Smart Podcast, Trashy Books Podcast

397. Bitches Assemble: Recommendations for Comfort with Carrie, Elyse, Lara, Amanda & Sarah

Need a break? I’m connecting with each of the Smart Bitches writing team from around the world to see how they’re doing, collect some comforting recommendations, and extend their good wishes into the world.

Cozy up and join us for part one with Carrie in California, Elyse in Wisconsin, Lara from South Africa, and Amanda and I from Boston and Maryland. We have books to read and re-read, recommendations for resilience, and familiarity, and absolute fun. And we have CRUCIAL QUESTIONS about mayonnaise.

We’re sending you good thoughts and many good book wishes from a safe and acceptable social distance.

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  1. Jill Q. says:

    I’m so looking forward to listening to this! Honestly, I don’t comfort read a lot b/c I have a hard time rereading, but there’s always fanfiction. That I can reread. I read “The Wedding Party” by Jasmine Guillory lately and that was delicious and fluffy for people who are looking for that right now.

    I also plan to rewatch “One Day at a Time.” Kindness, family, laughter.

    This is probably going to seem like a weird choice to a lot of people, but I also re-read parts of “Doomsday Book” by Connie Willis. This is *not* a happy book. At all! It is about a young woman who time travels back to the past to find herself in the midst of the Black Death. So yeah, for some people it would be exactly what you do not want to read about right now.

    And I will be honest. The ending is very sad. But it’s also one of the most emotionally moving, cathartic books I’ve ever read. I always end up sobbing and feeling calm afterward. It’s really about being responsible for your fellow human beings and having faith. Connie Willis is a Christian and I presume at some level in her book it’s about faith in god, but I don’t thinks she leaves you with any easy, pat answers to what that means. To me it’s more about the faith that when humans reach out to each other and help each other, we can feel comforted even in very difficult circumstances.

    Honestly, a lot of books in Willis’s time travel series are good comfort reads. She writes about decent, hardworking people who are doing their best. “To Say Nothing of the Dog” is good if you want pure silly comedy and “Black Out” and “All Clear” is good if you want more good people striving in difficult circumstances (the Blitz). Those last two are honestly a little bit overlong and could have used some editing, but I’m a bit of Connie Willis fangirl and I don’t think any writer else gives that gut punch of deep emotion the way she does. Her actual sci fi is pretty shaky, but I’m personally not bothered by it. Someone who is more of a sci fi reader might be disappointed.

  2. Carol S. says:

    I love rereading Victoria Holt books as a comfort read. I’ve also been really enjoying rereading some YA books from my youth. Johnny Tremaine was absolutely fantastic the second time around! Also Jane Austen never fails to soothe the anxious mind.

  3. Kareni says:

    Some of my favorite comfort reads are SK Dunstall’s Linesman series, Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor, Lyn Gala’s Claimings series, and some old original series Star Trek novels.

    Thank you for an enjoyable series of interviews and for the joke.

  4. Julia aka mizzelle says:

    The Connie Willis I tend to use as a comfort read is Bellewether with its fads and romance.

    I do find it funny Sarah is reading the Brother Cadfael series since it’s set during a period of political tumult (nicknamed the “the Anarchy” in places).

  5. Karen H near Tampa says:

    I grew up on my Mom’s mayonnaise chocolate cake and still love it. If you look at homemade mayo ingredients, it’s mostly eggs, oil, and an acid, so it’s not really a weird ingredient for a cake (Coca-Cola, on the other hand…ok, it actually makes a good chocolate cake, too). And my partner has taken to using mayo on the grilled cheese sandwiches (mostly, I think, because he never remembers to take the butter out of the fridge far enough in advance) and while I prefer butter, it’s pretty good. When I used to eat hot dogs, I also would use mayo except with Kosher dill pickles. However, I have never licked the knife (but my partner does even though I always grimace at him about it).
    I don’t reread books but I remember A Tree Grows in Brooklyn fondly from reading it at age 7 (I only remember her aunts and a couple of other things and I know I didn’t understand quite a bit of it because of my age).

  6. Iona Lovell says:

    Thank you for this podcast and the jokes! I chuckled throughout the whole thing. I agree on the video-game reasoning – I cant seem to focus on words but I find the repetitive tasks (and completions!) in video games calming.

    I’ve def not been reading and been spending whatever spare time I have to playing video games. If you like Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing: New Horizons just dropped for the Switch and its very soothing.

    When I am reading and am anxious – my go to reads are kids books. Mr. Poppers Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater, The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer(books 1 and 2, forget the rest of the series), and my hands down all time favourite: Dealing with Dragons and Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede. I love how absolutely playful and clever Dealing with Dragons and its sequel Searching for Dragons are. And Searching has a fun romance!

  7. Janet says:

    Is it possible to show the lipsticks? I really need a good purple red lipstick right now.

  8. Janet says:

    Oh man – that was the last podcast! My life is a jumble.

  9. ShellyE says:

    Amanda!!! My soul mate! I too put mayo and Miracle Whip on my microwaved hot dogs (with my honey wheat bread when out of hot dog buns) and sandwiches. Today’s lunch, lol – I’m here for ya girl 🙂

  10. Amanda says:

    @ShellyE: YESSSS!! Virtual high five for living that mayo life!

