Jonelle Patrick--Let's Talk Comfort Reads

DEBORAH CROMBIE: What fun to have the lovely Jonelle Patrick visiting us all the way from Tokyo this morning! I have no idea what time it is in Japan, but Jonelle is a treat any time of day. She has a new coming out on April 21st, THE SAMURAI'S OCTUPUS. 

I can't wait to learn the significance of the title, but today she's here to chat about something else. Here's Jonelle!

LET’S TALK COMFORT READS

 

Good morning, Reds and fellow Readers! It’s me, Jonelle, waving at you from Tokyo.

 

The divine Deb kindly invited me here today because I have a new book coming out in April, but first there’s something else I’ve been dying to ask the Reds and Readers about.

Did you open your email this morning and save Jungle Reds for last, knowing it’ll be a welcome antidote to whatever fresh outrage just screamed at you from the headlines? Like me, do you top up your cuppa and come here to be reassured that smart, thoughtful people still care about books and writing and each other? That there are still kind people on this earth who listen to each other, offer condolences in times of loss and sadness, encouragement to those with health woes, and joy at every new book release and award? I don’t know about you, but for me, Jungle Reds is one of those safe havens and islands of goodness I’ve come to rely on in this weary world.

But what do you do in the middle of the night when you need something more to whisk you away from your cares and worries? That’s what I’m here to ask about today.

 

Reds and Readers, what do you look for in a comfort read?

 

 

Sometime during covid I stopped reading thrillers—a genre I used to consume by the truckload—and started seeking out the kind of books that will gently but firmly lure me away from staring at the ceiling at 3:00 a.m. and worrying about test results or fretting over the problems of the world. I’m pretty sure the Reds and Readers are world-class experts on comfort reads, because so many of you write them and we so often recommend them to each other.

 

So…what defines a comfort read for YOU?

 

What must-haves do you look for in a comfort read?

 

What no-fly zones must a comfort read absolutely avoid?

 

What are your favorite comfort reads (and why)?

 

To get us started, want to hear mine?

 

Must-haves: Writing and plot so immersive I need to set a timer if I’ve got somewhere to be; a setting/situation that’s very different from the reality I’m escaping; a satisfying ending (everyone gets what they deserve, good or bad)

 

No-flys: Graphic violence or cruelty; evil triumphing over good in any lasting way

 

Favorite comfort reads: Mysteries have always been my all-purpose comfort read—especially if they take place elsewhere and elsewhen (i.e. not in the present-day USA)—because puzzling over a crime I know is going to be solved in 350 pages stops me from obsessing about the problems that are tougher to solve in real life. I’ve also started reading more historical fiction, because whatever dire straits and evil leaders and wretched conditions the characters have to endure, I know for a fact we survived that era. That the pendulum always swings, humanity lurches forward, and evil goes out of style again.

 

My latest go-to comfort reads:

 

The Wine of Angels by Phil Rickman

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

A Letter of Mary by Laurie King

In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming (this whole series, to be honest. Eek, have I developed a vicar fixation?)

Matrix by Lauren Groff

 

So tell me, Reds and Readers, what about you? What do YOU look for in a comfort read?

 

Jonelle Patrick writes what she reads. Her new mystery, The Samurai’s Octopus, takes place in Japan’s Yoshiwara pleasure quarter in the 1780s, where the shōgun rules with an iron fist but women hold all the cards. It’s a place where those with the most power must beg favor from those with the least, and one resourceful girl growing up at the House of Treasures just might bring down a high-ranking murderer if she manages to find the mother she’s never known. If you’re my long-lost twin when it comes to comfort reads, here’s where you can find out if The Samurai’s Octopus checks all your boxes too…

DEBS: Wow, what great questions! Thank you, Jonelle. I can't wait to see what everyone answers! 

Oh, and Jonelle, just wanted to add that your cover is gorgeous! I can't wait to dive into this book!

To Mark or Not to Mark

DEBORAH CROMBIE: In our recent What We’re Reading post, I mentioned how much I loved Niall Williams’ TIME OF THE CHILD. What I didn’t say was how desperately I wanted to underline so many of his phrases and sentences, not only because of the lyrical beauty of his language, but because many seemed so profound and life-affirming that I wanted to remember them. BUT. I was reading my daughter’s new hardcover copy, and there was no way I was going to mark in that book. Even in pencil, which could have later been erased. I did stick in some post-it notes, but that’s not quite the same, and I was too engrossed in the story to get out a notebook and copy things down.

