Tag Archives: Cosy

December 9, 2012

Books to Curl Up With, part II

By bibliomouse

It’s getting colder outside, Christmas-scented candles are being lit and we’ve had the first proper snow of the year. It’s obviously time for two more cosy books!

Crooked-House-Christie-Agatha-9780062073532

 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

    ISBN: 978-0007136865

        Publication date: 5th August 2002 (originally published in 1949)

I read my first Agatha Christie aged 9 and, twenty years later, I’ve now read all of them. I wrote my Masters’ thesis on her novels and I can bore people for hours about why I think that she has been unfairly maligned in terms of racism and sexism. Many a  happy Sunday has been spent on the sofa watching David Suchet mince across the screen as Poirot and, had my over-enthusiastic ex-flatmate been quicker than me, the cat would have been called Aggie. In case it’s not clear, I love Agatha Christie* and I think they’re fabulous books for lazy afternoons – they’re short enough to read in one go and somehow reading about murder always makes my living room feel cosier. Make of that what you will…

 Crooked House is my favourite Christie mystery and was one of the author’s favourites too. Its detective is Charles Hayward, whose fiancée won’t get married until the murderer of her grandfather is discovered. I love it because it’s genuinely chilling and unexpected whilst still being non-gory and cosy.

*Even I can’t defend Curtain. Really, I’ve got nothing.

 Publisher: Persephone Books

    ISBN: 978-1903155714

        Publication date: 23rd October 2008 (originally published in 1934).

I admit that this isn’t the best and most exciting photo, especially when you have to have superhuman eyesight to see what the book actually is, but bear with me. Persephone Books are all jacketed in dove grey, which looks lovely when you have several on a bookshelf, and each has a different end-paper and bookmark in a ‘fabric’ design chosen to compliment the book. They’re gorgeous, really.

Although many of the works re-printed by Persephone could be called ‘cosy’, Miss Buncle’s Book by DE Stevenson is one of my favourites. The story of Miss Buncle, an unmarried and impoverished lady in her 30s who writes a novel about her small village and its inhabitants as a way of making some money, the novel is charming, witty and well-written, much like Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. If anyone would like to get me Miss Buncle Married for Christmas, that would be lovely, pleasethankyou.

4 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Reviews, Comforting Reads

December 5, 2012

Books to Curl Up With, part I

By bibliomouse

I said that I’d put together a list of ‘cosy books’ what seems like an age ago and I’ve finally done it, in a few parts. I feel I have to point out that it’s definitely a list that reflects my reading tastes, although there does seem to be a bit of everything (apart from ‘Mommy porn.’ I draw the line at badly-written erotica). So, without further ado or disclaimers, here are my first two top tips for books to curl up with (preferably with a mug of something hot and delicious – cocoa? Hot toddy?)

Publisher: Hodder

ISBN: 978-1444727036 

Publication date: 10th November 2011

Lucy Dillon’s The Secret of Happy Ever After could have been written specifically with my curling-up-book needs in mind. It has snow, books, scruffy dogs, books and regular drinking of hot chocolate, as well as strong characters who are funny and intelligent, without being twee or irritating. Neither of the two main characters, Anna and Michelle, made me want to gouge my eyes out with pen, which is a common reaction to many of the characters in novels based on ‘female friendships’. There are two very good dogs. There are serious topics which are well-written and not shoe-horned in to make us forget that the characters’ lives are basically perfect. Oh, and there are books. Did I mention those? Lots of mentions of children’s books that I remember from my childhood, like Ballet Shoes, Mrs Pepperpot, Malory Towers, and that I now want to go and re-read immediately. Bravo Lucy Dillon!

Publisher: BBC Books

ISBN: 978-1849900010 

Publication date: 20th May 2010 (revised edition)

Everyone who knows me knows about my passion for David Attenborough and his fabulous nature documentaries. Blue Planet and Planet Earth are my go-to dvds for when I’m hiding from a hangover feeling ill, my computer at work has this photo as its wallpaper, (actually, so does my twitter profile…no, I’m not obsessed, shush now) and now I have Life on Air for when I don’t feel like watching tv. I’ve no idea how it took me so long to get this but I now refuse to put it down. A memoir of his time in broadcasting, starting with his first job at the BBC in 1952, this is as funny, warm and intelligent as one would expect from its author.

(It’s also available as an audio-book, which I didn’t get for fear that I’d get all giggly when listening to it on the bus. I know he’s 86 but…that voice. Sigh.)

Look out for 2 more books perfect for a Winter’s day at the weekend!

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , | posted in British, Comforting Reads

September 14, 2012

Bookish Mugs for Autumn

By bibliomouse

I don’t know what the weather is like in the rest of the country/world but here in the North East it’s cold and blustery. Autumn is  actually my favourite season, with its woolly jumpers, boots, scarves and crunchy leaves. It’s also perfect weather to curl up with a book and a mug of something hot and comforting. I’ll be sharing a selection of cosy books soon but for today I have fabulous mugs.

