Upcoming Comfort Reading

 

I have loved hearing from you about comfort reading!  My TBR list has grown, thanks to you.  Always a good thing.  

I often say I was born to be a retired person and people laugh, but I'm quite serious.  Spending my days reading is what I have wanted to do since forever and now it's pretty much what I do as my reward for all those years of work.

It's too peopley out there for me, and these days the craziness of the world is more than I want to be a part of (although the staff in my state reps' offices all pretty much now recognize my voice - I have no intention of disengaging totally; not while we have corrupt unhinged people running this country).  MY country.

Oops - one of my tangents; sorry . . .  As if none of you know how I feel about the state of things.

Back to comfort reading.

Louise Penny is one of my comfort read authors, and has been since I first heard of her and her debut novel, STILL LIFE.

I was lucky enough to meet Louise for the first time at the Baltimore Bouchercon in 2008.

Back then there was no long signing line.  I was able to gush and fumble and make it known in truest fangirl style that I thought she hung the moon as she signed my Three Pines books.

And I sill do.

I have all her books, of course.

Most have been signed and personalized and I absolutely treasure the collection.

Her newest, THE BLACK WOLF, will be published the end of this month.  And I can't wait!

But I'm also excited about the special anniversary edition of STILL LIFE.

All this to say, my winter comfort reading will be me snuggled up at home with Donald and Annabelle re-visiting Three Pines, books One through 20.  The Ultimate Comfort Read.

Louise will not be touring with her newest book in the United States for reasons I, personally, agree with and admire her for.  Read her words here.

And that's all for today from me in the mountains of Meat Camp, NC

Happy Reading

Stay strong, we are all in this together

❤ ❤ ❤

Comfort Reading Continues

 

The title of this book gives you no reason to think of it as a comfort read, you just have to take my word for it.

I love this book.

The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers • A New York Times “Readers’ Choice: Best Books of the 21st Century” Pick

From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Table for Two, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.

More Comfort Reading

I'm not of fan of overly sweet books.  Lifetime Movies are not my jam.

But I do love a well-written book that focuses on the good in us rather than the bad.  

Rosamunde Pilcher ticks all the right boxes for me with some of her novels, including Shell Seekers, September, Coming Home, and Winter Solstice.

It's almost that time of the ear when I reach for m well-worn copy of Winter Solstice.

 

From Amazon:

"From #1 New York Times bestselling author Rosamunde Pilcher, Winter Solstice (the basis for the TV movie) is the story of five unforgettable characters, lonely and haunted strangers who find love and loyalty as a reborn family of friends during the Christmas holidays.

Elfrida Phipps, once of London’s stage, moved to the English village of Dibton in hopes of making a new life for herself. Gradually she settled into the comfortable familiarity of village life—shopkeepers knowing her tastes, neighbors calling her by name—still she finds herself lonely.

Oscar Blundell gave up his life as a musician in order to marry Gloria. They have a beautiful daughter, Francesca, and it is only because of their little girl that Oscar views his sacrificed career as worthwhile.

Carrie returns from Austria at the end of an ill-fated affair with a married man to find her mother and sister sharing a home and squabbling endlessly. With Christmas approaching, Carrie agrees to look after her sister's awkward and quiet teenage daughter, Lucy, so that her mother might enjoy a romantic fling in America.

Sam Howard is trying to pull his life back together after his wife has left him for another. He is without home and without roots, all he has is his job. Business takes him to northern Scotland, where he falls in love with the lush, craggy landscape and set his sights on a house.

It is the strange rippling effects of a tragedy that will bring these five characters together in a large, neglected estate house near the Scottish fishing town of Creagan."

Today's comfort -

Anyone who knows me knows my favorite place to be is home.

And you know my next favorite place to be is Paris.

Paris and I are not quite finished with one another just yet and I'll be saying hello to her in a few months.  More about that soon.

In the meantime, while attempting to escape from the hatefulness and corruption constantly brewing these days, I'm choosing beauty and comfort as often as I can.

Today I'm choosing the Paris artwork of Raoul Dufy - Enjoy!!!

