Ship of Fools: Literary comfort food

Thread: Literary comfort food Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by la vie en rouge (# 10688) on :

Wanted: unchallenging, uncomplicated reading material of a heart-warming nature, liable to promote warm fuzzy feelings of happiness.

I am thinking The Wind in the Willows and The House at Pooh Corner.

Suggestions?

Posted by HCH (# 14313) on :

"The Throme of the Erril of Sherril" by Patricia McKillip"

Posted by Helen-Eva (# 15025) on :

P.G.Wodehouse books? Things always come out right for Jeeves and Wooster.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by la vie en rouge:
I am thinking The Wind in the Willows and The House at Pooh Corner.

Totally agree with "The Wind in the Willows".

How about "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency"? It has a lovely sunny feel to it, and the Precious Ramotswe books always perk me up. I'd describe them as heartwarming.

"Lark Rise to Candleford" by Flora Thompson (forget the TV series, this is simply a beautiful, enjoyable pastoral autobiography) and "A Country Child" by Alison Uttley are wonderfully rich, very refreshing, and leave you - well, me, anyway - wanting more.

Thanks for starting this thread. I'll note suggestions with interest.

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

Following with a bit more Milne:

When We Were Very Young.

and how about:

Little Lord Fauntleroy ?

Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :

Normally I like recommending Thomas Hardy and H.P. Lovecraft, but I don't they fit your criteria.

How about anything by Dame Barbara Cartland or Jules Verne?

You could also try Love in the Time of Cholera.

Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :

Marley and Me? Big, fuzzy, goofy dogs are always winners.

Any old anthologies of columns by Erma Bombeck: life for an American housewife, homey and hilarious. [Cool]

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

Comfort reads for me involve plot, so that I can fall into the story like a well and not come out. Detective novels, always good. The Curse of Chalion, LOTR, Austen, Heyer, Forrester.

Here is an entire blog post discussing Comfort Reads, with masses of recommendations.

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
Marley and Me? Big, fuzzy, goofy dogs are always winners.

Any old anthologies of columns by Erma Bombeck: life for an American housewife, homey and hilarious.

Dog books are only winners when they end happily. I can't bring myself to read Marley and Me.
[Frown]

Many years ago I was a fan of Erma Bombeck, but she grew stale very rapidly (and now her themes are very dated).

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Helen-Eva:
P.G.Wodehouse books? Things always come out right for Jeeves and Wooster.

Many years ago I was dumped by my first serious boyfriend and was heartbroken. The one thing he did for which I will always be grateful was introducing me to PGW. His books -- which always work out in the end despite seeming impossibilities -- helped me through much heartbreak when I couldn't concentrate on anything heavier.

Posted by Hedgehog (# 14125) on :

For joy of reading, I'm fond of Michael Ende's The Neverending Story provided that you can get it in the proper red and green ink.

Less demanding and also fun, there is Ende's The Night of Wishes.

But your initial instincts are good. The House at Pooh Corner is an excellent choice.

Posted by Polly Plummer (# 13354) on :

I always find the Brother Cadfael books very soothing. You know that the baddies will get their comeuppance, the young couple will be brought together to live happily ever after, and the Benedictine way of life will continue untroubled.

Posted by Carex (# 9643) on :

Indeed, Brother Cadfael jumped to my mind as well as I read through the other recommendations, due in part, I'm sure, to the calm of the Benedictine tradition and the general simplicity of life in that era.

But I'm also fond of Pooh, particularly when read aloud with different people sharing the voices. I was surprised how popular this turned out to be with the rest of the crew in a logging camp in Alaska.

I'd also suggest Shel Silverstein's books of poetry, such as Where the Sidewalk Ends. Silly and whimsical.

Posted by Nicolemr (# 28) on :

I agree with Brenda Clough about detective novels. The ones where you know everything comes out all right at the end, not the suspense type where something awful might happen.

When I was pregnant I found I could not read anything that didn't have a happy ending. I subsisted on a diet of Mary Stewart romances.

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

Agree totally about Brother Caedfel.

A short book, but good for picking up and opening to random pages for a pleasant (and educational) read:

'London Has a Garden' by Clemence Dane. A history of Covent Garden and its environs from the beginnings of London through all the twists and turns until (IIRC) the mid 1950s. Packed with the author's personal history and the lives of the great and the humble whose lives touched/were touched by this bit of real estate.

And for all that, it's light reading!

Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :

The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi. I have read it many times and will read it again.

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Nicolemr:
I agree with Brenda Clough about detective novels. The ones where you know everything comes out all right at the end, not the suspense type where something awful might happen.

Yes! I think that's why I'm addicted to them, especially the "cozies." I read them before I go to bed, and then the problem-solving part of my brain is engaged in trying to solve a problem that doesn't matter in real life, rather than stuff that might keep me awake.

quote:
Originally posted by Stercus Tauri:
The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi. I have read it many times and will read it again.

Yes, to these as well! I discovered Don Camillo when I was about 11 years old (I think one of the chapters was included in my Sunday School book). I haven't read them in a while, and need to do so soon.

Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :

When covered up with w*rk and other stresses, one of the things that cheered me up was reading a Cat Who murder mystery. Lilian Jackson Braun's style changed (of course!) as she aged, and I preferred the middle and later books, except maybe the last one or two. Even so, the books are easy reads and this cat lover enjoyed reading about Koko and YumYum.

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Stercus Tauri:
The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi. I have read it many times and will read it again.

I first read these in my early teens with no idea that I was mispronouncing many names in them. Still think of the characters by those names as I called them, even though I now know better. I haven't thought of them for years, but have read them many times..

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

"The Secret Garden" (FH Burnett), the Pippi Longstocking books (Astrid Lindgren), "The Five Children & It" (E. Nesbit). Possibly the early Anne of Green Gables books, if you can cope with *some* bad events.

"Cozy", non-bloody mysteries: Nancy Atherton's Aunt Dimity series. Probably best to start with the first one--"Aunt Dimity's Death"--because it sets the tone for the series.

Dorothea Benton Frank's slice-of-life "Low Country" novels have some bad events within a cozy atmosphere; but the arc of the story is always towards growing, healing, making things better, and finding a creative way to get on with life. I've only read a few, but I highly recommend "Pawley's Island".

Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :

I've returned repeatedly to Robertson Davies' books. They are intertwined trilogies with a curious hidden reality behind. The Deptford trilogy has a boy throwing a snowball with a stone in it at a second, who ducks out of the way, such that it hits a woman who gives birth suddenly. One book is about the snowball thrower, another about the ducker, a third about the boy born that night. I particularly like The Manticore which has one of them in Switzerland getting Jungian analysis. Characters reappear in subsequent series. The Cunning Man from the unfinished final set is about a doctor set up in a church glebe house, doctoring the parishioners in an Anglo-Cath Toronto church. Transported to real people in an old world of hidden realities and connexions. Though perhaps Canadian authors are off the radar....

Posted by cliffdweller (# 13338) on :

Christopher Moore's books always take me out of whatever circumstances I find myself. He creates such engaging characters and such deeply woven communities that suck me in. Then, of course, halfway in something truly demented and weirdly wonderful will happen that turns everything on it's head. I'm always sorry when the story is over. Theonerds should of course begin with Lamb (altho the preachers will experience frustration that the keen spiritual insights would be so much more quoteable to tender ears if the context weren't so, well, again, demented). Then once you've gotten that out of your system, you can move on to the truly hardcore twisted stuff.

