Comfort Books (that I actually finished!)
Look, I am blogging again! Maybe a week since last time instead of two months later! I am proud of my accomplishments.
Blogging here last time seems to have helped me get out of my leaving-books-unfinished-left-and-right slump, so now I am returning to blog about my victory. I managed to finish two books in the past week (and for me that's a big deal, ok): The Mirror Crack'd by Agatha Christie and Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. Hooray for cosy early 20th century books! I haven't read any in a while, since I've been busy experimenting with many other types of books like kids and teen fiction and fantasy and whatever else. (Side note: three good teen fantasy books I read last year are Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier, and The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges. The last one is set in 19th century Russia with necromancy and zombie armies and a werewolf and magic and it might not be as popular as the Laini Taylor, but check it out, it's glamorous and exciting!)
I used to take out piles of Agatha Christie (mostly featuring Poirot) from the library as a teenager, but it wasn't until a few years ago that I started reading (and loving) the Miss Marple books in my earlier book blogging days (here's my appreciation of The Body in the Library at my old book blog). Except after my husband's stressful surgeries that year (where he got a huge infection and ended up having about four surgeries in total when it should have been only one and we had to move back to my parents' for a bit because he couldn't work, etc), I stopped reading mystery novels because the death and violence in them, even in cosy mysteries, had begun to upset me too much. In retrospect, I think it was because I was very scared of my husband dying and I just didn't want to read anything that made me think about that at all. (And also when we moved out of my parents' place my mom got rid of all the mysteries I'd left there for safe keeping until I could come back for them. So annoying to lose my small collection of Louise Penny and Agatha Christie books!) But now my husband's doing better and we are back on our feet again mostly (at least we have our own apartment again!) and so now at last I can enjoy a lovely little cosy mystery again courtesy of Agatha Christie and Miss Marple. The ending of The Mirror Crack'd still managed to be a surprise to me, even though I was sure Christie didn't have me fooled this time. I was suspicious of the murderer at one point, but didn't have enough clues to figure out exactly what he/she was up to. I also recently bought the complete short stories of Miss Marple and I'll either buy or borrow the rest of her books in time. I love Miss Marple so much more than Poirot -- I can pretend she's my cosy and smart little grandma! -- but eventually I'm sure I'll reread the Poirot books as well. Years of reading pleasure await!
Yesterday I was wanting to finish one more book at the end of April and as I was reorganizing my books (something I just have to do from time to time), I picked up my copy of Cold Comfort Farm. I'd read it years before and enjoyed it enough to buy my own copy of it, but I'd never gotten past the first few chapters when I tried to reread it before. But this time I just flipped it open to the middle, meaning only to glance at it in passing, and before I knew it, I was completely sucked into the hilarious story once again. I read it all the way through to the end and then flipped to the beginning and read that all the way to the middle. :) Unconventional, but highly entertaining nevertheless. I also have a great Penguin Deluxe edition of it with funny drawings all over the cover and flaps, so that added to my enjoyment.
I've been feeling a bit down lately (that is what happens with depression most of the time) and Cold Comfort Farm helped me to laugh my blues away for a few hours. In some ways, Flora Poste's meddling in the lives of her pathetic farming relatives in Sussex reminded me of Emma's meddling in Harriet's love life (and then there's the fact that Kate Beckinsale has played both Flora and Emma), but Flora is much more successful at it than Emma and all of her clever plans for improving the lives of those around her succeed brilliantly, perhaps because she relies on 'the higher common sense' rather than sheer imagination as Emma does. How she succeeds in gently persuading her bizarre relatives into sensible happiness is where the fun lies. A lot of the humour also comes from Stella Gibbons taking the piss out of writers who glamorize the 'earthy soul' of the poor working class by out-purple-prosing them all in hilarious asterisk marked passages. Altogether a very lovely book and I'm sure I'll be rereading it again someday when I need to be reminded to forget my troubles for a little while and just look on the bright side of life!
Today when I started to feel down again, I constructed a blanket fort under my desk and read some Anne of Green Gables down there for a while. These books are balm for the soul.
Blogging here last time seems to have helped me get out of my leaving-books-unfinished-left-and-right slump, so now I am returning to blog about my victory. I managed to finish two books in the past week (and for me that's a big deal, ok): The Mirror Crack'd by Agatha Christie and Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. Hooray for cosy early 20th century books! I haven't read any in a while, since I've been busy experimenting with many other types of books like kids and teen fiction and fantasy and whatever else. (Side note: three good teen fantasy books I read last year are Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier, and The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges. The last one is set in 19th century Russia with necromancy and zombie armies and a werewolf and magic and it might not be as popular as the Laini Taylor, but check it out, it's glamorous and exciting!)
