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Original poster

Your favourite cosy, autumn-wintery, curl up by the fire books?

116 replies

LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti · 15/09/2013 16:45

I put this in Adult Fiction but I'd be happy with recommendations for memoirs or children's books or whatever, as well. Just has to be the sort of book you love to sit down with on a cold autumn day and read from cover to cover. Bonus points if you come up with suggestions for good Christmas reading for later on.

Doesn't have to be set in/evocative of autumn and winter, just books you feel you'd want to read at this time of year.

Thank you. Smile

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JonesH · 17/09/2013 10:17

I read Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier! Love watching the old classic film too!

Beeyump · 17/09/2013 10:09

I just bought 'Brother of the More Famous Jack'. Smile

Original poster
LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti · 17/09/2013 08:14

I'd never heard of the Outlander series before this thread, and it sounds great. I have been waiting for Cazalets 5! I love that series.

moon - those sound good (though, erm, I cannot imagine anything worse that Dickens+Trollope. Sorry. One day I will be mature and overcome my dislike of them). I did love Ruby in the Smoke, though, and then failed to find the others. Thank you for reminding me!

I realized I never put down what I normally read and it's kinda relevant. If I hadn't read them too many times, I'd be curling up with:

Anya Seton - Katherine
Rosemary Sutcliffe - Knight's Fee
A. S. Byatt - Possession
The older Diana Wynne Jones books
Michelle Magorian - Love Song, Cuckoo in the Nest etc.
Rumer Godden - In This House of Brede
Eco - Name of the Rose
Barbara Trapiedo - anything

Those are my go-to comfort reads and Knight's Fee has lovely descriptive bits for autumn. It's just I've read them so many times.

I'm getting up a good list of new ones, thanks. Smile

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MooncupGoddess · 16/09/2013 22:20

Any Sarah Waters.

Rosamund Lehmann is great if you fancy a bit of an emotional wallow - Dusty Answer is my favourite. Elizabeth Bowen too.

Charles Palliser's The Quincunx - an enormous, absorbing pastiche Victorian novel that looks at the dark side of the world Dickens and Trollope describe.

Philip Pullman's earlier books (well, His Dark Materials too, but I'm sure you know them) - The Ruby in the Smoke, The Shadow in the North, The Tiger in the Well.

Josephine Tey - Brat Farrar, Miss Pym Disposes.

mumslife · 16/09/2013 19:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

swannylovesu · 16/09/2013 18:50

another vote for the outlander series....jamie fraiser swoonBlush

Original poster
LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti · 16/09/2013 18:39

Thank you. Smile

I never 'got' Frankestine but will try the others.

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RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 16/09/2013 18:16

The Woman In White or The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.

Sherlock Holmes short stories.

Frankenstein.

And anything to do with the Arctic/Antarctic. :)

Original poster
LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti · 16/09/2013 16:00

Oooh! I've just looked that up. I love Rumer Godden so how is it I've never read that?!

Thank you, that's brilliant.

I have a ridiculously long Amazon list now. It's lovely. I'm putting anything that costs more than a penny on my wish list, but loads of these are really cheap. Smile

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Beeyump · 16/09/2013 15:56

Also, although it's clearly not autumnal, The Greengage Summer is great for a cosy wallow. Or a Monica Dickens book, they're so readable!

Original poster
LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti · 16/09/2013 15:52

Thank you - I don't own I Capture the Castle (big oversight). It's lovely.

mignonette - thank you so much, that looks great.

Btw please don't anyone apologize about children's books, I love them.

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BigPawsBrown · 16/09/2013 15:50

Dolly I do exactly that too!!

mignonette · 16/09/2013 15:49

Have a look at my Bookworm Pinboard here as I pin all my book recommendations on it. There's a travel writing and culinary journalism board too.

Beeyump · 16/09/2013 15:45

Oo, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith! I am due a reread. There's a bit in it about Cassandra really imagining herself into the books she reads, making a big effort, and that's what I do when I read it - I am almost in the kitchen sink. Smile

Deathwatchbeetle · 16/09/2013 14:17

Love Lilian Beckwith books-didnot realise that the Island was a made up name and asked the Scottish tourist board where it was! Spot the Sassanach!

AnnetteCurtin · 15/09/2013 22:18

That's not sad Pascha, I love The Secret Garden. Ooh, ooh, The Railway Children and A Little Princess.

Will try and think of more adult type books when I cba to rouse myself Smile

Original poster
LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti · 15/09/2013 21:28

Nothing like the sound of rain while you're reading. Smile

Thank you for the recommendation.

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SconeRhymesWithGone · 15/09/2013 21:23

It's still hot where I live so I have to settle for rain and a pot of tea for a cozy read. Right now I am re-reading Excellent Women by Barbara Pym.

Original poster
LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti · 15/09/2013 21:21

I love The Dark is Rising.

That and Children of Green Knowe are my absolute favourite christmas books. I don't know anything in adult lit that's as magical (but hope there is).

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TrucksAndDinosaurs · 15/09/2013 21:16

Sorry... The Dark Is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper: wonderful children's fantasy with folklore and Atthurian myth woven in...

TrucksAndDinosaurs · 15/09/2013 21:14

I've just read The Dark Is Ris

Original poster
LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti · 15/09/2013 20:39

Never read Kim. I must. Thank you! (And it's not sad, children's books are great).

dolly - I do love On Beauty. Smile But I've read it enough for a bit, I need some new ones.

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Dollybird86 · 15/09/2013 20:24

Every October I read On beauty by Zadie Smith.
It feels so autumnal I love it!

Pascha · 15/09/2013 20:20

Mine are all childrens books:

Black Beauty
The Secret Garden
Kim
Heidi

All very easy reading. How sad am I?

Original poster
LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti · 15/09/2013 20:17

Burble away! And that sounds great, I'll put them down.

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