Posted by Patdys (# 9397) on :

Stardust by Neil Gaiman.
The Princess Bride by William Goldman.

Beautiful, heart warming and makes you glad to be alive.

Drops the mike.

Posted by Cathscats (# 17827) on :

Happy, light, profound and always a good read: "Theophilus North" by Thornton Wilder.

Posted by Jane R (# 331) on :

Howl's Moving Castle and The House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones.

Actually, just about anything by Diana Wynne Jones except for her very early books (eg Dogsbody, Wilkins' Tooth).

Posted by Sarasa (# 12271) on :

Patricia Wentworth's detective stories, Nancy Mitford's books, E.Nesbit and Diana Wynne Jones, specially The Crown of Dalemark all do it for me.

Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :

Your mention of Nancy Mitford has stirred a reminder in my head. Not of her, but of one of her contemporaries: Stella Gibbons. In particular, her finest work, Cold Comfort Farm.

Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :

Dorothy Sayers, Georgette Heyer, the Cadfaels and children's books by Marjorie Phillips. In times of deepest stress, the Chalet School series by Elinor Brent-Dyer. There's nothing like a safe and structured world where things end happily, at least for most.

Jill Paton Walsh's continuation of the Whimsey books are also most satisfactory.

Posted by betjemaniac (# 17618) on :

Not sure I'd describe Cold Comfort Farm as light and heart warming!

However, John Hadfield's immortal Love on a Branch Line, HE Bates' Larkin books (Darling Buds of May), Somerville & Ross' Irish RM stories, maybe some of RF Delderfield (although some of his can be very melodramatic - To Serve Them all My Days fits the bill, as does the Horseman Riding By trilogy - don't, for the love of God, read Diana; I'm still traumatised by that awful, awful excuse for a lead character (genuinely))...

Posted by Jack the Lass (# 3415) on :

I'm not brilliant with fiction (although I agree with Ariel's recommendation of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series), but some non-fiction that might fit the bill: Clare Balding's "My Animals and Other Family", or any of Billy Connolly's travel books (TV tie-in books) - "Journey to the Edge of the World" in particular is brilliant and I just wanted to travel with him and view the world as he did. Also what about "84 Charing Cross Road" and the follow up "The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street"?

Posted by Nicolemr (# 28) on :

Oh, in non-fiction, any of James Herriot's books.

Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :

quote:
Originally posted by no prophet's flag is set so...
...Though perhaps Canadian authors are off the radar....

I don't think I agree! Stephen Leacock's lovely books, like
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town are culturally portable, but perhaps that's partly because he was English and took his English humour to Canada with him. Anything he wrote is firmly in the category of memorable literary comfort food.

Posted by chris stiles (# 12641) on :

quote:
Originally posted by no prophet's flag is set so...:
I've returned repeatedly to Robertson Davies' books. They are intertwined trilogies with a curious hidden reality behind.

And the trilogies themselves follow very much the same arc. It's great literary comfort food that still remains literary. I suspect it also depends on whether or not one wants tension in the middle of the warmer experiences though.

I'd second the PG Wodehouse recommendation above. Additionally, some of RK Narayan's books which have a similar gentle quality about them.

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Jack the Lass:
...but some non-fiction that might fit the bill: Clare Balding's "My Animals and Other Family"

Or Gerald Durrell's "My Family and Other Animals," as well as his other hilarious books. I also second Nicolemr's recommendation of James Herriot's books.

Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :

Some great suggestions here!
I'd like to add the Anastasia Krupnik series by Lois Lowry, an American children's series which was very soothing (and funny) at a time of stress for me. And also The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Armin - or Elizabeth and her German Garden by the same author. There's nothing like a month's holiday in a small Italian castle to de-stress!

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Nicolemr:
When I was pregnant I found I could not read anything that didn't have a happy ending. I subsisted on a diet of Mary Stewart romances.

I went through a spate of Mary Stewarts recently (not for that reason) and enjoyed them.

I'm just embarking on the old Moomintroll books I had as a child. Those are quite good, if the idea is to look for that uncomplicated, childlike simplicity and a happy ending.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

The Mitford books, by Jan Karon

Moo

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Jack the Lass:
What about "84 Charing Cross Road" and the follow up "The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street"?

Also, the following-on 'Q's Legacy'

And for those of us state-side, Helene Hanff also wrote 'The Apple of My Eye,' in which she and a friend cover Manhattan from top to bottom, gathering material for a travel guide project, IIRC

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Polly Plummer:
I always find the Brother Cadfael books very soothing. You know that the baddies will get their comeuppance, the young couple will be brought together to live happily ever after, and the Benedictine way of life will continue untroubled.

Absolutely. I've just started re-reading the books, but have ground to a halt as the rest of the set* is in our old house, so I'll have to wait until our stuff arrives and we move into the new place next month.

For sheer "guilty-pleasure" escapism, the Jilly Cooper Rutshire books always do the trick for me [Hot and Hormonal]

(and I understand there's a new one just out, which I shall devour once it becomes available in paperback). [Yipee]

* except for Saint Peter's Fair, which I lent to someone 20-something years ago and never got back, and haven't been able to find again. [Frown]

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
I've just started re-reading the books, but have ground to a halt as the rest of the set* is in our old house, so I'll have to wait until our stuff arrives and we move into the new place next month.
<snip>

* except for Saint Peter's Fair, which I lent to someone 20-something years ago and never got back, and haven't been able to find again.

Have you tried abebooks? That's where I got all my Brother Cadfaels.

Moo

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

quote:
Originally posted by georgiaboy:

quote:
Originally posted by Jack the Lass:
What about "84 Charing Cross Road" and the follow up "The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street"?
Also, the following-on 'Q's Legacy'

And for those of us state-side, Helene Hanff also wrote 'The Apple of My Eye,' in which she and a friend cover Manhattan from top to bottom, gathering material for a travel guide project, IIRC

There were follow-ups??? Going straight to Amazon!

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :

I see that many here have the same tendency as me to go back to childhood favourites at these times. I was recently pointed in the direction of the website of Girls Gone By who are publishing reprints of many including the Chalet School series.

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :

[Tone lowering warning]

Old Viz annuals generally bring a smile to my face when I'm feeling miserable. Who can't laugh at farts eh?

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

I can’t say I’d describe Robertson Davies’ books as uncomplicatedly heartwarming with a feelgood factor. I read one once (I can’t remember which it was, but part of a trilogy) and it left me feeling depressed and slightly queasy.

But do carry on with the suggestions, people’s ideas of feelgood and heartwarming vary quite widely so I’m sure there’ll be something for LVER to try.

In amongst the books I brought back from my mother’s house there should be some Abbey Girls (which I always much preferred to the Chalet School stories) and a copy of Pollyanna. It’ll be interesting revisiting them. I found the Abbey Girls quite refreshing when I was young but will they stand the test of time?

[ 09. September 2016, 10:59: Message edited by: Ariel ]

Posted by TurquoiseTastic (# 8978) on :

Having recently finished "My Family and Other Animals" by Gerald Durrell (having meant to for many years) I would say it fit the bill perfectly.

Posted by la vie en rouge (# 10688) on :

Don't people get murdered in Cadfael? Sounds a bit upsetting already.

I'd forgotten about Don Camillo. They had a dramatisation on the radio a few years back which I very much enjoyed. *Heads to Amazon*

Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :

How has this thread been allowed to go on for this long without anyone mentioning The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

Not exactly comfort reading, but of we are allowing HHGG, I must list Jennings, especially read under the bedclothes with a torch.

