@taffyakner.bsky.social Long Island Compromise is just the best read. Laugh out loud funny. Not too dark. Not too light. Its a perfect novel. Also, best mandy patinkin sighting in any novel anywhere.
If you’ve never read Terry Pratchett I can’t recommend him enough. But my real escapist reading is something that’s only shared between me, my e-reader, and my Chinese spy.
An Immense World by Ed Yong is a cool book about how different animals perceive the world around them. It filled me with wonder and awe and did not bum me out.
It’s a contrary-sounding recommendation but Erasure by Percival Everett will make you totally engrossed. Same with Zone One by Colson Whitehead, one of my favorite Zombie books.
Not sure your style, but Magical Midlife Madness is about a woman in her 40s finding herself. Set in a town with shifters, gargoyles and magic. Light, fun and a bit spicy. Great escapism. KF Breene is the author
If you want to feel despair/sad but maybe in a just slightly uncannily and different enough, fortifying way, Lydia Millet's A Children's Bible. But for reset, not escape.
Comments
by Ann Tyler
James McBride’s Deacon King Kong was very good too.
The New One by Mike Birbiglia (book + stand up comedy show; both are excellent)
The House in the Cerulean Sea - TJ Klune
https://search.worldcat.org/en/title/1390739514
of the Oak Woodlands by Kate Marianchild can be read episodically.