Comfort Food Books: Which Ones Call You Back, Again and Again?

[madmax]

15 hours ago, SherriAnt said:

Get out of my brain! 😁 I just finished rereading both, again  

I did my Stand reread earlier this year.  A fun read in the midst of a pandemic...

I'm due for Swan Song.

[SnarkySheep]

On 8/2/2021 at 6:03 PM, Sarahsmile416 said:

- Almost every Jodi Picoult book I own (except the ones that piss me off and as I get older that number is getting larger)

-VC Andrews.  As bad as my life gets, at least I’m not married to my brother/uncle/person I believed to be my brother, etc lol

- All the Ramona books and Ellen Tebbets  (there was something so real about her friendship with Austine) 

- Emily of New Moon series

-BSC and Sweet Valley Twins/Sweet Valley High 

- Eyes of a Child and Protect and Defend by Richard North Patterson 

- Mary Higgins Clark

- The Chosen and Davita’s Harp by Chaim Potok 

- GWTW 

 

It’s funny everyone mentions The Long Winter - as a kid, my dad read every Laura Ingalls Wilder book to me but he always skipped The Long Winter because he said he always thought it was long and boring lol

 

I agree with almost all the books on your list, and will now be adding "brother/uncle/person" to my lexicon. 😀

Re: The Long Winter - It would definitely seem kind of dull to a lot of kids, because it WAS dull - the Ingallses literally just sat snowbound in their house the entire time. But, as an adult IMO, it's kind of a psychological thriller, because you can understand the horror of living that way for so many months on end. These people literally spent every minute of every day working feverishly trying not to freeze to death, and with little strength given the fact that they were down to like a single slice of bread per day per person. It would be horrifying to live through, but I'd think it would be especially horrifying to be a parent and to see your kids having to suffer like that.

[Sarahsmile416]

1 hour ago, SnarkySheep said:

I agree with almost all the books on your list, and will now be adding "brother/uncle/person" to my lexicon. 😀

Re: The Long Winter - It would definitely seem kind of dull to a lot of kids, because it WAS dull - the Ingallses literally just sat snowbound in their house the entire time. But, as an adult IMO, it's kind of a psychological thriller, because you can understand the horror of living that way for so many months on end. These people literally spent every minute of every day working feverishly trying not to freeze to death, and with little strength given the fact that they were down to like a single slice of bread per day per person. It would be horrifying to live through, but I'd think it would be especially horrifying to be a parent and to see your kids having to suffer like that.

Well damn, now I might have to read it lol.  Next time I go back home I will be picking it up.  Apparently not reading it to my 7 year old though lol

[Starleigh]

Loved The Long Winter as a kid, never found it dull at all. Of course, I didn't realize how absolutely terrifying it was till I reread it as an adult. Not just the threat of starvation, but all the times people were stuck outside on the forward edge of a blizzard and barely managed to get back to town in time.

[WinnieWinkle]

On 8/12/2021 at 10:48 PM, Starleigh said:

Loved The Long Winter as a kid, never found it dull at all. Of course, I didn't realize how absolutely terrifying it was till I reread it as an adult. Not just the threat of starvation, but all the times people were stuck outside on the forward edge of a blizzard and barely managed to get back to town in time.

Same.  I love the last 3 books best - Long Winter, Little Town and Happy Golden Years - and re-read them over and over for years.  Didn't really go back to the earlier ones as much.  Anyway I never thought of The Long Winter as dull - lots of exciting things happen in it for one thing - but IMO it was the best written of all the books, definitely a page turner!

[Prairie Rose]

I have several books that fit this category, but right now I will share Jim Kraus' The Cat That God Sent. It's about a disillusioned young pastor who takes over a church in a small town full of eccentric citizens, and the mysterious cat sent to help. It's a whimsical story with gravitas, if that makes sense.

[peacheslatour]

One of my comfort books is the Cat Who... series. This one is a particular favorite.

 

 

 

[JustHereForFood]

My favorite cat book is Oliver: The Cat Who Saved Christmas by Sheila Norton.

[badhaggis]

I always go back to Mary Higgins Clark and Maeve Binchy. In particular reading MB books is like visiting old friends for me.