Have I said before that I was holding forth on Anthony Buckeridge as a great comic writer when one of the boys put his hand up and told the class that he was his uncle?

[ 09. September 2016, 18:43: Message edited by: Penny S ]

Posted by Nicolemr (# 28) on :

How about The Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle? A lovely atmosphere of surrealism, calm and soothing. The only thing is the ending is a little bittersweet.

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :

quote:
Originally posted by la vie en rouge:
Don't people get murdered in Cadfael? Sounds a bit upsetting already.

My aunt, a rather refained lady, used to say that she liked the Cadfael books because they were "gentle" murders!

[Confused]

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

quote:
Originally posted by la vie en rouge:
Don't people get murdered in Cadfael? Sounds a bit upsetting already.

I'd forgotten about Don Camillo. They had a dramatisation on the radio a few years back which I very much enjoyed. *Heads to Amazon*

Some Don Camillo stories have been on Radio 4 Extra recently. Cadfael stories from time to time too.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

Elizabeth Goudge's books are good. They're a bit dated now, but if you can get hold of any of the ones set in the Channel Islands they can be a delight.

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

Speaking of the Channel Islands, may I recommend The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society?

Posted by cliffdweller (# 13338) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
Speaking of the Channel Islands, may I recommend The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society?

*tangent* when you say "Channel Islands" I think
Channel Islands.

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

Benson's Lucia series is about battles for social supremacy in a small town. Nothing is serious even when the two protagonists are washed out to sea.

I'd agree with the mentions of the OBrian Aubrey/Maturin series. There's a sly comedy of manners whenever they're ashore or afloat.

Some of the books mentioned (My family and other animals) have been recently republished by Slightly Foxed which is an expensive magazine but comfort in it's own right as people write about their favorite authors.

Posted by Nenya (# 16427) on :

Some lovely suggestions here that I concur with - I take a copy of "The Wind in the Willows" with me on holiday (particularly abroad) because it's so quintessentially English and speaks of friendship and home. Also Winnie the Pooh, Pippi Longstocking, the Moomins, Elizabeth Gouge ("The White Witch" is my favourite). I offer Kipling's Just So Stories and some poetry. "A Puffin Book of Verse" is a particular favourite, containing such glories as "The Pobble who has no Toes", "The Jumblies", "Alms in Autumn" and the now totally non-PC "Lullaby for a Naughty Girl." So sleep, my Penelope: slaps are the fate Of all little girls who are born to be great; But the world is a lovelier place than it seems, And a smack cannot follow you into your dreams." which I knew by heart as a child but it makes me cringe a bit now.

Posted by TurquoiseTastic (# 8978) on :

Well, since I am currently on "King Solomon's Mines" my PC-meter is currently off the scale...

A hunched figure in a cave turns out to be "a dead man... and what was more, a white man"!

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

I dumped Haggard after his book with Andrew Lang 'The World's Desire'.

Having got past the opening dumping of the entire population of Ithaca, including everyone I identified with in the Odyssey (bit obvious, that), I reached the woman in Egypt who couldn't hold her husband back from listening to Helen singing, and was told that there were things no woman could understand. It was couched in rather philosophical terms, as if what women couldn't understand was important stuff, and not just the urge to stare at female pulchritude. Having exercised my mind on it a bit, I decided the pair of them were rubbish.

Only then did I notice Haggard's dubious attitude to a) other races and b) white women members of a mysterious mystic elite. I'd been devouring his books like sweeties till then.

Posted by basso (# 4228) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:

"Lark Rise to Candleford" by Flora Thompson (forget the TV series, this is simply a beautiful, enjoyable pastoral autobiography) ...

If you can find it, I'd add Molly Hughes's memoir A London Child of the 1870s and its two successors. Very close in time to Flora Thompson's story of a childhood in Oxfordshire, but in the city. Maybe also A. L. Rowse's A Cornish Childhood.

We could probably make a thread just of childhood stories. Laura Ingalls Wilder, anyone?

Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :

Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons books are just the thing for me in difficult circumstances, particulary Winter Holiday and Coot Club.

Posted by Nenya (# 16427) on :

I read Molly Hughes's memoirs and loved them and my mum had copies of them. The question is, were they kept when we cleared her house? I must have a hunt.

I'm currently rereading "Swallows and Amazons" and am surprised to find how much of the detail I'd forgotten. I've just read the bit where Titty is left alone on Wild Cat Island while the others head off to try and capture the Amazons' ship, and their mother comes to visit and they have a great time with pemmican cakes and stories round the camp fire. I'm planning to reread them all as I have the whole set - only in paperback, sadly, not those beautiful hardbacks they also came in.

Alison Uttley's books are lovely too - "A Country Child", "Ambush of Young Days" and "A Traveller in Time" being some of my favourites; along with Little Grey Rabbit. I much preferred her books to Beatrix Potter's.

Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :

Of the Swallows and Amazons series, We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea is a very fine novel, in a sense the finest of the series, but the note of anxiety which is present underlying the other adventures (but we know all will turn out all right) is far more prominent - there's an obvious danger these kids adrift on the North Sea will drown.

I find Secret Water a bit dull and I prefer the realistic books to the two fantasies Peter Duck and Missee Lee.

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

This thread has sent me off to find that I have missed the latest Lindsey Davis, which I shall be picking up from Waterstones tomorrow.

Why Ancient Rome should be comfort reading, I can't imagine!

Posted by Nenya (# 16427) on :

quote:
Originally posted by venbede:
Of the Swallows and Amazons series, We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea is a very fine novel, in a sense the finest of the series, but the note of anxiety which is present underlying the other adventures (but we know all will turn out all right) is far more prominent - there's an obvious danger these kids adrift on the North Sea will drown.

I probably like that one the least, for that very reason. I was a totally unadventurous child - and nothing's changed there - and never had any desire to try sailing myself. It all felt very safe on the lake, though, in sight of land all the time and in striking distance of the natives. The idea of being cast adrift on the open sea was altogether too alarming.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

Just about all the D.E. Stevenson novels are comfort food. They are all out of print, but you can get them on Kindle.

My favorites are Miss Buncle's Book, Celia's House, Listening Valley, Spring Magic, and Mrs Tim.

Moo

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :

quote:
Originally posted by venbede:
Of the Swallows and Amazons series, We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea is a very fine novel, in a sense the finest of the series . .

I agree, and I always tear up at the bit when they are sailing home with their father and he tells John, "You'll be a seaman yet, my son" and you know he is saying so much more.

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :

Sorry to double post .....I'm currently re-reading my childhood absolute favourites, the Romney Marsh and Punchbowl Farm series by Monica Edwards. Very dated now of course but wonderfully evocative of a childhood growing up either on a remote Surrey farm or in a little coastal fishing village in the 1940-50s (though the author was really bringing in a lot of her own childhood memories which would I think have been in the immediate post-WW1 years. So rather rose-tinted and sentimental but a lovely comfort read.

Posted by Jemima the 9th (# 15106) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
This thread has sent me off to find that I have missed the latest Lindsey Davis, which I shall be picking up from Waterstones tomorrow.

Why Ancient Rome should be comfort reading, I can't imagine!

I love those! Haven't read any in ages. Perfect literary comfort. I'll add another vote for Don Camillo, and (also churchily) Adrian Plass - I used to read the Horizontal Epistles of Andromeda Veal endlessly years ago, and Catherine Fox.

