Comfort Reads discussion

There are so many fabulous young adult books being published these days and I think a great book to take you out of yourself is The Hunger Games. Even though there is violence, the fast pace makes for an entertaining and quick read.

Has anyone read A Tangled Web by L.M. Montgomery? It was recommended to me as a great comfort read by a GR friend.

Lee, I loved The Hunger Games and the second book too. I also love the first two books of the moon trilogy: Life As We Knew It and The Dead and the Gone.

This might really be more children's than ya, but one book I've found very special (so special I'm scared to read the sequel) is The Green Glass Sea. Many of the books I find comforting are those that wouldn't be comfort reads for others, I suppose.

One novel (perhaps it's an adult novel, but my 9th grade teacher introduced it to my class and it got me through a very tough adolescence and times in adulthood too) is I Never Promised You A Rose Garden; my copy is so old it still lists the author as Hannah Green and not Joanne Greenberg.

I am REALLY looking forward to Life As We Knew It. I love post-apocalyptic fiction.

I just checked out The Green Glass Sea. I'm glad your mentioned that one because it had gotten buried in my to-read list.

I have been on a massive YA binge recently (I have been ill and it has all been comfort reading for me as I don't think my brain could have coped with much more before christmas). What a great genre - you're never too old in my opinion.

I ordered Life As We Knew It last week and it should arrive in the next few days (I have heard great things) and Lisa I love the sound of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (what a lovely title!) and The Green Glass Sea. I must get those soon.

I would HIGHLY recommend The Hunger Games and its sequel Catching Fire . They are amazing!

Hunger Games and Life as We Knew It are both on my list, I need to move them up and get to them since so many people I respect love them!

I remember reading I Never Promised You a Rose Garden but I can barely remember what it is about. I know I loved it, too.

Thanks to Goodreads, I've read so many great YA books this past year. I'll have to add some more to the shelves tomorrow when I'm not so sleepy.

I think I have 'I never promised you a rose garden' in my dad's bookshelve. Is it good? The title does seem interesting...

There are so many fine young adult books coming out these days. I loved the Hunger Games books, and the Graveyard Book.

Sarah, is The Graveyard Book scary at all?

It has creepy parts, but I would not call it scary for an adult. I just bought it for my 13 year old stepbrother.

I see it has wonderful reviews. I've added it to my pile even though I'm not sure I will find it comforting! It does look very interesting though, thanks Sarah.

Sherien wrote: "I think I have 'I never promised you a rose garden' in my dad's bookshelve. Is it good? The title does seem interesting..."

Well, It was my favorite book from age 14 to 16 or so, and I still have enjoyed it on each reread.

It's basically a thinly veiled autobiography published as a novel with a pseudonym. I didn't know that until I was about 21 or 22. It's the story of a 16 year old girl who spends 3 years in a mental hospital. Yeah, I know it doesn't sound like a comfort read, but it was for me. The actual hospital was Chestnut Lodge and the psychiatrist was actually Frieda Fromm-Reichmann. I loved being inside this girl's head, her internal work, her friendships, an adolescent living away from home. I reread it at least a few dozen times during my adolescence.

I've also enjoyed other books by Joanne Greenberg (Joanne Greenberg (Hannah Green)) especially In This Sign.

Bun, It's funny but the first few dozen times I read it, I somehow ignored all the psychotic experiences she was having. The fact that she was working on herself with a mentor (ok, psychiatrist) and was a teen girl living away from her family, finding some sisterhood/friendship with fellow patients. It was kind of like boarding school to me. Well, I was depressed and mostly living alone so the story worked as a comfort read for me. But, I have a lot of strange (to other people) comfort reads.

One of my favorite YA books is Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast. Robin McKinley does a great job retelling this fairy tale. I reread it regularly.

Bun, I was was taking them as symbolic of her thoughts/feelings but not as hallucinations/real to her in a sensory way.

Lee wrote: "There are so many fabulous young adult books being published these days and I think a great book to take you out of yourself is The Hunger Games. Even though there is violence, the ..."

Totally agree about THG and CF. These are 2 books I never would have picked up since I'm not generally into YA (my daughter is), but I'm so glad I did since they are RIVETING! I do encourage everyone to at least try the first one, even if they don't normally read YA.

BunWat wrote: "No she says very specifically in the book to herself, and later to her therapist that they started out as imagined, symbolic beings but eventually she really started to see and hear them. Sometime..."

Bun, Oh, I know. And have since my early twenties probably, or possibly before that. And I read that too at age 14 & older, and still managed to not "get it" for the first bunch of readings.

Funny that in the book (and probably in real life) she was diagnosed as schizophrenic, but all experts now believe she never had schizophrenia but suffered from major depression with psychosis, which makes her freedom from debilitating mental illness in later life make much more sense. Back then not many drugs and anyone who was psychotic was probably labeled schizophrenic.