Editor’s Note: Roxanne J. Coady founded R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, CT, in 1989 after leaving her job as national tax director at a New York-based international accounting firm. Roxanne is the co-editor, with Joy Johannessen, of The Book That Changed My Life. Visit R.J. Julia at www.rjjulia.com.

I don’t know about you but I am suffering from Bad News Overload. Given that I’m an information addict who reads two or three newspapers a day, subscribes to dozens of magazines, watches CNN daily, Jon Stewart nightly and gets an endless stream of news via NPR, this suggests drastic action. If you are feeling the same way, here are two remedies that might help. One is dancing — you know, the kind with a big band that has trumpets and saxophones, the sort you’d see at a huge wedding or bar mitzvah. But without the bride, groom and bar mitzvah kid, of course; you want to do this alone, in your own living room, at the time of your choosing. The other remedy is books that are smartly written, witty, distracting and utterly engaging.

I can’t help you with the dancing but can suggest some books that might help.

Start with the classic, hilarious story of an irrepressible, charming 21-year-old girl heading to Paris for romance and adventure. It has been variously described as “Daisy Miller with a dash of Fear of Flying," "My Sister Eileen meets "Sex and the City" and “Holly Golightly crossed with the naive knowingness of Holden Caulfield.” The book is The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy, first published in 1958 and just reissued by New York Review of Books Classics. From the first page I was charmed by Ms. Dundy’s sharp writing, piercing insights and tenderness in telling the story of our innocent abroad. I guarantee you will forget the world as you whip through this gem.

(Dud Avocado, by the way, prompted me to pick up The Great Gatsby again and it’s fascinating  to read Fitzgerald’s classic in these troubled financial times. Treat yourself to a reread.)

And speaking of "Sex and the City," Candace Bushnell has written a great introduction to a reissue of  Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady by Anita Loos in which heroine Lorelei Lee — a not-so-dumb blonde — keeps a marvelous, colorful, funny diary of her life during the Jazz Age in Paris, Vienna and London. H.L. Mencken said “it filled me with uproarious and salubrious mirth.” Me too. Treat yourself to this one, too.

Why do we like to read about perfect families falling apart? I will leave that one to the psychiatrists, but in the meantime recommend When We Were Bad by Charlotte Mendelson. Her perfect family, the Rubins, are brilliant, successful and close; they are the envy of London. Until, that is, the eldest son bolts from his own wedding to run off with the wife of the officiating Rabbi. This leads to the unraveling of life as they have known it, aided and abetted by ruinous gossip, secrets and misplaced desire. Sounds like it might be depressing but Mendelson is smart, witty and satirical as she describes how this complicated, colorful family traverses the world of English Jewry and Anglican Culture. You can understand why the novel was short-listed for the prestigious Orange Prize.

After reading all four books I came back to the semi-real-world with The Paris Review Interviews, Volume II, edited by Philip Gourevitch. It’s perfect to dip into: We hear from Graham Greene on the impact of Catholicism on his writing; Gabriel Garcia Marquez talking about dreams and inspiration; and Eudora Welty offering her thoughts about Chekhov. This volume also includes interviews with James Thurber, Toni Morrison, William Faulkner, Robert Lowell and a dozen others. It’s a delicious little treasure of interviews that reminds me of dozens more books that I want to read.

After this sojourn I am now a happy girl, re-armed and ready to reenter the real world.  But I may carry these books with me for a few more weeks, just for protection.

Happy reading!

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