Even in my own books, and even with books I don’t intend to loan out or give away, I’m very reluctant to do any damage to a printed page. When did I get so squeamish? I certainly wasn’t in college. As a biology major, I’d be lucky if half my pages weren’t fluorescent yellow or pink with highlighter. And marked up with pencil and pen.

Of course, I can highlight passages if I’m reading an e-book, but somehow my brain doesn’t process that the same way and I seldom go back to look at what I flagged.

For all my delicacy, I will confess that I do sometimes dog-ear paperbacks… Never hardcovers, though!

How about it, Reds? Do you have an aversion to defacing (oh, such a harsh word!) books?

RHYS BOWEN:  A non-marker here. The good thing about Kindle is you can highlight. The bad thing is it’s hard to scroll back and forth when you’re reading and wonder “ who was Martin?” 

Like you I wrote in all the margins of my books, highlighted, multi color etc.  But now books feel sacred. 

HALLIE EPHRON: Being married to a rabid book collector broke me of my habit of dog-earing page corners to mark my place. These days I do write in books when I find something that particularly strikes me. But in pencil. And I’m thrilled… tickled… and delighted when someone brings me to sign  a copy of my WRITING AND SELLING YOUR MYSTERY NOVEL with its pages dogeared and festooned with multi-colored Post-Its. 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I don’t think you’re going to find many of us on JRW who mark up their books, Debs! Like you, my textbooks looked like an electrical wiring diagram - different color highlighters, phrases underlined, starred and circled (in different color inks!)

Now, my colorful book reading habit arises from the fact I never, ever have a genuine bookmark at hand, so will use almost any piece of paper to indicate where I need to pick up the story again. Of course, if I DON’T go back to the book for some time, I can find odd things - long-discontinued coupons, ripped out columns from the newspaper, old photos, and, worst of all, an uncashed birthday check from my mother. (I had NO idea where it had disappeared to, and had to apologize SO many times…) Clearly, I need to treat bookmarks like reading glasses, and just scatter them everywhere.

LUCY BURDETTE: No markings on mine either! I do sprinkle bookmarks around like your reading glasses Julia. It also bothers me if I loan a book to someone and see it upside down and open so the whole thing gets bent. Especially if it’s signed!

On Kindle books, I’ve never highlighted anything and it always puzzles me to see dotted lines under some sentences. I guess those have been highlighted by lots of readers?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  I read a lot of advance reader copies, mostly in preparation to interview the authors, and I constantly mark in them and dogear the pages.  They are not to be kept, anyway, although I do keep them, but they are wonderful resources for me. I could not do an interview without that.  A finished book, no, I don’t annotate. I use whatever I have handy to be a bookmark, often a scrap of paper because I don't know what happens to bookmarks, they go wherever the others socks go. I do have to tell you though, that in an interview I attended, Ann Cleeves said she marks up every book, with great joy, and that it is part of her reading experience. 

And I have reading glasses everywhere. (Though they all always seem to wind up in the same place, and I have to sprinkle them again.) 

DEBS: That's so interesting about Ann, Hank, and something to think about. I would have enjoyed TIME OF THE CHILD even more if I'd been able to go back and reread bits I really loved.

And it makes sense that for you, reading ARCs is "homework." That's why you're so good at what you do!

I've had many much-loved bookmarks disappear into the ether. So aggravating. Now I sometimes use pretty blank cards from Trader Joe's–less easy to lose and at $.99 not a disaster if you do. I have been on a fox kick with my current book, so am enjoying this one.

And what can you get for $.99 these days??

JENN McKINLAY: I mark up my non-fiction like I'm taking a class. Highlighter, underline, and notes in the margin. I don't with fiction but I do dog ear the pages in paperback or hardcover. I'm not very precious about them unless they're signed by the author. Hub is a bookmark guy and he never marks them up. He considers books much more sacred than I do. 

How about it, dear readers, do you "annotate" your books?

What We're Watching

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Now that we've totally filled our TBR lists/stacks, how about a catch up on what's filling our time when we're NOT reading.

In our house, we are glued to The Pitt every week. I have loved Noah Wyle since he was baby John Carter on ER, but even so I never imagined he would do something this good. The acting (from the entire cast) and writing and directing are fabulous, and the show is a look at America today that tells you more than any news story. And the camera work! Watch, if you will, how the scenes are set up, how the camera pans from one group to the next as the scenes change. It's really brilliant. Alas, after today there are only two episodes to go. Will Dr. Robby get to take his sabbatical?  