 

 

First up is my favourite Roald Dahl character and all-round amazing nerd, Matilda. I did have a hard time choosing which of the Roald Dahl character mugs to feature (the BFG one is pretty ace, as is Fantastic Mr. Fox), but it had to be Matilda. I’m sure I uttered the same words as her when I’d worked my way through my primary school’s library, but luckily my Mum was a little more sympathetic than Mrs. Wormwood.

Matilda is £7.95 from Bloomsbury & Co.

 

This comes from an incredibly popular range of designs but this is the original (other designs include ‘Go away, I’m blogging’ and ‘Go away, I’m marking’, perfect for any teacher/lecturer friends). A friend bought it for me last Christmas and I have absolutely no reason* to think that it was because I get grumpy when my reading is interrupted.

It’s bone china and is £9.95 from The Literary Gift Company.

*ok, maybe considerable reason.

I love this range of mugs which are inspired by the ability of a good book to transport the reader somewhere different and magical. The ‘stops’ are places from the book in question, with the Little Women mug featuring ‘Orchard House’ and ‘Camp Laurie’ among others. I adore Jo March so this one was an easy choice but there are also  Pride and Prejudice, the Great Gatsby and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas  mugs. My inner-geek also likes the fact that they’re stackable for easy storage (no, really).

These are £7.95 from Not the Usual.

Mr Mouse and I recently rediscovered the joy of Scrabble, if not a memory of the exact rules. You’re allowed to swear in various languages, yes? I like the simplicity of these mugs, despite the fact that my initial is worth a dismal 1 point. Sometimes I like to drink slightly more exciting things from pretty mugs, like gin, and having a reminder of my name might be a good plan…

These are £6.95 from The Literary Gift Company.

Finally, if a normal mug just isn’t big enough for you coffee/tea/gin needs then this monster from Emma Bridgewater might be for you. It holds a pint of your tipple of choice and is rather pretty too. It’s not literary but you could fit a lot of marshmallows on the top of your hot chocolate which is enough for me.

Priced at £24.95, it’s obviously not a budget option but Emma Bridgewater stuff is gorgeous and, as I can personally attest, they’re really hard to break… Get yours here.

4 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Gifts, Shiny!

May 22, 2011

Edmund Crispin – Comforting Reads, part 2

By bibliomouse

Edmund Crispin, a pseudonym for Robert Bruce Montgomery, is my favourite Golden Age detective author. Despite writing part of my Masters on his crime novels, I haven’t reached the point where I feel the urge to hurl them out of the nearest window yet, which is saying something about their lasting appeal. I’m slowly collecting multiple copies of all of his mystery books (and giving Mr. Bibliomouse copies of his Science Fiction compilations), including a first edition of The Moving Toyshop, and they have pride of place on my crime bookcase (yes, you heard me correctly. I have a whole bookcase for detective and crime fiction, and it’s not big enough…).

Crispin’s novels are intelligent, witty and strewn with literary references but they never feel pretentious or superior, as some authors tend to (Michael Innes, I’m looking at you). His detective is Gervase Fen, professor of English at St. Christopher’s, Oxford, and owner of Lily Christine II, a small red sports car prone to ill-timed breakdowns. The novels tend to be hectic, farcical and great fun, whilst still being really well-written and ingeniously plotted. I only guessed one murderer before it was revealed, and I read so many crime novels that usually I work it out in the first 3 chapters!

Crispin wrote 8 novels between 1944 and 1952, along with 2 collections of short stories and another novel, which wasn’t written until 1977. Of the first 8 novels, my favourites are The Moving Toyshop (which is probably the book that Crispin is most well-known for) and The Long Divorce, but all of them are fun and worth reading. They go particularly well with a big mug of coffee and a slab of cake, of which I think Fen would approve.

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Comforting Reads, Detective/Crime

May 15, 2011

‘A Shilling for Candles’ – Josephine Tey

By bibliomouse

A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey is the book that Mr. Bibliomouse bought for me in The English Bookshop in Stockholm. I already had all of her other detective novels, and had been searching for a copy of Candles for a long time, so I was stupidly excited when he gave it to me (there may have been squealing. In public. I’m not proud of myself).

Tey, the nom de plume of Elizabeth Mackintosh, is one of my favourite Golden Age authors, despite the fact that she only published 8 detective novels, and 1 of those (The Man in the Queue, her first) was published under the name of  Gordon Daviot. She is probably best known for writing A Daughter of Time, which is considered a classic in the detective genre, as well as being valuable in terms of historical research.

