Books to Read When Feeling Alone

Whether we are isolating with other people or simply on our own I am sure we are all having periods of time when we feel just a little bit alone.  Not being able to physically see our loved ones or touch them, or hug them or share a cup of tea or a glass of wine is tough.

Thankfully we will always have books, and I do believe if you can lose yourself in a book you are never completely alone.  Friends can always be found between the pages of a book

For those days when you feel in need of a friend or some gentle and undemanding company, then might I suggest the following.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a day by Winifred Watson

Miss Pettigrew, a down on her luck governess, about to lose her home and desperate for work, is sent by her employment agency to the home of Miss LaFosse, a glamorous night club singer with a tangled love life.

From the moment she enters her potential employers home she is welcomed into a world of glamour, decadence, and fun.  None of which she has known before.  This is a story of awakening and discovery, as Miss Pettigrew becomes a real life Cinderella who has been gifted 24 hours to live a life she had never before dreamed of but embraces whole heartedly.

There is so much joy in this book as Miss Pettigrew throws caution to the wind, abandons her sensible self and gives her self wholly to the unexpected circumstance she has found her self in

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katrina Bivald

I have just read this so it is very fresh in my mind. Sara is quiet, introverted and has few friends.  She leaves Sweden to visit her friend Amy in Broken Wheel, a backwater town in Iowa.  When she arrives things are not quite as she expected.  Knowing no one, she makes friends, opens a books shop and finds a life she had never dreamed possible.  This book is perfect, it will introduce you to a host of characters who you soon feel intimately acquainted with.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

I was reminded again of Jane’s indomitable spirit and ability to cope with the loneliest of times and hardest of circumstances  when watching the streaming of Jane Eyre from the National Theatre.

Jane had a desperately hard life, orphaned as a child, then brought up by a cruel woman before being cast out to a school where she new only hardship and grief.  And yet she is not beaten.  She accepts her circumstances, does what she can to survive until she can step out into the world on her own.  Even then life does not go smoothly as she meets the difficult Mr Rochester who she falls in love with.  The course of love is an uncertain one and yet she never wavers in her ability to cope and find the strength to go on.  Jane Eyre is a resourceful and resilient woman and one we can be inspired by.

I hope wherever you are and however lonely you feel you can find some comfort in books and stories.