Isabella Hammad, Norah Lofts, comfort reads – welcome to episode 135!
In the first half, we discuss whether or not literary fiction can be comfort reads – thank you for the suggestion, Marcy! In the second half, we compare novels we chose from each other’s Best Books of 2024 – Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad vs Lady Living Alone by Norah Lofts.
You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us. And you can support the podcast at Patreon. Among the bonus things you’ll find is our talk from the Marlborough Literary Festival!
The books and authors we mention in this episode are:
Julia by Sandra Newman
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie
Catherine Carter by Pamela Hansford Johnson
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Jane Gardam
Diaries by Virginia Woolf
Miss Read
Emma by Jane Austen
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
P.G. Wodehouse
Agatha Christie
Margery Sharp
Val McDermid
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Dorothy Whipple
A Writer’s Diary by Virginia Woolf
House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
Hostages to Fortune by Elizabeth Cambridge
The Spring Begins by Katherine Dunning
Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary by Ruby Ferguson
For Every Favour by Ruby Ferguson
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
Turn Again Home by Ruby Ferguson
Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott
The Group by Mary McCarthy
The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe
Sally on the Rocks by Winifred Boggs
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Invisible Host by Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning
Comfort reads for me these days are often books set in a world that seems kinder, more stable, or more hopeful, because the world is currently in a frightening state in so many ways. Of course, I do love books that take place during the war years (1915-1950), but that’s because we know the wars have an end. Here are some of my comfort reads:
Fortnight in September by R. C. Sherriff
The Mrs Tim books by D. E. Stevenson
Mr Family & Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
Any Barbara Pym book
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
And I second Crossing to Safety
Those are all excellent choices! I’ve read them all, though must confess I was largely confused by Dandelion Wine – it wasn’t at all what I was expecting.
I think a lot of people have that experience with Dandelion Wine!
I was wondering of Rachel has a blog. We have such similar tastes.
She does! It’s over here: https://booksnob.substack.com/
I literally just finished reading Lady Living Alone the day your podcast dropped so I was delighted to listen. I really enjoyed it but I hadn’t read the synopsis and couldn’t exactly remember what you’d said in the year-end roundup. I was NOT expecting some of the plot twists and I found myself yelling out loud at poor Penelope. I agree, I would have also liked a bit more explanation of Terry’s motivation but I really enjoyed it.
Also looking forward to next month as I downloaded The Invisible Host ages ago (probably on your recommendation!) and never got around to it, so this will motivate me to read it!
And for me a lot of comfort reads are Persephones, Jane Austen, etc. Most of the BLWW and Furrowed Middlebrow as well. Maybe Agatha Christie? Not nonfiction, most of it is too dire. My book group is reading Radium Girls right now and I haven’t got past the first chapter, it is just not a good time. I need all the comfort reads I can get right now! (The irony that many of these books are between the wars and what is happening in the USA is not lost on me)
Oh that’s a great way to go into Lady Living Alone – definitely best to go in unprepared. I did largely the same, as the blurb on the earlier edition was less revelatory.
Thank you Rachel and Simon for a very interesting and thoughtfully considered discussion. I very much enjoyed both parts. All reading to an extent is a comfort – an escape to a different place, to think about different ideas (so non fiction can work too). I think literary fiction can be a ‘comfort read’ for me but, it depends just as books regarded as easy reads would not necessarily be a comfort read for me either. I am not generally one for GA crime for example; I do totally get why that is a ‘turn to’ for comfort for many avid readers it just isn’t quite my thing. I’d rather turn to reading about Agatha Christie (e.g. Lucy Worsley’s book) than her detective books. As for Miss Read, that would be one for a flu day or when I really want chicken soup and a hot water bottle! I agree with Simon about The Waves; I realized only relatively recently that I could really appreciate Woolf’s prose by just letting the wonderful imagery wash over me and so avoid getting bogged down by trying to analyse and understood it all.
I’m afraid I did not really enjoy either of the books in the ‘book off’ this time. I was disappointed with ‘Lady Living Alone’ and until I listened to this I could not quite work out why; I had some thoughts but felt I must be missing something because so many other bloggers raved about it. However, your discussion helped me to clarify my thinking so I could come to terms with my ambivalence. BTW, I did really love and admire the other BLWW’s reissue ‘The Camomile’ last year which, strangely, very few seem to be talking about
I DNF’d, almost didn’t properly start, Enter Ghost (thankfully a library copy). Again, your thoughtful discussion helped me to come to terms with this! I can understand the glowing commendations but, as you said, I agree this would be related to it hitting the current hot news topics. For me I would put it in the category of a ‘worthy’ book, but one I am happy to know about (with mainly thanks to this podcast) rather than to spend time reading for myself (I do have enough books I do really want to read and it is long!).
Looking forward to the next teaorbooks; in the meantime I wish you both might feel the benefits of spring being round the corner ( I’m reminded of this especially because I see the rooks have just returned to build their nests in the tree on our drive!)
