Feel Good Junkie
Jun 22nd 2007
RachelGOn Writing!
I’m a feel good junkie. About every month or two, I have to grab a feel good fix from my keeper shelf. This happens if I’m stressed or depressed or just haven’t read anything that gives me that ahhh feeling in my heart and soul. Sometimes I reach for a movie or food, but most of the time it’s a book.
For some reason, all my feel good books are books I’d read before I published my first book in 1998. I’m not sure why, but perhaps it is because I read those book through the eyes of a reader instead of a writer.
My feel good books are:
Megan McKinney’s When Angel’s Fall
Linda Howard’s Son of the Morning and After the Night
Sandra Brown’s Slow Heat In Heaven
Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Heaven Texas
Laura Kinsale’s The Shadow and The Star
Judith McNaught’s Something Wonderful
Feel good movies:
Sweet Home Alabama
Pride and Predjudice
Gone With The Wind
Feel good food:
McDonald’s french fries
Creme brulee
How do you get your feel good fix? And who or what do you reach for?
37 Comments »
37 Responses to “Feel Good Junkie”
SuzyQ on 22 Jun 2007 at 8:24 am #
One word - chocolate! (preferably dark)
cail on 22 Jun 2007 at 8:31 am #
book: Captain Jack’s Woman - Stephanie Laurens (although recently I’ve added a few others to this catagory like Lisa Kleypas’ Devil in Winter etc)
movies: the princess bride, blazing saddles, robin hood men in tights
food: CHOCOLATE!!! (also, cereal. it’s my downfall)
Susan K on 22 Jun 2007 at 8:58 am #
My Feel Good Books:
- A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux
- Any of the Malory novels by Johanna Lindsey
My Feel Good Movies:
- Sweet Home Alabama
- Lilo & Stitch
- Legally Blonde
- Roseanna DVD sets (okay this isn’t a movie but it makes me laugh.)
My Feel Good Foods:
- Wendy’s Chili & Fries
- Bob Evans Wildfire Chicken Salad
- Tater Tots
- Chocolate
Kasey on 22 Jun 2007 at 9:01 am #
BOOKS:
Once & Always - Judith McNaught
Hidden Fires - Sandra Brown
Years - LaVyrle Spencer
And any novel by Julia Quinn
MOVIES:
Love Actually, Indiana Jones Trilogy, Ever After, and How to Lose a guy in 10 Days
FOOD:
McDonald’s French Fries with a Chocolate Shake
darla on 22 Jun 2007 at 9:28 am #
Books:
Dara Joy, Knight of a Trillion Stars
JR Ward, Dark Lover
Movies:
The Goonies
The Count of Monte Cristo
All Pirates of the Carribean movies
All Disney Cartoons
All Shrek movies
Food:
Melted Hershey bar, something about melted chocolate! BG!
BBQ Ribs
Who:
My people family and my furry family!
My best friend Pat.
Julia London on 22 Jun 2007 at 9:46 am #
Books: Too many to list
Movies: Pride and Prejudice and all the other Jane Austen movies. Really, any period film does it for me.
Food: BROWNIES. I am a total brownie-a-holic. I am actually thinking of driving across town today to a bakery I read about just to check out their brownies.
Who: a 10 month old baby in the family. My dogs. My sister. My husband. My other siblings and parents.
Kay on 22 Jun 2007 at 10:53 am #
Books:
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
A CIVIL CAMPAIGN by Lois MacMaster Bujold (SF, but really a group of love stories in a SF setting. VERY HEA. The final book in a series, but can stand on its own)
Anything by Jane Austin, but EMMA is my favorite.
A ROOM WITH A VIEW
TOURIST SEASON by Carl Hiaasen–very silly
THE SWEET POTATO QUEENS’ BOOK OF LOVE–even more silly
Movies:
SENSE AND SENESABILITY/ EMMA
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (with Emma Thompson)
OUT OF AFRICA
the original STAR WARS
TO HAVE AND TO HAVE NOT
MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING
PHILIDELPHIA STORY–Kate Hepburn is soooo good
L.A. STORY with Steve Martin–very silly
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY
Food:
CHOCOLATE, DARK
zambonigirl on 22 Jun 2007 at 10:54 am #
Hmmm…
Feel good books:
The Chronicles of Narnia, esp. HHB
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, esp. RATEOTU
No True Gentleman by Liz Carlyle
Emma and Persuasion by Jane Austen
Magic Kingdom for Sale/Sold by Terry Brooks
Movies:
Dear Frankie
P&P (Colin Firth version, please)
Say Anything
Emma-either the Gwynneth Paltrow or Kate Beckinsale version. Not picky.