Tey’s detective is Inspector Alan Grant, who’s just about flawed enough to be likeable. Unlike characters such as Lord Peter Wimsey, reading about Grant doesn’t make me want to punch things- he’s good-looking and intelligent, well-off and witty, but these attributes aren’t conveyed in a manner that makes him smug or superior. Instead he’s a perfectionist who, in one instance in Candles, dwells on a mistake that he made for a good 14 chapters. By making Grant more human and less superhero (Dorothy Sayers, I’m looking at you), and inventing plots that are both intricate but just about plausible, Tey has written books that I can re-read again and again. Which is more than I can say about novels featuring a certain aristocratic know-it-all.

Candles opens with the body of a famous film star being found on a deserted beach in rural Kent. Grant starts with one promising suspect, but the case quickly unravels into several strands, each ending with someone who wanted Christine Clay dead. Whilst Grant is very much the lead, the cast of supporting characters is rather fabulous, especially Williams, Grant’s sergeant, and Erica, the Chief Constable’s daughter. Erica is an endearingly innocent and blunt 17 year old, who develops a bit of hero-worship for Grant, but in a very straight-forward manner. Coy she is not. She potters around Kent in ‘Tinny’, her aged Morris Minor, solving mysteries and generally doing things thoroughly. I loved her.

Whilst it isn’t my favourite, Candles is a really enjoyable book, with an unpredictable ending and some lovely characterisation. It’s the second in the series of books with Inspector Grant, and is perfect for a gloomy Sunday afternoon when the sun’s decided to bugger off.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Detective/Crime, Recommended, Reviews

March 23, 2011

‘I love you. I love you. I love you’

By bibliomouse

This could be part of my Comforting Reads series, as it’s the literary equivalent of a giant hug. Although it doesn’t have a traditionally ‘happy ending’, it is hopeful and you end the novel feeling as if Cassandra is going to go onto have a wonderful life. I know that sounds twee, but that’s the one thing that this book is not. It’s witty, poignant, warm and features on of the most fantastic and loveable narrators in literature.

‘I Capture the Castle’, written in 1945, tells the story of Cassandra Mortmain and her family, living in a crumbling castle in the 1930s. Her father wrote one successful novel when Cassandra was younger but has had writer’s block ever since, meaning that the family have next to no money. Her older sister, Rose, dreams of meeting a rich young man to whisk her away, younger brother Thomas is endearingly odd, step-mother Topaz is an exotic ex-artist’s model, and Stephen, a young man who lives with the family, is in love with Cassandra, something she finds hard to deal with.

When the nearby manor is inherited by the Cotton family from America, the Mortmains’ world is turned upside down. Simon and Neil  Cotton, the sons of the family, are soon at the centre of the girls’ lives, causing confusions, love-triangles and, ultimately, heartache for at least one of them. But, although not all of the characters get their happy endings, the book leaves you with a feeling of hope.

Cassandra is so empathetic as a narrative voice and she has stayed with me since I first met her, about 15 years ago.  As far as I’m concerned, she had me at ‘I write this sitting in the kitchen sink…’.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in Comforting Reads, Recommended, Relationships, Reviews

March 4, 2011

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier – Comforting Reads, Part 1

By bibliomouse

Like most people, I read different kinds of books for different reasons. Long bubble baths, train journeys, my short daily commute and hungover Sunday morning all need different types of reading matter; for example, bubble baths tend to get quick and funny books (the Agatha Raisin series are classic bath-books) whereas long journeys attract thrillers or mysteries – something that I can get stuck into, that make me forget how tedious sitting on a train or plane for hours is!

However, when I’m feeling a bit sad or blue (my flatmate would say it was ‘mopey’), I turn to the books that I’ve read many times before. Everyone has some – the books that are the most dog-eared or bashed or just plain loved. The first of these for me is ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du Maurier. I’ve lost count of how many time I’ve read it, but it never loses its ability to make everything else around me disappear as I’m transported to Manderlay with the un-named heroine. Du Maurier wrote some brilliant stories, including the short story ‘The Birds’, which is far more haunting and disturbing than Hitchcock’s adaptation, and ‘Jamaica Inn’, which is another favourite of mine, but it’s ‘Rebecca’ that I always go back to.

The main appeal of the novel is the heroine herself.  Her initial innocence, as she is saved from a life of  being a paid companion to a rich and obnoxious American woman gives way to a blossoming self-confidence, but not until she has suffered countless humiliations at the hands of the eerie and obsessive housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers. Du Maurier was particularly adept at creating atmosphere within her writing, and I now tend to regard rhododendrons with suspicion, such is their oppressive nature in ‘Rebecca’. The constant subtle reminders of the first Mrs. DeWinter combined with the reticence of Maxim and his sister to discuss her mean that Maxim’s new wife, along with the reader, cannot escape her continued presence at Manderley, even after her death.

The last quarter of the novel, with the discovery in the bay and the subsequent race against time, flies by until the ending, which is both shocking and utterly fitting, and will stay with you long after you close the book. It really is my #1 feeling-crap-so-curled-up-under-a-huge-duvet-with-a-novel novel and deserves to be read by everyone who likes mysteries and just good atmospheric writing by a master story-teller.

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Comforting Reads

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