A little reading is sometimes all the therapy a person needs.
♦ The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
Samantha Sweeting, a Cambridge-graduate, high-achieving lawyer with workaholic tendencies, is about to achieve her life’s ambition when everything goes down the drain. Instead of being made partner and getting a corner office, a mistake so big leaves her on the roadside, on the verge of nervous breakdown. Shocked and dazed, she finds herself boarding a train and ending up in the middle of nowhere. When she is about to ask for directions at a big house, the owner mistakes her asa candidate for the new housekeeper. Samantha, who doesn’t even know how to use the washing machine or boil an egg, decides to accept the position. And so begins her journey of learning, of discovery and, most important of all, of finding balance in life.
♦ The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Recently retired Harold Fry leads a monotonous, emotionally-numbing life in a small English village with his bitter, acerbic wife, Maureen. Changes come with the arrival of a letter from an old friend, Queenie Hennessy, whom he hasn’t seen for twenty years. Written from a hospice, the letter is meant as a goodbye. Harold pens down a reply, but when he is walking down to the post office the next morning to post it, a chance encounter changes his mind. Now he is convinced that he has to put the letter into Queenie’s hand himself. And so Harold, completely and endearingly unprepared, begins a journey of 600 miles across English countryside without a luggage or even a cellphone. All he carries is the strange hope that as long as he puts one foot in front of the other, his friend Queenie will not die.
♦ Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
Three men, George, Harris, and Jerome (known only as “J.”) decide that they are in need of a holiday from their busy work. After a lengthy discussionwhich involves crossing many options off the list, they finally settle on an idea: a boating trip up the River Thames. This seems to suit them all, and so, on a cheerful Saturday, off they go accompanied by Montmorency, J.’s small fox-terrier. Funny incidents litter their journey from the start, ranging from uncooperative tow-ropes and unreliable weather forecasts, to pineapple tins and problematic camping stoves. Originally intended as a serious travel guide, this book has instead won over generations of readers with its timeless humor and benign sense of escapism.
