Since last week, we’ve been talking about what constitutes a comfort read. Anything you think of as a comfort read qualifies. Is it a book you reread? A lot of people don’t reread because there are too many new books out there. Is it a genre you turn to, short stories, essays, fantasy? Is there an author or a setting you like to read when the world is upside down? Or, what jumpstarts your reading when nothing seems to interest you? A new cookbook? A book about Paris? A mystery in a favorite series? I think a lot of people turned to fantasy in the last year or so to escape into another world. The current state of the world and our politics caused a number of us to want to turn off the news and read something that brings warmth and joy. You can add any books or genres you want to this topic. I’m just curious. I’ll start.
It seems my favorite comfort reads are essays. I have two books that I turn to again and again. I can read just an essay or two, and I don’t have to read an entire book or series. The first is my all-time favorite book. It’s called A Thread of Blue Denim by Patricia Penton Leimbach. I think it’s out-of-print, but you can find copies online.
There are so many reasons I love this collection. My aunt gave me a signed copy of the book. Patricia Leimbach was the first author who ever spoke at a library program when I invited her. She’s from the area close to where I grew up so I recognize the places she talks about in her essays. Leimbach married a farmer, and there were farmers on both sides of my family, so I recognize the work she talks about, the life. I used her essays when I did Readers’ Theater in Florida, including her piece “Literary Landscapes”. That piece still makes me cry because it tells my story as a girl who read. Many of Leimbach’s pieces were written for journals that catered to farm wives, and she talks about a world that doesn’t exist as much as it did in the past. But, it’s a past that draws me back, and I read those pages with a love of a life that my grandmothers lived, and my mom did for a short time.
Several months after my husband died, I picked up a book called God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life’s Little Detours by Regina Brett. Brett and I were at Kent State at the same time. We’re the same age, but she had a much harder life than I did.
Brett says when she turned 45, she reflected on all life had taught here. When she turned 50, she wrote about the lessons she’d learned in life; becoming a single parent, battling cancer, making peace with her difficult childhood. She wrote them in her column in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, one of the most popular columns ever published there. Some of those lessons didn’t apply to me, but as a new widow in my fifties, some of those lessons hit home. I don’t turn to this as often as I pick up A Thread of Blue Denim, but the book still means a lot.
I own copies of both of these books, and I pick them up when I can’t get into anything else, or I want a short nostalgic piece. However, over the years, I’ve turned to others. The first is a funny story. I used to say my goal in life was to be Director of my hometown library. A year after grad school, I was bored with my first job, and looking for another one. The directorship of my hometown library came open just at that time. I applied and waited. However, I wanted that job so much that I couldn’t concentrate on books. I found something I could read, though, that helped me escape. I read Nancy Drew mysteries.
Nancy Drew mysteries were the only books that I could use to escape as I waited. And, I waited quite a long time because the library board president had a son getting married. In all the hubbub around that, she lost my application. Fortunately, she eventually found it, and I got my dream job. Later, when people asked me what my goal was, I said I didn’t have any. I achieved it when I was twenty-two. I became Director of the Huron Public Library.
There was a time this year when I couldn’t read anything. I finally picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I own the whole series, so it was easy to pick one up and escape all the politics, news, and worry.
My reading has changed over the years. Some of it is due to publishing trends. I don’t read as many traditional mysteries, but they’re not publishing as many. There are a lot more thrillers and psychological suspense, and I’m not a fan of either. I won’t read women and children in jeopardy books. I love police procedurals. I have authors I love such as Sarah Addison Allen and Barbara O’Neal who both write magical realism. I find literary fiction too deep, often too dark and depressing for my taste. I can escape into some fantasy worlds. I read some romance. Those are escapes for me.
Comfort reads to me are often ones that are escapes, whether escapes into the familiar, such as essays, or escape into a world that promises an eventual happy ending or a satisfying one. I love Nora Roberts’ trilogies and her J.D. Robb books with satisfying endings. Even my police procedurals usually end with good triumphing over evil. That’s what I want in a comfort read.
What about you? I think I left this wide open for you to mention your own comfort reads. What do you find satisfying? Where do you escape?
