Tuesday 15 March 2022

A couple of comfort reads

Am I the only one wanting comfort reading at the moment? I thought not. And I was reminded a couple of weeks ago of how much I love the villagey/countryside feel of the writings of Miss Read... they kept coming up on Youtube book videos I was watching for instance. So I nipped to Amazon and treated myself to a handful and reread the first one, Thrush Green, in the week. 

Thrush Green is a bit of a hamlet attached to the town of Lulling, somewhere in The Cotswolds. This is England in the 1950s and although I was only just born then it didn't alter much into the 1960s. So many of the scenarios are familiar especially in this first book where excitement about the fair arriving on the the 1st. of May is reaching fever pitch. I remember that well in Penzance and this was added to by the fact that the fair took up residence next to my school so we were able to watch it being constructed. Anyway, in this first book we meet such characters as the overpowering Ella who lives with a rather small and quiet woman, Dimity. The elderly Dr. Bailey and his wife, Winnie... she's very concerned about her husband as he's been failing healthwise recently. A locum is helping out and he becomes interested in Ruth who has suffered a broken engagement and is looking after her nephew while her sister and husband take a break. And there's Mrs. Curdle who owns the fair, and her grandson Ben. It's so easy to become completely wrapped up in the lives of these very ordinary people, their triumphs, their tragedies, their everyday doings and so on. I've read this three times now and have loved it every time. The setting is just gorgeous, you can easily imagine the quaint hamstone cottages situated on top of the hill from Lulling, the delightful village green, and the lush countryside around. It's clear Dora Saint (who wrote as Miss Read) adored the countryside as the nature writing is sublime. She had two series that she was well known for, Thrush Green and Fairacre, the latter being set in a village in the Sussex downs, I believe, another stunning area. I'd previously read only library books by this author but am so pleased to have some on my Kindle now and will continue to collect them like this. I do covet the lovely hardback collections I see behind people on Youtube though and if I see any at any time will definitely grab them!  

Next, a historical crime yarn, book 4 of T.E. Kinsey's Lady Hardcastle books, A Picture of Murder.

Lady Hardcastle and her companion/maid, Flo, have unexpected guests in the shape of four actors. They're going to show some of the new 'moving pictures' at the village hall, and Lady Hardcastle is particularly pleased as she's been dabbling in this new art form. But there is controversy, mainly in the form of protesters who view the new fangled kinematograph as the work of Satan and are out to save people's mortal souls from it. Things come to a head when one of the actors is found dead, followed a few days later by another. Inspector Sunderland is called in but is rather busy solving crime in Bristol so allows Lady Hardcastle and Flo free rein to investigate in his place, with the help of the local constabulary. You have to suspend disbelief rather with this series because the likelihood of two women being allowed that kind of freedom back then verges on zero but that's fine, I don't care at all. The books are 'huge fun' and I don't read them for gritty reality and social commentary (although they're not devoid of the latter at all, but it's subtle). The banter between the two old friends is priceless and I love that in this instalment we find out a bit more of their history together, and it's fascinating stuff. Also intriguing about this tale is not so much the actual murders but the 'how and the why'... very unusual. These books are only £1 for Kindle on Amazon and I think they're worth every penny for the amusement I get out of them. 

So, I've just started this:


I loved the first book in this 'Mercy and Elvis' series, A Borrowing of Bones, and Blind Search promises to be every bit as good. 

And when I entered Blind Search on Goodreads it threw up this other series as being one that other people liked:


This is book 1 of the 'Timber Creek K-9' mystery series, set in Colorado, so of course I just had to check those out and as the first book was only 99p it 'somehow' made its way onto my Kindle. *coughcough* Anyone read any of those? They look good and 'what' a gorgeous cover!

Happy reading everyone and I hope you're finding some good books to read in these difficult times.


20 comments:

Jean said...

Yes I like Miss Read and have some of her books which I return to for comforting reads. I was born in 1950 so its very familiar.

Terra said...

I read a couple Miss Read books and they are great comfort reads, you are right.

Lark said...

I LOVE the Margaret Mizushima books. I've read the entire series. Mattie and Robo are great characters, as is Cole Walker, the vet she meets. I think you'd really like these books. And comfort reads are so important, especially right now! I hope that Miss Read book is as wonderful as it looks. :)

(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea said...

The first 2 seem sweet and rather fun. I always say I need a fun, lighter read and then I am almost always disappointed. I'm a darker story kind of reader both fiction and non fiction. Not sure what that says about me ? LOL

Cath said...

Jean: I was 1953 so like you it's all very familiar to me. But also people don't really change all that much so the people are the same but life was different back then, simpler times.

Cath said...