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sparrow:
Sorry to double post .....I'm currently re-reading my childhood absolute favourites, the Romney Marsh and Punchbowl Farm series by Monica Edwards. Very dated now of course but wonderfully evocative of a childhood growing up either on a remote Surrey farm or in a little coastal fishing village in the 1940-50s (though the author was really bringing in a lot of her own childhood memories which would I think have been in the immediate post-WW1 years. So rather rose-tinted and sentimental but a lovely comfort read.

I was going to say that I absolutely agree - they are very hard to get hold of, and expensive when found. But I can't quite enjoy them any more. We got to know the author's sister, and Monica had been tremendously lucky to escape from the vicarage and marry her Meryon. The father was into coercive control, and her sister was never able to achieve her potential. She survived on money left her by her brother who died young and charity, though she could have made a living from art. She wasn't allowed to finish art school when her father changed parish, and was kept at home. Rather like Caroline Herschel, but without the rescue by her brother.
She ended up in sheltered housing where at one time she was bullied by a bunch of women from Ashford.
Reading Monica now doesn't quite work for me, because of all that history. I think she may have climbed out of the vicarage at Rye Harbour to elope!

[ 11. September 2016, 19:14: Message edited by: Penny S ]

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :

She didn't marry her "Meryon" of course, the boy he was based on died tragically young.

But most of the books are available having been recently reprinted by Girls Gone By.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Anything by Angela Thirkell, especially High Rising for beach reading. Hugh Walpole or Gore Vidal for a winter break.

Posted by Aravis (# 13824) on :

Yes to Winnie the Pooh, Wind in the Willows, Swallows and Amazons, Elizabeth Goudge, Chalet School, Anthony Buckeridge.
Robertson Davies is brilliant but not comfort reading.

I would also like to add Milly-Molly-Mandy. And is anyone else familiar with the Teddy Robinson books? Sorry these are for a younger age group, but I still love them!

Miss Read's "Village School" series is another comfort series I haven't read for years. I gather Gervase Phinn is the nearest recent equivalent, but I found his novels lazy (recycling very old jokes) and unconvincing.

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sparrow:
She didn't marry her "Meryon" of course, the boy he was based on died tragically young.

But most of the books are available having been recently reprinted by Girls Gone By.

Thanks re: the books.

Dorrie didn't tell us that about the lad, so I picked up the story wrongly. But Monica's husband was not approved of by their father.

[ 12. September 2016, 14:57: Message edited by: Penny S ]

Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :

What is so special about Swallows and Amazons is the combination of detailed practicality and wild fantasy.

I imagine you could learn to sail following Ransome’s instructions in the books (I haven’t a clue, but he gives that impression) and we learn in detail about nearly every meal.

At the same time these kids seem incapable of seeing anything in the landscape without deciding it must be something else.

Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :

I'd also recommend Colin Watson's series of Flaxborough comedy thrillers although I suspect they are out of print.

There is usually a murder but the description of small town life is very, very funny. As is the very ladylike con artist, Miss Lucilla Teatime.

http://grumpyoldbookman.blogspot.co.uk/2004/08/colin-watson-crime-writer.html

http://www.crimefictionlover.com/2015/09/cis-the-flaxborough-chronicles-by-colin-watson/

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

They are, however, all available on Kindle I'm glad to say.

Cyril Hare is another one worth looking up.

Anthony Gilbert is dependably cosy. His (a her in RL) problem is that the initial chapters are frequently very good - well written, intriguing, evocative - but falls off into improbabilities and a deus ex machina detective. Passes the time, though.

Posted by SvitlanaV2 (# 16967) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sipech:

You could also try Love in the Time of Cholera.

I'm reading this just now, and not finding it particularly comforting, more frustrating. But it's a matter of taste, of course.

My mother would've recommended Jane Austen and Charles Dickens on a loop.

[ 13. September 2016, 12:18: Message edited by: SvitlanaV2 ]

Posted by Teekeey Misha (# 18604) on :

I have followed advice elsewhere on SoF and purchased a new copy of Fahrenheit 451, which I haven't read since I was a teenager.

Discomfort food? Possibly. I can, though, find huge comfort in reading dystopian novels; I can always tell myself "thank God life isn't like that in reality!"*

And yes, 1984 and Animal Farm are two of my favourite novels!

*You are, of course, completely at liberty to think life is that bad in reality. Your own experience / conspiracy theory of choice takes precedence!

Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :

Some years ago, I worked in the Children's Bookshop in Hay-on-Wye, and met a chap who had been learning to sail on nearby Llangorse Lake the previous afternoon. Halfway through the lesson, the instructor said: "You've done this before."
"No," the chap said. "I've just read all the Swallows and Amazons books!"
So had the instructor, and they spent the rest of the lesson pretending to be Swallows exploring the lake!

Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :

I've just bought the first volume of the Don Camillo stories in a new translation and they look to be eminently comfort reading.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Of course, we're all forgetting the Tom Sharpe books - especially the Wilt trilogy [Yipee]

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

My aunt gave me a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring for my 19th birthday back when God was but a slip of a lad and I have probably reread the whole series, on average, at least once a year since then. Last week, as a direct result of it being mentioned on this thread, I discovered the online text version and am now just starting on Book 5.

What is odd is that this online text I am using, based in Ukraine, is from a scan of the text and there are a few miss-scans but I have read it so often over the years that I know exactly which word goes in where!

Great stuff!

eta: Strangely enough I have already decided that my next book will probably be Tom Sharpe's Porterhouse Blue - one of the funniest writers ever.

[ 15. September 2016, 12:19: Message edited by: Welease Woderwick ]

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

...and it occurs to me to mention Graham Greene's Monsignor Quixote - does anyone remember the superb TV version with Alec Guinness and Leo McKern? - and Travels with my Aunt - and Maggie Smith did a fabulous version of that for, I think, the BBC.

But the two books are wall to wall fun - what Greene himself referred to as an entertainment!!

Posted by Ethne Alba (# 5804) on :

Literary comfort food shelf just removed and coming up!

These first few are post 1970's 'getting through sticky times' type of books:
* "Rain" by Paul May is a modern comfort favourite, as is
* "Sky Hawk" by Gill Lewis
* "I carried you on eagles' wings" by Sue Mayfield
* (Apologies for this title but..) "A summer to die", by Lois Lowry
* "A cold wind blowing", by Barbara Willard.
* "White Peak Farm" by Berlie Doherty
Some of the titles are not exactly inspiring, but for me these all induce warm fuzzy feelings! As a plus they were written for young adults so ideal for non complicated, easy reading and usually addressing common life themes.

Gentle ordinary living types of books could include
* Eve Garnett's books about "The Family from One End Street", i think there is a " Further adventures..." and something about a holiday at an inn....
* Kathleen OFarrell's book "The Tylers of Tip Street."
Both those two are set in an early time and heavily nostalgic, in a good way istm...
"Rosehill, Portrits from a Modern City" by Carol Lake is for me a real ole cocoa and toast type of book and it appears when insomnia hits.

The last two are:
"The Little White Horse" by Elizabeth Goodge. Chosen as it has accompanied me through my entire life and who doesn't want to read about silver horses, a bay called Merryweather Bay and a dog, who is actually a lion?

Last but by no means least is "The Good Master" by Kate Seredy. A city girl from Budapest comes to stay with her uncles family in the Hungarian countryside......
Gorgeous illustrations.

All chosen to lift me gently into other worlds and then deposit me kindly back again, once read.

[ 15. September 2016, 12:50: Message edited by: Ethne Alba ]

Posted by Gee D (# 13815) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
Strangely enough I have already decided that my next book will probably be Tom Sharpe's Porterhouse Blue - one of the funniest writers ever.

