This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share comfort reads — either titles if you have specific books you return to week after week or the qualities that you look for when the world is hard.

Here are ten things I’m considering when I need a book not to be one of my 99 problems:

1. A reread of a book I’ve loved. These are all over the place in terms of audience and genre, but they were all five-star reads.
2. A happy ending. I don’t want ambivalent and I don’t want tears.
3. Cozy mysteries are often good for the previous item.
4. As are romance novels.
5. Retellings of traditional tales — such as Jane Austen’s works, Little Women, and the Sherlock Holmes series — are often solid contenders. Much like the previous two items, retellings have a generally reliable structure.
6. 350 pages or fewer. This is not the time for a sweeping saga.
7. Likable main characters. Overall, I prefer this anyway, but an unlikable main character is immediately getting that book put down when I’m in a mood.
8. Sometimes combining words with pictures — like in a collection of comics or a graphic novel — is called for. But that one can be tricky, and it only works singly. I never binge read more than one.
9. A new book in a favorite series or by a favorite author can help a grumpy mood.
10. When all else fails, I turn to middle grade fiction.

How about you? What do you look for in a comfort read? And do you have particular ones you turn to in times of trouble?