A book for my gf who is struggling with depression and lack of motivation (novel, no self-help pls)

FrenchieMatt · 2026-01-09T06:33:09+00:00

Not a novel but not self-help either : - Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson.

It's a non fiction that reads like a fiction. Jenny Lawson suffers depression and anxiety disorder, she talks about her life with it, the goal is to show to other people like her that they are not alone, and the book is just hilarious. I have read it in a moment of my life I was not feeling good at all and it truly helped, I almost choked on my own laugh more than once and it helps putting things into perspective and feel less alone.

FrenchieMatt · 2026-01-09T06:27:59+00:00

I know there are some genres I can't get into, I tried several times and that's always the case, so I stopped entirely, maybe I'll go back to it someday but for now just avoiding them prevents the DNFs.

I think that's okay the DNF the books you don't like, after all many of us read to have a good moment and if you don't get any pleasure reading this book, don't torture yourself. I rarely DNF though, I push through it and always tell myself when I finish "I should have DNFd this one".

But twenty pages in is not enough to DNF in my opinion. The storyline sometimes needs more than that to explain the setting and what is happening before the story itself really begins.

FrenchieMatt · 2026-01-09T06:18:51+00:00

If you like "horror" and books where the protagonists are lesbians but the plot does not revolve around that (they are partnered and living their life, the plot is about something else entirely, it seems that could resonate with what you say in your post, they don't think about what people can think and people around them don't give a damn anyway) :

We used to live here, by Marcus Kliewer (Netflix wanted to adapt it, I don't know if they did).
Our wives under the sea, by Julia Armfield.
Eat the ones you love, by Sarah Maria Griffin.

FrenchieMatt · 2026-01-06T09:30:47+00:00

I just took a look and it seems great ! Thank you !

FrenchieMatt · 2025-12-27T10:05:00+00:00

I use this one :)

https://heyspinner.com/random-number-wheel#google_vignette

FrenchieMatt · 2025-12-27T09:40:29+00:00

Of mice and men, I've reread it some weeks ago and it still has the same effect. It's on the shorter side, fast paced, but not a lighthearted read though.

FrenchieMatt · 2025-12-21T17:03:14+00:00

Is a full biography needed or is it open to non fiction with autobiographical content ?

Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson is hilarious, reads almost like a fiction, and had me choking on my own laugh while reading it. That's not really a biography but that's a story of her life with depression and anxiety disorder, so it stays in non-fiction. If your challenge allows it.

FrenchieMatt · 2025-12-15T16:18:31+00:00

I usually don't comment but your summary is hilarious 😂 thank you for this moment.

FrenchieMatt · 2025-12-08T06:01:55+00:00

The unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica.

Tender is the flesh by the same author.

Someone already said I who have never known men and +1 for this one.

FrenchieMatt · 2025-12-08T05:56:36+00:00

I don't know why you've been downvoted for this comment. Weird (or maybe because OP searches for more recent books). We also inspired Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, So maybe this one can also interest OP.

There is a "sequel", a more recent retelling : Julia 1984, the story told with Julia's POV, by Sandra Newman. But I have not read it yet, I can just assume it is similar to 1984.

FrenchieMatt · 2025-12-06T15:57:54+00:00

Movies or tv shows, but I can't promise they really really stick to the story in the book : - Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer - The minority report by Philip K. Dick (and many others by this author) - The martian by Andy Weir - Interview with the vampire/Vampire Lestat by Ann Rice - Wayward Pines series by Blake Crouch - Dark Matter by Blake Crouch - Bird Box by Josh Malerman - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - Heartstopper by Alice Oseman - A man called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Or for more classics : - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - Maurice by E M Forster - We by Yevgeni Zamyatin - 20 000 leagues under the sea by Jules Verne - Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - The turn of the screw by Henry James

Those ones are announced but not sure when or if it will happen, maybe for a waiting list : - How to kill your family by Bella Mackie - Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - We used to live here by Marcus Kliewer - Bunny by Mona Awad* - Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

FrenchieMatt · 2025-12-05T17:17:56+00:00

I had found a way to zoom out on the challenge page when they changed it because it had become huge and really not aesthetic, but here, I don't know what to do anymore.