When I can’t really concentrate, but need to read, I usually go with some sort of comic strip collection. I have a sizable collection from the well known, like Calvin and Hobbes and Garfield, to ones like Captain Ecology, which I think was only in a kids’ magazine.
Whenever I see one I don’t have, I get it if I can.
Too bad the art form seems to be quickly dying along with the newspapers that used to print them.
It is a shame, Glen. There are some comic strips I’ve loved over the years. I didn’t always get Calvin and Hobbes, but I absolutely loved Calvin and those snowmen. I was the right age for Cathy. The comics in my Mom’s paper are pitiful, but The Columbus Dispatch still has a whole section for them. My sister has a number of collections, too. I used to get a number of them at the library, including Garfield. I liked the ones that made me laugh. I get those as comfort reads.
I used to read Doonesbury. I had a lot of his collections at one point. We even saw the Broadway musical adaptation. Jackie liked Cathy. I love Calvin & Hobbes. These days I only look at The Far Side.
There used to be so many good ones, Jeff.
One of my favourite comic strips is ‘Pearls Before Swine’. Love that one and have from the very beginning.
That’s my sister, Linda’s, favorite one, Lindy. She’ll send me those comics now and then. It’s terrific!
Love Calvin and Hobbes.
I assume you are familiar with Strange Planet. If not, you really need to fix that. It is so much fun.
I’ve never even heard of Strange Planet, Mark. I’l have to look for it.
Oh yes Glen, I turn to Posy Simmonds Mrs Weber cartoons. These were very long running features in The Guardian. They satirise North London (mostly) left wing middle class life – ie the lives of the paper’s core readership. They’re deadly accurate and very very funny.
Darn, Rosemary. I wish we had universal coverage of comics. But, I might not get the satire anyways. (Once I finish answering these, I’ll post your comments!)
I miss reading the comics in the paper but we stopped getting the local paper years ago. Two of my favorites were Calvin and Hobbes and Zits. I also used to like Spy VS Spy from Mad Magazine.
They don’t even deliver the local newspaper in my neighborhood, Sandy! I get it online, but I seldom read it that way.
As I said before – and just like Jeff – I seldom re-read books. There are just too many shiny new ones to read, and the older I get the less time there will be left for me to read all of those!
Having said that, I will always love P.G. Wodehouse’s ‘JEEVES and WOOSTER’ books, whether it’s one of the stories or one of the novels. The first was written in 1916, I think.
They are set in the decade between 1920 – 1930 in ‘pre-WWll upperclass society’. The main character is Bertie Wooster, one of the idle rich; not the most intelligent man that ever lived, but basically good at heart. A couple of quotes by Bertie:
“I hadn’t the heart to touch my breakfast. I told Jeeves to drink it himself.”
Or “For a moment I was under the impression that my visitor’s emotion was due to his having found me at this advanced hour in pyjamas and a dressing gown, a costume which, if worn at three o’clock in the afternoon, is always liable to start a train of thought.”
The stories take place either in Bertie’s flat in London, or at The Drones Club of which he is a member, or at some acquaintance or other’s country home. And always there is the
long-suffering, oh so proper Jeeves, Bertie’s butler/valet who never fails to save the day.
“There was a sound in the background like a distant sheep coughing gently on a mountainside. Jeeves sailing into action.”
They are just delightful! Lighthearted, so funny, sometimes (often?) completely absurd, but the stories, the language, the writing, the madcap shenanigans are the best escapist reading ever. I no sooner have to hear the names Honoria Glossop, Madeline Bassett, Aunt Dahlia, Aunt Agatha than I am instantly transported. These books definitely count as comfort reads for me, and can always be relied on to cheer me up.
I asked David what he would classify as comfort reads for him and he said THE HOBBIT, as well as all the NERO WOLFE books, most of which he read throughout his teenage years. Many read-through-the-night sessions.
Lindy, Hooray for David, who considers the NERO WOLFE books comfort reads. That is at the top of my list.
And you have talked me into reading some of the JEEVES AND WOOSTER books by Wodehouse. Can you believe I have never read anything by Wodehouse?