Yes, an extremely funny writer, particularly with the Wilt series. The later ones, The Midden and such like, are still very funny but have a bitter edge.

Another frequent re-reader of LOTR, the Mapp and Lucia series, and Paradise Lost.

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

Lying in bed last night thinking about this I decided that these days much of my reading falls into this category.

I was also thinking of short stories like W S Maugham (terribly dated and out of fashion) but stories like The Luncheon are pure delight. Much of Kipling is of a similar category, though sometimes more tear-jerkingly so; The Miracle of Purun Bhagat has had that effect on me ever since I first read it.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
I was also thinking of short stories like W S Maugham (terribly dated and out of fashion) but stories like The Luncheon are pure delight. Much of Kipling is of a similar category, though sometimes more tear-jerkingly so; The Miracle of Purun Bhagat has had that effect on me ever since I first read it.

That is a story that made quite an impression on me as a child. It's one of Kipling's best, and most beautiful. However, "Kim" is his best novel, and one that I return to again and again so I suppose I can consider that comfort reading as well. It has durability and is multi-layered: you can read it for the story as a child and enjoy it, you can read between the lines as an adult and see a lot more in it than the simple adventure story it appears to be. The imagery and little throw-away lines are a delight: Kipling put his heart into that book.

I read one of Tom Sharpe's books once and didn't enjoy it at all to the extent that I've never touched another of his novels, but YM will obviously V on that.

Anyhow, any more feelgood books that give you that warm, fuzzy feeling? Stories that, when you finish them and put them down, make you say, "That was a beautiful story - I wish there was more of it"?

I'm going to throw Dunsany's "The King of Elfland's Daughter" into the mix. If you want rich, beautiful imagery and an old-fashioned romantic tale, this is one.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

Buried in storage somewhere, but I have to recomend Tabitha King's " Caretakers" as a short but satisfying literary meal. This was the first novel I ever described as " seamless."
It's the story of the long relationship between a New England native and one of the residents of the house he cares for- a much younger newcomer married to his boss's son. One of those stories of oddballs who find each other, if briefly.

Also, one of the best studies in " show me don't tell me" I have ever read. Her husband could take a page or two from her book, frankly.

[ 17. September 2016, 07:56: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

Hmm. You can hardly fail with LeGuin's Earthsea books -- the first three are classic. Georgette Heyer's regencies are never demanding and always reliable; to dial it up it is an easy hop to the Hornblower books or Patrick O'Brian. When I need to mainline plot, straight and strong, I go to Bujold's Vorkosigan novels, which are guaranteed to beguile a flight delayed four hours or a horrid medical procedure. Another set of books of similar addictive quality are the Bartimaeus novels of Jonathan Stroud. Essentially crystal meth between book covers, they will get you right out of your irritating or unbearable reality and off into a more thrilling place for a day or so.

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
I read one of Tom Sharpe's books once and didn't enjoy it at all to the extent that I've never touched another of his novels...

Same here, but that was many years ago. I might try another one some time. Tastes change.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

Georgette Heyer's mysteries are also very nice. I wish she had written more of them.

Moo

Posted by Clarence (# 9491) on :

My literary comfort food also includes Georgette Heyer - so reliably entertaining. I listen to the audio books of her regency romances when I'm lying in the dark with a migraine and it works wonders.

There have been a few mentions of Elizabeth Goudge. The book I loan out for anyone needing something gentle to read is her The Scent of Water.

Posted by Nicolemr (# 28) on :

I just thought of L M Montgomery, and the Anne of Green Gables books. They should be listed here.

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

Absolutely Beautiful was my first reaction to Elizabeth Goudge's 'Towers in the Mist,' I've re-read it many times and still feel the same way.

Set in Oxford in the time of Elizabeth I, it is really an extended love song to that city. Her history is accurate, with notes indicating what she has deliberately altered for her novelistic purposes. And even the gruesome bits (the violation of the tomb of Catherine Martyr, eg) come off well.

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

I have just bought Paul Gallico's The Snowgoose for my Kindle - and it is all your collective fault!

[Big Grin]

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

Thanks WW. My copy went missing many years ago. Possibly I left it at childhood home and with parents moving a couple of times since then it has gone. Guess my next port of call!

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!

Amazon.in have a special offer going on Kindle stuff at the moment - I have just been looking for Goodbye Mr Chips and have ended up buying two collections of the works of James Hilton - but at 49 rupees [well under US$1, just under A$1, about 60 pence UK] per collection I can hardly claim I have been robbed.

Goodbye Mr Chips would definitely be in my list of Literary Comfort Food - a perfectly polished little gem of a book.

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

[tangent alert]

I've just discovered that in India Kindle Unlimited costs only about UKP22 per year!

Can I resist the temptation?

Should I resist the temptation?

[/tangent]

Posted by Doone (# 18470) on :

Go for it WW [Two face]

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

Is it unkind to mention that all my works are up on Kindle?

Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :

For me (and I know I'm not the only one) it's Lord Peter Wimsey. When I need a guaranteed read that I know I will like and will leave me in a good mood I either read through all Sayers' Wimsey mysteries (if time permits) or, if I've got less time, just the four with Harriet in them. I never tire of them and they never fail to please.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

Brenda - not unkind, just unwise, as we don't encourage people to advertise on the boards. If you want to put a link in your sig which people have the option to click on if interested, that's one thing, but please, no overt "my books are available to buy" posts in main threads.

Thank you,

Ariel
Heaven Host.

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

Sorry, it was before my first cup of coffee this morning.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Trudy Scrumptious:
For me (and I know I'm not the only one) it's Lord Peter Wimsey.

I agree about Lord Peter. I also feel the same way about almost all of Josephine Tey's mysteries and the Brother Cadfael mysteries.

Moo

Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :

There’s a difference between comfort reading and easy reading. And I find that when I have serious reason for anxiety, easy reading can be depressing. It doesn’t engage me and it makes me realise how depressed I could be. If I need to turn pages, some good reference book, Pevsner, Oxford Companion to English Literature or the like is something far preferable.

Early last year I was due for a very scary operation and I was emotionally very vulnerable. I took up Les Miserables after abandoning it and then went on to read Dostoyevsky’s The Devils and The Idiot. Obviously not comfort reading, but it gave me a sense of achievement and energy when I needed them.

PS I also read Dorothy Sayers.

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Doone:
Go for it WW

It is done AND Amazon.in have a special special offer on at the moment and I got it for UKP17!!

[Yipee]

Happy WW.

Posted by Doone (# 18470) on :

Enjoy! [Yipee]

Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :

Four years ago I went into hospital as an emergency. Rushing out with excruciating stomach pains, I just remembered to grab a toothbrush, rosary and Salley Vicker's Miss Garnett's Angel.

Now that was comfort, both being easy enough to read and bring great comfort in a time of distress.

Posted by Doone (# 18470) on :

quote:
Originally posted by venbede:
Four years ago I went into hospital as an emergency. Rushing out with excruciating stomach pains, I just remembered to grab a toothbrush, rosary and Salley Vicker's Miss Garnett's Angel.

Now that was comfort, both being easy enough to read and bring great comfort in a time of distress.

Ah, I'd forgotten her. I have a couple of her novels somewhere, I must look them out. [Smile]

Posted by Tubbs (# 440) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Moo:

quote:
Originally posted by Trudy Scrumptious:
For me (and I know I'm not the only one) it's Lord Peter Wimsey.
I agree about Lord Peter. I also feel the same way about almost all of Josephine Tey's mysteries and the Brother Cadfael mysteries.

