Comfort Reads

by Shari Randall

It's the most wonderful time of the year...and the time of the year when the sound of sniffles and sneezing is as prevalent as carols and silver bells.

If you do end up getting sick this winter, I hope it will be with the kind of cold that keeps you home, but doesn't knock you out completely. The best case scenario is that you're sick enough to stay cozy in bed, but well enough to binge all those shows your friends are talking about or enjoy one of the books on your nightstand.

I'm a realist. I stock up on Kleenex, chicken soup, and tea so I'll be ready when a cold hits. Being cooped up with a cold is bad, but being cooped up without something good to read or watch while on the couch is worse.

When I have a cold, there's nothing better than a warm cup of tea and a comfort read. So before flu season starts, along with chicken soup and Tylenol, I'm stocking up on good comfort reads. My comfort reads are classic cozy mystery favorites, short stories by Agatha Christie, the Mrs. Pollifax series by Dorothy Gilman, or Alexander McCall Smith's Number One Ladies Detective series.

I wish you happy holidays, good health, and a great stockpile of comfort reads when you need them.

What is your comfort read go-to?

Shari Randall is the author of the Lobster Shack

mystery series from St. Martin's Press. Her latest is a holiday story called "The Queen of Christmas."