Have you heard of the Anty Boisjoly Mysteries by PJ Fitzsimmons? They are described at Wodehouse with more dead bodies. At times, they can be a bit too clever, but overall, I find them fun.
Oh, I agree with David, Lindy, about both The Hobbit and Nero Wolfe. I want a second breakfast. And, I always identified with the descriptions of hobbits. Short, and they enjoy the comforts of home. I can reread that opening chapter, even if I don’t read anything else in the book, and feel comfort again. I never read Wodehouse either. I love that you suggested that as a comfort read!
When I need a comfort read, I like to read about familiar characters in series. Top choices are the NERO WOLFE series by Rex Stout (all would be rereads) or the HERCULE POIROT or the MISS MARPLE series by Agatha Christie. The BERNARD SAMSON series by Len Deighton, a spy series set during the Cold War, is also a delight.
Books about books and books about cats also work well for me when I need a comfort book.
Here are some recent books I read in the last year that were comfort books for me:
I SEE YOU’VE CALLED IN DEAD by John Kenney
THE BACKYARD BIRD CHRONICLES by Amy Tan
GOING TO BEAUTIFUL by Anthony Bidulka
ANXIOUS PEOPLE by Fredrik Backman
THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB by Karen Joy Fowler
THE LONELY HEARTS BOOK CLUB by Lucy Gilmore
I agree, Tracy. I love books with familiar characters. And, I’ve been reading a lot of books about books and bookstores in the last year or so. Bookstores mean comfort much more than books about libraries, strangely enough.
I don’t reread as much as I’d like to. So many books I haven’t read and reviewed yet. And if I reread something, then I have to find something else to review for my blog.
(Someday, I’m doing to take a break from my blog and enjoy a little more freedom, turning it into a hobby again. But that’s a different discussion.)
The first books that popped into my head when you first announced this topic is the Trixie Belden series. A kids mystery series, I just love the world the character inhabit. And they felt so real when I read about them as a teen. Plus, I have so many friends I’ve made because of how much we all love the series.
Another choice is the Mrs. Pollifax series. I did steal my internet user name, Carstairs, from the series. For those who aren’t familiar with it, Mrs. Pollifax is a widow, grandmother, garden club member, and part time CIA agent. The books are light and fun (with a couple of exceptions in the middle). You can predict some thing, yet you can’t put the book down. And Mrs. Pollifax will make you smile if not laugh.
That is a different subject, Mark. But, I found some freedom when I stopped reviewing books for Library Journal. I always felt as if I was on deadline, and had to read those books rather than ones I wanted to read. I get it.
For you, it was Trixie Belden. Nancy Drew for me. Those books from childhood certainly evoke strong memories.
I wondered why Carstairs!
For me Mark nailed it when he said he rereads books where he loves the world the characters inhabit. I read lots of new to me books in various genres but they can often be dark or sad. So often lately the world news seems so dark and sad and I need a gentle book to read before bed otherwise I have trouble falling asleep. For pure escapism I love the book series written by Miss Read. There are 2 main series Thrush Green and Fairacre. They remind me somewhat of the Mitford books. You just want to live in the towns and be friends with these people. Books really can be a lifeline.
Also, a huge thank you to Kim and a few other commenters for recommending Elizabeth Goudge. I just finished Pilgram’s Inn and found it a great comfort read.
Susan, I haven’t posted Rosemary’s piece yet, but she mentions the Miss Read books, too. I loved those books. I haven’t read any in years, but I was talking with a friend about them just a few weeks ago. Yes, they evoke the same atmosphere and feeling as the Mitford books, don’t they?
Who needs dark and depressing right now? I think a lot of us are looking for gentle and kind books.
Lesa, thanks for sharing that. It was great. I’ll read the other comments as soon as I finish mine. I’ve asked Jackie about this ever since the topic of “comfort reads” came up. She has needed a lot more of them lately, with what is going on in the world. One she mentioned matched yours – Nora Roberts trilogies. She is also a particular fan of her MacGregors series. She also mentioned Linda Lael Miller’s (modern) cowboy series, whether set in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado or Arizona. Mostly now, however, she is reading a new generation of romance-related authors, like Emily Henry, Ashley Poston, Abby Jimenez, Carley Fortune, Ali Hazelwood. She doesn’t reread as a rule, unless she is picking up a new series book and needs to refresh her memory about what happened in the last one, as with the last of the Lost Brides trilogy or, currently, the Julia Spencer-Fleming.