Last Holiday
Hitch
Clueless
Food:
Spicy crispy beef at cheesecake factory
Mac n’ cheese
pasta in general
Tangerines and oranges (or tangelos)
dark chocolate covered pretzles OMG
Peeps:
Mombo
Da Niece
BFF Chelsea (she and I both know what it’s like to have people burst into song upon meeting us, so we’re BFF)
My bird
Keri Ford on 22 Jun 2007 at 11:13 am #
Books:
Any Regency set books
Movies:
Disney Cartoon Movies
Food:
popcorn and Dr. Pepper
Peoples:
Nothing against my friends and family, but when I wanna feel good and recharge, I want to be left alone and just enjoy the peace…course I do have a 2month old who excercises his lungs, so that could be part of where that comes from.
Kasey on 22 Jun 2007 at 11:28 am #
Oh I should have added Mountain Dew and Snickers to my Fav Foods.
Kay on 22 Jun 2007 at 11:59 am #
One other favorite food.
At our State Fair, they have batter-dipped, deep-fried candy bars, on a stick. Thank goodness it’s only once a year, but the deep-fried Snickers is an amazing experience. The kids get them, and one bite from each is enough for me.
Brandy on 22 Jun 2007 at 12:26 pm #
Feel Good Books: Open Season by Linda Howard, Mr. Perfect by Linda Howard, Getting Rid of Bradley by Jennifer Crusie and Smart Women by Jennifer Crusie.
Feel Good Movies: Sixteen Candles, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Clue and Season One of Bones on DVD
Feel Good Food: Chocolate Cheesecake, Vanilla Cheesecake and Cheese Pizza.
People who make me feel good: Hubs, kids, Laylee my favorite kitty.
Claudia Dain on 22 Jun 2007 at 12:40 pm #
Rachel, I’m the same way. I just need that feel good moment every once in a while, the more often the better!
Books: any fun Regency romp or any light-hearted contemporary of the Janet Evanovitch or SEP variety
Movies: The Quiet Man, any Jane Austen book made into a movie, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, any of the bedroom comedies of the 1960s
Food: Food does not wind me up, so I don’t have any feel-good foods. All I ask of food is that it take away hunger! I know…weird. I don’t even like chocolate.
Julia London on 22 Jun 2007 at 12:49 pm #
Okay, Claudia. I’ve tried not to come to this conclusion, but I don’t see how we can possibly be friends. You think the first class seats are too big (!!!), and you don’t like chocolate. CHOCOLATE!! AND…in case you think I have forgotten…you keep a neat and tidy house!
How can we possibly be friends now? Hey, I am very sad about it. I had such high hopes. But the chocolate thing just pushed me over the edge. I popped three dove candies just thinking about it.
Claudia Dain on 22 Jun 2007 at 1:06 pm #
But Julia, think of all that extra chocolate for YOU!!! The best and finest friendships are built on so much less. My DH, who has dark chocolate every day “for his health” (ha) thinks I’m the ideal partner since he can keep ALL the chocolate to himself. He doesn’t even have to hide it!
And if you were as tall (short) as i am, you might find the 1st class seats too big for you as well. My feet barely reached the floor!
SuzyQ on 22 Jun 2007 at 1:21 pm #
Kay - my mouth is hanging open! I HAVE to try a deep fried candy bar.
zambonigirl on 22 Jun 2007 at 2:38 pm #
See…I think I’m perfectly okay never trying a deep-fried candybar. I’ll pull a Claudia Dain on this one, and pretend like I’m just leaving more for the rest of you.
Did Paula Deen invent that? I mean, it sounds like something she’d think up in the middle of the night while counting her cubes of butter. “I have 85 cubes of butter and a Snicker’s. What could possibly make a Snicker’s better? Oh, that Bobby! He left the deep fryer on! I could kill hi-wait. Deep fryer? Snicker’s. Deep fryer…Snicker’s. I…oh. Batter!” And thus it was born, and it was good.
Now if they’d only put it on a stick!
Claudia Dain on 22 Jun 2007 at 2:58 pm #
Hey, hey now. It’s not ‘pretending’ to leave more for the rest of the group when you’re ACTUALLY leaving more for the rest of the group. See? These differences in emphasis are so important! *G*
But count me on the side of ‘HUH?’ on the merits of a deep-fried candy bar. I’ve heard they’re great, but always from people who like A)chocolate, B) candy, and C) deep frying. The poll has clearly been fixed.
