Twenty feel-good novels for an instant mood boost

Marion Winik is the author of nine books, including The Big Book of the Dead (2019) and First Comes Love (1996; reissued with a new introduction in 2026). Her essays have been published in The New York Times Magazine, The Sun, and elsewhere; her column at BaltimoreFishbowl.com has been running since 2011.

[Coffee with a Canine: Marion Winik and Beau (December 2009); Coffee with a Canine: Marion Winik and Beau (June 2013); Writers Read: Marion Winik (June 2013)]

A professor at the University of Baltimore, she reviews books for The Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and People, among others, and hosts the NPR podcast The Weekly Reader. She was a commentator on All Things Considered for fifteen years. She is the recipient of the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Service Award.

At Oprah Daily Winik tagged twenty novels that "provide the perfect literary antidote to a stressful day," including:

The Literati by Susan Coll

From the moment Clemi walks into her office at a Washington, D.C., literary nonprofit, things go wrong. The place has been ransacked, her boss is missing, and a huge cat is sitting on her desk. (Clemi is allergic.) The caterer for the annual fundraising gala, just days away, calls to report the check has bounced. (Bank balance, negatory.) The “public intellectual” who was the centerpiece of the silent auction is no longer available. (Actually, dead.) The novelist to be honored at the event is thankfully still alive, but has an outrageous list of demands. Nobody does crazy comedy of errors like Susan Coll.

Read about another novel on the list.

The Page 69 Test: The Literati.

--Marshal Zeringue