I used to find comfort in very long books, whether the book itself could be called “comfy” reading or not – The Count of Monte Cristo was my first. James Clavell’s books set in Japan, Shogun most of all but Tai-Pan and Nobel House too, to a lesser degree. Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove. Several James Michener books, including Hawaii and The Source. Yes, Stephen King’s post-Apocalyptic The Stand, one of the few I’ve read twice, the second time when he released the edition with the added material cut from the first release.
I also like to sink into a series, a trilogy or longer. One I remember was the R. F. Delderfield series starting with God is an Englishman, about the Swann family in 19th Century England. Then there is George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman series. And even though it really isn’t comfort reading per se, I raced through the 12 volumes of Anthony Powell’s A Dance To The Music of Time one after the other in 1975, I believe. The Harry Potter series is another, and I did reread the first two when the third one came out.
These days I’m not finding real comfort reads the way I did in the past. I do start each day with at least one short story, but that’s different for me. I also used to read a lot of books on Hollywood, and on baseball history, as well as literary biographies. I’d say Martin Walker’s Bruno series is as close to a “comfort read” as you can get these days.
Tell Jackie I loved the MacGregor series, Jeff, just loved it. And, she reads a lot of the same romance writers I do or that Linda does. I get it.
R.F. Delderfield! Oh, I loved those books. Probably the last time I read really big books. I also read a historical series set in the U.S. by Elswyth Thane. I read those in the early 70s, at the same time my mother and grandmother read them. I think they came out in the early 50s.
I’m glad you thought about it a little, and came up with the books that used to make you comfortable, Jeff. I know you had some doubts when I first mentioned the topic.
While making my list, I realized that all my favorite comfort reads have a few things in common: there is a strong element of humor, fun dialogue and often quirky characters.
Mysteries
-Phoebe Atwood Taylor
-Charlotte McLeod
-Donna Andrew’s
-Anne George
My other main comfort reads were mostly found on the Dean Street Furrowed Middlebrow imprint, 20th century women’s fiction from authors who had been mostly discounted or forgotten.
-DE Stevenson
-Anna Buchan-O Douglas
-Molly Clavering
I also periodically reread Georgette Heyer’s regency romances for her unforgettable charac
We knew Charlotte McLeod from various mystery conventions, and she was a lovely woman, although you’d never see her as like the crazy Peter Shandy series.
I loved the Peter Shandy books. Rest You Merry still makes me smile.
Eileen, I had never heard of the Dean Street books until a friend mentioned them recently. I like that they publish female authors who are mostly forgotten.
It’s kind of fun to analyze your own reading interests, isn’t it? I like to know what books appeal to me. It helps me select books better.
When I think about the books I go back to when I can’t get into anything new or just need something old and familiar to read I realize that all but one were recommended by my mom. And I’ve gone through multiple copies of most of them over the years.
Smoky by Will James is the story of a cowhorse and the life he leads after being stolen from the ranch he was born on. This is the only one where I still have my original hardcover. It still has paint splatters on it from when my dad painted my room.
Freckles by Gene Stratton-Porter is about an orphan who gets a job guarding the timber in The Limberlost Swamp.
The Cowboy and The Cossack by Claire Huffaker. A group of cowboys are hired to deliver a shipload of cattle to Russia.
Dracula is the only one my mom didn’t recommend. I picked up a copy in 5th grade at the Scholastic book fair and I’ve had several copies since then.
Sandy, I think that’s wonderful that your mother recommended most of your comfort reads. The books are now a connection to her. One of my favorite books from childhood is Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan. Wonderful book; lousy movie. As you said, it was a pickup from Scholastic. When I brought it home, my mother said she read and loved it as a child. My sisters and I loved it. Linda’s kids did, too. So, it worked for three generations in my family.
