Comfort Reading Part 2

As promised, a few more reading suggestions from newsletter subscribers.  My brother texted me to point out that it was sacrilege that I hadn't mentioned Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series. Quite right. I first read these when they were recommended to me by a forward-thinking English teacher when I was 15 years old. She was smart enough to realise that all the sex and drugs didn't matter. They are at their core heart-warming stories of friendship and inclusion. And sex and drugs. Beginning in the 1970s, the books tell the story of naive and somewhat prissy Mid-Westerner Mary Ann Singleton having her eyes opened by moving to San Francisco. The books continue the story of her and her friends right up to the present day. The adaptations on Netflix starring Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis are pretty marvelous too.  I forgot to ask whether people minded having their names mentioned in this (I didn't ask my brother either, but as family, he is used to it) so I will do the rest with initials.  CS wrote to recommend Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic series, particularly the first book. These I would definietly file under 'books I have unfairly ignored because of their horrible marketing' (the 'chicklit' label was appaling for women's fiction.) She also mentions Pollyanna as "the ultimate feelgood book". I remember reading it when I was quite little and being embarassed to like it because it was considered to be wet. Maybe one day I will devote an entire post to ways in which books aimed at women and girls have been denigrated for as long as they have existed. (Jaw-droppingly, when I tried to look up Pollyanna on Hive, the first thing it suggested was a DVD of Irvine Welsh's Filth, one of the most graphic and unpleasant books in the English language. It is not the book you are looking for.) CS also says that she often reads YA fiction as escapism, suggesting Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunters series, which apparently get better the further in you go.  MT kicked off her recommendations with Anne of Green Gables which I enthusiastically second, for those who find solace in children's books. The 1980s Megan Follows adaptations are legendary amongst women of a certain age (my age) and I have it on good authority that Anne with an E, the current Netflix version, is as good if not better. She also suggests Lady in Waiting, which is the memoir of Princess Margaret's Lady in Waiting Anne Glenconnor, which is apparently "worth it for the honeymoon story alone" which is quite a mind-boggling claim.  SN says that he finds Kathleen Jamie's essays on natural history "immensely comforting" - one for fellow fans of Helen Macdonald. (There are a few different books - I have just linked to one here. As an aside, I am linking to Hive wherever possible - they contribute a share of any book sales to an independent bookshop of your choice, and don't always suggest Irvine Welsh when you are looking for uplifting children's fiction.)  RW suggests reading nonsense verse "as it seems to be the only thing that makes sense". She also sent me an extraordinary story about Stella Gibbons (author of Cold Comfort Farm) whose work was believed by one critic to be that of Evelyn Waugh under a nom de plume, because a woman could not possibly be clever or funny enough to have written it.  SP recommends the bewitching-sounding In The Night Garden by Catherynne M Valente which has nothing to do with the children's programme of the same name. It's a sort of modern Arabian Nights of interwoven fairytales. Presumably it is more comforting than Angela Carter's extraordinarily good but hardly soothing fairytale reimaginings The Bloody Chamber, which sprung to mind as I read about it.  KW is a fan of light crime for relaxation purposes: Josephine Tey or Dorothy L Sayers by preference, if you have already read all the Agatha Christies.  Lastly, CH wonders why I haven't put my own books on this list. "Promote yourself, Marie!!" she says. It is true that I specialise in writing funny books designed to distract you from whatever in life is bothering you. My favourite piece of fanmail ever was from someone who would read them every time she had a smear test. Gods Behaving Badly is about Greek Gods in modern London, The Table of Less Valued Knights is about the knights who never made it to the Round Table, Oh, I Do Like To Be... is about two clones of Shakespeare chasing each other around a seaside town, and Create Your Own Midlife Crisis is a choose-your-own-adventure book about having a midlife crisis, ideal if you don't have the concentration span for reading a whole book right now.  Hope you find something to cheer yourselves up within these suggestions, and have a good weekend!