Cosy, escapist, comforting books

[SeaSeeker]

I like historical stuff, I like seaside stuff, cottage-y type reads. But not really chick lit (though I have read a couple I enjoyed!) Any recommendations for comforting and escapist novels? Nothing dystopian, dark, weepy or crime related!

Authors I have loved: Susan Howatch, Elena Ferrante, Diana Gabaldon, Neil Gaiman.

Thank you: I have Amazon open right now!

Personally I’m working my way through the Little House series at the moment. I love them just as much as I did when I was a child.

Fannie Flagg is always an author I recommend for people wanting feel-good reads. My favourites are Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion, and Standing in the Rainbow.

I see now she has a sequel to Fried Green Tomatoes out in October as well, although I didn’t like the book oddly enough! Maybe I’m due a re-read.

They are all small-town America though no U.K. if that makes a difference.

Anything written by Rosamund Pilcher

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Diary of a Provincial Lady

Have you read the Cazalet Chronicles? Set between world wars (or maybe encompassing WW2). A warm and well written English family drama with love, death and countryside jaunts.

Ooh, also I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

I really enjoyed The Bronze Horseman trilogy by Paullina Simons. I saw several recommendations for Diana Gabaldon when I was looking for something similar after I finished those books. They are set in WW2 Russia.

Marcia Willetts novels.
Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce.
Harriet Evans' novels are lovely light reads, and also Eve Chase's books.

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons is one of my all-time favourites. It’s pastoral but also bitingly funny.

Miss Read, Village School series

I have the first Cazalet book but haven't started it. Not so keen on anything war-related. Have only read one Pilcher and I was a bit so so on it. But love the sound of nearly all of these!

Jack Sheffield's books about being headteacher in a school in rural Yorkshire 'Teacher Teacher' is the first one I think On a similar theme books by Gervase Phinn

Georgette Heyer Regency novels.

The Crystal Cave and sequels - Mary Stewart's Arthurian series set in Romano-Celtic Britain.

Definitely I Capture the Castle. Also Mapp and Lucia are wonderful escape reads and there's loads of them. About two pretentious women warring for supremacy of things like the flower show in the gorgeous seaside town of Rye. Very funny and stylish.

I love haruki murakami when i need comfort. My favourites are Norwegan wood, the wind up bird chronicle and Kafka on the shore

Either the Scotland Street or Sunday Philosophy Club novel series by Alexander McCall Smith.

Cazalet Chronicles - just gorgeous. I reread regularly, proper comfort read. The war is peripheral so don’t worry too much about death and destruction.

Also, Love in a Cold Climate.

Maeve Binchley was my first thought.

My Name is Eva - really enjoyed this book, about a seemingly harmless elderly lady living in a residential home, and her secret wartime past.

James Herriot for absolute comfort and escapism.

The Hamish McBeth series by M.C. Beaton is similarly gorgeously captivating and all encompassing with a gentle wistfulness to them.

Also, The Cat Who....series by Lillian Jackson Braun. I read them in my 20s and they have survived every house move since (now late 40s).

Have you read A Man Called Ove? I can highly recommend 👍

Jostein Gaarder ?

I agree with the cazalet chronicles. It’s really not a war story - that’s just the backdrop.

Where the Crawdads Sing was perfect escapism for me last week. Well written, non fluffy, idealistic fiction.

A second vote for Miss Read Village School series and also Diary Of A Provincial Lady. Definitely worth trying Alexander McCall Smiths Scotland Street series because If you enjoy the first there’s around 10 more.

Lark Rise to Candleford trilogy by Flora Thompson is also beautiful, calming and a history of rural life in the UK on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution.

@Branleuse I like a bit of Murakami myself, but he'd definitely be filed under "a bit dystopian and weird" for me!

OP I noticed you said no crime dramas and the blurb of Crawdads describes is as a crime drama. There is a crime, but it is the backdrop of the book, not it's focus iyswim.