Reasons to be cheerful
A story that crept up on me until the life of our heroine Lizzie became so bizarre that I just had to keep on reading. Her mother, her family, friends and in particular her work at the dentist’s - JP Wintergreen -, became part of my fantasy life and dreams too. The discussions were absurd and yet, somehow resonated of the time.
Her mother was described as being a:
Drunk; divorcee; nudist; amphetamine addict; nymphomaniac; shop lifter; would-be novelist; poet; and playwright.
In that order.
And her boyfriend was clearly asexual or gay, she assumed, because he liked having freshly laundered clothes, made fruit salads, and once experimented with lemon in his tea. And most importantly of all, never got his penis out, despite her belief that it was often intended as a compliment.
We never really find out just how many pregnancies Lizzie’s mother had, or affairs, but we do realise, that due to her addictions, as a child, Lizzie and her elder siblings, more or less raised themselves in a rather eccentric and liberal household.
The oddities of Lizzie’s family and her work and romances, are recounted in such a dry manner that I found it difficult not to become enthusiastic over the life of this town and want now to meet them all in real life please!

Somehow, despite very little happening, this book is so engaging, so entertaining, uplifting and feels so natural. I could have easily believed it was autobiographical, and was surprised to read that it was largely invented at the end.

Lizzie's character is principled, no-nonsense and self-proclaimed weird. But seems just as 'weird' as anyone else, but with a slightly less conventional upbringing.

In some ways, there is very little story - the book is like one long reminiscence, but it is never boring, or slow. And somehow makes dentistry sound interesting!

I barely understand the reasons why, but I really enjoyed this.

A gentle quirky book which is an easy read. Light with some funny scenarios plus a few sad bits, but well balanced so the reader gets drawn in to this story about the mundane but unconventional life of naive Lizzie Vogel the main character. It is a blast from the past as set in the early 1980s and there are many humourous references to life at the time and, those of us who lived through that time, will be transported back.

My daughter is a dental nurse (qualified) and she will love it, even though she may cringe at some of the dental references, I think this book will be a talking point amongst the nurses and dentists alike in the practice she works in.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy for an honest review.

I looked forward to reading this book, having been a teenager in the mid 1980’s. However I have had to admit defeat - I have not been enjoying this book. I will try again in a few months.

Reasons to be Cheerful is third in a Trilogy by the always euridite and clever Nina Stibbe. Having loved the first in this series, I can say the third does not disappoint. They can be read in any order. In this novel, set during the early nineteen eighties, Lizzie Vogel ,the product of a broken marriage, living with Mum, step-Dad, two siblings and a little step brother breaks away from her eccentric home to work in Leicester as a dental assistant. She lives in the flat above the practice. The characters entering this phase of Lizzie's life are fabulous depictions and there follows hilarious incident after hilarious incident enhanced by the 'narrative pace'. Stibbe is a superb raconteur.. Lizzie never quite leaves home. She collects her little brother from nursery bringing her eccentric , very sexy, mother who aspires to be a writer but never manages to get accepted by Faber, her goal. And when Lizzie's boyfriend, a young dental technician with a sad history rents Lizzie's vacant bedroom in her mother's busy house tensions emerge as to what exactly lies between her mother and boyfriend. This story is absolutely wonderful, a snapshot of the period, relating an eighteen year old's concerns on leaving home, embracing a strange occupation - dentistry as dental nurse, her personality quirks and above all Lizzie's lovely soul, generous to a fault and kind. Relationships are at the heart of this book and are exquisitely explored. Stibbe' characterisation is wonderful, funny and engaging. There is much depth about life in this novel. Not wishing to give spoilers, I must say I blinked away sad tears close to the end. Even so there is positivity and a promise of even deeper human bonds . This is a true to life, beautifully written coming of age book in every sense of this phrase.

Having read her memoire as life as a London Nanny, I was pleased to have the opportunity to read this fictional work by Nina Stibbe. Funny, moving and realistic to a degree, this story of Lizzie’s move into the adult world of work and complicated relationships with family, friends and colleagues is extremely readable and enjoyable. Being if a similar age, the 1980s references are spot on. There is just one warning though - it includes detailed accounts of dentistry which some readers may find upsetting!

I loved this book. It’s a lovely easy read, funny and nostalgic (set in the 1980s) I really liked Lizzie the main character.

I’ll definitely look out for more from this author.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion

A sweet book set in the 1980’s around the life and family of Lizzie Vogel who reluctantly moves out of her family home into a flat above the dental clinic she begins work in. Learning to adjust to an independent adult life, Lizzie learns about work, making friends, driving and relationships.

An easy read, in very much an 80’s style story, with highs lows, laugh out loud moments and some cringe worthy dental detail - eek.

Another fantastically funny slice of 80s life from Nina Stibbe.

