I was really into The Princess Bride in the summer of 2001, so the movie and book became my refuge a lot around 9/11 and during a traumatic shooting in 2002. And then, around 2019 and the beginning of the pandemic, I used A Court of Thorns and Roses as my escape from reality.
I had to be hospitalized for a few days my freshman year of high school, and my dad brought me ALL his Tom Clancy novels. Totally not my thing, but they were brought with such love, so it helped.
If she's okay with dark books (which I'm guessing from the Shepherd?), Kelley Armstrong's Rockton series is incredibly binge-able and addictive (and although dark things do happen, the heroine and her by-the-end-of-book-1 boyfriend are really TRYING to do the right thing throughout and make justice happen).
The Hunger Games was a quickie that helps. American Gods by Neil Gaiman helped me through the Fall Of 2001. My writer friends and I started a podcast salon where we or others read our poems and fiction. It's called Sonic Salon. I should have mine up soon. A hardboiled spy story set in 1950s Las Vegas called 65 miles to Ground Zero. I am writing a radio play mockumentary for it as well.
One of the books I’ve returned to many times over the years is The Dwarf, by Par Lagerkvist. The narrator, a court dwarf in a fictionalized version of Milan has a twisted and misanthropic view of the world around him. He’s even unable to appreciate Bernardo, the artist who’s basically da Vinci with the serial numbers filed off. It was one of my dad’s favorite books. He shared it with me when I was twelve or thirteen, and I’ve reread it several times since. I still have the well worn copy I bought in boarding school, with a sticker from the used bookstore on the cover. I also remember reading The Name of the Rose for pleasure during a particularly tough semester in college.
The summer I turned 20 (or was it 21?) I checked out as many Stephen King novels as I could from the Chautauqua Institution library, and let myself get sucked in when I wasn't working my cinema job. I realize now that I had undiagnosed depression, and I preferred to escape to my room rather than make the most of where I was.
During the first few months of the pandemic, I read a lot of books—but don't ask me for specific titles, because I don't feel like scrolling back through my Instagram to find out—but my go-tos for hard times are either young adult or romance novels. Or young adult romances. They are mind-candy for me: a sweet burst of pleasure.
What I'm going to recommend doesn't necessarily fall into either category, though!
• Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson (this epistolary novel sparked the one I wrote and am now revising)
• The Last Dreamwalker by Rita Woods (Gullah Geechee family magic stuff)
• The Storied Life if A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin (no, I haven't read her latest yet!)
• The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah (full disclosure: Ann's a friend, but I wouldn't rec this if I didn't love it)
• The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix (as a left-handed bookseller, I had to buy this, and it's a lot of fun)
• The Regional Office Is Under Attack! by Manuel Gonzalez (Farfelu, as the French would say)
I read Robertson Davies' The Deptford Trilogy--it was an omnibus edition--back when dealing with my grandmother being hospitalized in NYC and ferrying my grandfather back and forth for several weeks. I had read his Cornish Trilogy earlier that year. Some dazzling work. I also love reading Craig Rice when I need a pick me up, Michael Chabon, Donald Westlake's Dortmunder novels. I'm sure there are more if I go look at the bookcases in my office...
Hi! I found “H is for Hawk” by Helen MacDonald while reeling from the loss of my dad. While it isn’t a book about coping with loss, per se, it isn’t *not* about that. Her prose is beautiful, cannot recommend it highly enough.
My goto anxiety calming books are the Yotsuba! manga series. So adorable and soothing I’ve reread all 15 books countless times. The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green is also soothing and great for small bites or longer sessions.
Its message of the interconnectivity of humanity through the past, present,and future pulled my spiritual airframe out of the nosedive I was in at the time.
"My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?”
2022 was a brutal year as my mom dealt with a leukemia diagnosis and treatment, including being rendered paraplegic (but lately she's been able to stand and even take a few steps!). I couldn't quite remember which books got me through it, so I went to my year-end blog post: https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2022/12/30/my-reading-year.html
It felt really great to explore new vistas and read about people who were able to actually change things when I felt so ineffectual and unable to help my mom.
So sorry for all this, Gwenda! That sounds tough... Malka Older had a stellar article on comfort reading recently: https://www.tor.com/2023/03/22/malka-older-chooses-her-top-5-comfort-reads/comment-page-1/ I loved (loved!) the KJ Charles and the T. Kingfisher. For both of them, I've read every one of their books multiple times, I think, can't go wrong there. And Murderbot of course (Murderbot <3). The other two I haven't read yet, but I bought them on her recommendation, since she was so spot on for me with the others. Hope there's something in here for you as well! And good luck to your mom & the rest of your family.
Apr 3, 2023·edited Apr 3, 2023Liked by Gwenda Bond
I read the first Veronica Speedwell book, A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourne, while planning my wedding. I’d take it or its early sequels into a hot bath to de-stress from the day. I found that mysteries took my mind out of my circumstances the easiest, and these are so funny and charming and interesting without ever feeling like a slog. The following spring, I gave copies to a friend who’d been diagnosed with breast cancer. She read them during treatments, then passed them on to a friend. I’ve loaned my copies out so many times that when the final book in the series was coming out earlier this year, I took inventory and re-bought the copies that had never made it back to me so I’d have the complete set again. And I promptly gave the first book away to a friend going to in-patient treatments for anxiety and C-PTSD. I’ve probably bought 4 or 5 copies of the first book by now.
I was really into The Princess Bride in the summer of 2001, so the movie and book became my refuge a lot around 9/11 and during a traumatic shooting in 2002. And then, around 2019 and the beginning of the pandemic, I used A Court of Thorns and Roses as my escape from reality.