Thanks so much for your lovely comment, as always! Sorry that the books didn’t work for you, to differing extents. One of the interesting things about being series consultant is seeing how individual readers love/like/dislike/hate different books – when I, of course, love them all. Because it shows how tastes can seem so similar and yet not fully overlap. (The Camomile isn’t one I suggested, but I thankfully do think it’s great.)
Loved listening to this! For me, literary fiction falls into two categories: stories in which the writing style is as important as what happens and stories in which philosophical or other kinds of theories are central to the message. Comfort for me is definitely low stakes, some wit or humour and a certain gentleness towards the reader. I adore Crossing to Safety but given I end up in bits at the end, it’s not a comfort! I also think nonfiction is getting a bad rap! Some memoirs are gloriously comforting. I’m thinking of My Salinger Year by Joanne Rakoff and The Morville Hours by Katherine Swift (in which an old garden is brought back to life).
I do have a question for you, though I’m not sure it fits your categories. I’m looking for novels that are about (or involve in significant ways) rest. I’m thinking of Von Arnim’s The Solitary Summer and Elizabeth and her German Garden. I don’t mean the kind of rest beloved by certain sectors of women’s fiction in which the heroine goes to Greece to recover from a loss and ends up starting a new business and remarrying, etc. No. I mean books in which there is a real slowing down. I’m struggling to think of any that aren’t by Von Arnim!
That’s an interesting question. And you are right about the ‘heroine goes to Greece to recover from a loss and ends up being hugely successful as an entrepreneur’ being ‘beloved of a certain sector’ (not me – I just find the protagonists unbelievably annoying; maybe I am just jealous!). It is a struggle to think of many books about ‘real’ rest. The only one, apart from the two you have mentioned, that does come to mind, is the non fiction book ‘Rural Hours’ by Harriet Baker about Virginia Woolf. Rosamond Lehmann, and Sylvia Townsend Warner. It focuses on the time they spent in the country and how that was both restorative and helped nurture their creativity.
Oh now that’s a brilliant suggestion! Thank you for that. I will check that book out. And I completely agree about those irritating heroines! Incidentally, I also couldn’t finish Enter Ghost. I haven’t seen Hamlet, and when I reached the part where the actors discuss its relevance to Palestine, I got so lost I gave up. I was listening to it and couldn’t skim read ahead to see if it improved!
One of the ultimate books about rest is probably Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann about the residents of a sanatorium in the mountains for TB sufferers. I think May Sarton also wrote some books about ‘slowing down’ as she became older. There are quite a few books about people moving to villages and a slower pace of life (A Few Green Leaves, Barbara Pym and I’m sure I’ve read a few others that I can’t remember right now). Sue Townsend wrote a book about a woman who went to bed for a year – I don’t think I read it though.
Ah these are fab suggestions, thank you so much! As it happens, A Few Green Leaves is the only Barbara Pym I haven’t read – but I do own a copy. And I’ve never read The Magic Mountain. Thank you again!
I love all the answers you’re getting! I’ll throw in a couple of my own suggestions – I think Lolly Willowes could fit this, in a slightly warped way – despite the unusual elements, still very much a novel about escaping to peace and rest. The other is All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West, where Lady Slane escapes all her demanding relatives for some peaceful time. And I second May Sarton’s journals, though she isn’t always happy about the restful situation she’s ended up in.
I will continue mulling on it!
Ooh and more excellent suggestions! Love All Passion Spent, a brilliant choice that I’ve been meaning to read for decades. Lolly Willowes is equally good. I’m laughing at myself because I’ve read it twice but had forgotten it! I’m actually in the middle of writing something about Journal of a Solitude, well three quarters through, but life keeps getting in the way of me finishing it. It’s the only journal of Sarton’s that I’ve read so I should check out the others. Thank you so much! And please do keep thinking.
All Passion Spent would totally fit the bill; I second that! And Lolly Willowes is another one of course. I have a somewhat ambivalent relationship with that book. First of all I felt I would not read it because of the supernatural elements being too disturbing. Then I did read it and was glad I did, whilst maintaining my reservations and finding it did indeed provoke a very strong reaction. Nevertheless, I did enjoy STW’s prose and descriptions of nature and the story is certainly one to stimulate interesting thought and discussion with regard to women in society.
Vita S-W is such an underrated writer – she can be so good, and it’s overshadowed by the personal life. Re Sarton, I’ve only read three (or maybe even two) of the journals. A House By The Sea is my favourite of those.
I don’t know if this book fits the bill of rest exactly, but it is about moving to a smaller place, with a much slower pace. Stones for Ibarra is about a California couple in their 40s who sell everything to move to a small Mexican town and re-open a mine that belonged to the husband’s family. I love Doerr’s poetic prose. It is based on her life experience with her husband in the 1950s.
Another book that might be of interest is the memoir, The Sound of a Snail Eating. “While an illness keeps her bedridden, Bailey watches a wild snail that has taken up residence on her nightstand. As a result, she discovers the solace and sense of wonder that this mysterious creature brings and comes to a greater understanding of her own confined place in the world…
Told with wit and grace, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating is a remarkable journey of survival and resilience, showing us how a small part of the natural world illuminates our own human existence and provides an appreciation of what it means to be fully alive.”