It’s the early 1980s and our narrator, Lizzie Vogel, is about to leave home for the first time, and move from her village into the city of Leicester. Her first fulltime job is to be a dental assistant working for the awful JP and his partner Tammy. The job comes with its own flat, and initially reluctantly, Lizzie leaves the family home and moves in.

There is much humour to be had early 1980s dentistry, the introduction of McCain’s Oven Chips and freemasonry.

This is the third book in Nina Stibbe’s wonderful series about Lizzie, although they all work as standalone novels. It follows Man at the Helm, when Lizzie and her sister tried to find a partner for their newly single mother, and Paradise Lodge where Lizzie worked part time in an old people’s home while still at school.
The details are as ever pitch perfect. Lizzie devours waiting room copies of magazines like Women’s Own, tells horror stories of meals in Fenwick’s department store, and notes that a local accountant has built his own nuclear bunker, but it’s supposed to be secret.

As well as moving out, Lizzie is dealing with having her first proper boyfriend and learning to drive. But Lizzie moving out has meant that her mother is able to get on with a novel, a science fiction epic that she is determined will be published by Faber & Faber.

Stibbe handles all this masterfully, and it’s the eye to detail that absolutely convinces you.

"Reasons to be Cheerful" is the first book by Nina Stibbe that I've read, It doesn't start anywhere, or go anywhere even, but it was a fun, light, holiday kind of book. The book follows the dramas of Lizzie - it's very much fiction, and by the end I wanted her to exist, with her common sense and straightforwardness, someone simple but layered, kind and principled. Nina has an excellent voice and a very readable style. One to enjoy beside the pool.

Lizzie is a young girl in a small Leicester village 18 and wanting more.
This is almost to me a diary of her life and how she in both ways wants to be her own person yet also wants to fit in with others around her.
She finds a job in a dentists after writing a letter with her mother.
She explains her life as a child of divorced parents who seems accepting of both of their alternate lifestyles and not in the least embarrassed about her mother and her free ways with men.
She meets the dentist, his assistant Tammy and Andy a boy/man she knows from her village and now working making dental implants and such.
This is an 80’s era book full of nostalgia but also highlights the glaring issues with dentists not accepting NHS patients and people’s racism more prevalent then.
A great story not my usual fare but it stood out to me.
A worthy entertaining read for all.

I have to thank Penguin for a free copy of this book in return for an honest review. I really enjoyed this book. Nina Stibbe is a very funny writer and I felt that I had to keep reading this out loud so people could understand why I was laughing.
The story is told by Lizzy Vogel, a young woman who leaves her alcoholic mother, an aspiring writer, and moves into a flat above her new job as a dental nurse.. Her employer is a racist who refuses to accept any Asian patients into his NHS practice. This is set in the 1970s, but even then it was not accepted. By the end of the book Lizzy will have changed this. The description of everyday life is very prosaic, but quite poignant. I was reminded of the Adrian Mole books in style. Lizzy wants to learn to drive, but her grandmother will only pay for her lessons if she agrees to be confirmed, even though she tells the vicar that she is an atheist. The driving instructor is the vicar's wife, and it becomes clear that none of her previous students has ever passed their test, possibly because the instructor falls asleep as soon as they set off. The humour lies in the awkward situations that Lizzy finds herself in, and somehow you feel that some of this is drawn from real life.
If you want something to brighten up your day, this may just hit the spot. If you remember the 1970s you will probably recognise some of the references, but even if you are younger you will appreciate the bizarre situations.
#ReasonsToBeCheerful #NetGalley

"'Telephone Bill Turner nurse. Tell him to pop down and get this root out for me'. I looked at the clock. I hadn't time to wait for Bill. 'Sit down,' I said, pulling the Medi Light across." So says teenage dental nurse (unqualified) Lizzie Vogel.

At times laugh out loud funny, with a lively direct writing style. Set in 80s Leicester, this really is a book for fans of Sue Townsend.

Gosh this was a funny book. I liked it much better than Adrian Mole for those that were comparing it. Quirky, and fairly eccentric mother, horrendous boss and an average sort of boyfriend who is either using the laundry or watching telly... nothing much else... make Lizzie doubt herself and consider (and reconsider) her life choices a fair bit. The pace is great as it is thoroughly entertaining as she weaves through the various situations and remains fairly stoic throughout.

Would happily recommend this book. Thank you for the chance to read NetGalley and Penguin books.

This book is set in an area I know well and that made the book interesting to me. I found it hard to get into at first but then got caught along with the main characters. I did find the mother a strange one in the beginning but warmed to her as the book went along as she helped her daughter . I did not understand her reasons for wanting her to leave home but got the sense in the end that a push into the world was needed. JP was a difficult character to judge but we have all met men like that and the book progressed to make me feel a little sorry for him. A different type of book to what I usually read and will look for this type of family based book again. An enjoyable read.

