Comfort reads

[MsInterpret]

I'm recovering from Covid and I've picked up Watership Down. I've never scarred myself by watching the film (DH still haunted by it from childhood) but I think of the book as a comfort read as though it's dark, it's a saga, with the whole cast of characters and gamut of emotions, which I always find comforting.

What are your comfort reads?

Anything by Trisha Ashley.

Almost anything by Laurie Graham (favourites being The Future Homemakers of America, At Sea, Dress Circle, Perfect Meringues, Anyone for Seconds, Early Birds, Mr Starlight)

Family Life by Elisabeth Luard (even though no matter how many times I read it the end makes me cry)

Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfield

The Children Who Lived In a Barn - Eleanor Graham

Hands down James Herriot for comfort, nice to see some like-minded readers on here . I also find Lord of the Rings soothing.

This is probably quite unique but I found Wolf Hall a really comforting read during the last lockdown!

Rivals by Jilly Cooper, the one about TV (I’m not that bothered about horses)

Rosamunde Pilcher - Coming Home and The Shell Seekers

Any Human Heart by William Boyd

Reading Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford at the moment and it is laugh out loud funny.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Miss Read, PG Wodehouse, Fannie Flagg, Bill Bryson, Georgette Heyer, or Alexander McCall Smith.

Kindle Unlimited has the Catherine Gaskin books. I have been wallowing in them to distract myself from our house move.

Thanks for that HilaryThorpe - just downloaded a couple.

DrRamsesEmerson me too!

I’m currently re-reading some of my favourite Georgette Heyers because I’m feeling a bit bleak. And one of my other comfort reads is also Elizabeth Peters, but her Vicky Bliss books. Night Train to Memphis never fails to cheer me up.

@HelenaJustina

LM Montgomery Sir Terry Georgette Heyer Ellis Peters (Cadfael) Rosemary Sutcliffe Alexander McCall Smith Elinor Brent Dyer (Chalet School series)

Who is Sir Terry @HelenaJustina ? Is it a typo?

@tobee Sir Terry Pratchett

Oh of course!

All o could think of was Sir Terry Wogan and thought "that can't be right!"

LM Montgomery here too. The blue castle is my favourite book. Please read it!

Jane Austen
Patrick O'Brian
Antonia Forest
Diana Wynne Jones
Cranford by Mrs Gaskell
Terry Pratchett
Edith Nesbit
Lucy M Boston's Green Knowe series
Patricia Wentworth
Ngaio Marsh
Josephine Tey
Dorothy L Sayers, and Jill Paton Walsh's sequels

@buckeejit

LM Montgomery here too. The blue castle is my favourite book. Please read it!

Agreed, Blue Castle is wonderful!

Terry Pratchett!
Georgette Heyer (both regency and mystery)
DWJ
FHB
Agatha, Sayers, Allingham, Tey, Marsh
To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis
Elizabeth Cadell
Tolkien
Wodehouse
Provincial Lady
Elizabeth Goudge

Mary Stewart
Dorothy Dunnett, the Lymond books
Le Carre, the George Smiley/Karla books
Georgette Heyer
Dorothy Sayers

I love re reading the Adrian Mole books. I first started reading them at about age 12 and get a lot of comfort from them. Also the Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and The Mandibles by Lionel Shrivner.

Another vote for Rosamunde Pilcher's
Coming Home. I know it inside out but it is an epic book and totally absorbing.

I had never read any Rosamunde Pilcher so have started The Shell Seekers off the back of this thread & it really is a comfort read!

I’m intrigued that the Penelope character is viewed as quite elderly at 64 given that the author must have been close to that age when it was published. And by my reckoning she is only 4 years older than her daughter’s older lover, Cosmo, yet that is never remarked on & she is portrayed as much older than him.

Family Life by Elisabeth Luard (even though no matter how many times I read it the end makes me cry)

thank you for this recommendation!

Little Woman (Louisa May Alcott), and anything by Heidi Swain 😊.

@buckeejit

LM Montgomery here too. The blue castle is my favourite book. Please read it!

Love this book, I still have a hard back copy.

I also love Laurie graham books and reread them every year or so - I love anything historical that's relatable and accessible ...I'm amazed she's not more successful really
Also Adrian mole and Bridget Jones as others have said
I also love life after life by Kate Atkinson

For me, it's Rosamund Pilcher, Maeve Binchy and Lucy Dillon. Plus early Adele Parks and Jane Green - Larger than Life and Babyville being 2 faves.

Veronica Henry, Liz Fenwick - lovely feel-good novels, well-written, and usually a happy ending! Just right for these times.