Julia London on 22 Jun 2007 at 2:58 pm #
Hey…the light is going off, Claudia. If you’re not in the first class seat, then I can be. If you’re not eating the chocolate, then I can. If your house is neat and tidy….well okay, two out of three isn’t bad.
Okay, we’re friends again!
xoxoxoxox
Claudia Dain on 22 Jun 2007 at 3:04 pm #
Oh, Julia, BFF!!
And let me tell you how the neat and tidy comes in handy…during my sorority days, my friends would welcome me into their rooms and sit chatting it up with me while I (compulsively) made their beds, straightened the papers on their desks, watered their plants.
I do have my uses!
DebMarlowe on 22 Jun 2007 at 3:19 pm #
I’m with you, Rachel. Sometimes you just need a ‘me’ moment to keep going. You’ve picked some good ones too, all of you!
I just got Music and Lyrics in the mail today, so I hope that will be a new feel good movie for me. I’ll let you all know!
Never had a fried candy bar, though they sell them at our state fair, along with fried cheesecake. I do love me some cheesecake, but I don’t think it needs batter and oil.
DebMarlowe on 22 Jun 2007 at 3:20 pm #
Claudia, you can come chat with me and clean my house any time!
Julia London on 22 Jun 2007 at 3:33 pm #
No kidding, I’m with Deb! Come and tidy up any time you want!
Any chance you are a dog lover and will walk your friends’ dogs?
zambonigirl on 22 Jun 2007 at 3:37 pm #
Deb! You’re going to LOVE Music and Lyrics! At least, I hope you will. It’s such a cool movie, and after you’ve finished it, you can look up the “Pop! Goes My Heart music video on youtube. You will be in love. I’ve actually never really liked Hugh Grant (though he was pretty gritty and real in About A Boy), but I positively fell in love with him in that movie.
Well, him and his butt.
You’ll see.
And no, I’m not pretending at all, Claudia. As much as I love Paula, I could never eat her fabulous cooking, so I will completely pass on the deep-fried candy bars. Though, I will enjoy a portion of the dark chocolate that you aren’t eating.
ladydawgfan on 22 Jun 2007 at 3:53 pm #
Hey, I like chocolate as much as the next person (and more than I ought), but I actually tried one of those deep fried candy bars at the Mississippi State Fair and . . . well . . . lemme just say that it must be an acquired taste. NOT my cup of tea, so to speak. Now if you want to discuss Milky Way Midnight’s or Hershey’s Kissables . . .!!!
Jami Alden on 22 Jun 2007 at 4:12 pm #
Funny that all of your books are from before you were published, but I can totally see what you’re talking about.
My books are:
It Had to be You - Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Lady Be Good - SEP
See Jane Score - Goddess Rachel
Truly Madly Yours - RG
Whitney My Love - Judith McNaught
A Wild Yearning - Penelope Williamson
Movies:
40 Year Old Virgin
Tommy Boy
South Park
Team America World Police
Old School
Drop Dead Gorgeous
Star Wars (original, episode 4, whatever)
Empire Strikes Back
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Food:
Red Wine (does it count even if it’s a beverage?)
A big slab of rare steak
Sabrina Jeffries on 22 Jun 2007 at 4:24 pm #
I’m with ladydawgfan. Finally tried a fried candy bar last year, since I adore a) chocolate b) candy bars c) anything deep fried (you see why I have issues with weight?). I wasn’t impressed. I just don’t get it. Of course, it was brought to me from the fair by someone (I didn’t get it fresh), but I don’t think freshness would have helped. Seriously.
Deb, can I borrow Music and Lyrics when you’re done? Oh, and when I’m done with this pesky book I’m supposed to be writing??
Feel good books:
Oh, PLEASE. Like I could choose a couple from hundreds. Although out of the ones Rachel mentioned, several are by those same authors. Which is kind of freaky. Different books, but same authors.
Feel good movies:
Any Jane Austen movie
While You Were Sleeping
Sabrina (natch!) with Harrison Ford
Independence Day
Jane Eyre (with Timothy Dalton)
How to Steal a Million
Songcatcher
Clueless
Feel good food:
Chocolate
Pizza
Cheese
MJ on 22 Jun 2007 at 9:08 pm #
I too have several hundred Feel Good Books…. lots of romances, all historical including most of Georgette Heyers…some mysteries, esp. Dorothy Sayers…. some childhood books (Arthur Ransome, They Loved to Laugh, Daddy Long Legs, The Blue Castle, I Capture the Castle…. ok time to stop), and PG Wodehouse and James Herriot for good measure.
