The title of The Los Angeles Times article, “Soothe psyche with a good book,” says exactly what I figured out when I was a teenager. One of the coping mechanisms I learned (thankfully) was the vital importance of always having a good book standing by next to my bed. I knew by then that books were as much a tonic as they were entertainment. I knew they had a magical way of helping soothe my fears, loneliness, and anxieties. When I was going through surgery for breast cancer three years ago, the book that got me through it all was My Life in France, Julia Child’s autobiography, which she wrote with…