The theme for the new year is "Wellbeing" and so we're looking at feel good, mood-boosting books. Within this theme we will be focusing on the Reading Agency initiative Reading Well series, which includes Books on Prescription.

As before, we will be opening up discussion on the various titles and themes in Goodreads and on social media (links at bottom of page).

You are free to choose any of the recommended titles or a book title from the author of focus, Terry Pratchett. You don't have to stick to the recommended titles on this page either, there are lots on the Reading Well booklist to choose from, and we have many of the books on prescription in stock.

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If you don't want to select a title to read for this theme that's fine too, but feel free to join in the discussions and recommend any books you have read previously that you feel have been uplifting, positive and mood-boosting!

One of the books we're recommending this week is "A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled" by Ruby Wax. The book talks about her own experiences in mental health with both humour and expertise (she has a Masters in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy from Oxford).

Ruby teaches us how to de-frazzle for good by making simple changes that give us time to breathe, reflect and live in the moment.

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 https://www.frazzledcafe.org/

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The book is available to read using our Kortext E-book reader. Click on the logo below and select University Hospitals of Derby and Burton as your institution, using your OpenAthens account to access the content. More about OpenAthens can be found here.

We have selected Terry Pratchett as our author for this theme, as two of his Discworld books feature in the Reading Well booklist.

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The Discworld series can be read in any order, so you may choose to select any of the 41 books of the series to read for this theme:

https://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/book-series/discworld/

After publishing his first story in the school magazine and going on to work in local journalism, Terry Pratchett published his first novel "The Carpet People" in 1971 followed by the first of the Discworld series in 1983 "The Colour of Magic" while working for the electricity board as a press officer.

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Terry began writing full time in 1987, and by 1996 was reported as the UK's best selling author. In 2007 Terry was diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer’s, Posterior Cortical Atrophy. Terry was knighted in 2009, and spent the rest of his life writing and campaigning and raising awareness of his condition. He died peacefully in 2015, finishing his final discworld novel "A Shepherds Crown" a few months earlier.

The series of books are full of humour, parody, escapism and fantastic mythology and work perfectly within the Reading Well recommendations as "feel good" books. To give you a little taste, here are a selection of quotes from a Goodreads forum:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1654.Terry_Pratchett 

“Give a man a fire and he’s warm for a day, but set fire to him and he’s warm for the rest of his life.” (Jingo)