Today Chelsey and Sara are toppling your TBR with classics and pairings to keep you company during the pandemic. Comfort reading is different for everyone, so we’ve got a wide range of books to recommend including books with cozy communities, classic comedies (and modern pairings), and big books to last you through many weeks of social distancing.
Comfort Reads
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
***the Strand is hosting a readalong of P&P because their customers voted it the ultimate comfort read – follow along as they discuss it in their stories (@strandbookstore)
- The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare
- American Love Story by Adriana Herrera
- Red White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
- The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
- Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James
-BBC Pride and Prejudice (1995) – streaming on Hulu
-Death Comes to Pemberley – Amazon
Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
- News of the World by Paulette Jiles (Jefferson Kidd and Johanna, post Civil War Texas)
- Little Weirds by Jenny Slate
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
- To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
- Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Cozy Communities
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell / Middlemarch by George Eliot (great on audio)
- Gilead by Marilynn Robinson (my favorite is Lila)
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Anne Shaefer
-The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Netflix
-Doctor Thorne – streaming on Amazon Prime
-Downton Abbey
Page Turners
Passing by Nella Larsen
- The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell (Rose, Odelie)
- You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanan (Shay, Jane & Cassandra)
Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
- The Likeness by Tana French
- The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware
-Sherlock – Netflix
Big Books
Les Miserables (my favorite BIG classic) by Victor Hugo
- The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne (Cyril Avery)
-2019 Masterpiece edition on PBS
-Poldark (2015) – streaming via PBS on demand
Chelsey: not inclined towards long books in general, especially not huge classics. But: favorite comfort series that IS really chunky:
- Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
-Outlander – Netflix and Starz
Escapist Reads
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
-traveling to another world
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (Feyre)
In the same vein: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
- The Magicians by Lev Grossman (Quentin)
- Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend
–A Discovery of Witches (free 7 day trial of Sundance)
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (Tita)
- The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
- A Million Junes by Emily Henry
Comedies
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
-farcical comedy
- A Quiet Life in the Country by T.E. Kinsey
Vanity Fair by William Thackery (must get the original illustrations)
- What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarity
Books that Make You Think
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
-speaking clear truths with a distinct voice
- Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino
- Here for It by R. Eric Thomas
–If Beale Street Could Talk – streaming on Hulu
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
- Good and Mad by Rebecca Traister
Eloquent Rage by Brittney Cooper
Novel Pairings 