More Historical Comfort Reads

A few years ago I posted about my favorite historical comfort reads—you know, the books you go back and re-read when you’re tired or ill or otherwise not feeling quite up to par and need a soothing old friend to keep you company. Now seems like a good time to revisit the topic, so here are a few more of my favorites. I hope that readers will tell us about some of their historical comfort reads in the comments—I’m always looking for new old friends! Please note that any links may be affiliate links.

Eva Ibbotson 

Yes, I know she’s an author, not a book—a much-loved and recognized author of many delightful stories for younger readers such as The Star of Kazan, Journey to the River Sea, The Secret of Platform 13, and many others. But did you know that she also wrote five adult romances? They’re all stand-alones, set at various points between shortly before WWI and around and during WWII. All share England as part of their settings, but several include substantial portions set in Austria (where the author grew up) and on the Amazon River. Written in the 1980s, they do possess that era’s regrettable tendency to Big Misunderstandings (you know, where conflicts could be cleared up if people just talked to each other for ten minutes), but the characters (including secondary ones) and settings and plots and just so wonderful that I forgive them for that. The Secret Countess may be my favorite because it has a denouement scene worthy of Georgette Heyer at her best; but Magic Flutes, A Company of Swans, A Song for Summer, and The Morning Gift are not far behind. Part of what makes these special, I think, is that they’re slightly autobiographical: as a girl, the author fled Austria before WWII with her family, so there’s a feeling of authenticity about the small details that is enthralling. Some people consider these young adult books; I disagree, but they can be read by older teens. 

Caroline Stevermer 

Okay, yeah, she’s an author too. You really aren’t going to make me choose just one of her books, are you? If I had to, though, I’d go with A College of Magics, a marvelous young adult historical fantasy about a young woman coming into her own as ruler of her country—and as a witch—set in a fictionalized pre-WWI Europe, with a few extra eastern European countries along with the usual England, France, Spain, and so on. The era feels well-depicted, especially the women’s college the protagonist attends and the brief visits to Paris and on the Orient Express. One of my all-time favorite books, and with an almost as wonderful sequel, A Scholar of Magics.

 

 

Connie Willis  I’m an unashamed Connie Willis fangirl. She’s won more Hugo and Nebula Awards than just about anybody writing science fiction today…so why am I talking about her in a post about historical comfort reads? Because she’s written multiple time travel novels (the Oxford Historian series), and written them incredibly well. Doomsday Book may be her masterpiece (about a time-traveling history grad student mistakenly sent back to England on the verge of the arrival of the Black Death), but it’s To Say Nothing of the Dog that is indeed a comfort read: two historians sent back to study Coventry Cathedral before its destruction in the Blitz get entangled in problems and time paradoxes as they bounce between the 1940s, the 1860s, and beyond…and hilarity ensues. Just a delightful, funny book with a happy ending.

 

Do you have any historical comfort reads you’d like to talk about?

 

Comfort Reads, Part 2

We last talked about comfort reads here a couple of years ago…and hoo boy, if ever a topic should be discussed again, it’s that one. And right now.

I keep track of the books I’ve read on LibraryThing, a wonderful book cataloguing site that I’ve been a member of for nearly ten years now.* It had been a good reading year up till late March—I’d read several new books at a fairly brisk clip. And then—well, you know what happened. So what did I do?

I read Georgette Heyer, of course. I pounded back Sylvester and Frederica and The Unknown Ajax and Devil’s Cub and The Quiet Gentleman one after another, with scarce a pause in between. And it helped—it truly did. So I ventured into some new-to-me books again, prompted by a generous deal from Tor Books, and jumped into a series that’s received a lot of love in the book world but is perhaps one that NineteenTeen readers aren’t quite expecting to hear about here…but if you at all like science fiction (and yes, I do—very much!) you HAVE to read the Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells, beginning with All Systems Red..

Yes, you read that correctly. The Murderbot Diaries.