  11. Stefanie Magura says:

    I love mayo on fries. I typically eat my hot dogs with mustard only, and my hamburgers with mustard and mayo.

  12. ShellyE says:

    @Stefanie Magura: Yummmmm!! Mayo on fries! I like my hamburgers with mayo and ketchup. Don’t hate mustard, but grew up on Miracle Whip and started buying regular mayo when I got married, hubby was baffled by Miracle Whip, lol – it’s a southern thing I guess!

  13. Stefanie Magura says:

    @ShellyE:

    I grew up in the south and did not grow up on miracle whip. We always have mayonaise in our house.

  14. Karen H near Tampa says:

    I forgot about mayo on fries but it is yummy! I first tried it at a Belgian fries restaurant in Los Angeles (it’s apparently a thing there). I grew up on Southern food, too, and we always had mayo (my favorite salad is Honeymoon Salad, or “lettuce alone”-really iceberg, mayo, salt, and pepper). It was my Midwestern ex-husband who introduced me to Miracle Whip, but that is too sweet for me.

  15. Hera says:

    I love Connie Willis, but I would pretty strongly advise AGAINST reading her book “Passage” right now. Read the one about the Black Death before you read that one.

  16. ShellyE says:

    @Stefanie: huh, I guess I assumed it was mostly a southern thing. Born and raised Texan, but my mom grew up in Iowa, so maybe it is a midwestern thing, since she did the grocery shopping.

  17. EscapeologistAgain says:

    Connie Willis is one of my favorites, but i agree some of her books are too anxiety inducing for these times.

    Heartily recommend these fluffier ones by her:

    To Say Nothing of the Dog
    Bellwether
    All Seated on the Ground (novella)

  18. Rhodered says:

    Thank you thank you!!

  19. Stefanie Magura says:

    @ShellyE @KarenH:

    I don’t have any idea what miracle whip tastes like, so it must be a Midwestern thing.

  20. Amanda says:

    Rural North Florida girl here! My mom is from New York and hates the stuff. My dad is definitely what I’d call Southern. He’s the one who swears by Miracle Whip.

    So who knows.

  21. DiscoDollyDeb says:

    My rereads are all angsty with emotional roller-coasters, devastating break-ups, and joyous reconciliations. I think I gravitate to those types of books because my emotional life is on a pretty even keel and isn’t reflected in anyway by the books I turn to for comfort: TIME SERVED by Julianna Keyes; AFTER WE FALL by Melanie Harlow; GOING NOWHERE FAST by Kati Wilde (in fact, almost all of Kati Wilde’s catalog fits my comfort reread criteria); and any HP by Caitlin Crews.

    Miracle Whip is waaaay too sweet for me. I like to mix mayo and yellow mustard to use as sandwich spread. The sharpness of the mustard cuts some of the cloying elements of the mayo.

  22. DiscoDollyDeb says:

    As for comfort watching, our family (husband, three adult kids, and moi) is going through our entire dvd collections of Poirot, Miss Marple, Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett as SH), Midsomer Murders, Inspector Lewis, and Inspector Gently. We’re also rewatching all of the “30 Roc” episodes in order.

    We’re also trying to walk a mile a day around our neighborhood (waving from across the road and keeping our distance from anyone we pass) because we have to get out in the fresh air occasionally. There’s only so much time you can spend eating, watching tv, and reading (although I never thought I’d reach a point where I’d find I had “too much time” for reading).

  23. I totally squeeeeed and texted my good friend when I heard that Sarah was reading the Brother Cadfael series.

    That is such a lovely series.

    Right now I’m re-reading some favorites, including Michelle Diener’s Regency London series. The middle book (Banquet of Lies) has the heroine taking a job as a cook while she hides from the man who murdered her father. It’s lovely and delightful and the whole series is one I enjoy rereading.

    I’m also borrowing Jennifer Ashley’s Kat Holloway series from the library, which has another heroine working as a cook, and is full of lovely food. But I admit I don’t like it as much as Michelle Diener’s Regency London series.

    And when I’m short on podcasts, I’m listening to Robert B Parker’s Small Vices, which is narrated by Burt Reynolds, and is probably my favorite Spenser book.

    And now I must go back to my lair where I am working from home. (Husband has the guest bedroom for his office. I think I have the better space.)

  24. I watched those old Cadfael shows on PBS. I loved them. (My parents had them on VHS!) I never thought to go back to 12th Century for some comfort reading, but now I just might. I always thought murder mysteries were comforting because bad things happen for a reason, a reason that’s more specific than “people lack compassion” or “capitalism is ruthless” or “epidemics happen.” It’s sad that the idea of evil being logical is, in itself, a cozy fantasy.

  25. SB Sarah says:

    @Karelia: HA! I have been thinking of trying the tv adaptation, as I devour the book series. I’m glad you recommend them – thank you!

  26. Wub says:

    A fluffier Connie Willis is the rom-com “Crosstalk”, a hilarious take on an IT firm trying to sell the first telepathic communication between a couple–only the more likeable and not involved couple of people who aren’t looking at all get it.

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