Comfort Reads
A list of recommended reading for when you are going through it
Reading Time: About 8 minutes.
There really are not a lot of cozy reads in the world. Even if the genre isn’t a murder mystery or horror, a book can come in hard and fast with a stressful plotline or character path that’s emotionally fraught. Many well-written, interesting, wonderful books deal with trauma and violence or hit too close to home for our current political and climate situation.
Usually, I am not bothered by intense storylines. I can read pretty much anything as long as it’s not graphically gory. Years of meditation and therapy gave me tools to distance myself from what’s on the page, keeping my mind and body stable. I’m glad content warnings exist, but I have rarely felt they were for me.
But that wasn’t the case from late January.
For months my brain has been far too spicy to handle anything even mildly distressing, let alone outright violent. I am also struggling with complex plots or too many characters — a significant change for me, and one that adds to my distress given that reading is one of the few things that helps me rest.
I turned to re-reading old favourites, where I know the characters and can get effortlessly lost in the plot. These books provide some relief from the intensity of what my body and mind are going through, but they are finite. With minimal research, I found more books that fit nicely into the criteria of cozy or comforting—books that have been unexpected lifelines in a time when my mental health is precarious.
I offer these as a support. If you are going through it—dealing with grief, high anxiety, deep depression, or just general dis-ease—and need a break, here are some books that might help.
Please also post in the comments any books you would recommend as good comfort reads.
Non-fiction:
How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis
This isn’t just a book for when your mental health is all you have energy to focus on. If you are caring for small children, living with chronic illness or chronic pain, or under-resourced and overwhelmed, this is the book for you. If you are ADHD and/or Autistic person struggling with executive function, this is the book for you. If housework was used as a punishment in your childhood, this is the book for you.
Davis reframes housework as carework, consistently and gently reminding you that YOU, the person, are who needs care, not your house. In order to make sure you are meeting your care needs (and the needs of anyone else in your household) she encourages us to look at any space in your home according to functionality. What is the bare minimum needed for a room to be functional so your care needs, or those of your kids or pets or partner, are all being met?
I had already figured out some of Davis’ tips myself1 and some of it was an absolute revelation—like instead of approaching who should do what around the house according to how much everyone works, think instead of how to make rest fair. Everyone deserves rest and rest does not have to be earned, so making sure all adults are getting the rest they need is a way to balance care tasks in the house.
Additionally, this book was written to be as accessible as possible. It’s published in a font known to be easier for dyslexic people to read, all the chapters are short, and there are shortcuts you can take if you don’t have the spoons to read the whole thing.
If I had silly money, I would buy a copy for every person I know. It’s that good. But hey, you can also get it out of the library, like I did!
Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig
Matt Haig shows up twice in these recommendations, which may not be surprising to those of you familiar with his work. When I lived in the UK, he was one of the most well-known British authors of the day. I’d see billboards for his books on the Underground. He’s a prolific writer of both adult and children’s fiction, and yet, I had read nothing he’d written until this year.
Reasons to Stay Alive is the second book of his I read in 2024. I knew about its existence and looked up the title right when I was struggling to believe I would ever feel well again. At the peak of what I now know was my body telling me I shouldn’t have been on the meds I was taking, this book gave me a sense of solace and camaraderie. It was a reminder that things would get better and a way to feel connected to others going through hard times. Basically, this is a great book if you are currently in the “Tired of Being Strong Club.”2
The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan
If you’ve been following my blog for a bit, you know I adore Amy Tan. She is one of my favourite authors so when I discovered her most recently published book was a bird watching journal, I had to get it. It was delightful to discover The Backyard Bird Chronicles isn’t just about her writing, but also includes illustrations she has done of the birds who visit her yard! Reading this book felt a lot like hanging out with one of my favourite authors as she tells stories about the local wildlife.
Even if you aren’t a fan of Amy Tan, if you are a birdwatcher, this is a lovely book to get lost in. It’s also a toolkit for something you can do when you have low spoons or you need to get out of your head. Go watch some birds. Try to draw them. Learn about the birds you are looking at and what interesting lives they lead.
Care Of by Ivan Coyote
Ivan Coyote is one of those authors I have heard about but never gotten around to reading. They have written many books and I don’t know how Care Of, specifically, ended up on my To Read list, but I am so glad it did. This collection of correspondence between Coyote and an assortment of people is so…well, human! The pages of this book offer comfort and validation, solace and affirmations, and even loving critique and calling in.
Something about letters written during the lock-down acted as catharsis for me. I found this helpful as I continue to process the impact of Covid, particularly during this time of yet another growing wave of cases and a new variant.3
Fiction:
A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
A Psalm for the Wild-Built was a re-read for me, but A Prayer for the Crown-Shy was new. Becky Chambers is another favourite author of mine, as her world-building and character development is fantastic. All of her books have a lot of heart in them, but The Monk & Robot series are particularly soothing and downright therapeutic.
Having these books to read gave me a way to imagine a world where care is at the centre of everything we do, and how I could bring that into my life right now. They helped me to connect with friends at one of my lowest points, to ask for check-ins and to do my own checking in.
Legends & Lattes and Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
Travis Baldree’s work has come up in recommendations a lot because of my love of Becky Chambers. While her worlds are far-flung sci-fi future settings with aliens and robots, Baldree writes in a very DnD style fantasy world. These books would be dull as anything if set in our world, but placing them in a land of Orcs and Ratkins and Dwarves and Succubi turns them into charming, heartwarming tales of building community with found family.
Similarly to the Monk & Robot series, these books made me think about the community connections that nourish me. I may not have the capital to open a bookshop or café, but I have the means to publish a community ‘zine. Even on the hardest days, when my anxiety was near constant or the medication I was causing more distress than it was helping, having the ‘zine to work on gave me a sense of purpose and belonging.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Things had got quite rough for me when I checked out The Midnight Library. I knew it was about a woman in an in-between place after attempting suicide, but I didn’t expect it would soothe my nervous system so much to read it. My situation wasn’t anything like the protagonists’, but the emotional journey was similar enough to be a comfort. It’s also valuable to have stories that are honest about how painful living can be, but also show how much hope and possibility are to be found even in the midst of despair.
This book is a good reminder that acute emotional pain is not chronic pain. Our brains do so love to generate content and sometimes that content is despairing and hopeless. This book playfully, but not mockingly, shows how our brains lie and can have limited ideas about what is possible.
I’d love to know what some comfort reads are for you. What books have helped you in low or difficult seasons of your life?
You do not need to sort laundry! Just wash everything together in a cold wash.
Thanks to my dear friend, Eva, for the club name. It’s a big club.
It is never too late to start wearing a mask again! Also, remember to get the latest vaccine and get boosted every year. Covid is not “over.”
My comfort reads are books that make me smile or laugh out loud. Books I return to regularly are the ones in the E.F. Benson Mapp & Lucia series, wherein two matrons vie for supremacy in a little town. The length they go to to best each other is absurd and always very funny. "Cold Comfort Farm" by Stella Gibbons is another favourite. It is about this family which seems to like being miserable until "Robert Post's child" makes an appearance and helps each of them to become much happier.
The first book that came to my for me is TJ Klune's The House in the Cerulean Sea. My partner buys extra copies often to gift to people. Someone described it during the pandemic as "the hug we all need."
I don't _think_ there's anything intense in there but it has been a while since I read it and, obviously, that's a pretty subjective thing.