Category Archives: Comfort Reads

Mary Stewart at Midnight

Posted on February 5, 2013

Or any other time, as far as I’m concerned. One of  my all-time favorite comfort reads have to be Mary Stewart’s classic romantic suspense novels of the 50s and 60s. (I make one allowance for the 70s for Touch Not … Continue reading →

Posted in Comfort Reads, Role Models | 2 Comments

Summer Reading

Posted on July 10, 2012

So despite a looming deadline on my first mystery, I find I need to take a break now and then for some fun summer reads. Here’s what’s on the pile and in the Kindle: Poetic Justice, by Alicia Rasley. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Comfort Reads, Seasonal, What I'm Reading | 2 Comments

Nancy Drew, I Love You

Posted on February 17, 2012

I stole the title of this post from a poem by Maria Mazziotti Gillan, an Italian-American  poet from Paterson who has an uncanny knack of telling my life story in her work. In the poem, the speaker describes Nancy Drew as … Continue reading →

Posted in Comfort Reads, Literary Influences, Role Models | 8 Comments

Dorothy’s Lord Peter*

Posted on February 8, 2012

I’ve always been a Dorothy Sayers fan girl, but a recent reading of Barbara Reynolds’ biography sent me scurrying back to Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. After a delightful re-read of Busman’s Honeymoon, I now plan to back up and start with … Continue reading →

Posted in Comfort Reads, Literary Influences, Red Room Re-run, Writing | 2 Comments

What I Learned from Jo March*

Posted on January 13, 2012

Jo March made me want to be a writer. When Jo March escaped to her attic to eat apples and write stories, I did the same. And when she announced to her sisters and her friend Laurie that her greatest … Continue reading →

Posted in Comfort Reads, Literary Influences, Red Room Re-run, Role Models | 4 Comments

Literate Girls

Posted on November 13, 2011

Recently my sweet and lovely niece Eva sent me a blog post from Thought Catalogue by Charles Warnke with the (hopefully) ironic title, “You Should Date an Illiterate Girl.” It reads like a prose poem and it’s been making the … Continue reading →

Posted in Comfort Reads, Literary Influences, Miscellaneous | 4 Comments

Summer Reading

Posted on August 1, 2011

To me, all reading qualifies as “vacation reading.” In fact, that very phrase is redundant, as every book is a vacation from life. But here’s what I’ve been curling up with this summer: Still Life, Louise Penny A Fatal Grace, … Continue reading →

Posted in Comfort Reads, What I'm Reading | 6 Comments

Kindling Interest

Posted on July 23, 2011

I should start by saying that holding an open book–whether in bed, on the beach, at the kitchen table while I eat a solitary breakfast, or with my legs slung over the side of an arm chair–provides me one of … Continue reading →

Posted in Comfort Reads, What I'm Reading | 7 Comments

Romance Meets Mystery, or There’s Nothing Like the Dame

Posted on June 14, 2011

  When I am deep in a project, I generally don’t read too much women’s fiction. I worry about the unconscious influences of voice or tone, and I dread coming across a plotline that may be similar to mine. So … Continue reading →

Posted in Comfort Reads, Literary Influences, Role Models, Writing | 2 Comments

The Duchess of Dork

Posted on May 14, 2011

I established my dorkdom at a young age. The summer I was ten, I spent every day reading. Every day. While my sister and best friend whizzed by on their bikes to find adventure, I sat in a lawn chair … Continue reading →

Posted in Comfort Reads, Literary Influences, Miscellaneous | 27 Comments