I had to be hospitalized for a few days my freshman year of high school, and my dad brought me ALL his Tom Clancy novels. Totally not my thing, but they were brought with such love, so it helped.
If she's okay with dark books (which I'm guessing from the Shepherd?), Kelley Armstrong's Rockton series is incredibly binge-able and addictive (and although dark things do happen, the heroine and her by-the-end-of-book-1 boyfriend are really TRYING to do the right thing throughout and make justice happen).
The Hunger Games was a quickie that helps. American Gods by Neil Gaiman helped me through the Fall Of 2001. My writer friends and I started a podcast salon where we or others read our poems and fiction. It's called Sonic Salon. I should have mine up soon. A hardboiled spy story set in 1950s Las Vegas called 65 miles to Ground Zero. I am writing a radio play mockumentary for it as well.
One of the books I’ve returned to many times over the years is The Dwarf, by Par Lagerkvist. The narrator, a court dwarf in a fictionalized version of Milan has a twisted and misanthropic view of the world around him. He’s even unable to appreciate Bernardo, the artist who’s basically da Vinci with the serial numbers filed off. It was one of my dad’s favorite books. He shared it with me when I was twelve or thirteen, and I’ve reread it several times since. I still have the well worn copy I bought in boarding school, with a sticker from the used bookstore on the cover. I also remember reading The Name of the Rose for pleasure during a particularly tough semester in college.
The summer I turned 20 (or was it 21?) I checked out as many Stephen King novels as I could from the Chautauqua Institution library, and let myself get sucked in when I wasn't working my cinema job. I realize now that I had undiagnosed depression, and I preferred to escape to my room rather than make the most of where I was.
During the first few months of the pandemic, I read a lot of books—but don't ask me for specific titles, because I don't feel like scrolling back through my Instagram to find out—but my go-tos for hard times are either young adult or romance novels. Or young adult romances. They are mind-candy for me: a sweet burst of pleasure.
What I'm going to recommend doesn't necessarily fall into either category, though!
• Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson (this epistolary novel sparked the one I wrote and am now revising)
• The Last Dreamwalker by Rita Woods (Gullah Geechee family magic stuff)
• The Storied Life if A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin (no, I haven't read her latest yet!)
• The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah (full disclosure: Ann's a friend, but I wouldn't rec this if I didn't love it)
• The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix (as a left-handed bookseller, I had to buy this, and it's a lot of fun)
• The Regional Office Is Under Attack! by Manuel Gonzalez (Farfelu, as the French would say)
When my husband had cancer in 2014, the Penny Brannigan mysteries by Elizabeth J. Duncan were my lifesavers.
I read Robertson Davies' The Deptford Trilogy--it was an omnibus edition--back when dealing with my grandmother being hospitalized in NYC and ferrying my grandfather back and forth for several weeks. I had read his Cornish Trilogy earlier that year. Some dazzling work. I also love reading Craig Rice when I need a pick me up, Michael Chabon, Donald Westlake's Dortmunder novels. I'm sure there are more if I go look at the bookcases in my office...
Hi! I found “H is for Hawk” by Helen MacDonald while reeling from the loss of my dad. While it isn’t a book about coping with loss, per se, it isn’t *not* about that. Her prose is beautiful, cannot recommend it highly enough.
My goto anxiety calming books are the Yotsuba! manga series. So adorable and soothing I’ve reread all 15 books countless times. The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green is also soothing and great for small bites or longer sessions.
Love hearing from y’all and keep it coming. Thank you. 🥰
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.
Its message of the interconnectivity of humanity through the past, present,and future pulled my spiritual airframe out of the nosedive I was in at the time.
"My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?”
I carry that shit with me everyday.
2022 was a brutal year as my mom dealt with a leukemia diagnosis and treatment, including being rendered paraplegic (but lately she's been able to stand and even take a few steps!). I couldn't quite remember which books got me through it, so I went to my year-end blog post: https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2022/12/30/my-reading-year.html
Looking at it I realize that the stories that really comforted me were ones I found on the aesthetics wiki page for adventurecore: https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Adventurecore
It felt really great to explore new vistas and read about people who were able to actually change things when I felt so ineffectual and unable to help my mom.
So sorry for all this, Gwenda! That sounds tough... Malka Older had a stellar article on comfort reading recently: https://www.tor.com/2023/03/22/malka-older-chooses-her-top-5-comfort-reads/comment-page-1/ I loved (loved!) the KJ Charles and the T. Kingfisher. For both of them, I've read every one of their books multiple times, I think, can't go wrong there. And Murderbot of course (Murderbot <3). The other two I haven't read yet, but I bought them on her recommendation, since she was so spot on for me with the others. Hope there's something in here for you as well! And good luck to your mom & the rest of your family.
I read the first Veronica Speedwell book, A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourne, while planning my wedding. I’d take it or its early sequels into a hot bath to de-stress from the day. I found that mysteries took my mind out of my circumstances the easiest, and these are so funny and charming and interesting without ever feeling like a slog. The following spring, I gave copies to a friend who’d been diagnosed with breast cancer. She read them during treatments, then passed them on to a friend. I’ve loaned my copies out so many times that when the final book in the series was coming out earlier this year, I took inventory and re-bought the copies that had never made it back to me so I’d have the complete set again. And I promptly gave the first book away to a friend going to in-patient treatments for anxiety and C-PTSD. I’ve probably bought 4 or 5 copies of the first book by now.
Louise Penny's books. The core message of them is that bad things happen but we can get through them with love and friends and family.
In the spring of 2020, all I could read was Laura Lipmann's Tess Monaghan mysteries.