While that sounds dreadfully…icky and not at all comforting, this series of novellas qualifies as just that. Yes, it has all the usual trappings of science fiction—interstellar space travel, asteroid mining, robots and AIs and cyborgs, shady planetary surveyors. But it also has Murderbot, a cyborg security unit who is deeply, unabashedly, addicted to the future’s equivalent of Netflix. And a cyborg addicted to story somehow comes across as much more human than machine. If you’re at all a science fiction reader, you should give these books a try.

So that’s my comfort reading for the month. What are you reading that’s helping you through these troubling times?**

*And if you’re interested in checking LibraryThing out, accounts are now free for members to catalogue unlimited books. I tell you, this site has more than once kept me from buying second copies of books I’d forgotten I already owned. Of course, being a member has also meant I’ve bought a lot of books based on the recommendations of friends, so it’s probably a wash. 😊

 
**And by the way—hugs, my friends.

What’s Your Favorite (Historical) Comfort Read? (and Mystery Object Revealed!)

So...last week’s mystery object! I hope you all had fun guessing what it was, both here and on my Facebook page. And those of you who guessed that it was a butter churn were absolutely correct! I would definitely have preferred one of these to the dash-style churn—at least one could hold a book and read while churning. One does have priorities.

And speaking of reading...let’s talk about comfort reads.

Do you have books that you turn to whenever you’re feeling unhappy or blue, or just need to spend time in the company of a dear old friend who never lets you down? I expect most of us bookworms have such comfort reads. I certainly do...and of course, most of mine are historical. I thought it might be fun to talk a little about some of mine...and for you to share yours so that we can all enlarge our lists.  Are you ready?

The Wolves Chronicles by Joan Aiken

These are the oldest comfort reads on my list, since I discovered them somewhere around age nine or ten. They’re actually historical fantasy, set in an alternate timeline in which the Glorious Revolution never happened and the Stewarts continued to rule England and weren’t replaced by the Hanoverians...but that doesn’t mean the Hanoverians weren’t scheming to seize the throne.  Fortunately a doughty crew of children and teens sees through their machinations and rallies the grownups against their evil plots. The series starts with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and continues with Black Hearts in Battersea and Nightbirds on Nantucket, my personal favorite since it is set right near where I grew up in southeastern Massachusetts. I’ve actually never finished the whole series (there are eleven books in all), and while they’re written for a middle grade reading audience, this adult found them perfectly enjoyable reading.

   

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
I hesitated to add this book onto my “comfort read” list, because I’m not sure it quite qualifies...and besides, it’s not a book you lightly pick up on a whim to pick up your mood—not at just over a thousand pages! But I still reread it every year (usually in November, for some reason) because it’s one of my five favorite books of all time. It’s so...immersive is probably the word: it completely slurps me in and doesn’t let me go. It’s wildly creative, even though it takes place within the outlines of an entirely believable alternate Regency England where magic used to be part of the world (and may be making a comeback.) And it’s so full of sly humor (Clarke’s version of the Battle of Waterloo never fails to make me giggle) even when it’s also being rather melancholy or even occasionally angry. All I can say is read it (and don’t you even think about skipping the footnotes.)

           Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

More historical fantasy (are you seeing a pattern here?), this time set in a Regency England where magic is an accepted part of life and one of the events of the Season, along with dancing at Almack’s and visiting the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy, might be attending the investiture of a new wizard at the Royal College of Wizards. Kate Talgarth (yes, the book is littered with Georgette Heyer references) is off to London for her coming out, leaving behind her best friend (and cousin) Cecelia Rushton, but there will be plenty of magical adventure (and handsome suitors) enough for the both of them. Authors Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer wrote this story as a lark in a series of letters one summer; there are books detailing the cousins’ further adventures, but this one is definitely the best.

And of course, the divine Miss Heyer

I don’t think it’s possible to read a Georgette Heyer novel and not find yourself in a better mood when you close the book. Although she did manage to write a few (in my opinion) duds, she wrote many more that were simply brilliant. The Grand Sophy, Cotillion, The Unknown Ajax, Sylvester, and Arabella are more or less guaranteed to put a smile on my face—how about you?

All right, NineteenTeen readers, now it’s your turn—what are your favorite historical comfort reads?