my husband doesn’t re-read books or re-watch movies, as a rule. and yet he married me, a person who could happily sit down to watch The Last Jedi at literally any time of the day or night; a person who finished Uprooted and simply turned back to the first page and continued as if nothing happened; a person who appears to have a good memory for quotes and passages, but has actually just driven them into her brain through staggering repetition.
I always end up coming back to "The Goblin Emperor" by Katherine Addison for comfort reads. Low-feeling stakes, lovely worldbuilding, and endearing characters just trying their best! Love love love
I've re-read Andrew Davidson's The Gargoyle at least 4 times. It's about the importance of stories, the power of love to endure, and a drug addicted porn star that needs saving (but it's mostly the first two). Also, The Lord of the Rings saved me from a deep teenage depression and it's been calling my name lately.
I can go again and again to John Crowley's Little, Big - it is such a wonderfully sprawling and yet delicate fantasy. I can also eternally revisit anything by Kelly Link, Audrey N's The Time Traveler's Wife, Kathe Koja's The Cipher, and Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin.
Btw I'm a big fan of Robin McKinley - I've reread Beauty countless times. And I love your book - it is so rich and beautifully constructed.
I also have a re-read (and re-watch) shelf and a husband that doesn't understand the impulse. There's something of comfort and home in the idea that certain stories are just there for me. In knowing the particular emotional journey that I'm going to go on, and experiencing those beats anyway.
My comfort re-reads are usually:
- Anything and everything by Ursula Vernon/T. Kingfisher. But in particular, I go back to The Raven and the Reindeer, Bryony and Roses, and the Clockwork Boys over and over again.
- The Harper Hall trilogy by Anne McCaffrey. The first SFF books I ever read.
- His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
There are others too. And some that make their way onto this shelf and then make their way off again. But these form the core. There's something in each of these stories that resonates with some part of me, even if I can't explain why.
I have rewatched The West Wing a truly alarming number of times. Last night's latest about the ACA may prompt yet another one.
Oddly enough, I think my most frequent reread has been The Westing Game (yes, I see you three feet from me, always in easy pull distance from my desk. Calm down, it's not time. Stay there between The Secret Garden and Hugo Cabret). I don't care if I know the gimmick or figured it out the first time as a kid. I love it with my midwestern heart. Going back to it as an adult and seeing the diversity in the limited community, the different classes represented, the strong women making their own choices. Yeah, I was destined to be an unrepentant idealist!
But I've gone back to Uprooted once, and Spinning Silver - I think I might be able to read that again and again through my New England winters. I -devoured- the Winternight trilogy early in the pandemic when it was still chillly.
And that means I have to get to the rest of this list now, I think, because I think we may be surfing the same wavelengths.
Thank you for this list! I’ve loved MANY of these books, and haven’t ever heard of others, which means—yay!!—I have treats to look forward to!
I assume the “Circe” you’re talking about is Madeline Miller’s, and I’m just going to put in a plug for her “Song of Achilles” and “Galatea” too. I’m a lifelong myth lover, and somehow she manages, in all of those retellings, to be extremely faithful to the myths and also astonishing and revelatory. Just wow.
I'm almost finished with The Ten Thousand Doors of January. What an amazing book to let me escape reality during this uncertain time. I love Andy Beshear as well. I wish he'd run for president.
Everything Tamora Pierce has ever written but especially the Song of the Lioness and the Immortals quartets. I reread them multiple times a year. Narnia is also a favorite world to visit. My newest favorites that I knew were rereading worthy as I was reading them the first time are a book about a girl named January, and the Storm Crow duology by Kalyn Josephson.
I always end up coming back to "The Goblin Emperor" by Katherine Addison for comfort reads. Low-feeling stakes, lovely worldbuilding, and endearing characters just trying their best! Love love love
I've re-read Andrew Davidson's The Gargoyle at least 4 times. It's about the importance of stories, the power of love to endure, and a drug addicted porn star that needs saving (but it's mostly the first two). Also, The Lord of the Rings saved me from a deep teenage depression and it's been calling my name lately.
I can go again and again to John Crowley's Little, Big - it is such a wonderfully sprawling and yet delicate fantasy. I can also eternally revisit anything by Kelly Link, Audrey N's The Time Traveler's Wife, Kathe Koja's The Cipher, and Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin.
Btw I'm a big fan of Robin McKinley - I've reread Beauty countless times. And I love your book - it is so rich and beautifully constructed.
I also have a re-read (and re-watch) shelf and a husband that doesn't understand the impulse. There's something of comfort and home in the idea that certain stories are just there for me. In knowing the particular emotional journey that I'm going to go on, and experiencing those beats anyway.
My comfort re-reads are usually:
- Anything and everything by Ursula Vernon/T. Kingfisher. But in particular, I go back to The Raven and the Reindeer, Bryony and Roses, and the Clockwork Boys over and over again.
- The Harper Hall trilogy by Anne McCaffrey. The first SFF books I ever read.
- His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
There are others too. And some that make their way onto this shelf and then make their way off again. But these form the core. There's something in each of these stories that resonates with some part of me, even if I can't explain why.
I have rewatched The West Wing a truly alarming number of times. Last night's latest about the ACA may prompt yet another one.
Oddly enough, I think my most frequent reread has been The Westing Game (yes, I see you three feet from me, always in easy pull distance from my desk. Calm down, it's not time. Stay there between The Secret Garden and Hugo Cabret). I don't care if I know the gimmick or figured it out the first time as a kid. I love it with my midwestern heart. Going back to it as an adult and seeing the diversity in the limited community, the different classes represented, the strong women making their own choices. Yeah, I was destined to be an unrepentant idealist!
But I've gone back to Uprooted once, and Spinning Silver - I think I might be able to read that again and again through my New England winters. I -devoured- the Winternight trilogy early in the pandemic when it was still chillly.
And that means I have to get to the rest of this list now, I think, because I think we may be surfing the same wavelengths.
Thank you for this list! I’ve loved MANY of these books, and haven’t ever heard of others, which means—yay!!—I have treats to look forward to!
I assume the “Circe” you’re talking about is Madeline Miller’s, and I’m just going to put in a plug for her “Song of Achilles” and “Galatea” too. I’m a lifelong myth lover, and somehow she manages, in all of those retellings, to be extremely faithful to the myths and also astonishing and revelatory. Just wow.
I'm almost finished with The Ten Thousand Doors of January. What an amazing book to let me escape reality during this uncertain time. I love Andy Beshear as well. I wish he'd run for president.
Everything Tamora Pierce has ever written but especially the Song of the Lioness and the Immortals quartets. I reread them multiple times a year. Narnia is also a favorite world to visit. My newest favorites that I knew were rereading worthy as I was reading them the first time are a book about a girl named January, and the Storm Crow duology by Kalyn Josephson.
I gravitate back to Orson Scott Card's Enchantment. Nothing like his other stories, except for magic, but it's my comfort blanket.