Hello, hello!
Time to kickstart our yearly favourites for 2020.
This year I am starting with a new category, Cozy Reads. Because we all need some cozy reading this year.
And thankfully I did end up reading quite a few cozy books that took my mind off things and kept me comforted and engaged and happy.
TOP 1O COZY READS OF 2020.
1. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman: A group of residents at an old age home get together once a week to pour over old case files and solve a murder mystery. I mean, I don't know about you but this to me is exactly how I want to spend my golden years. Solve crimes and hang out with my old buds. What's not to love?! This book was warm and fuzzy and poignant and such a good time. A perfect read for any time but especially a winter afternoon with a cup of tea on the side. Highly recommend.
2. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Bachman: Another book featuring an older protagonist. Ove is a cranky old man who wants to end his miserable life...till a handful of people walk into his life and make him fall in love with life again...well just about! This book feels like a warm hug and if you grew up with a difficult old man (hello not-so-warm-and-fuzzy-grandads) in your life this book will hit you with allllll the feels. It's wonderful!
3. Those Delicious Letters by Sandeepa Mukherjee Datta: This book was a hug, wrapped in love and served on a dinner plate brimming with my favourite food. Like really, this book was a joy from start to finish.
Letters.
A kindly old aunt.
Recipes.
Bengali food.
It was everything and more I need in this life to be content. I cannot recommend this book enough. It put me in such a good mood and made me want to hit the kitchen and whip up some Bengali grubs.
4. How to Raise an Elephant by Alexander McCall Smith: The newest No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books, which is one of my favourite things in the whole wide world. These book in general are the epitome of comfort and warmth and cozy feelings. Set in Botswana and brimming with the kindest, gentlest character and a mystery or two to solve, these are some of the darlingest things you'll ever read and I beg you to pick one up today, you need this loveliness in your life. This newest book featured among other delightful things a baby elephant and oodles of goodness. Just what I needed.
5. Book of Rachel by Esther David: Another book with an older main character. Rachel is an old Jewish woman, who lives in a tiny coastal town and is fighting tooth and nail to save her local synagogue. This book is full of amazing recipes, new friendships, a spot of match-making and the musings and memories of a kind, old soul. I have a sneaky feeling that I am getting a tad bit obsessed with older folks, maybe because deep down I am basically an old lady at heart and cannot wait to be a proper old lady and spend my days being nostalgic and cranky.
6. Jwala Kumar and The Gift of Fire by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar: A children's book is next on the list. A book full of simplicity, magic and a friend who is quite simply out of this world. A poor rural family recuses an animal in distress and in turn he gives them a priceless gift. Warm and fuzzy and full of hope of love and kindness and selflessness. We need more of this in the world.
7. Dopehri by Pankaj Kapur: Lucknow.
An old haveli.
A lonely old woman.
A new roommate.
Partnership. Support. Companionship.
Short and sweet and full of Lucknawi tehzeeb. Lovely. And one more book with an older protagonist.
8. A Love of Long Ago by Ruskin Bond: Of course a book by Ruskin Bond had to be on the list. His stories and worlds and people have always brought me comfort buckets of comfort and this collection of some of his short stories was no different. Any book of Bond's will do and this was a happy and wonderful read.
9. The Gopi Diaries Coming Home by Sudha Murty: A little puppy coming home to his humans. full of warm fuzzies and a doggo and just the most adorable art. LOVE LOVE LOVE. Read this and smile. Perfect for the littles in your life and you.
10. The Lost and Found Bookshop by Susan Wiggs: A book about books, an old bookshop and dedicated booksellers and some possible hidden treasure!
Fun and sweet and special in the way books about books usually are. Books like this make me want to throw caution to wind and open a little bookshop of my own.
Ah! If only!
Apart from these books comfort was found in re-visting some old loves: Famous Five Adventures and Agatha Christie for crime and comfort and the occasional visits to Hogwarts.
Books have generally brought me a lot of comfort this year and these books in particular kept me happy and sane and distracted while the world was falling apart.
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