Your 'comfort' book(s)

[JaffaCake70]

Not necessarily your favourite book, but which book(s) do you go back to time and time again and never tire of?

For me it's:

To Kill A Mockingbird

Any Adrien Mole (I still laugh out loud nearly 40 years after first reading them).

1984

The Anne of Green Gables books will never be bested for me. I have re-read them countless times and will no doubt do it countless more times.

Also, I love Lee Child's Reacher books. They are undemanding but very enjoyable and if I just want an escape into a familiar world with a familiar character, then that's what I pick up.

I can identify with many of the above, especially Jane Austen and the Cazulet series, but one book I regularly return to is Winter Solstice by Rosamund Pincher. I find it such an uplifting story of hope in adversity, lovely to read around December/ January.

This thread is a comfort read! Have both Mapp and Lucia and Diary of a Nobody on my TBR pile. Seeing them included amongst books that I love has just bumped them to the top!

I would add Lissa Evans’ Second World War trilogy, anything by Barbara Pym, The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank and The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim.

@timetochangethename Ahhh Back Home ❤️ broke my heart every time!

Almost all Marian Keyes bar one or two

@Theoldcuriosityshop are you me? That's so my list too

* Carriemac*
Spooky

Carriemac
Not sure what happened there to your name,

Antonia Forest and Diana Wynne Jones

I love Cynthia Voight, but would probably only choose Diceys Song as a regular re-read

And now this thread has made me think that I must re-read Back Home. I re-read it a few years ago and was so impressed at how good it was.

Jeeves and Wooster - what a comfortable little world Wodehouse created. Heaven, and hilarious.

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild.

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons.

A brief history of time.

It's lovely to see how many of you share my favourites like Dorothy Sayers, EM Delafield, Heyer and Bill Bryson ("I have long realised that it is part of God's plan for me to have to spend five minutes with each of the most stupid people on earth")
I don't think anyone has mentioned US author Fannie Flagg - I Liv 'Welcome to the world, baby girl' amongst others.
I always reread 'The Thing about Jane Spring' by Sharon Krum too when stressed. It's fabulous. Comedy novel about US district attorney from military family whose love life is disastrous until she watches an old Doris Day movie and decides to become Doris. You can thank me when you've read it!!

I've always got time for Adrian Mole.
the help by Kathryn Stockett
to kill a mockingbird

The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next series) by Jasper Fforde and Pride & Prejudice.

Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie novels

Helen Dunmore 'The Siege' & 'The Betrayal'

Most books by David Nichols & Marge Piercy.

Vikram Seth - A Suitable Boy is one I return to.

Alexander McCall Smith. 'No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency' books.
Precious Ramotswe is gentle and persevering and wise in her ways. She doesn't deal with serial killers but with the small but important crimes of the village. Her uplifting philosophy of life is threaded through all the novels.
The final paragraph is always particularly well written and beautiful.

The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason is a all time favourite reread.
Both the Secret History and the Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.
For Terry Pratchett- Thief of Time and Witches Abroad.
For non fiction How to be a Heroine by Samantha Ellis- for everyone who put Ballet Shoes- there's a chapter on this! I have never read it but it made me want to. Also she does an awesome overview of Lace by Shirley Conran which was my teenage comfort read. I never realised just how feminist it was until Ellis summed it up.

So many comfort books! Another one I thought of is Rumer Godden's The Greengage Summer. Also, Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor (apparently 14 American states have banned it as "too pornographic"!), A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart, Shogun by James Clavell, The Stand by Stephen King... I've read all of these so many times. They're like old friends.

The red tent
Adrian mole books
Any maeve binchy book
Memoirs of a geisha

I dip into my favourite scenes from Great Expectations sometimes, too, when I need a little lift.

The scene when Joe Gargery visits Pip in London is a tragi-comic masterpiece.

I remember reading loads of Jude Blume's in school, I'll make a note to re visit them, especially Margaret.. We must, we must.....

@JaffaCake70 I still have them all, some have dated better than others.

There's a documentary that came out a couple of weeks ago called Judy Blume Forever on Amazon prime. She's such a lovely lady.

The film of Margaret is out in the cinemas next month. The reviews from the US that I've seen have been good. I can't wait!

Noel Streatfeild
Homecoming
80s/90s Jean ure
trebizon

I agree with pp, no adult book has had anything like the same impression on me as the above.