Books that are balm for the soul

[flatsevenup]

Currently reading Mark Boyle’s book, called The way home, Tales from a life without technology, and I honestly can’t remember how long it it is since I read a book so soothing and comforting. Think also a Year in Provence and Simple Abundance, a day book of comfort and joy. Please recommend me books that you have read that made you feel all is well in the world.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-wood-at-midwinter/susanna-clarke/9781526675217

I have read a lot by Catherine Ryan Hyde, and would describe her writing style as soothing or comforting.

Seasons of Life and Death, by Maggie Ross. I have to re-read it every few years. One of my favourite parts is Maggie developing a relationship with a raven chick, and the choices she makes as a result.

I capture the castle. It’s lovely to read

Wind in the Willows ❤️
I love the Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard. If I am sad or tired I re read , I love the characters.

Rhubarb rhubarb- letters between a gardener and a cook

Full of good humour, lovely recipes and gardening tips

Yes, two very good choices.

P. G. Wodehouse is the ultimate balm. There is nothing like it in all of literature. Yeats said that Blake’s poems read like “beautiful laughing speech,” and I always think of that quote when I read Wodehouse. Stephen Fry called him a healer of wounded souls.

Jane Austen and Dickens also comfort me. So too Patrick Leigh Fermor and Virginia Woolf. Weirdly, I also find Evelyn Waugh a comfort. I say weirdly because he was a horrible man and his novels are savagely cruel. I think it’s because he’s so funny and writes so beautifully. In a way, the complete lack of softness or tenderness is refreshing.

Midnight Chicken.

Rain song by Alice wisler.

‘Olive Kitteridge’ by Elizabeth Strout - beautifully observed characters and full of warmth and soul. It was made into a TV series which is pretty good too.

Anything by Katherine May, Wintering and Enchantment are lovely.

The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan. It's like a hug in a book

Passage to Inis Mor

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Passage-Inis-Mór-Could-Legend/dp/B09RP7JLDZ/ref=asc_df_B09RP7JLDZ?mcid=e6061748720c35bc805cdd310397ddfe&th=1&psc=1&tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=697199685294&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6244671437911978020&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045129&hvtargid=pla-1636806572828&psc=1&hvocijid=6244671437911978020-B09RP7JLDZ-&hvexpln=0&gad_source=1

Lovely theme for the thread. I agree on PG Woodhouse. Also Bill Bryson's travel books

I'm always so confused when the Cazelet series gets referenced as comfort reading - what I remember from the one I read was a man sexually abusing his daughter and his wife having her teeth ripped out because she was old (at about 40).

I Capture the Castle, Diary of a Provincial Lady and any Wodehouse definitely work. Also Cyril Hare if you are open to detective series.

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. I’ve re read it so many times. A bygone age. The TV series is a nonsense by comparison.

I felt like that after reading Still Life by Sarah Winman.

Any PG Wodehouse
Cold Comfort Farm
Cranford
The Pursuit of Love
A Christmas Carol
The Mysterious Mr Quin by Agatha Christie

But the ultimate balm for the soul is….

….Silas Marner. It is just so beautiful.

@LittleLapwing Oh I love Cranford 😊

Anything by ‘Miss Read’. Village Diary, the Fairacre and Thrush Green series, Tyler’s Row, etc. They are gentle, soothing, and humorous, just lovely.

Leonard and Hungry Paul, by Ronan Hessian

All of All Creatures Great And Small books. If you love animals, nature and proper laugh out loud bits, they are a joy!

This is my comfort book. I love it so much and the family trip to Florence last year was definitely inspired by it.

My daughter read it when we were there and has fallen in love with it too.

Her other books are great too but there is something very loving and hopeful about this one. Aside from one very painful part.

i read a Christmas carol every year around Christmas and I find it comforting/warming!

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson. Beautiful