Month: September 2020

teabooksandsweets:

teabooksandsweets:

I just thought it would be neat to have a list of book recommendations with a sort of mild cottagecore vibe or books that would fit into it, despite not specifically being about these things – this is all about the right feeling after all, not specific elements, etc. 

Everyone can add to that list – that’s the point, actually – and maybe we can all find quite some good, fitting books.

The point is nice fiction and even non-fiction of any genre, can be country-life related, but doesn’t have to be, ideally of the more uplifting and cosy sort, but that doesn’t have to be either, there’s no strict rules, if you think it fits, it surely will fit, we all have our own tastes and ideas, after all. 

So, I’ll make a start:

The books of Elizabeth Goudge, especially

• Linnets and Valerians – an enchanting children’s novel; the most cottagecore a book could ever be
• The Little White Horse – a more famous children’s novel; also very cottagecore, but in a different way
• The Eliots of Damerosay Trilogy: The Bird in the Tree, The Herb of Grace, The Heart of the Family – Extremely uplifting, lovely adult novels; especially the second book, The Herb of Grace (known as Pilgrim’s Inn in the US) is marvelously warm and wholesome, and often thought to be a single novel. If you’re not interested in the entire series, you might still give this one a try!
• The Rosemary Tree – also a warm and sweet and wholesome adult novel
• her other books, too, I suppose, but these in particular!

James Herriot’s books

• His All Creatures Great and Small series of memoirs – A less sweet or cute, but in its own way enchanting recollection of stories from his life as a country vet in the Yorkshire Dales in the 30s-50s; lovely stories of animals and even more intriguing stories of people
• His children’s books – often simplified, sweet stories that also appeared in his adult novels
• James Herriot’s Yorkshire – with photos by Derry Brabbs; non-fiction, a lovely photo book about Yorkshire and the Dales
• I cannot stress enough how lovely to read his books are and what a lovely picture of a hard, but wonderful way of life and a great many different and complex people in paints in such a light and quick manner that one doesn’t even notices it at first. If you want to read some country-fiction that is absolutely positive, but not entirely cottagecore-sweet, read Herriot!

Other adult novels, such as

• The Blandings books by P. G. Wodehouse – or any other of his books, for the light and sunny energy and great fun, though the Blandings series is more…country.
• The Green Thrush and Fairacre series by Miss Read
• Classic romances and comedies of manners (Jane Austen, or Georgette Heyer, for example)
• Cosy mysteries and classic detectvie stories (Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, G. K. Chesterton)
• Some more gothic novels and romances as well, I suppose? Yes, I guess those do fit in there too, for dark and stormy nights and the smell of wet heather, isn’t it? And classic mystery novels as well!
• A lot of what is apparantly called “the feminine middlebrow”. Some of the books I have mentioned fall in that category, it seems, and it has many good fitting picks, I suppose.
• Some adult fantasy novels, such as The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, are, I think good fits as well.
• Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees – another adult fantasy, that I nearly forgot about, and though very melancholy also very intriguing and I think it does belong in this list in some way
• Phantastes by George MacDonald – I remembered alongside with Lud; ah, well, I does belong in this list too, I think. Very faerie.
• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and a lot of the very warm of what is called classic literature (I call it warm, and think that fits)

Other children’s literature, such as

• The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis – I cannot not include them in a list of recommendations, and they really do fit into this one, which is good
• C. S. Lewis’ Letters to Children – Perhaps even lovelier for adults, but I cannot take them out of the children’s list. Lovely, sort, and inspiring.
• The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper – These enchanting books really do transport one to their settings and their seasons, whether it’s a hot summer in Cornwall, Christmas in the Thames’ Valley or autumn in Wales; very, very atmospheric and lovely
• All that has lovely critters in clothes and things of that sort, whether it’s Winnie the Pooh, Wind in the Willows, the stories of Beatrix Potter, The Great Mouse Detective. You know what sort I mean.
• The Happy Prince & Other Tales and The House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde – I was unsure whether to put them here or with the adult books, but as they started out as stories for his own children, here they are; absolutely lovely fairy tales that I cannot recommend enough
• Generally classic retelltings for children
• Generally fairy tales
• I must admit, I am unfamiliar with the Green Knowe books, but I do think they fit in this list, from what I know about them (I need to get around to them) and from the lovely movie I saw
• All Anne of Green Gables books by L. M. Montgomery
• All Little Women books by Louisa May Alcott
• The books of Frances Hodgson Burnett, especially The Secret Garden
• Also the books of E. Nesbit
• The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien – I nearly forgot such an obvious one!
• Speaking of Tolkien, his Father Christmas Letters
• Also generally classic children’s books

I’m excited to see your additions!

Self-reblog, because most of these are also very much comfort reads, and many of them focused on nature – the ideal books for these times.

I should also like to add, as I forgot about them earlier, the Chrestomanci series by Dianna Wynne Jones, and generally books by Anthony Trollope.

I also generally recommend some poetry, especially by Christina Rossetti and John Keats, as well as short stories and other “little things” that help one dream away when one’s concentration is a bit strained.

And, as I have mentioned Elizabeth Goudge above, her Torminster books, in particular A City of Bells, which can be seen as a stand-alone adult novel, its sequels being for children. And really all her books!

Other users have, so far, made following additions to this list:

@grey-skies-in-her-eyes

• The Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls-Wilder
• Books by Barbara Kingsolver, particularly Prodigal Summer and The Bean Trees

@sublimegentlemanalpaca

• The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany
• The Kingdoms of Elfin by Sylvia Townsend Warner
  

@arcadism-and-amalgam

• The Hilda series by Luke Pearson
• Pollyana by Eleanor H. Porter

@momerath74

• The Redwall series by Brian Jacques
• Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards (yes, the Julie Andrews!)
• Caddie Woodlawn and The Winter Cottage by Carol Ryrie Brink
  
• The Secret Language by Ursula Nordstrom
  
• Heidi by Johanna Spyri
  

@unobtainius

• The Moomin books by Tove Jansson

Thank you all so much for your help! I know some of the added books, and approve of them heartly, and I am very curious about the ones I am not yet familiar with.