Obviously, they don’t have to slide into the cozy genre. But what books do you cuddle up with during a thunderstorm, or your variable weather of choice? Personally, Becky Chambers has become one of my favorites. I also read LOTR when I need a “good guys doing the right thing just because it’s the right thing to do”.
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It has a slow start IMO but once the edge wears down and Butcher just lets himself nerd out it’s just such good modern fantasy
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. There is a good sequel too called A Prayer for the Crown-Shy that came out last year.
I totally just saw the headline and missed your comment that included Becky Chambers. I’m still getting used to Lemmy/Beehaw. Sorry for the reading comprehension fail!
No that’s totally reasonable because A Psalm for the Wild Built is such a great book. I need to read A Prayer for the Crown Shy though. That one I’m waiting for my turn for the copy on Libby
I went ahead and bought all of the Long Way series from my local bookstore. I broke down and bought the audio books from Apple for the monk and robot series. I’ll buy them in paperback too when I can get to the bookstore and order them.
Has there been hints of any new Becky Chambers book that you’ve heard of? The news section of otherscribbles.com doesn’t have anything since nearly a year ago.
When I was deep in the sleep deprived zone of new parenthood, listening & readying to Beckychambers books on audio book was just perfect. I was too fragile to deal with any horribly dark or dense sci-fi books (that so many seem to be) and her books always felt like a nice cup of tea (pretty appropriate considering psalm for the wild-built!)
We are expecting our second and I’d love to have a new Becky chambers book to read or listen to when we restart the new born saga!
I’m currently in a cozy mystery phase for reading, so anything by Jenn McKinlay and her aliases (Cupcake Bakery, Library Lovers, Hat Shop, Good Buy Girls, Decoupage) or Krista Davis (Diva series, Paws & Claws, Pen & Ink) are my go-tos.
For cozy days, I usually find myself gravitating toward some of my childhood favorites like the Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell, Pendragon by D. J. MacHale, or the Last Dragon Chronicles by Chris d’Lacey.
I only occasionally reread books. There’s so much out there to read I’m always in search of the next thing. Lately if I’m not currently reading something I’ll listen to a few chapters of different web novels on royal road until I find something I’m interested in. I use an app call voice aloud reader that converts text to speech. Frees me up to make food or do other things at the same time.
Currently reading Kafka on the Shore by Murakami.
a lot of mine are already listed here, but ill also offer up Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Fanfiction is my go-to when I’m sick, or depressed, or really tired. Nothing beats its combo of easy-to-read and wildly absorbing.
Otherwise, I’m partial to cozy fantasy, like The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison.
Also the Murderbot books by Martha Wells never fail me.
Also… older books, with their wordiness and long sentences and lack of fear of semicolons, can be great for this. Virginia Woolf’s books for example are so dense, and the atmosphere that creates is sublime, but the way she writes somehow makes her wordy prose also really easy to read. The sentences just kind of tumble you along. I love it.
Caveat being that older books, including Woolf’s, contain shit like casual racism and sexism and etc, and sometimes I have more capacity to overlook that than other times. Which is one reason I love when modern authors write in a more old-fashioned style, like in Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel by Susanna Clarke - it lets me have my cake and eat it too.
Poetry is also great a rainy day, including old poetry. It’s underrated these days. I think it’s partly from the pervasive modern idea that poetry is automatically “cringey”, and partly from the elitism and other -isms among the Poetry Establishment^tm, and partly from English teachers taking the fun out of it. But you can rediscover poetry, just like you can rediscover a love of novels after highschool steals it from you for a while.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel by Susanna Clarke
I want to reread that one but I have it in trade paperback size and the thought of lugging it to and from work (I only get to read on my lunchbreak) is enough to keep it anchored firmly on the shelf.
It depends on what “Cozy” means. If I want to reread a familiar story I’ve read a million times before, it’s Raymond Feist’s Riftwar books or Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files.
If however we are going for low(er) stakes come out feeling good, it’s all about feeling relaxed and enjoying friendships, Legends & Lates or the Fred the Vampire Accountant series are fun. I enjoyed the This Quest is Bananas series too.
My personal favorite trilogy is His Dark Materials from Philip Pullman. It is somewhat forgotten these days but they are excellent in every meaning of the word.
A fantastic series that left a lasting influence on my taste in fiction. Surprisingly thought-provoking and heavy for the age at which I read it.
Just about anything from the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. Clever, insightful, delightfully sarcastic, but never mean-spirited.
And no matter how many times you re-read them, you always find something new.
I found Janet Kagan’s 1991 book ‘Mirabile’ in my library when I was a teenager, and it has been my favorite cozy read ever since. Gentle, good-natured science fiction focused on the biologists and adventurers managing the flora and fauna of a far-future terraformed planet, with lovely characters and an absolutely adorable romance between two middle-aged people. Can’t count how many times I’ve reread it at this point. The physical edition is out of print, but it’s available for around $5 in ebook form, and used hardback copies can be had for a reasonable price as well.
All Creatures Great and Small
right now, it’s ‘Ascendance of a Bookworm’
It used to be Percy Jackson when I was a kid, but I think the re-reads have numbed it a bit. I also like to read ‘Never Let Me Go’ whenever I wanna get grounded and appreciate the simple joys of life
I made an instance for the entire Bookworm Series, if you want you can join the weekly discussions there or open up new ones as you finish the volumes
Woah that’s awesome! I’ll join you guys there once I finish reading the latest Pre-pub
I’d say right now A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. I love how most of the dialogue is internal and seems to shift from scene to scene very dreamlike. Other than that I just go back to reading some Greek myths.