Comfort Movies/TV DVDs - P&P (Colin of course) and Persuasion (Ciaran Hinds/Amanda Root), the three Wimsey/Vane Dvds, the Miss Marples with Joan Hicks and Many Many Britcoms….Oh and the Nero Wolfe series….
Comfort Foods-
Chocolate…
um…. chocolate….
Macaroni and Cheese or Grandma’s Chicken and Dumplings with cinnamon….followed by Chocolate
(-;
Lori on 22 Jun 2007 at 10:50 pm #
Coming out of lurkdom to post a comment because 2 of my feel good books are by 2 of you goddesses
See Jane Score and England’s Perfect Hero. These are 2 of my top rereads - each probably 3 or 4 times a year.
Comfort foods… well yeah, chocolate.
Comfort movies are It’s a Wonderful Life and Airlpane! (How’s that for diversity?)
Nicole Jordan on 22 Jun 2007 at 11:11 pm #
I read a couple of fave Gothics and an SF trilogy called Hellflower by a friend of mine.
Pride & Prejudice A&E version.
Saltine crackers and butter, yeast rolls and butter. Can’t afford to indulge very often or my stomach would get so big, I’d look pregnant.
NicoleJ
carol on 23 Jun 2007 at 2:26 pm #
A bit of history about deep fried chocolate bars. This may or may not be true. The start here in Scotland as a deep fried mars bar. The idea caught on but i have to admit i have not actually tried one, as much as i love chocolate, i don’t think i could.
Caren Crane on 25 Jun 2007 at 8:08 am #
Carol, there may be something to the Scotland thing. See, here in North Carolina, many of the original colonists were Scottish or Scots-Irish. We retain, to this day, many bad habits of Scottish origin. So, why not adopt new ones? Personally, I haven’t tried the deep-fried candy bars, but one of my daughters tried the deep-fried cheesecake. It was sinfully wonderful! Not something any of us would eat again, however, as I distinctly heard arteries hardening as we ate it.*g*
Claudia, as a tall person, first class seats are a gift from God. Dark chocolate, too, but then I just got back from Switzerland and have been ruined for most chocolates by the experience.*g* Oh, and you can come straighten my house up any day. Really!
Caren Crane on 25 Jun 2007 at 8:22 am #
Oh, and I got so busy talking about chocolate, I forgot my feel goods!
MOVIES: The A&E Pride and Prejudice, the A&E Jane Eyre, Moonstruck (most quotable movie EVER), When Harry Met Sally
BOOKS: Any Lavyrle Spencer, any SEP, and the Elizabeth Peters Amelia Peabody books
FOOD: pizza, hummus (mine, of course, since it’s the best ever), rigatoni (my mom’s) and my mother’s spice cake with caramel icing. Also Fritos, but I’ve banned them from my thinking since even thoughts of them increases the girth of my thighs. Ack!
tovorinok on 05 Jul 2007 at 7:00 am #
Hello
Great book. I just want to say what a fantastic thing you are doing! Good luck!
Bye
MsFatty on 08 Jul 2007 at 2:47 am #
Books:
~Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
~Angela’s Ashes - Frank McCourt
~She’s Come Undone - Wally Lamb
~Born In Triolgy - Nora Roberts
Movies:
~Garden State
~200 Cigarettes
~Pulp Fiction
~A Love Song for Bobby Long
Food:
~Cotton Candy
~Chinese Roast pork and veggies over fried rice
~Extra long Coney + cheese from Sonic
People:
~My Momma
~My god daughter Kenzie Grace
~Best friends, April and Sara + Karaoke
pri.r. on 09 Jul 2007 at 7:03 pm #
Books
Irresistible-susan Mallery
Devil’s Bride- Stephanie Laurens
Vicount who loved me- Julia Quinn
Hearts Aflame
Surrender my Love-both by Johanna Lindsey
Movies
Sweet Home Alabama, all time favourite that guy is just soo damn cute!!
Notebook 50%… not as great as others, but still should be recognised
How to Steal a Million- Audery Hepburn …need i say more
OMG this is one i just recently rediscovered SECRET GARDEN! ..a must see the kids are adorable
Food
Tim Tams
Cookies and Cream ice cream…*drools*
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