I had a friend who found comfort in Winnie the Pooh. The books, actually anything related to Winnie the Pooh. Stuffed Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger. OMG, Winnie the Pooh china.
My go-tos are the P.G. Wodehouse novels. I have yet to figure out why I find them so engrossing. But they whisk me away from the stressors of the day and put me in a world where all the problems are significant to the characters but hilarious to the reader.
Murder Mystery read : in death series by J.D. Robb
Romance read: anything by Joanna Lindsay or Jude Deveraux
Soul Searching read. Untamed by Glennon Doyle or Reasons to stay alive or the midnight library by Matt Haig.
One of my favorites is "West With the Night" by Beryl Markham. It is a very well-written memoir of the author growing up in Kenya and eventually becoming an airplane pilot and setting world records. It has all the right points for me: it takes me away to a very different world (Kenya in the early 20th century) and has a female protagonist who begins as a rather average person but, with courage and determination does great things.
Another favorite is the Mrs. Pollifax series by Dorothy Gilman. The series begins in the mid-'60's. Although I do read a fair number of cozy mysteries, these books are not mysteries. They are a rather light approach to the spy novels and thrillers of the '60's. Like a cozy, there are a limited number of characters in each book and the plot lines are not that twisted or complex, so I need not spend a lot of mental energy trying to track things. A good thing when my motive for reading is escape from daily life. Nevertheless, the characters and locations for these books are really compelling. Every character seems plausible and most are really compelling. Mrs. Polliifax herself has a commonsense approach to overcoming the surprising difficulties and complications that she encounters. I started reading these books when I was in my 50's and was rather pleased to find a protagonist who was a woman in her fifties who was quite capable and whose experiences as mother and homemaker are quite useful to an enterprising volunteer spy.
I think another thing about reading these old favorites is that I can be interrupted at any time, tend to the latest mini-emergency, and get right back into the book later.
Weirdly, when I’m super stressed out, I go for romance novels, particularly ones with strong female leads.
I’ve also decided to learn to sew, so there’s a lot of learning there to keep my mind off the sadder thoughts about my mom’s deteriorating situation. I just checked out 3 books on sewing, including one that describes all the different types of fabric.
What a great question! I’m enjoying the responses. I hope you find something useful.
My sister loved D. Steele and always passed her books on to me. :-)
The Secret Adversary (Tommy and Tuppence) is a bit odd although I can't say why. As for the Harlequin Tea Set, maybe I was high at the time (I never get high) but it had an almost psychedelic effect. And to me, Then There Were None had a slightly Shirley Jackson vibe of lingering strangeness.
I remain a Poirot fan but alas I've read all of them.