From Wikipedia:

Raoul Dufy (French: [ʁa.ul dy.fi]; 3 June 1877 – 23 March 1953) was a French Fauvist painter, brother of Jean Dufy. He developed a colorful, decorative style that became fashionable for designs of ceramics and textiles, as well as decorative schemes for public buildings. He is noted for scenes of open-air social events. He was also a draftsman, printmaker, book illustrator, scenic designer, a designer of furniture, and a planner of public spaces.

Raoul Dufy was born into a large family at Le Havre, in Normandy. He left school at the age of fourteen to work in a coffee-importing company. In 1895, when he was 18, he started taking evening classes in art at Le Havre's École des Beaux-Arts (municipal art school). The classes were taught by Charles Lhuillier, who had been, forty years earlier, a student of the French portrait-painter, Ingres. There, Dufy met Raimond Lecourt (fr) and Othon Friesz with whom he later shared a studio in Montmartre and to whom he remained a lifelong friend. During this period, Dufy painted mostly Norman landscapes in watercolors.

In 1900, after a year of military service, Dufy won a scholarship to the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where again he crossed paths with Othon Friesz. (He was there when Georges Braque also was studying.) He concentrated on improving his drawing skills. The impressionist landscape painters, such as Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro, influenced Dufy profoundly. His first exhibition (at the Exhibition of French Artists) took place in 1901. Introduced to Berthe Weill in 1902, Dufy showed his work in her gallery. Then he exhibited again in 1903 at the Salon des Indépendants. A boost to his confidence: the painter, Maurice Denis, bought one of his paintings. Dufy continued to paint, often in the vicinity of Le Havre, and, in particular, on the beach at Sainte-Adresse, made famous by Eugène Boudin and Claude Monet. In 1904, with his friend, Albert Marquet, he worked in Fecamp on the English Channel (La Manche).

Henri Matisse's Luxe, Calme et Volupté, which Dufy saw at the Salon des Indépendants in 1905, was a revelation to the young artist, and it directed his interests towards Fauvism. Les Fauves (the wild beasts) emphasized bright color and bold contours in their work. Dufy's painting reflected this aesthetic until about 1909, when contact with the work of Paul Cézanne led him to adopt a somewhat subtler technique. It was not until 1920, however, after he had flirted briefly with yet another style, cubism, that Dufy developed his own distinctive approach. It involved skeletal structures, arranged with foreshortened perspective, and the use of thin washes of color applied quickly, in a manner that came to be known as stenographic. Dufy's cheerful oils and watercolors depict events of the time period, including yachting scenes, sparkling views of the French Riviera, chic parties, and musical events. The optimistic, fashionably decorative, and illustrative nature of much of his work has meant that his output has been less highly valued critically than the works of artists who have addressed a wider range of social concerns.

This is a part of the Wikipedia article used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). The full text of the article is here →

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Dufy 

A Different Sort of Comfort Read

 

Who else reads cookbooks like they're novels?

I know I'm not the only one.

I am well aware that recipes are easily available on-line.  I make good use of that resource.

But there's just something about a cookbook that is appealing to me.

And, a comfort.

If you're a fan of the J. D. Robb In Death series, this might interest you.

From Amazon:

"Discover seventy-four to-die-for recipes inspired by the world of J.D. Robb's #1 best-selling series―with a Foreword by J.D. Robb herself!

With more than seventy amazing photographs, and story excerpts that connect the recipes to the novels that inspired them, The In Death Cookbook will transport fans from the bustling streets of futuristic New York City to Lieutenant Eve Dallas and Roarke's luxurious Manhattan mansion, where they'll learn to prepare the most delectable dishes. From Autochef favorites to Summerset's mouth-watering desserts, readers will find professionally developed, easy-to-prepare selections ranging from breakfast entrees to sides, main courses and everything in between. Contributions from the whole In Death cast of characters, including the beloved snack―Feeney's Candied Nuts!

A must for every J.D. Robb fan and a great holiday gift.

"I can still wish for an AutoChef, but until technology grants that wish, please enjoy these fun, adventurous, comforting, fancy, and basic recipes―inspired by the In Death series and its characters. I hope you find pleasure in the preparation and in the sharing of these dishes with friends, family, and lovers." ― J. D. Robb a.k.a. Nora Roberts"

And, if you're lucky enough to have a sister-friend (as I do) like Lesa Holstine, maybe she'll surprise you with a copy.  