What a timely post, Lesa. For some reason, I don’t often read books of essays, but the ones you mentioned sound really wonderful. I might have to check out Brett’s book. I guess I tend to turn to mysteries for comfort. It’s probably because that’s what I grew up reading, but also because I know there will usually be some restoration of justice at the end of the book. Also, I think crime fiction helps me when I’m trying to figure out why people in real life do things that I find morally objectionable. In books, we get a clear sense of motive. In general, I think I find fiction comforting because it tends to make sense, even when life doesn’t.
Thank you, Kate. I agree about mysteries and the restoration of justice. Ellery Queen did one subseries set outside New York. I hated those books because they were never resolved satisfactorily. There was no justice at the end of them. I enjoyed his mysteries set in New York, but I want to be satisfied that good triumphs at the end. It certainly doesn’t do that in the real world!
Rosemary is off to Dundee this morning, but she was eager to participate. She has a wonderful list of comfort reads. I know you’re going to want to see these.
Comfort reading is very important to me, though what I find comforting will depend, at least in part, on why I need comfort. A book still needs to be well written, and I personally don’t enjoy self-help books, though I know they work for some people, so I usually turn to fiction, old favourites, some children’s books, sometimes even cookery books with narrative.
Here are some I treasure;
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS BY Kenneth Grahame. I love this gentle – but eventful – tale of Mole, Ratty, Toad and Badger, and especially The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, in which the baby otter is lost and found. I know some people really don’t like that chapter, but I can happily suspend disbelief even further to enjoy this little vignette. I didn’t read this book as a child; when I discovered it I was in my 20s and not very happy with life; it cheered me up no end, and still does.
THE FAMILY FROM ONE END STREET (& sequels) by Eve Garnett. The Ruggles family live in 1930s Otford-on the-Ouse (actually Lewes), on the south coast, and these wonderful books are about their day-to-day joys and tribulations. Ma takes in washing, Pa is a dustman, and Kate, the second of seven children is a dreamer with romantic ideas. These are (usually) realistic snapshots of working class lives, full of humour, written for children but loved by many adults. The books have never been out of print since they were published, the first in 1937.
THE FAIRACRE AND THRUSH GREEN SERIES by Miss Read. Some people look down on these books and see them as twee and unrealistic, but I wonder if they have actually read any, because Miss Read does not shy away from the problems of village life. Nevertheless, the stories are comforting to me in that, although bad things do happen from time to time, most of them work out in the end, and everything is contained within a small, largely cohesive, community.
THE VINYL CAFÉ books by Stuart McLean. These books came, I think, from Stuart McLean’s CBC radio show; they are gentle stories of family life in Toronto, often very funny but never cruel. I find their celebration of the small things in life very reassuring; every character is a fundamentally decent human being. Another Canadian author whose books I often turn to is Bill Richardson; his BACHELOR BROTHERS’ BED & BREAKFAST is really somewhat similar to the Vinyl Café books, but set on an idyllic island in Vancouver Bay.
THE FORTNIGHT IN SEPTEMBER by RC Sherriff. I’m sure I’ve written about this one before; it’s the story of one ordinary family’s summer holiday in 1930s England. Each year they pack their suitcases, take the budgerigar round to the neighbours, board the train at Clapham Junction and decamp to a somewhat shabby boarding house in Bognor Regis. Sherriff shows us the inner life of each family member, their worries and hopes, their dreams. The book is also a slice of social history, with so many little details; our concept of holidays has changed so much since then. Sherriff wrote this book to comfort troops nostalgic for home life; I still find it comforting almost a hundred years later.
84 CHARING CROSS ROAD by Helene Hanff. Most people probably know this short memoir, consisting of letters between the NYC-based writer Helene Hanff and Frank Doel, a buyer at a specialist book shop in London, sent between 1949 and 1970. It’s a charming record of a long friendship based on books but extending to many other aspects of life.
