full of mistaken identities and sparkling wit, that makes you smile in every line.
-
15 Book
Pygmalion
A witty play about human dignity and believing in yourself, told through the transformation of a flower girl.
-
16 Book
The Enchanted April
A radiant novel in which four women bloom anew during a month at a castle on the Italian coast.
-
17 Book
Right Ho, Jeeves
A novel that has you in stitches as clumsy Bertie and his genius valet Jeeves untangle a knot of love affairs.
-
18 Book
The Gift of the Magi
A warm Christmas story about self-sacrificing love, in which a young couple gives each other their most precious possession.
-
19 Book
Around the World in Eighty Days
A thrilling and entertaining journey around the world with the unflappable Phileas Fogg and the cheerful Passepartout.
-
20 Book
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
A sweet fairy tale in which a London cleaning lady who dreams of a Dior dress wins Paris over with her kind heart.
-
21 Book
Tartarin of Tarascon
A lovable Provençal novel that makes us laugh at the grand heroic daydreams of Tartarin, an adventurer who is really a homebody.
-
22 Book
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A cheerful comedy in which fairies, lovers and clumsy actors get tangled up in an enchanted forest.
-
23 Book
Much Ado About Nothing
A witty, delightful comedy about Beatrice and Benedick falling in love through sparring words.
-
24 Book
Cold Comfort Farm
A mischievous, funny novel about practical Flora, who brings order to a gloomy farm and teaches everyone about happiness.
-
25 Book
The House in the Cerulean Sea
A hug of a fairy tale about loving what is different and the warmth of a chosen family.
-
26 Book
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
A tea monk and a curious robot discover that simply existing, even without a purpose, is enough.
-
27 Book
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
A heartfelt journey in which an ordinary man learns to hope again while walking across the country.
-
28 Book
Chocolat
The story of a woman who brings tolerance and joy, along with the smell of chocolate, to a small French town.
-
29 Book
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
The sunny, warm world of Mma Ramotswe, who solves problems in Botswana with common sense and a good heart.
-
30 Book
Britt-Marie Was Here
The story of a meticulous, lonely woman opening up to life again through a town's young footballers.
-
31 Book
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
The laughter-filled, never-aging adventure of Allan, who escapes his nursing home on his hundredth birthday.
-
32 Book
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
A delightful treasure hunt in a mysterious night-time bookshop, where a love of books meets a curiosity about technology.
-
33 Book
The Rosie Project
A sweet comedy in which a genetics professor who plans everything learns that love fits no formula.
-
34 Book
Where'd You Go, Bernadette
A witty, loving search, stitched together from letters, by a daughter tracing her extraordinary mother.
-
35 Book
A Gentleman in Moscow
A count confined to a hotel turns a small world into a whole life through his elegance and friendships.
-
36 Book
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
A soothing, tenderly written journey in which a crew of very different beings becomes a family in space.
-
37 Book
Bridget Jones's Diary
Bridget's laugh-out-loud diary, at peace with her flaws, is a cheerful proof that you can be loved as you are.
-
38 Book
Good Omens
The laughter-filled friendship of an angel and a demon who try to stop the apocalypse because they love the world.
-
39 Book
Project Hail Mary
A science-fiction story that opens a door to hope through the friendship and solidarity of two different species in the middle of space.
-
40 Book
The Martian
A hopeful story of an astronaut stranded alone on Mars who survives through his wit and stubbornness.
-
41 Book
Stardust
A young man chasing a falling star finds love and himself on a fairy-tale journey.
-
42 Book
If Only It Were True
A tender love story in which an architect and a mysterious woman who appears in his home make the impossible possible.
-
43 Book
Can You Keep a Secret?
A smile-inducing romantic comedy about Emma, who spills all her secrets to a stranger on a plane.
-
44 Book
A Good Year
A pleasant story of a man who leaves the London rat race and learns to slow down in a vineyard house in Provence.
-
45 Book
Before the Coffee Gets Cold
A tender, coffee-scented Tokyo tale that whispers that even if the past cannot change, the future is always open.
-
46 Book
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop
A bookshop story, warm as tea, in which a wounded heart slowly heals among dusty shelves.
-
47 Book
The Cat Who Saved Books
A sweet journey, guided by a talking cat, about how reading rescues people from loneliness.
-
48 Book
What You Are Looking for Is in the Library
Five small, hopeful stories showing how the right book at the right moment can change the direction of a life.
-
49 Book
Miracles of the Namiya General Store
A novel in which small kindnesses connect through letters of advice that arrive from beyond time.
-
50 Book
Tales of Nasreddin Hodja
Wise anecdotes passed from tongue to tongue for centuries, making you think as you laugh.
-
51 Book
Tales of Keloğlan
Stories of a lovable fairy-tale hero who overcomes every obstacle with his wit and kind heart.
-
52 Book
Journey to the Center of the Earth
A science-fiction classic full of adventure, in which curiosity leads its heroes deep underground.
-
53 Book
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas
An adventure aboard the Nautilus, discovering the wonders of the ocean depths.
-
54 Book
One Thousand and One Nights
Enchanting tales that fill night after night, kept alive by Scheherazade's art of storytelling.
-
55 Book
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
A novel about friendships built through letters and books bringing people together.