Five Fall Favorites 2024, Day 3: Peace

So…

Yesterday, I said that I don’t read joyful books, which is dead true. So the next gift of the Holy Spirit (the prompt for the this blog party Kate Willis is hosting), which is peace, should be equally unlikely.

Actually…

Guys, it stunned me too, I read peaceful books. At least, they make me feel peaceful. I guess I need a rest from all the break-neck stuff I read once in a while.

Calvin by Martine Leavitt

The Calvin and Hobbes comics never fail to crack me up, and then I found out there was a book???

This follows Calvin, but not the Calvin you’re expecting: this Calvin has schizophrenia, and he keeps seeing a tiger named Hobbes. His best friend is Suzie, so he maths out that he must have a connection to the Calving and Hobbes comic, so if the artist can make a final strip with character-Calvin being completely healthy and not seeing a tiger, then real-Calvin won’t have schizophrenia.

Convinced, he decided to trek right across one of the Great Lakes (I can’t remember which one, sorry) in the middle of winter to find the author. And, being his best friend, Suzie goes with him.

It’s very atmospheric, wintry, and gentle, and Calvin and Suzie are such sweet characters and sweet endings that even the brief danger doesn’t feel stressful. it just feels lovely and peaceful.

Calvin

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Holy moly, this one’s a heartbreaker, but again, it’s lovely. This follows a special coffeeshop where, once a day, in a special seat, with a special cup of coffee, you can time travel. You can say that thing you never said to your sweetheart or talk to your forgetting spouse or any number of things—but there are rules. For one, you gotta stay in the chair, so whomever you want to meet has to have been in the coffee shop. And you have to drink your coffee before it gets cold, otherwise you’ll be stuck there as a ghost.

This is so freakishly heartfelt with touching stories and characters that you just want to give a hug so you can be part of the weird, awesome family. Add in a sprinkle of Studio Ghibli-feel magic, and I’m right at home.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold

The Things We Cannot Change by Allison Spooner

Another heartbreaker.

Okay, apparently I don’t read stuff that’s THAT peaceful.

But this still feels like a hug, a hug that let’s you cry and get it out and feel better.

Callie’s father was an alcoholic. He’s also dead. He also left Callie in an emotional mess that she still hasn’t been able to sort through. But when her family invites her back home—right where she DOESN’T want to go because that’s where all the buried emotions need to stay buried—ghosts start to come.

Literally. Her father comes back. He wants to give her another shot at healing.

And the rest…

*sobs in beautiful*

(FUN FACT: this author was in the blog yesterday, and like I mentioned there, she read and blurbed my new book! He quote is on the back cover, I can’t wait to release it this Monday!)

The Things We Cannot Change

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Here we go, this one is definitely more peaceful. There’s some action in moments, but nothing heartbreaking, just going out in the field to study faeries, which may or may not involve your fiendishly charming but also ridiculously pampered and clueless colleague, who you are certainly NOT falling in love with, thank you very much, no, not at all, absolutely not, what a ridiculous notion.

That’s pretty much a summary, but as a more coherent recap, Emily Wilde is a curmudgeonly dryadologist (faerie scientist) whose doing some fieldwork in Scandinavia to complete her encyclopaedia. Her colleague, Wendell Bambleby, bumbles along (he actually does contribute—though Emily would say that’s up for debate), and they go on all kind of faerie-ish shenanigans. It’s so much fun, so cozy, and very peaceful.

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries

The Girl who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

This is a Studio Ghibli movie in book form. Convince me otherwise.

So, that feeling you get from Howl’s Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro, and Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke (yeah, I’m kidding about that last one), is the exact same warm feeling of an artful hug that you get with this book.

It follows Mina, who lives in a world where the sea is vicious, and so every year, they sacrifice a young woman into the sea to be the sea god’s bride to calm him for a year. Mina isn’t chosen—the love of her brother’s life is, so Mina decides to jump instead. She doesn’t die, she goes into the spirit world where she navigates a potentially dangerous but ultimately kind and unique society. She makes friends out of strangers and friends out of enemies, and maybe she’ll find a true love of her own.

Honestly, I’M in love with him.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea

(Psst—if you liked this and want to support me, check out my book, Don’t, and its sequel coming out next week, Done. Thank you!!)