[sugarbaker design]

Nothing is more comforting than a classic murder mystery.  Give me an English country house, a corpse, several suspects and a detective and I'm  happy.  You can always count on Christie, Marsh, Radley and Allingham.  More current writers are PD James, Simon Brett, Charles Todd and Peter Lovesey.

[peacheslatour]

3 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

Nothing is more comforting than a classic murder mystery.  Give me an English country house, a corpse, several suspects and a detective and I'm  happy.  You can always count on Christie, Marsh, Radley and Allingham.  More current writers are PD James, Simon Brett, Charles Todd and Peter Lovesey.

Agreed.

[dubbel zout]

Jenny Crusie's rom-coms are very funny and very sexy, and often involve women in their 30s or older.

[BlackberryJam]

4 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

Nothing is more comforting than a classic murder mystery.  Give me an English country house, a corpse, several suspects and a detective and I'm  happy.  You can always count on Christie, Marsh, Radley and Allingham.  More current writers are PD James, Simon Brett, Charles Todd and Peter Lovesey.

I saw this post and thought I wrote it....

[lasu]

On 8/3/2021 at 7:10 AM, Haleth said:

Where the Heart Is is a sweet, lovely book. 

EXCEPT FOR THAT ONE PART.

Spoiler

I've never been so shocked by violence in a book, just because this book is overall supposed to be a feel-good story, but then you have the part where the woman's boyfriend rapes both of her children and then violently beats (to the point either her eyelid or lip was hanging off) her after she walks in and tries to stop him.  Absolutely horrific and out of tone with the rest of the book, IMO.

That part is enough to keep me from ever reading it again or recommending it to others without at least a warning.

[Vanderboom]

Beverly Jenkins' Blessings series is definitely comfort reading; I'm so sad that she's ending it soon. I love that some of the characters are modern-day descendants of her historical romance characters! For me, the books have the right mix of drama, humor, adventure, and sweetness, but I wonder how some of the later books come across to someone who hasn't read the other books in the series.

[WendyCR72]

On 2/23/2022 at 3:34 PM, dubbel zout said:

Jenny Crusie's rom-coms are very funny and very sexy, and often involve women in their 30s or older.

And I love that most of Crusie's heroines are just fine being child free, thank you very much!

[dubbel zout]

And no one in the books makes a big deal about it, or insists that it will just take "the right man" coming along to change her mind. Ugh.

[WendyCR72]

7 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

And no one in the books makes a big deal about it, or insists that it will just take "the right man" coming along to change her mind. Ugh.

Exactly! Not all women are meant to be mothers, and I'm glad Jennifer Crusie represented that segment.

[SusanM]

On 2/23/2022 at 11:42 AM, sugarbaker design said:

Nothing is more comforting than a classic murder mystery. 

Absolutely true for me right now. I am reading through my Nero Wolfe collection and I would never have thought of these books as 'comfort food reading'  but, at least at this moment in time, for me, they are!  I love knowing that it's all going to work out in the end - the bad guy (or gal) will be punished and Nero and Archie will go on eating and sparring and detecting in their comfortable New York brownstone that I get to visit every now and then!

[Yogisbooboo64]

Chances, by the late, great Jackie Collins.

Chances introduces us to Lucky Santangelo, who is the daughter of mobster Gino.

Lucky is beautiful, independent, sexually confident and strives to gain respect and become just as powerful as her father.

Wonderful book, never get tired of it.

Edited March 24, 2022 by Yogisbooboo64

[GHScorpiosRule]

2 minutes ago, Yogisbooboo64 said:

Chances, by the late, great Jackie Collins.

Chances introduces us to Lucky Santangelo, who is the daughter of mobster Gino.

Lucky is beautiful, independent, sexually confident and strives to gain the respect and become just as powerful as her father.

Wonderful book, never get tired of it.

I LOOOOOVED Chances! It was my introduction to Jackie Collins! And Lucky was a good sequel. The third? Not so much. And I didn't bother with any other follow ups.

[Yogisbooboo64]

Yeah, Lucky was great. 

Unfortunately, I guess due to Jackie about to pass away, she wrote a final book called The Santangelos, where she proceeded to rewrite history...for instance, saying Lucky was a great cook when she could barely warm up soup!

[Bethany]

I've been reading Beverly Cleary recently as my granddaughter has gotten into the Ramona books.  Right now though I'm reading her "malt shop" books which were aimed at an older audience.  There were 4 of them and all of them are gems.  Dated, obviously, but still she wrote so well about what it feels like to be a teenage girl with all its insecurities, hopes and dreams.  Very much comfort food reading - especially as it reminds me of why I'm glad I'm not a teenager anymore!!