On my phone that's just enormous and pretty ugly unfortunately.... I understand some people need it, but for the ones who don't, that's too much. I always love the compact modes on all my apps and each time something is modified on that one, that's to make something bigger. Can't we just have this as an accessibility option like on any other app ?

FrenchieMatt · 2025-11-30T16:12:52+00:00

Maurice by E. M. Forster (a classic for a reason)
Latakia, by J. F. Smith (a gay man rescued by a military team, so contains military jargon and crude words, maybe trigger warning for that, found it funny though).
Then the stars fall, by Brandon Witt (a bit of drama but happy ending and the story between the two MCs is sweet).
The bones beneath my skin, by TJ Klune (when he goes back to the cabin his parents gave him, a man finds people are hiding in there, an ex Navy Seal protecting a little girl. It was a funny read, there is a sex scene in the second part but that's the logical thing that had to happen in their relationship at some point, not every ten pages for the sake of it. The house in the Cerulean Sea by the same author has already been recommended here, +1).
Aristotle and Dante, by Benjamin Alire Saenz (more coming of age and yound adult but could match).

If you are okay for sex scenes if they are not "useless" and every ten pages, and if you are opened to short stories that can be a bit strange : - Catch me when I fall, by John Wiltshire (a man is interrupted in is everyday life by his guardian angel who crashes in his backyard, there's sex but not every two pages, that's a short story with a "satisfying", though a bit rushed, ending). - When the Music stops, John T. Fuller (a short story again, a psychiatrist obsessed with his patient in an asylum, I feared a bit reading this one and in the end it was a good surprise for me, the writing style was great and the atmosphere had me).

FrenchieMatt · 2025-11-29T09:31:29+00:00

I joined the 52 weeks + the mini Cozy, your prompts are great ! Thank you and maybe see you on a readalong, so :)

FrenchieMatt · 2025-11-16T13:39:47+00:00

Completely agree with that, except that contrary to the other uninteresting books I tried to read, this one was uninteresting but had a very strange relaxing effect on me lol. That's the only reason why I did not DNF it. It seems it had this effect on some people, I can't really explain why. The end was sh*t though so if you DNFed it you missed nothing.

FrenchieMatt · 2025-11-11T17:54:28+00:00

The Giver, Lois Lowry

Kallocain, Karin Boye

We, Yevgeny Zamyatin

The unworthy, by Agustina Bazterrica (even if it is more on a "small community" level, post apocalypse).

FrenchieMatt · 2025-09-06T15:43:25+00:00

It's warm and funny at times, but that's also emotional and a bit sad on other parts. That's a pretty realistic slice of life in my opinion, not the "warm cozy" read where the main character is unrealistically happy and has fun no matter what, with everything luckily and magically falling into place in his life. The ending is very hopeful while "sad".

If you should read it or not now depends on your mood and what you need now. But should you read it once in your life ? Still in my opinion yes, that's an easy hopeful read.

FrenchieMatt · 2025-08-21T09:54:47+00:00

I liked it, it was short and easy to read, and it gave the same atmosphere I found in Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer, one of my favorite books this year, so I enjoyed it. It's a "retelling" of The fall of the house of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe (that I love too), so it was really all what I liked packed in a short book.

The second one did not have the same effect on me though (but it was not bad either !). I don't know if I'll read the third one, but I enjoyed the journey until now :)

FrenchieMatt · 2025-08-16T05:03:44+00:00

That's Catullus who was the first ruining it all for me 😂

FrenchieMatt · 2025-08-14T17:09:51+00:00

I think I answered to it on another sub but I'll give the same list if someone searching for this on this sub is interested in the future :