We are also watching a series called The Capture on Prime, starring Holliday Grainger, whom you may know as Robin Ellacott in the series adapted from Robert Galbraith's Cormoran Strike novels. I'd read that The Capture was the best police series since Line of Duty and halfway through season 1 we are gripped!! It is currently in the third season and if I had the time I'd be bingeing it.

From Wikipedia, which gives a better summary than I can: "The series is centred on DI Rachel Carey (Holliday Grainger), a fast-track Metropolitan Police detective drawn into a vast conspiracy involving real-time deepfake technology, mass surveillance and manipulated video evidence." Yikes!

It will definitely make you want to avoid CCTV cameras!! 

And since you can't be serious all the time, I am enjoying the spring season (how many ever this is...) of The Voice, my guilty pleasure. Coaches this season are Adam Levine, John Legend, and--yay!!--Kelly Clarkson, my favorite Dallas girl. (Actually, she's from Burleson, which is a suburb of Fort Worth, but close enough.)

Also, we are watching the new season of The Rookie. Yes, I know it's preposterous, but it's also funny and sharp. We've watched every season for eight years and are very attached to the characters.

Fellow Reds, what's on your screens these days?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, we saw The Capture, and loved it! We are in PARADISE, so clever and smart and scary. Total escapist, in a way. Or terrifying.  YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS with Jon Hamm (who is not my fave, but he is so good in this!) Also THE MEMORY OF A KILLER, about an  ice-cold mob hit man (leading a double life as a middle-class husband/ copier salesman) who is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. (what could go wrong?) Such a good premise! 

RHYS BOWEN: At the moment TV has to be super distracting and not in any way stressful. So Britbox. Escape to the Country. Glass blowers. Etc. luckily there have been two major tennis tournaments I’ve watched non stop 

LUCY BURDETTE: The only thing I’ve been watching is the new season of The Lincoln Lawyer. It’s comfort viewing in its own way, and not as silly as it was getting in the last season. (Lorna, in those silly new lawyer outfits drove me crazy.) I will have to ask John about The Capture and start it with him if he hasn’t seen it. 

We are also watching basketball–both of our UCONN teams made it into the Final Four, the men capturing the slot in a last minute 3 pointer that had all the tension a writer could want! The following weekend will be the Masters so that will keep us busy too:).

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Everyone I know is raving about THE PITT, so I guess I’m going to have to give it a try. I DO love Noah Wyle.

As usual, I’m going to put in a plug for Kdramas. I just watched two fantastic shows back to back. TEMPEST, streaming on Hulu (or Disney+) is both an international political thriller and an amazingly heart-pounding romance. Part of the story is set in DC’s State Department, with John Cho (love him!) as an undersecretary trying to stop a nuclear attack on the Korean penninsula. It’s only nine episodes (many Kdramas are 16) so it’s a terrific way to dip your toe in.

For something more immersive but equally riveting: CRASH LANDING ON YOU available on Netflix. This show has everything: mystery, intrigue, humor - loads of humor, heartbreak, delightful found families and, most importantly the best couple chemistry you’ll ever see from Hyun Bin, playing a stern-outside, marshmallow-inside North Korean officer and Son Yi-jin as an heir to a fabulously wealthy corporate family who, as the title says, crash lands on him after a crazy paragliding accident. The chemistry was real - the stars got married after the show was released and now have a three-year old! 

Jenn, if you haven’t seen this already, I think you’d love it.

JENN McKINLAY: I loved CRASH LANDING, Julia!!! So good! Very interesting to see the differences in North and South Korea. My recent fave K-Dramas are VINCENZO, Italian mafioso who is also Korean - very edge of the seat action with a solid bad guy, and ROMANCE IS A BONUS BOOK, set in a publishing house where their love of books and writing was just so nice and refreshing. Love me the K-Dramas!

Hub and I are watching ROOSTER, starring Steve Carrell as an author in residence on a college campus, very fun. And we just finished The LOWDOWN, starring Ethan Hawke, small town newspaper writer/bookstore owner in Tulsa who gets embroiled in political crimes. Also, excellent.

HALLIE EPHRON: I've been looking forward to seeing PROJECT HAIL MARY on the big screen and my daughter Molly and I went last weekend. The theatre was packed and the movie was a lot of fun. Highly recommended. In the meanwhile I'm slowly streaming the rest of RIOT WOMEN. It's heavy/heady stuff and requires many deep breaths between innings.

DEBS: Such fun suggestions! I love John Cho so will definitely check out TEMPEST, and ROOSTER and THE LOWDOWN sound fun.

How about you, dear readers? Tell us what you're watching!