Terra: I think we're all needing a bit of comfort reading at the moment and I love hearing about what constitutes comfort reads to other people and why.

Cath said...

Lark: Oh, I'm so pleased to hear that about the Margaret Mizushima books. I was hoping someone would know of them and it's great to hear you've read them all and love them. Needless to say, that probably means I will too. LOL

Cath said...

Diane: Well, I just think it just means you have slightly different tastes in books. I don't mind the odd darker book but couldn't live on those alone as I'm very prone to getting freaked out. LOL!

TracyK said...

Yes, I have definitely been gravitating toward comfort reads lately.

I have not read any books by Miss Read, but I do have one, Village School. I have had it for three years now, I should get to reading it. I did not realize that the books were written and published in the 50s and 60s, somehow I thought that were written a couple of decades earlier.

I don't know if I already told you, but I did get the first book in the Lady Hardcastle series on the Kindle, and hope to read that one soon.

My most recent reads were A Most Contagious Game by Catherine Aird, Watermelon by Marian Keyes, and The Spies of Shilling Lane by Jennifer Ryan. Watermelon is not exactly comfort reading but it is definitely lighter reading.

Yvonne @ Fiction Books Reviews said...

I couldn't read any one particular genre for too long without getting a little bored, I like to mix up my reading as much as possible. However 'classic' or 'vintage' books, however you best like to have them defined, are always somewhere in my schedule.

I like the sound of the 'Mercy and Elvis' series, however several of my Goodreads friends read from the many K-9 series out there and they just don't appeal to me at all. They are probably very similar in structure to the 'Mercy and Elvis' series, so I think it is psychologically something to do with the having K-9 in the title - I know, weird or what!?? :)

Happy Reading x

Margaret @ BooksPlease said...

I loved the Miss Read books when I read them years ago when I read as many of them that I could find in the library- the Fairacre series as well as the Thrush Green ones. They're great comfort reading books. I have a new copy (2006) of Village Diary, the second Fairacre book on my shelves, and now is a good time to reread it - as you are not the only one wanting comfort reading at the moment. I'm in despair at the world news.

I haven't read any of the other books you mention.

Margot Kinberg said...

Oh, these do look good, Cath. And right now, comfort reading is definitely where I am. It's interesting, too, that physical setting has as much to do (at least for me) with comfort as the plot or characters. Certain settings seem, well, soothing, if that makes sense.

Kay said...

Cath, I haven't read the Paula Munier or Margaret Mizushima books, but there were several members of my previous mystery group who have read both series and LOVED them! Enjoy! And comfort reading sounds perfect - whatever type book makes us feel good. Sometimes a 'nice murder' is comfort reading for me. Ha!

Cath said...

Tracy: Yes, Miss Read wrote her books starting in 1955 and going on for decades I think. But you're right, they do actually read as though they were written in the 30s or 40s.

No, I didn't know you had got the first Lady Harccastle book, hope you enjoy it when you get to it.

I'll be interested in what you made of Watermelon. I've read a book of Marion Keyes' essays but not any of her fiction. I can never quite decide whether I would like it. I've seen Keyes on TV and she's very funny.

Cath said...

Yvonne: Yes, I'm the same re genres so my comfort reading covers all of the genres I read, vintage crime, modern crime, general fiction, science fiction, even non-fiction such as travel writing. Comfort reading can be found everywhere I find.

I actually had no idea that K-9 fiction was a thing, a 'sub-genre' if you like. I'm astonished that there are so many series with dogs! To be honest with the Margaret Mizushima series I'm more attracted by the setting of Colorado, so we'll see how that goes.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cath said...

Margaret: The state of the world at the moment makes you despair. Does no one learn from history? It's frightening.

The Miss Read books are the perfect anidote to it all. Mind you, I think 'any' book serves the same purposeand I'm very grateful for my collection of real books and Kindle reads.

Cath said...

Margot: It makes perfect sense about the setting and I'm an inveterate armchair traveller anyway, so setting is massively importnat to me. It's one reason I'm attracted to the Margaret Mizushima series set in Colorado. I like your use of the word 'soothing' and think that that is what the Miss Read books are: soothing.

Cath said...

Kay: Thank you for mentioning that several members of your previous book group loved the two doggy series. I already love Elvis and Mercy and hope to like the other series just as much. A 'nice murder' is spot on and so easy to lose yourself in, which is exactly what I'm doing at the moment.

Susan said...

I picked up the first Lady Hardcastle book on your recommendation and loved it. I have the second out from the library right now, but I haven't gotten to it yet. Hopefully, I'll have time to read it before it comes due. The series is so fun! Thanks for putting it on my radar.

Cath said...

Susan, I'm so delighted that you enjoyed the first Lady Hardcastle book. And they get better and better!