Thank you, Lesa.  I love you to the moon and back.

Comfort reading continues

 

Blindsided by betrayal in pre-WWII England, a woman charts a daring new course in this captivating tale of resilience, friendship, and new love by the bestselling author of The Rose Arbor and The Venice Sketchbook.

Surrey, England, 1938. After thirty devoted years of marriage, Ellie Endicott is blindsided by her husband’s appeal for divorce. It’s Ellie’s opportunity for change too. The unfaithful cad can have the house. She’s taking the Bentley. Ellie, her housekeeper Mavis, and her elderly friend Dora—each needing escape—impulsively head for parts unknown in the South of France.

With the Rhône surging beside them, they have nowhere to be and everywhere to go. Until the Bentley breaks down in the inviting fishing hamlet of Saint Benet. Here, Ellie rents an abandoned villa in the hills, makes wonderful friends among the villagers, and finds herself drawn to Nico, a handsome and enigmatic fisherman. As for unexpected destinations, the simple paradis of Saint Benet is perfect. But fates soon change when the threat of war encroaches.

Ellie’s second act in life is just beginning—and becoming an adventure she never expected.

Comfort Reading Continues

 

Reading anything written by Sarah Addison Allen is, to me, the epitome of comfort reading.

Other Birds is her most recent.  

"When Zoey comes to claim her deceased mother’s apartment on a tiny South Carolina island, she meets her quirky and secretive neighbors — including a girl on the run, two estranged middle-aged sisters, a lonely chef, a legendary writer, and three ghosts. Each with their own story. Each with their own longings. Each whose ending isn’t yet written."

I recommend reading them all.

Every one of 'em.

Gobble them up while indulging in your favorite snacks and comfort food.

Hal Groat II

Comfort Reading

 

I love this book.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Discover the word-of-mouth hit hailed by Ann Patchett as “a cause for celebration”—an intimate novel about the transformative power of the written word and the beauty of slowing down to reconnect with the people we love.

“I cried more than once as I witnessed this brilliant woman come to understand herself more deeply.”—Florence Knapp, author of The Names

LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE • A PBS TOP SUMMER BOOK • LIBRARYREADS PICK OF THE MONTH

“Imagine, the letters one has sent out into the world, the letters received back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle. . . . Isn’t there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?”

Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime.

Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be “a very small thing,” but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read.

Home - our safe spot. For now.

Turn into this driveway and we're home.

Our life here has always been pretty simple.

We worked.

Then we retired.

We've contributed to society.

We've minded our business, paid taxes, voted.

We've watched the world change.

Watched our country change.

The peace we worked for seems to now be broken.

Our dollars aren't going as far as they used to.  We have no say in where our tax dollars are being spent.  Gerrymandering is infringing on our votes.  Men wearing masks and carrying guns are roaming our streets freely while people are being disappeared.  We can now legitimately be called a police state.  The man sitting in our White House is not above personal revenge tactics - suing institutions, firing individuals he doesn't have legal authority to fire, ordering the shooting and killing of people in international waters for suspected crimes.  Guardrail support from supposedly independent government agencies, congress,  and the supreme court seem to be, basically, missing while a partisan group of people performing the will of the president rather than following laws and basic constitutional tenets (like freedom of speech - did you see this?) .  Freedoms are being willfully whittled away with spoken threats to anyone, including journalists, speaking out against current conditions and policies, in disagreement.  

There's so much more.  SO much more - the VP of the US doing racist podcasts  (do not even get me started . . .)

There is very little integrity left within our government.  

But it's all too exhausting.  I have to stop right here.  I invite you to read this article, it says all I'm too out of steam to say.   https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/opinion/trump-charlie-kirk-crackdown.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mU8.tJI5.5dXTt1asLRMM&smid=url-share

As for me, Annabelle, and our Donnie.  We are, today, happily ensconced in our little home at the edge of the wilderness.   Minding our own business in our own little private world.  We're even vaccinated!  Because we, unlike our weird  administration, believe in science.  Who knew believing in science would become a political us vs. them thing.  Unbelievable.

And dammit.  Robert Redford died.