LIGHT A PENNY CANDLE by Maeve Binchy. Binchy wrote many good novels, almost all of them stories of family, friendship, life and love in Ireland. Light a Penny Candle was her first, published in 1982. It’s about two girls, one an Irish farmer’s daughter, the other the only child of an English widow, who meet first as children, when Elizabeth is sent to stay with Aisling’s family to escape the blitz. The novel follows them over the next twenty years. I first read this book shortly after my own first stay with a large farming family in County Waterford. I too was the shy only child of a widowed mother, living in the London suburbs. Although both good and bad things happen over the course of the book, I loved, and still love, Binchy’s warm and accessible style and her understanding of people of all types and backgrounds.
EXCELLENT WOMEN, A GLASS OF BLESSINGS, JANE AND PRUDENCE, SOME TAME GAZELLE by Barbara Pym. I couldn’t possibly omit my favourite Pym novels from this list; they are witty, well observed, and – like so many of my comfort books – an observation, and a celebration, of the small things that make up our daily lives. I re-read Excellent Women yet again while my mother was dying; I’ve also re-read the others many, many times. You either like Barbara Pym or you don’t, but if you do her books are supremely comforting in times of need.
AT HOME IN MITFORD by Jan Karon. I’ve only just started reading the Mitford books and I’m already hooked.
THE PURSUIT OF LOVE and LOVE IN A COLD CLIMATE by Nancy Mitford. Mitford based these two immensely popular books on her own childhood and later life. As one of the Mitford sisters, she grew up in a huge old house with her eccentric parents and six siblings; like many aristocratic families, they lived in a kind of posh poverty – there was always money for horses, balls, shoots, parties, staff etc but nothing was ever spent on home comforts and none of the girls was ever educated (their father thought education ruined women, so the only one who went to school – Eton, of course – was their brother Tom.) Nancy immortalized this strange upbringing in her funny, witty books, which remain great reads (although be warned – I do see them as comfort reading, but at the end of the second one there’s a sudden shock that comes right out of the blue.)
I also recommend India Knight’s DARLING, which transposes the stories to modern day England; I didn’t think anyone could pull this off, but Knight has and Darling is a great read.
THE CAZALET CHRONICLES by Elizabeth Jane Howard. This series tells the story of the upper class Cazalet family, who live mainly in big houses in London and a country estate in Sussex. It’s a family saga played out over the war years and beyond, and a fascinating study of social change – but most importantly it’s a gripping story with lots of great characters. Births, deaths, marriages, they’re all there, but despite there being as many downs as ups, I still find these books reassuring (even if I do get annoyed by the sense of entitlement.)
THE MRS MALORY MYSTERIES by Hazel Holt. Holt was a great friend of Barbara Pym’s for many years, and there’s a certain amount of Pym style in these books. Sheila Malory, a widow somewhat reluctantly enmeshed in Good Works, helps to solve a variety of mysterious deaths – but of course what I enjoy most about the books is their observation of people in a small country town; Sheila has a marvellously dry wit. I also enjoy hearing about her life with her family, especially her rather precocious granddaughter, and her Siamese cat and spaniel. I suppose these would be classed as cosies, but to me they’re much more than that.
A REDBIRD CHRISTMAS by Fannie Flagg. This is the only one of Flagg’s books that I’ve read, and I enjoyed it very much. The characters really come alive in this story about one man’s redemption in the small community of Lost River; yes, it is an unlikely story, but so what? It’s a great plot with some wonderful details about life in rural Alabama. The characters are well drawn too. This is a book to which I’d definitely return when needing comfort.
THE CHARLES PARIS MYSTERIES and THE FETHERING MYSTERIES by Simon Brett. Brett is the master of the cosy but well written story; these books are full of wit and brilliant character observations, combined with good plots. For me they’re both comforting and entertaining, and I’m not surprised that Brett has received so many awards, including an OBE for services to literature.
Rosemary mentioned a couple favorites, the Miss Read books and 84, Charing Cross Road. The second book was one I loved, an epistolary novel. For some reason, I’m drawn to them, and I blame that book because it was the first of its kind that I read. And, I loved the movie so much that I burned my arm with an iron while watching it. Forgot what I was doing and ran that iron right over my arm. It was worth it! What a cast! Anne Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins, Judi Dench, Mercedes Ruehl, and Jean De Baer. Just excellent. Makes me want to go back and watch it again.