Edited January 31, 2023 by Elizabeth Anne

[Bastet]

When I saw a trailer for the movie version of Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret (coming out this spring), I plopped down that same evening to re-read the book.  I saved very, very few childhood books for lack of space, so I don't have any other Judy Blume books to pull from the shelf, but I plan to hit the library this week and re-visit some others.  Maybe I'll move on to Beverly Cleary after that.

[Grrarrggh]

On 1/31/2023 at 3:05 PM, Elizabeth Anne said:

I've been reading Beverly Cleary recently as my granddaughter has gotten into the Ramona books.  

Her autobiography was fantastic. I read it as a girl and later as an adult, and it held up quite well. 

[Dimity]

In the Chit Chat: The Feels thread there has been some discussion of how some of us are coping right now with feeling worried and trying to avoid the news.  I thought I'd share a few authors I've  been reaching for and maybe others could make some suggestions as well:

A while ago someone recommended the author D.E. Stevenson to me and I've been reading her which led me to the publishing site Furrowed Middlebrow.  A place that has made re-publishing lesser known British women authors from the mid 20th century their thing. 

I haven't liked every book I've read from them but I've liked a lot of them and getting them on kindle has meant they are often very cheap (which is a good thing!).  Some of the authors I've discovered here include Molly Clavering and Susan Scarlett (actually Noel Streatfeild writing for adults).

I also love Miss Read who wrote two series set in the British countryside.  Gentle reads that leave me calm and centred.

Another source of comfort food reading have been cozy mysteries.  Authors like Phoebe Atwood Taylor and Marian Babson are ones I'm going through right now.

One thing I can't read right now are things that are too suspenseful and absolutely no gore or stories where women are stalked or children are killed.  Nope. Not happening.

Edited January 22 by Dimity

[Anela]

I still have the dark is rising series to finish. By Susan cooper. I’ve started Dungeon Crawler Carl, but I can’t focus right now.  It isn’t just politics, I’ve had this problem for years.  

[DearEvette]

5 hours ago, Dimity said:

One thing I can't read right now are things that are too suspenseful and absolutely no gore or stories where women are stalked or children are killed.  Nope. Not happening.

That is where I am.  I look back at my reading history and I have read (and loved) some really dark stuff.  But now, I can't even! I need light and cozy or exciting and fantastical. Optimistic endings.

The closest to actual suspense I can read is Sharon Sala.  And that is because in her suspense/thrillers her villains aren't these omnipotent masterminds. They think they are, but their plans get derailed by the most random things, they get blindsided, and the good guys triumph so hard.

If I can't really focus, then I have a ton of comfort re-reads I fall back on. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

For me, it’s always Nora Roberts’ MacGregor Brides and MacGregor Grooms. Specifically, it’s for Daniel MacGregor himself. And of course his acting like Culloden took place in recent history in All The Possibilities (Alan and Shelby’s story) never fails to make me 😂😂😂😂 what with Shelby being a Campbell!

”Good blood. Strrong Stock.”

”Dunderhead”

”Pinhead”

”Poor old Granny*” 
 

*Anna is the COMPLETE opposite of that and I also laugh at his fear of her when trying to hide that he’s been sneaking in cigars.

Sigh. I think I’ll do another reread. After my reread of Hidden Riches. 😁

[sugarbaker design]

On 1/22/2025 at 3:26 PM, Dimity said:

In the Chit Chat: The Feels thread there has been some discussion of how some of us are coping right now with feeling worried and trying to avoid the news.

I've eschewed all my political podcasts since the election which leaves a big gap in my daily commute to and from work.  I have Spotify, and I've only recently found out that audio books are available.  I've read all PD James many years ago, but I've started listening to her novels (I'm listening to The Lighthouse right now).  The actor Charles Keating is the reader and he has a lovely, English-accented voice.  Thank god for Spotify and PD James for keeping me serene.

 

On 1/22/2025 at 3:26 PM, Dimity said:

Authors like Phoebe Atwood Taylor and Marian Babson are ones I'm going through right now.

I recently picked up PAT's first book at a bookstore in Provincetown, MA.