I was delighted to receive the ARC of this latest novel by Nina Stibbe. I'd read and enjoyed her semi autobiographical work before. This latest continues with the story of Lizzy Vogel whose upbringing was to say the least, unconventional. By the time of this novel, Lizzy's mother is a little more stable than before, no longer drinking, but still behaving erratically. Lizzy has landed a job with one of the most unpleasant dentists ever to grace the pages of a novel though to be honest, I don't think dentistry has often come up in fiction. She has a sort of on-off relationship with another weirdo, Andy and generally not very much happens. She makes good observations about the time. It's set at the beginning of the Thatcher period and what stood out for me were the references to the feat of nuclear war at the time. Thatcher and Reagan together made a dangerous pair and I will remember the atmosphere of trepidation about the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Not only are her observations about the time spot on, they are also very funny in places. However the book lacked something for me. As mentioned already, nothing very much happens (until near the end) and I think there is s lack of structure. It just seems to be a series of unrelated events. Every character is unrelentingly quirky. From Lizzy who carries out illegal dentistry to the dentist who insists on his nurse holding his cigarette for him, to Lizzy's boyfriend Andy who seems to prefer to hang out with her mother, they all have their quirks. To be honest by the end I was yearning for someone a little less off beat. It's enjoyable enough though. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I loved this book - I had no expectations about it at all but found myself laughing out loud at the antics Lizzie, her colleagues and her family. Even though this was set in the past, it was really easy to relate to and it felt like you were interacting with friends. I would highly recommend this book

Nina Stibbe continues to make readers smile and chuckle with Reasons to be Cheerful. Following on from the 2016 novel Paradise Lodge, here we see Lizzie Benson, a little older and wiser, working for JP Wintergreen, a dentist, and his partner, Tammy. What follows is a largely amusing journey, along with some definite pathos - something that Stibbe is also adept at.

Like Man at the Helm and Paradise Lodge, Nina Stibbe’s true skill lies with creating a world that is alien, in many ways, to those born in the late 80s and 90s - but is particularly reminiscent for those who can remember cultural references from the 70s; the clothes people wore; and, the things people used to say. All extremely funny, if not a little formulaic at times.

I enjoyed this - and for someone whose partner is a dentist, it made me cringe even more. Hopefully, there aren’t inept, unsympathetic practitioners like JP anymore, particularly ones too lazy to hold their own cigarettes and summoning his nurse to help with us coffee break puffing.

I really enjoyed Reasons to be Cheerful and reading this, in our often dark and turbulent times, is a perfect medicine for bringing some smiles, although Stibbe keeps a human element at the forefront, too.

Lizzie is eighteen, keen to escape her slightly eccentric family and yet nervous about where her life may go. When she gets offered a job as a dentist's assistant, a job that comes with the flat above the surgery, it seems time to leave the family home and start supporting herself. It is 1980s Leicester and Lizzie is about to be thrown into a story of love, friendship, growing up, driving lessons and amateur dentistry.

This story fits with Nina Stibbe's other novels about the quirky Vogel family. However, I really don't think I have read them in the right order, not that this seems to matter too much. Lizzie is an engaging and naive narrator and her story is funny and charming. I've seen comparisons made between Stibbe and the late, great Sue Townsend - I can certainly understand this, as Lizzie has a touch of the innocence and humour that made Adrian Mole so popular, plus a wonderful cast of keenly-observed eccentrics around her.

This novel is at its best when it describes Lizzie navigating her everyday life - her interactions with her cantankerous dentist boss, her rather free-spirited mother, her snoozy driving instructor. I felt it was less successful when it got more serious, but that might be my personal taste - I wanted it to be happy and upbeat throughout.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this novel to those who enjoy humorous fiction in the vein of Adrian Mole - a naive protagonist adrift in an adult world that is hard to navigate. Lizzie is a sweet and charming narrator and you will want to read more of her story.

Reasons to be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe

This is a story about an eighteen year old young woman leaving her childhood home to embark on an independent life and a career quite improbably as a dental technician assisting an eccentric dentist in Leeds. Pretty much everyone in the story is somewhat eccentric or quirky in their own way - particularly her mother, an ex-alcoholic aspiring to be a writer, who suffers from depression and has had numerous, messy relationships.

It's an appealing and humorous read and one that I very much enjoyed. I do feel though as if I've encountered quite a slew of eccentric mothers in my recent reading - see, for example, The Queen of Bloody Everything, which I also enjoyed.

The story ambles along with a rather flat romance and various characters evolving a little as we go. Ultimately I'm not sure that I got much out of the story and lacked real curiosity about the characters.

Ultimately what makes this book worth reading is the humour - the observation and superb physical descriptions of the characters, the irony and the laugh out loud moments. It's a positive and heart warming experience reading Reasons to be Cheerful and it's actually quite compelling on subjects such as the importance in tackling mental health issues of caring for others and feeling that you've done something worthwhile even heroic in a modest way. This is a great book to read if you're feeling a little down.