Moo

Certain types of crime novels are very comforting for some bizarre reason. The procedurals I avoid, but old school detective stories are marvellous.

Tubbs

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Tubbs:
Certain types of crime novels are very comforting for some bizarre reason. The procedurals I avoid, but old school detective stories are marvellous.

Tubbs

What I've heard (and it makes sense to me) is that when you read a crime novel, you know that it's all going to work out by the last page -- unlike real life. (There are a few authors who are exceptions to this.)

Also, your mind is involved in trying to work out a fictional mystery, so it's less bothered by real-life dilemmas. This is especially helpful if reading before going to bed.

Posted by BroJames (# 9636) on :

So many to agree with that it would turn my post into a massive list. I would add Parson Woodforde's Diaries - the one-volume Oxford World's Classics edition, and Alexander McCall Smith's Scotland Street novels

Posted by lily pad (# 11456) on :

I keep Joanne Harris' book, "Chocolat", in a little bag packed in case of a visit to the hospital. I love it as literary comfort food and was delighted to find that there are several other books in the series.

I also have thoroughly enjoyed reading Patrick Taylor's stories of being a doctor in an Irish village. They are a lot like the James Herriot books but, well, for people not animals. [Smile]

Posted by Egeria (# 4517) on :

I'm often apt to reach for a mystery as literary comfort food. The story often has a limited time frame (unlike biographical novels, which can ramble on for decades) and a plot (unlike "literary" fiction about alcoholism and adultery [Projectile]

). Justice is done, order is restored.

I have just been rereading two of my favorite authors: Lindsey Davis (first century Roman Empire) and Steven Havill (contemporary police procedurals set in small-town New Mexico). I remember the solutions, but the characters are delightful and the settings are vivid. Recommended for anyone needing to unwind or dealing with health problems!

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

Blanche on the lam by Barbara Neely is one of a great series about a detective who is a Negro maid.

The Mary Renault books about Classical Greece. The Judge Dee series by Van Gulik.

I just read the final Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett "The Shephards Crown" and while it has its comforts there's an almost autobiographical section that brought tears to my eyes.

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

quote:
Originally posted by BroJames:
...and Alexander McCall Smith's Scotland Street novels

Oh yes, definitely, I've just recently received The Revolving Door of Life and am saving it for when I finish the Potter series, so I'll probably start on it tomorrow or Saturday. I have read most of the The No 1 Detective Agency series and some of Isabel Dalhousie series but somehow the Scotland Street series hits just the right tone. I know it's not great literature but it is light and fun and engaging and it is certainly well-written - and we all know someone like the Unbearable Mother of Poor Bertie!

If I ever have to go into hospital I shall be taking my Tablet and just enjoy my little store of favourites on there.

Posted by M. (# 3291) on :

I like the Robert Goddard thrillers. I can get completely lost in them, and when I'm beginning to think, 'ah, so that's it!', I find I'm only half way through.

Like a lot of books, though, even Wodehouse, I have to read them sparingly,as they can get a bit samey.

Oh, I'd forgotten the Amelia Peabody books. I think they might seem a bit dated now, I haven't read them for a while, although at one time they were a go-to comfort read.

M.

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Palimpsest:

The Mary Renault books about Classical Greece.

Oh yes. My copies of "The King Must Die" and "The Persian Boy" are the two I would rescue from my burning house.

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

I guess I must not have brought them when I moved out. They certainly are not here. I was thinking about them recently and wondering if I would but them again. It is getting on for ten years since I left my husband and who knows what he would have done with them. Certainly he would not have read them.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Tubbs:

quote:
Originally posted by Moo:

quote:
Originally posted by Trudy Scrumptious:
For me (and I know I'm not the only one) it's Lord Peter Wimsey.
I agree about Lord Peter. I also feel the same way about almost all of Josephine Tey's mysteries and the Brother Cadfael mysteries.

Moo
Certain types of crime novels are very comforting for some bizarre reason. The procedurals I avoid, but old school detective stories are marvellous.

OTOH, P. D. James's books have a disquieting effect on me.

Moo

Posted by ArachnidinElmet (# 17346) on :

For comfort I will usually re-read. It's not the plot, so much as spending time with familiar and favourite characters (and sometimes favourite writing), so it's usually series rather than one-off books, and good fan fiction (Buffy the Vampire Slayer for preference). Even if the situations are upsetting I don't mind so much, so long as I'm forewarned.

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

Hornblower. John Buchan. Sometimes (some of) Graham Greene, or Trollope, or Barbara Pym, or various people's diaries (Harold Nicolson, Cecil Beaton, even Evelyn Waugh). Depends very much on what kind of mood I'm in.

Posted by Egeria (# 4517) on :

I've just started rereading Lucie Duff Gordon's Letters from Egypt --a good choice for a blustery day and health problems. Not that the letters don't describe some truly distressing situations; the author was in Egypt during the time that tens of thousands of men were being forced away from their families and livelihoods to labor on the Suez Canal. But Lucie is a charming companion and so are her Egyptian friends. If anyone knows of similar publications, I'd be glad to hear about them.

And speaking of Egypt [Cool]

, I'd also like to mention Leo Tregenza's Egyptian Years and The Red Sea Mountains of Egypt . The author was a classically educated scholar who taught school in Egypt and explored the Eastern Desert with local guides in his free time. He was interested in looking for Graeco-Roman ruins, of course, but also had a keen eye for landscapes and wildlife. These are books that I always think of as reading for the winter break, but I may not wait that long this year.

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

Egeria--

If you don't mind *fiction* about Egypt, I strongly recommend Elizabeth Peter's Amelia Peabody series.

Amelia is a Victorian lady archaeologist. Very strong-willed, she is both of and ahead of her times. She can be a pain in the derriere; but, deep down, she cares about people. There are something like 20 books, featuring history, mystery, romance, family, and wit. One good thing about a long series of books is that there's plenty of time for character development. [Smile]

The author is an Egyptologist, writing under a pen name. So she can give the characters the understanding of Egyptian archaeology that they would've had then. Plus she adds in real-life characters, like Howard Carter (who found King Tut's tomb).

IIRC, the first one is "The Crocodile On The Sandbank". Later, I especially recommend "The Last Camel Died At Noon"; but you need to read the preceding books to really get it.

The books are so popular that some libraries keep them under lock and key, because some fans won't wait to get to the top of the hold list!

Happy reading! [Yipee]

Posted by Jante (# 9163) on :

Like many my comfort reads are childhood favourites - I have the complete set of Chalet School books by Elinor Brent Dyer on my shelves and reread regularly, also the Abbey school series by EJ Oxenham. For an adult version- the Rebecca Shaw Village series are a must
[Smile]

Posted by betjemaniac (# 17618) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Albertus:
Hornblower. John Buchan. Sometimes (some of) Graham Greene, or Trollope, or Barbara Pym, or various people's diaries (Harold Nicolson, Cecil Beaton, even Evelyn Waugh). Depends very much on what kind of mood I'm in.

I'd go along with this list in its entirety (although I think I probably wouldn't caveat Graham Greene).

Currently reading the new edition of Patrick Leigh Fermor's letters, which fit right in with your list.

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

oh yes. Only saw the parody in this week's Eye. The small caveat for Greene is that there are one or two things- e.g. The End of the Affair or Brighton Rock- which I wouldn't normally (not necessarily 'ever') turn to as comfort food!

