Best books of comfort when you’re very sad?

[UntifyDu]

Please

Have a look at Persephone Books.

Yes! Good shout, they have some wonderful books.

Another vote for Maeve Binchy. She always makes me believe that most people are good at heart and that there is hope for a happy ending.

I like Lucy Dillon's books for this. Chick-lit mostly set in one wee town (so characters cross over). Highly predictable, but sometimes that's just what is needed.

Winter Solstice, by Rosamund Pilcher.
There are sad bits but with a happy ending - it’s one of my comfort reads - but I save it for the run up to Christmas.

If you like Googlebox then a diary of two nobodies on audio is great / Giles & Mary. They're both crazy & wonderful & hilarious!

I'm finding Agatha Christie particularly soothing at the moment. The murders are never in technicolour. And there's something about a world without our rampant technology that takes its time which is helping my sad, anxious brain.

Terry Pratchett is my go to comfort read. Notably the witches series because Granny Weatherwax is my spirit animal! But I'm not adverse to dipping into Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings or the Northern Lights trilogy as I read and loved these when I was growing up.

I find I can't really read grown up books when I'm feeling sad/overwhelmed. Not sure why.

Something old. James Herriot, Harry Potter, Enid Blyton. Rosamunde Pilcher.

It's one of my favourite books but I have to say I get a bit irritated when Maeve Binchy's writing is described as warm / kind / comforting ... I also recommended Maeve Binchy because she is a master storyteller and her books take you deep into the lives of her characters, with a true sense of the epic. But actually her themes are dark and often complicated, as they certainly are in Light A Penny Candle. And for the time it was written, this was quite a subversive book in Irish culture.

I'll get off my soapbox now!

Oh no! So many of Maeve's books have the opposite of a happy ending! The comfort aspect of her writing is the dedication to characters & the meaningful minutiae of their lives. Certainly not wrapping everything up happily.

Try Snowflake by Paul Gallico. I find it very comforting to read when I'm low as it makes me feel secure in my place in the universe. It's a lovely gentle read about interconnectedness, transformation and purpose in life. And it's short!

Sorry to hear you're feeling sad OP. Hopefully more cheerful times are ahead.

I strongly agree, and although I know some people find them irritating Light a Penny Candle needs some content warnings for a person who is feeling very fragile. Although sensitively presented it contains domestic abuse, alcoholism and a termination.

I think her books are classified as warm and comforting because they conflate their perception of Binchy’s persona with the works. If there’s space on your soapbox I could get into why this also means that her work was often dismissed as light and fluffy rather than being seriously evaluated for its literary merit during her life.

@WitchWithoutChips

Oh I could talk to you all day about this! (Perhaps I should start a separate - niche - thread as I'm aware this one was for recommendations to help OP who was feeling sad 💐)

But you're so right about the content - both Echoes & Light A Penny Candle have very difficult themes - I first read them both when I was about 10 - voracious reader & these were big books, but accessible in terms of writing. Honestly, much of the significance of them sailed over my head. I've re-read them & almost everything else she's written many times since & they are actually devastating - the reason they are often trivialised is that Maeve Binchy was an acute observer of how people spoke & behave & how much got hidden in words. She never makes many of the undercurrents of character's motivations explicit. Good people do dreadful things in her books, ordinary people are deeply flawed, but it's subtlety presented by her, never written in block capitals so to speak.

Particularly her early works, are brilliant in this way. More recent books ring a bit false as it felt she didn't really have the full grasp on modern life, people continued to act as of mobile phones & technology hadn't arrived (see Scarlet Feather - I love it still tho)

Her account of a child's death in [POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT] in Firefly Summer is one of the most painful things I've ever read while also being something you can actually imagine happening in your own life, and a perfect depiction of how Irish society deals with death, good & bad

I'll stop now 🤐

Oh yes, start a Maeve discussion thread!

That's a very good point about Maeve Binchy. You're right - LAPC does deal with some very traumatic subjects and I should've remembered that! My menopause brain is like mud.

I read Meave Binchy as a teen when it was the usual stalwart on the Irish bookshelf. I remember gobbling them up. Must reread now that I have a bit more wit about me.
Listened to Caroline O’Donoghues podcasts on LAPC and CoF recently which also reminded me of just how good they were

I bought Snowflake after reading this thread. Had forgotten what a great writer Paul Gallico was.

I adore Maeve Binchy.

Colm Toibín writes Maeve Binchy books and gets all the plaudits and awards.

I'm sure Maeve is looking down with a wry smile at Colm as he reads Echoes in the middle of the night looking for some inspo.

I re read childhood favourites, mostly Enid Blyton, Just William, Nicolas.
also like to pick up whatever my tween DD is reading - Percy Jackson, wimpy kid, nothing too heavy.