Comfort reading in a crisis is far more enjoyable than scanning the headlines. I hope some of my favourite books will help your retreat from reality.
Most of these recommendations are older books, which you may wish to read again. In the words of Canadian author Robertson Davies:
“A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.”
I couldn’t possibly list ALL my favourite books, but here’s a small selection that should appeal to all tastes.
I linked the highlighted titles to Amazon Canada just because it’s easier, but it’s much better to order them from your favourite bookstore — in fact, you should be supporting them now more than ever!
COMFORT READING: HUMOUR
1. Cold Comfort Farm
In times of trouble, it helps to laugh. This book would have made my list anyway, but the title is very apropos. Flora Poste moves into an old farmhouse filled with dysfunctional family members, and whips both the house and its inhabitants back into shape. Very British, wickedly dry and witty. This classic 1930s novel by Stella Gibbons was made into a 1995 movie with several British stars including Stephen Fry and Rufus Sewell.
2. The Code of the Woosters
Comfort reading at its finest. If you can’t concentrate on a complicated plot, here’s a bit of intelligent fluff. P.G. (Plum) Wodehouse wrote eighty novels in his long career, so if you fall in love with the hare-brained Bertie Wooster and his more intelligent butler Jeeves, you won’t run out of reading material. These books are in a rare category of literature that make me laugh out loud.
3. The Woefield Poultry Collective
Not only the British write funny books, of course, and one of my recent favourites is this one by Susan Juby, who lives on Vancouver Island. Fittingly, the heroine buys an old farm on Vancouver Island and moves there, intending to make her fortune, and finds herself involved with a cast of hilarious characters. It was so darned funny that I purchased the sequel, The Republic of Dirt, which was also very humorous.
COMFORT READING: HISTORICAL
4. Lonesome Dove
I know what you’re probably thinking — a cowboy book? But this is such a fascinating story you will find yourself lost along the old cattle trail in no time. You don’t have to be a fan of Westerns to fall in love with Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call, two former Texas rangers on a long cattle drive.
McMurtry deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize for this literary masterpiece. If you can’t get enough of these cowpokes, there are two sequels. I read and loved them all. The TV miniseries with Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones is also great, but (as always) you should read the book first.
5. Mrs. Mike
I first read this book as a teenager, and then a couple of times subsequently. Just sixteen years old, the Boston heroine marries a handsome Mountie in 1907 and accompanies him to Hudson’s Hope, British Columbia, where she encounters the most incredible hardships. This is based on a true story, as told to the authors, Benedict and Nancy Freedman.
COMFORT READING: WARTIME
6. Master and Commander
Although this appears to be a “manly” series, it’s appealing to all genders. Along with lots of swashbuckling action, the human relationships are gripping. A few years ago I went crazy for the Master and Commander series, devouring all twenty of them back-to-back in one six-month reading marathon, voyaging around the world in a man-of-war, alongside Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Maturin. The first book was made into a movie with Russell Crowe.
This book appears on a list that I posted previously of TWENTY best wartime books here: Best Wartime Fiction.
COMFORT READS: CONTEMPORARY
7. Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand
Beloved by book clubs everywhere, including my own, this novel tells the tale of a crusty retired British major who is having trouble accommodating himself to the modern world. However, he manages it with great dignity, and the book also features a charming middle-aged romance.
8. Moonshine
Victoria Clayton is a British writer whose heroines find themselves in old houses filled with dysfunctional characters and transform them, sort of a contemporary version of Cold Comfort Farm. Her books are clever and terribly funny. I wrote the author a fan email, and she replied, which I thought was very gracious of her. She has written seven very good adult novels, and I own them all.
9. Wildwood
You didn’t really think I was going to avoid mentioning my own book, did you? Seriously, this story about a young woman from the city who goes off the grid and lives in isolation for one year with her little daughter couldn’t be more apt for our current situation.
COMFORT READING: MYSTERY
10. The Nine Tailors
There are so many great mysteries, new and old, that I hardly know where to begin. However, I’ll throw this one out there in case you haven’t heard of Lord Pete Wimsey. Dorothy L. Sayers created an unforgettable and romantic detective in Lord Peter, the man who fought the criminal element while courting his true love, mystery writer Harriet Vane. Apparently Sayers wished she WAS Harriet Vane, and so do I when I read these books.
11. The Husband’s Secret
One day a woman accidentally stumbles across a letter addressed to her, written by her husband, instructing her to open it ONLY if he is dead. Could she resist opening the letter? You’ll have to read the book to find out. Liane Moriarty is an Australian author, and I am currently reading all of her novels. Big Little Lies is now a televised miniseries with Nicole Kidman.
COMFORT READING: ROMANCE
12. Pride and Prejudice
If this is one of those books that you never got around to reading, now is the time. The classic story is timeless, and simply smoulders with repressed passion. Several movies and miniseries have been made (the one with Colin Firth is head and shoulders above the rest), since the book is the very last word in romance. Jane Austen wrote seven novels — Pride and Prejudice is her masterpiece.
COMFORT READING: MEMOIR
13. Wolf Willow
Author Wallace Stegner won the 1971 Pulitzer Prize winner for his novel Angle of Repose. He was a well-known American writer and environmentalist who spent part of his boyhood in Canada. Wolf Willow tells the fascinating story of his prairie homestead. I spent one month in his family’s former humble abode in Eastend, Saskatchewan, now offered to writers and artists as a retreat, and you can read more here: Wallace Stegner House.
COMFORT READING: HEALTH
14. Younger Next Year
This down-to-earth book is a common-sense approach to getting fitter and healthier and most importantly, strengthening our immune system! It was written by two men, who followed up with a women’s version which mostly repeats the same information, so you might as well stick with this one. The authors provide good, solid, inspiring advice about how to combat your chronological age.
COMFORT READING: CHILDREN’S
15. The Secret Garden
Children’s books in days gone by were written at such a higher level that they are entertaining to read even as an adult. This 1911 story of the poor little rich girl in Yorkshire who creates her own secret garden is a wonderful tribute to the healing power of nature.
Finally, the photo below shows me in front of my computer, reading aloud a chapter each day from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone to my six-year-old granddaughter Nora.
* * * * *
LEST WE FORGET
Elizabeth is now the only serving sovereign in the world who is also a veteran of the Second World War. Read about her wartime service here: War Veteran Wears a Crown.
Elizabeth was inspired by her own mother, also named Elizabeth, who refused to leave London even though it was being bombed. She contributed so greatly to British morale that Hitler called her “the most dangerous woman in Europe.” Read about Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, here: Queen Mum.
* * * * *
Friends, take heart. Human beings are a hardy species who have weathered far worse storms than this. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Affectionately, Elinor
