Comfort reading

[starchildareyoulistening]

Which books do you find yourself returning to when you want to snuggle in something familiar? The book version of stew and dumplings? :)
Mine is Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, particularly the City Watch storyline. While despairing over the whole Brexit fiasco I found myself thinking "Sam Vimes should weigh in on this" and ended up re-reading them all.

Diana Wynne Jones. I don't care if her books are aimed at children and YA!

The Adrian Mole books, since I was a kid and now into adulthood, they can always get me out of a slump. I've just taken delivery this morning of a brand new matching set of them all for my new bookshelves as I've read the others literally to pieces. Similarly I also repeat read Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith - bit of a grandfather to Mole I guess!

I wonder if the Cazalet Chronicles will become comfort books for me too - I just finished the final one last month and feel quite bereft without the Cazalet family world to dive into!

Miss Marple, the short stories.

Miss Marple is GOALS (as my teen would say)

I love the old Maeve Bincheys. Read them as a 14 year old over 20 years ago. Echoes and Light a Penny Candle and Circle of Friends are great.
The James Herriot 'All Creatures'.
Harry Potter.
Jane Austen.
Hound of the Baskervilles.

Jane Austen
Harry Potter
King's Dark Tower series
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Old children's books -
Ballet Shoes
Tom's Midnight Garden
Charlotte Sometimes
The 'Katy' and 'Little Women' books.
Famous Five books!

Sorry about your DD MrsDeVere I hope your reading concentration continues to improve.

I seem to have the same habit as you with inter-war posh people books, I can't keep away from them and am always trying to find more. I have been through a lot of Agatha Christies and PG Wodehouses for this reason. And the Mitfords, though I need to read more of those. I have Vol 1 of A Dance to the Music of Time on the shelf which seems right up this street but the size of it is a bit daunting! Sometimes I tell myself to read more 'realistically', but I can't resist a country house party and some upper class family drama

Definitely off to search for Monica Dickens now!

I don't prefer to read on a screen (because I look at one all day I suppose), but there is something about reading on a device which is...easier /simpler maybe? I find it hard to put into words - it might be because you can read without constantly being aware of how much is left in a book, so you just keep going without thoughts of finishing? I know that even though I favour paper books, sometimes if I'm just casually sitting there I will put a kindle book on my ipad and breeze through it without even realising I'm doing it.

Can I please ask the Georgette Hayer fans: where is a good place to start? She appears to have published dozens of books and I'm sure where to begin.

not sure!

not sure!

Another Heyer fan here. MotherofPearl you can't go wrong with most of her regency romances, especially those written in the middle of her career. My personal favourites include Friday's Child, Cotillion and Sylvester.

Anything by Trisha Ashley.

Family Life by Elisabeth Luard

Like a previous poster - childhood favourites, e.g. Jill books, Malory Towers, The Children Who Lived In a Barn....

Georgette Heyer
Jane Austen
I Capture the Castle
The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets
Pretty much any Children's books - Noel Streatfeild, Enid Blyton, L M Montgomery, Frances Hodgson Burnett...

Now I want to re read ALL of them!

Jane Austen
Maeve Binchy
P D James

I have to disagree re Cazalets! Spoiler Alert!!! I bought them for this reason, then the child abuse storyline starts! Was not expecting that!

Again SPOILERS

Yeah that bit rattled me slightly Pootles but I don't think it really turned into a storyline, was just something that happened. Totally disgusting and shocking of course (and seriously clouded my attitude towards the character) but not a thing that got continued as a plot line IMO. I don't know how far you got after that but in later books it is rarely, if ever alluded to (which did irritate me a bit because I hadn't forgotten about it!).

Oh ok, how odd! Just finished first one, need to get second one before holiday. What an odd thing to just drop in there, as if its just nothing.

Other than that, I really did enjoy it! Very well written from the childrens point of view I thought.

CAZALET SPOILER - don't read if you haven't read up to book 3 I think that, whilst the actual child abuse story doesn't go any further, it clouds the reader's opinion of Edward, clarifying what kind of a person he is, uncaring towards both his wife Villy and his children and also to his mistress Diana.

Furthermore, because it destroyed his relationship as father/ daughter with Louise, she took the first opportunity to escape and leave home, possibly leading her into her unhappy marriage to Michael. So whilst the child abuse wasn't referred to again, its effects rolled out across the series, altering Louise's character.

If you read Elizabeth Jane Howard's autobiography you will realise that The Cazalets is basically the story of her own family (to start with anyway) and the character of Louise is very autobiographical. The abuse really happened to her, so that's why it's in the book.

That's interesting, chessie. I have her autobiography on my tbr pile. Think I will read it once I've finished the Cazalets series.