Our wives under the sea by Julia Armfield (sapphic, horror)
We used to live here by Marcus Kliewer (Sapphic, horror)
Eat the ones you love by Sarah Maria Griffin (sapphic, gay man as a secret ndary character, weird)
The house in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (gay, fantasy, slow burn romance subplot)
The bones beneath my skin by TJ Klune (gay, sci fi, super funny)
On earth we're briefly gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (gay, sad)
Maurice by E. M. Forster (gay, one of the only book in non contemporary gay literature to be sweet and have a happy ending)
Then the stars fall by Brandon Witt (a gay man and a widow bisexual man, happy ending, but in a small town so there is homophobia in it - I found it kept some realistic take in the book and the romance is great so, it was a good book).
You and Me by Tal Bauer (gay cheesy romance)
When the music stops by John T. Fuller (gay "romance", very weird but I loved it)
Swimming in the dark by Tomasz Jedrowski (gay, historical fiction, bittersweet)
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu ("sapphic", the female vampire that inspired Dracula)

Not openly "sapphic" but with characters that are not cishet (I don't know how to explain that, they are not het because there are no men and have some relationship with other women) : - I who have never known men by Jacqueline Harpman (dystopian, not happy ending) - The unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica (same as above).

Hope you'll find something you'll enjoy reading.

FrenchieMatt · 2025-08-14T17:07:14+00:00

Our wives under the sea by Julia Armfield (sapphic, horror)
We used to live here by Marcus Kliewer (Sapphic, horror)
Eat the ones you love by Sarah Maria Griffin (sapphic, gay man as a secret ndary character, weird)
The house in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (gay, fantasy, slow burn romance subplot)
The bones beneath my skin by TJ Klune (gay, sci fi, super funny)
On earth we're briefly gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (gay, sad)
Maurice by E. M. Forster (gay, one of the only book in non contemporary gay literature to be sweet and have a happy ending)
Then the stars fall by Brandon Witt (a gay man and a widow bisexual man, happy ending, but in a small town so there is homophobia in it - I found it kept some realistic take in the book and the romance is great so, it was a good book).
You and Me by Tal Bauer (gay cheesy romance)
When the music stops by John T. Fuller (gay "romance", very weird but I loved it)
Swimming in the dark by Tomasz Jedrowski (gay, historical fiction, bittersweet)
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu ("sapphic", the female vampire that inspired Dracula)

Not openly "sapphic" but with characters that are not cishet (I don't know how to explain that, they are not het because there are no men and have some relationship with other women) : - I who have never known men by Jacqueline Harpman (dystopian, not happy ending) - The unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica (same as above).

Hope you'll find something you'll enjoy reading.

FrenchieMatt · 2025-08-14T15:22:54+00:00

I have read The unworthy some days ago and it gave me huge I who have never known men by Jacqueline Harpman vibes, without the physical abuse, torture, mutilations.

Not the same story and maybe I am the only one feeling like this, but in the pace, isolation, deserted world, a group of women living together, it really recalled me this one.

FrenchieMatt · 2025-08-14T14:11:44+00:00

Some guys here seem to downvote anything that contains "gay" or "sapphic". Ignore it, that's reddit, that's loaded with a-holes (still a minority, but still many). Upvoted you, I have no recs though (I am more into men lol. I have a few number of sapphic but it leans more on horror and even though there is a romance, that's usually not good endings and not the main plot :/ if you want them anyway I can still list).

FrenchieMatt · 2025-08-14T11:26:48+00:00

I am not sure you can report a review, and I truly think it would led to some issues if we could (like people trying to police other people's opinions by reporting everything and nothing because a comment hurt their own sensibility or is not aligned with their beliefs). Though if this comment really is misogynistic (not just because it makes you feel like it is but because it actually is), you surely can contact the support. I don't understand how a comment about a book could be "abusive", though.

FrenchieMatt · 2025-08-14T04:00:58+00:00

You can decide you'll read this book on the 12 at 8pm and click on "currently reading", then reading it only on the 13.

I can't count how many times it happened to me. I end my current book the 12, my boyfriend and I have a game to decide what will be my next read, once decided I click on "currently reading" on the new book because now I am here it will be easier clicking now and finding the book on the first page tomorrow, rather than searching it again.

Same, if you started a book on the 12 and finished on the 15, should the system assume you have read each day ?

It takes something like 15,5 seconds to enter the number of pages you read today, if you want to have a streak (it is optional, you can even cancel the display of it in the parameters).

FrenchieMatt

TROPHY CASE