I used to take out piles of Agatha Christie (mostly featuring Poirot) from the library as a teenager, but it wasn't until a few years ago that I started reading (and loving) the Miss Marple books in my earlier book blogging days (here's my appreciation of The Body in the Library at my old book blog). Except after my husband's stressful surgeries that year (where he got a huge infection and ended up having about four surgeries in total when it should have been only one and we had to move back to my parents' for a bit because he couldn't work, etc), I stopped reading mystery novels because the death and violence in them, even in cosy mysteries, had begun to upset me too much. In retrospect, I think it was because I was very scared of my husband dying and I just didn't want to read anything that made me think about that at all. (And also when we moved out of my parents' place my mom got rid of all the mysteries I'd left there for safe keeping until I could come back for them. So annoying to lose my small collection of Louise Penny and Agatha Christie books!) But now my husband's doing better and we are back on our feet again mostly (at least we have our own apartment again!) and so now at last I can enjoy a lovely little cosy mystery again courtesy of Agatha Christie and Miss Marple. The ending of The Mirror Crack'd still managed to be a surprise to me, even though I was sure Christie didn't have me fooled this time. I was suspicious of the murderer at one point, but didn't have enough clues to figure out exactly what he/she was up to. I also recently bought the complete short stories of Miss Marple and I'll either buy or borrow the rest of her books in time. I love Miss Marple so much more than Poirot -- I can pretend she's my cosy and smart little grandma! -- but eventually I'm sure I'll reread the Poirot books as well. Years of reading pleasure await!
Yesterday I was wanting to finish one more book at the end of April and as I was reorganizing my books (something I just have to do from time to time), I picked up my copy of Cold Comfort Farm. I'd read it years before and enjoyed it enough to buy my own copy of it, but I'd never gotten past the first few chapters when I tried to reread it before. But this time I just flipped it open to the middle, meaning only to glance at it in passing, and before I knew it, I was completely sucked into the hilarious story once again. I read it all the way through to the end and then flipped to the beginning and read that all the way to the middle. :) Unconventional, but highly entertaining nevertheless. I also have a great Penguin Deluxe edition of it with funny drawings all over the cover and flaps, so that added to my enjoyment.
I've been feeling a bit down lately (that is what happens with depression most of the time) and Cold Comfort Farm helped me to laugh my blues away for a few hours. In some ways, Flora Poste's meddling in the lives of her pathetic farming relatives in Sussex reminded me of Emma's meddling in Harriet's love life (and then there's the fact that Kate Beckinsale has played both Flora and Emma), but Flora is much more successful at it than Emma and all of her clever plans for improving the lives of those around her succeed brilliantly, perhaps because she relies on 'the higher common sense' rather than sheer imagination as Emma does. How she succeeds in gently persuading her bizarre relatives into sensible happiness is where the fun lies. A lot of the humour also comes from Stella Gibbons taking the piss out of writers who glamorize the 'earthy soul' of the poor working class by out-purple-prosing them all in hilarious asterisk marked passages. Altogether a very lovely book and I'm sure I'll be rereading it again someday when I need to be reminded to forget my troubles for a little while and just look on the bright side of life!
Today when I started to feel down again, I constructed a blanket fort under my desk and read some Anne of Green Gables down there for a while. These books are balm for the soul.
There's nothing quite so cosy as Miss Marple, is there? I hear you about imagining her as your smart little grandma - I've always felt the same way. And as for Cold Comfort Farm, it is the perfect pick-me-up book. It used to be my standby for sick days during high school though I haven't read it now in an awfully long time. There is nothing quite so beneficial for a weary reader as Flora Poste's ruthlessly clear thinking!
ReplyDeleteI just found your blog on The Captive Reader and decided to have a look. I can commiserate about not being able to read books that can scare us when we we're going through stressful times. I suffer from panic disorder and GAD and save good British chick lit and Jennifer Weiner for those times. During a bad bout, when a doctor asked me how I was doing, I said I could only read books with pink covers but he didn't get it.
ReplyDeleteI prefer Miss Marple to Poirot and gave all of his away. Happy to have found you.
I've been reading Miss Marple lately, as well! I'm almost finished with Murder at the Vicarage. I love her being described as a 'nosy old cat'!
ReplyDeleteI have not read Cold Comfort Farm since I was a teen so I can't quite remember what it is all about, but it is something I'd like to revisit. I'm all for books that cheer you up!