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Welcome back to Worth the Read! Regardless of what publishers, booksellers, and the Gregorian calendar would have us believe, life’s ups and downs don’t follow a schedule. Sure, it’d be great to fall in love in June, just as the big beach-read romance hits shelves, but who hasn’t been heartbroken on a summer Friday? Maybe October finds you grieving someone you loved, making the season’s ghost stories and murder mysteries feel like a cruel joke. Or it’s January, everything is dull and grey, but you’ve just landed your dream job and want a book that feels like a confetti explosion. Maybe on the hottest day in August, you want to escape to the tundra for an Arctic adventure.
It can be unbearably frustrating to feel out of step with the rest of the world. I remember one beautiful May day a couple of decades ago—one of the very worst days of my entire life—I walked down the edge of Central Park, marveling at how joyful everyone was at spring’s arrival. I felt like the world existed there, and I existed here, and never the twain shall meet.
I think our reading lives can get out of step, too. For instance, even though everyone has been buzzing about Strangers by Belle Burden since January, I kept resisting it. It didn’t feel quite right in the winter—too sad—and then it didn’t feel right in the spring, either. But it felt right a few weeks ago, so that’s when I read it (even though I feel like I’m late to the party).
Before I worked with books, I was better about reading for the season I was in. Now that my job demands a certain level of in-the-know, I’m working to find a balance. And sometimes that means reaching for a reliable comfort read that speaks to a very specific need. You know the kind: the books you return to when you need something familiar and absorbing. We all have them. Today, I’m sharing five of mine.
Comfort Reads I’ve Turned to Again and Again
Heartburn
By Nora Ephron
“The first day I did not think it was funny. I didn’t think it was funny the third day, either, but I managed to make a little joke about it.” So begins this magnificent—and magnificently funny—masterpiece. When legendary writer and filmmaker Nora Ephron was pregnant with her second son, she discovered that her husband, Carl Bernstein (of Watergate fame), had been cheating on her with a mutual friend. (Spoiler alert: Their marriage soon ended.) This betrayal inspired Heartburn, her autofictional account of the experience and my number one recommendation for any heartbroken reader.
When a relationship ends, it’s easy to get bogged down in the small humiliations and indignities that pile up. What Ephron was able to do is find the laugh-out-loud humor in those indignities, reclaiming her narrative along the way. This novel is so real, and it’s a reminder that you decide what’s funny and you decide who shapes your story.
My god, I just love this book, I don’t know what else to say. I think I’ve just talked myself into re-reading it again tonight. Thank you, Nora, for everything.
Four more comfort reads are behind this wall.
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