Posted by Egeria (# 4517) on :

Golden Key said:

quote:
If you don't mind *fiction* about Egypt, I strongly recommend Elizabeth Peter's Amelia Peabody series.

I've read all, or almost all of these. I'm not sure I made it through The Last Camel Died at Noon , and it took two tries to finish The Hippopotamus Pool . Elizabeth Peters' work is comfort reading, especially when I'm feeling particularly nostalgic about Egypt and in need of some relaxation. But wow did she have a heavy hand with the melodrama; this comes through in most of her books and is even apparent in her two books of popular non-fiction (for example, she apparently never questioned the historical fiction known as the "Thutmosid feud"). I believe the melodrama is partly based on her own reading of trashy fiction as a student--there are clues in her Jacqueline Kirby books, and the repeated scene in which a character is drugged or knocked out and awakens in a room with exotic furniture, silk hangings, silver tea service, blah blah blah is one of her favorites. I wonder if it was inspired by The Lustful Turk . (Yes, that is a real book--amazing what you can learn by working in a library.) And The Hippopotamus Pool had that ridiculous pseudo-historical reconstruction
***** SPOILER ALERT *****
in which a real historical figure is supposed to have been wrapped like a mummy and buried alive. Was that inspired by the Boris Karloff film, or a suggestion by one of those unqualified pseudos who hang around the fringes of Egyptology pretending that they are real Egyptologists?
(End of spoiler alert)

As for Amelia, I always wanted to ask the author whether she started out with the intention of making Amelia quite so irritating, insecure, and silly. (Ms. Peters was sitting at the next table one year at a conference event, but I figured she was probably getting pestered with questions like that all the time, so I refrained from bothering her.) Amelia is supposed to be smart, but she often comes off as merely bossy and conventional--one of the most annoying characters in all of series fiction. I like a lot of the other characters, though: Emerson, "the Father of Curses" and his explosions of justifiable wrath against stupid tourists (anyone who's had experience of tour groups in Egypt will know exactly what I mean!); David and Ramesses and Nefret; and the recurring Egyptian characters, Abdullah and his family.

My favorite in the series is Seeing a Large Cat . It's a stand-alone story, not one of the "Master Criminal" sagas, most of the action takes place in Luxor [Cool]

and the Valley of Kings, and it features a delightfully young and earnest Howard Carter. The setting is wonderful--that's one of biggest attractions of the series.

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

I am glad I am not the only person who doesn't find Amelia Peabody unalloyed joy. Jacqueline Kirby is pretty annoying too, and feels to be tongue-in-cheek deliberately so. I think the reader is supposed to be in on the joke that Amelia is not as she sees herself, but is really a busybody getting involved in things better left alone.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

I am pretty sure the buried-alive-mummy trope turns up in Rider Haggard

I read the first Peabody book and felt no wish to read another.

Posted by Tubbs (# 440) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
I am glad I am not the only person who doesn't find Amelia Peabody unalloyed joy. Jacqueline Kirby is pretty annoying too, and feels to be tongue-in-cheek deliberately so. I think the reader is supposed to be in on the joke that Amelia is not as she sees herself, but is really a busybody getting involved in things better left alone.

I read the first four books as they were a Kindle special deal. I quite enjoyed them, but not enough to buy the others full price. I agree with you, the fact that Amelia isn't as she sees herself but is an insufferable, interfering whatmit is part of the joke. It wore thin rather quickly.

Daisy Dalrymple and the Mary Russell books are a bit similar. I gave up on those a few books in as well.

The Elizabeth Edmondson Very English Mysteries are much better. But sadly only two and a short story.

Tubbs

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Thanks to the joy of Kindle I find there are a lot of Patricia Wentworth books prior to her Miss Silver ones. The one I've just finished was a spanking read and quite engrossing. It did have the odd feature that a character who was set up as the principal hero/love interest simply disappears from the narrative halfway through.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

Just finished Neil Gaiman's "Fragile Things", a collection of his short stories. Some are very good, others are quite gruesome. I skipped a few. This isn't a book I'd buy for myself, nor one I'd want to keep and read again. It does however have one story that's clearly the origin of "The Graveyard Book" in it.

Having said I wouldn't want to keep it, I've just had to buy a replacement copy as somehow it's managed to acquire a large splodge of coffee on the back cover without my realizing, and I have to give it back to someone next week, so I now have a spare copy whether I want one or not.

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

You could use it for Book sculpture

Posted by andras (# 2065) on :

Robertson Davies for sure! And Plum and almost anything by Trollope as well (The Way We Live Now is brilliant, but too angry for comfort food).

What about I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith, a truly fabulous read?

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

In times of trouble, Heyer. I think I might have to start with Sprig Muslin , an old fave.

Posted by Doone (# 18470) on :

Oh yes! I must look mine out [Smile]

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

It is a mystery to me why the BBC has not put all those Heyer Regencies out in miniseries. There are enough of them to run for twenty years, and they'd rake in a fortune.

Posted by Alwyn (# 4380) on :

Like others, I find stories of childhood/coming of age comforting, especially when spiced with adventure (Swallows and Amazons), magic (Narnia) or sarcasm (Calvin & Hobbes) or all three (Buffy the Vampire Slayer).

Stories about people who tend to think their way through problems can be nicely calming - such as Hornblower, the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and many of Isaac Asimov's stories (I'm thinking of Donovan and Powell's tales as well as those with Elijah Bailey and R. Daneel Olivaw.)

Sometimes, stories with a strong emotional impact are comforting, like Anne McCaffrey's Pern series, with people defying the limits which society or family members try to impose on them. At other times, a big, immersive world can be a reassuring distraction, such as Robert Silverberg's Majipoor or Terry Pratchett's Discworld.

Posted by Tubbs (# 440) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
It is a mystery to me why the BBC has not put all those Heyer Regencies out in miniseries. There are enough of them to run for twenty years, and they'd rake in a fortune.

They've done a few radio adaptions, but although the TV rights have been sold, no one seems to have done anything with them since the 1950's. It would make a nice change from the endless Austin's. (Not that I don't love Austin, but does the world really need another P&P adaption?!)

Tubbs

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

It would be so simple. They already (clearly) have masses of high-waisted muslin gowns and doeskin breeches in costuming. Tons of historical manors exist, for sets. The scripts would be easy, the books are so linear. A ready-made audience. An endless run of four or six episode miniseries, one a year and then take the summer off -- it's like printing your own money.

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

One of our Freeview channels is showing regular Catherine Cookson adaptations, some with quite known actors, and they look pretty authentic. Not that I watch them - I have too much other stuff stacked up. I never saw them first time round, or knew they existed. But if there is a market for them, I can't see that there wouldn't be a large intersection between the Cookson audience and a Heyer audience.

Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :

After the 7.8.earthquake on Monday morning I had to take back all my library books unread and am instead re-reading things that meet Oscar Wilde's criteria where, " The good end well and the bad end badly". I cannot bear anything with either violence or suspense.

When I go back to the library I will look for some recorded books because I've found that having someone read to me is immensely comforting. If I can find a version of Wind in the Willows read by someone with an English accent ( because, in my mind it is so quintessentially English) that would be heaven. I know the bloke who played Gandalf was actually a Scot, but he would be good as he has one of the most comforting voices I can think of).

Iain Carmichael reading Pooh Bear would be another possibility.

Huia - rapidly approaching second childhood

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

You might look for Alan Bennett as a reader.

I do hope things settle down soon.

