The Guest List: Comfort Reading with Hannah Rose Yee
We would only let Hannah Rose get away this very loving but accurate trolling of Highly Enthused. This week we’ve got her on the pod to recommend five of the most comforting books to read in these trying times. There’s cozy coming of age stories, a raunchy romance that both Sophie’s immediately purchased, and a discussion of how books are like lasagne. (Look we’re all going a bit loopy at the moment.) Get those library cards ready!
Hannah’s Top Five Comfort Reads!
Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy. A cozy coming of age book set in Ireland in the fifties. I feel soothed just writing that sentence.
Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. The raunchy romance that both of us downloaded immediately.
The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Start with The Light Years! Hannah’s first cheat - this is five books - but they’re an underrated classic. Use your iso time wisely!
I’ll Have What She’s Having by Erin Carlson. Juicy behind the scene secrets of Nora Ephron’s films
The Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva. Hannah’s second cheat! A 22 book series that comes out every year in August, like a seasonal harvest. Hannah’s favourite is Portrait of a Spy. Read it and bond with your dad!
SoMo’s Fave:
One Day by David Nicholls. Re-defines “tear jerker” - read it and see if our theory of ‘cathartic crying’ holds true for you too.
SoRo’s Fave:
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. Teenage feelings! Great descriptions of clothes! A dilapidated castle and a daffy step mother. The word for this book is “swoony”. SoRo has re-read it twice in six months.
Bonus time! Five more of Hannah’s faves because why not:
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
This big, doorstopper of a book is a revelation. It follows Alice, a young woman with a tragic accident in her past who ends up falling in love with, and marrying, a man called Charlie, the charismatic son of a political dynasty who ends up becoming president of America. The story is loosely based on Laura Bush, who eventually married George Bush, which means that yes, you might find yourself reading about Alice and Charlie and finding yourself rooting for them both, which is a very strange position to be in.Sense And Sensibility: The Screenplay And Diaries by Emma Thompson
Two things I love: Jane Austen and going to the movies. And this, which collects Emma Thompson’s diaries from the set of Ang Lee’s 1995 adaptation of Sense And Sensibility with the script that she wrote, is both those heavenly things. Thompson is such a natural diarist, by which I mean short, sharp and juicy, and her witty asides about her co-stars Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet and Thompson’s future husband Greg Wise – they met on the set of this film! And Thompson is only human, her attraction creeps into every entry – are delicious.Original Sin by PD James
Nobody, and I really mean <nobody>, writes murder mysteries like PD James. Centred around detective (and poet!!) Adam Dalgleish, each book is tightly coiled like a spring, waiting to be unfurled at the opportune moment. I would struggle to pick just one but let’s go with <Original Sin> because it’s about an intricate but inexplicable murder in London’s publishing world, and who wouldn’t want to find out more about that?Coming To My Senses by Alice Waters
Before reading this book I knew Alice Waters as the founder of celebrated farm-to-table restaurant Chez Panisse in San Francisco. After reading her memoir, I know her as the baddest bitch in cooking and someone who I want to be best friends with. Alice Waters! Her life! She parties with Francis Ford Coppola and Jean-Luc Godard and skips off to France where she kisses a roster of incredibly unsuitable men and learns how to dress a butter lettuce salad correctly, one experience being much more important than the other, naturally.Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré
I am single handedly trying to convert the Highly Enthused hive into my own, separate, spy novel hive, and this is the best one to start with. JLC is what you might call the Sally Rooney of espionage writers: popular, peerless, proficient at filling his plots with all kinds of sadness. This isn’t his first book, but it’s one of the best ones for anyone who wants to dip their toes into the world of spy fiction.
Honestly why are you still reading this? Go read a book!
Love,
S&S