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

Possibly a bit long in the tooth these days, but Sir John Mill's readings of The Hums of Pooh was superb. He died in 2005 and my sons' childhood was some years before that.

I heard someone else do it and it was horrid, so I understand your comment about the accents.

Similarly, we had a BBC video of some of Wind in the Willows. Complete with a choreographed version of the dabbling ducks, up tails all.

None of the dismal Disney treatment at all.

Posted by Gill H (# 68) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
You might look for Alan Bennett as a reader.

I do hope things settle down soon.

There is an Alan Bennett version available - I got it on iTunes (UK) a while ago. Abridged, unfortunately, but good.

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

I finished a reread of The Wind in the Willows yesterday and was enchanted as ever. Great stuff.

Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :

Years and years ago I knew a psychotherapist in Scotland - a wise and lovely Swedish lady. Her prescription for a calmer life was to read Tove Jansson's Moomintroll books, and specifically The Exploits of Moominpappa. They are timeless and the suspense never exceeds a level that I can deal with. I still read them. I wonder if they are still popular?

Posted by Nicolemr (# 28) on :

As I said on another thread i am currently rereading Loois McMaster Bujold's books set in the world of the Five Gods. That's three novels and three novellas. Why I find them particularly comforting I do not know, but they have been.

Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :

Stercus Tauri - I had forgotten the Moomin books. Re-reading them helped me so much when the earthquake damage in my house was being fixed in 2011. A friend has also suggested a book and I found it in the local library today. I'll post the title when I finish it so no one inadvertently posts spoilers. [Razz]

Posted by snowgoose (# 4394) on :

Some of my favorite comfort reads are Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series, John Christopher's Tripod books, Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series, and classic mysteries (I love Dorothy Sayers and Georgette Heyer).

Our Mutual Friend is my favorite Dickens. It has a great deal of everything in it, including some of the funniest writing in English. (I dare you to read the description of the Podsnap Plate without laughing.)

I try to save Pride and Prejudice for times when the anxiety is getting dire. It's what I read after the election last week.

[typo]

[ 18. November 2016, 18:27: Message edited by: snowgoose ]

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

quote:
Originally posted by snowgoose:
Some of my favorite comfort reads are Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series, John Christopher's Tripod books, Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series, and classic mysteries (I love Dorothy Sayers and Georgette Heyer).

Our Mutual Friend is my favorite Dickens.

I agree with you about Dorothy Sayers' and Georgette Heyer's mysteries. I wish Heyer had written more of them. I also like most Margery Allingham's.

I am currently in the process of re-reading Our Mutual Friend. It's my favorite Dickens novel also.

Moo

[ 18. November 2016, 20:58: Message edited by: Moo ]

Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :

A remark about prayer lists in the Ideal C of E Clergyman thread reminded me of the redoubtable Miss Julia in Ann B. Ross's books. They take place in the modern American south, and the author has it nailed. I read some of them when they first appeared, and thought they began very well indeed, but got a bit ragged and less believable as the series developed. Still fun to read, though. The prayer list stuck in my mind because there was an occasion where the ladies needed more details about someone's ailment before they could really pray properly for them. It was not the only occasion I know of where the prayer list doubles as the social announcements page.

Posted by Pangolin Guerre (# 18686) on :

In undergrad, I had a nasty chest cold which confined me to bed for a week, and a friend came by my room with a Rumpole omnibus. If there was one problem, it's that I couldn't get Leo McKern out of my mind, but it was a great way to spend a week in bed.

I heartily agree with Palimpsest's recommendation of Mary Renault's novels. In a similar, but more recent vein, I'd suggest Madeleine Miller's The Song of Achilles, about the friendship between Achilles and Patroclos, from the perspective of the latter. I know some people don't like it, but I found it an engaging distraction at a difficult time.

Olivia Manning's The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy (I preferred the former, but both good) are like eating peanuts.

Someone suggested Graham Greene. The shorter ones, while not necessarily comforting, are enjoyable and can be consumed in an afternoon, e.g., Dr Fischer of Geneva.

As to Robertson Davies, I've lost count of the number of times that I've read the Deptford Trilogy, and three times the Cornish Trilogy. I've actually gone through Jungian analysis as a result of having to study Fifth Business in high school: testament to the strength of the novel and the teacher. Literature does matter.

I recently reread The Little Prince before giving it to my godson. The conversation between the Prince and the fox still is compelling.

Posted by Pangolin Guerre (# 18686) on :

Sorry for the double post, but as I was thinking about being bedridden.... Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time.

And, to add, Brideshead Revisited.

Posted by MaryLouise (# 18697) on :

My favourite convalescent reading has to be detective novels from the Golden Age of crime writing. A few have been mentioned already: Josephine Tey, Dorothy L Sayers and Margery Allingham (Tiger in the Smoke!), but I also like Edmund Crispin (svelte campy Oxford dramas) and Ngaio Marsh. And of course old Agatha Christies, wooden dialogue and creaky plots but unputdownable.

Posted by Latchkey Kid (# 12444) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Nicolemr:
Oh, in non-fiction, any of James Herriot's books.

And his son's book The Real James Herriot.

Posted by Pangolin Guerre (# 18686) on :

As I lay abed last night, another came to mind. In the Young Adult category, Geoffrey Trease's Word to Caesar, a ripping yarn about a boy's adventure in trying to get a message to Emperor Hadrian. I haven't read it since I was 12 (?), and it still sticks in mind. I might even try to track it down for myself, come to think of it.

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

It does sound interesting. Alas, very difficult to find in the US.

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

It's available in paperback on Amazon.com for a reasonable price but there appear to be only a few left.

See here.

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Pangolin Guerre:
...Someone suggested Graham Greene. The shorter ones, while not necessarily comforting, are enjoyable and can be consumed in an afternoon, e.g., Dr Fischer of Geneva...

I agree. I find that the thing about Graham Greene is that he may not be comforting, but he makes you feel that it's OK to be gloomy or troubled- which is a pretty good alternative.

[ 15. December 2016, 20:00: Message edited by: Albertus ]

Posted by Avey (# 18701) on :

Has anyone read Gene Wolfe's "Books of the New Sun"? These are hard to categorise but are broadly between science fiction and fantasy but written by a deeply Christian yet very tricksy author.

Not quite allegory and certainly not derivative the books follow the adventures of the apprentice of the Torturers Guild Severian and are really unprecedented in sic-fi literature.

I re-read these annually. A fun game is spot the obscure saint in character names [Biased]

Posted by Marama (# 330) on :

I loved Geoffrey Trease's historical fiction when I was a child - perhaps part of the reason I became a historian. I'm delighted to see some of them still in print; I may try to track down 'Cue for Treason' which was my favourite.

Posted by Pangolin Guerre (# 18686) on :

I just looked up Cue for Treason. Christmas gifts already addressed, but perhaps for birthday, or for no particular reason. It looks great.

Last year the younger godson (then turning 5) got a book for his birthday, and said to me, "What? Just a book? No toy?" I tried to explain that a book is much more than a toy. I didn't try to explain that he already had a gross of toys, many now ignored.

Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :

This is the time to read or re-read "Father Christmas" by Raymond Briggs, another of my favourites. We have our own copy from when our children were small, and we've just sent off more of them to our grandchildren. A cultural necessity.

Posted by Pangolin Guerre (# 18686) on :

Since Robertson Davies has been mentioned more than once on this thread, and it is the Christmas season, I mention his short story collection High Spirits, an anthology of ghost stories he wrote for Gaudy Nights at Massey College when he was Master there. Some of them are quite good.

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