My mum is a big reader and I’d love to get her some books for her birthday in December. We recently learned her cancer is back (they caught it in time but still scary) and unfortunately her mother passed this year too.
Every time I suggest her I book I love she’ll ask “did anyone die in the book?” And I am shocked to discover so many books have a death or have a character who has passed away before the story begins.
I’d love to give her some books that are upbeat but not overly “the world/life is so wonderful” because she’s really not that sort of woman. Shes a very sensible British woman so something too gushy won’t do the trick. She also doesn’t like fantasy.
She recently read and loved Still Life by Sarah Winman and Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. When I was growing up she loved Bill Bryson books and other funny writers telling stories of traveling about. She used to read books like Gone Girl.
What’s out there with all characters alive but some antics going on? Thanks!
by suffolkinmint
6 Comments
I like Jenny Colgan. The Bookshop on the Corner was sweet but not saccharine.
Best wishes to you and your mom!
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
No deaths in any of those!
Note: you weren’t kidding!!! The only books I could find where no one dies are murder mysteries where someone has already died! Sorry if all these suggestions suck. You can also put in your own prompts at https://moody.games (make sure you click the Books tab) for more tailored AI book recommendations.
– **The Thursday Murder Club** series by Richard Osmond is a really fun take on the murder mystery genre. Obviously someone does die, but only so there can be a mystery to solve (so it’s not ever the murder of a character you get to know really). The setting is a retirement home where some very bored and true-crime obsessed elderly residents form a sort of a true-crime amateur sleuthing club. It’s comedy so nothing emotionally upsetting, and it features an under-represented group – the elderly. I have the audiobook and the narrator is British, so maybe that means the humor in the book skews a little European?
– **A Simple Favor** by Darcy Bell is a very sexy, sophisticated mystery (I could see it compared to Gone Girl). Very basically, the two main characters are moms to a young child, and they become best friends even though they’re from different worlds. One day, the stay-at-home mom agrees to babysit the Manhattan executive’s kid for a few hours. Problem is, the exec never comes to get the kid, never calls or answers texts, and the best friend knows something is wrong and begins trying to figure out what happened. Really good twists and turns but nothing emotional. The only problem is, at one point, the best friend does think her friend was murdered, but… spoiler alert… she wasn’t! So even though she doesn’t die in the book, you do think she is dead for a few chapters.
– **The Silent Patient** by Alex Michaelides. This one is another suave mystery (gone girl-esque) that starts with a murder (but only explained as context for the actual story). It’s told in first person through the eyes of the psychologist who becomes obsessed with helping a woman who was found not guilty by reason of insanity of her husband’s murder. She’s basically been comatose/nonverbal since the murder, and the psychologist works at the institution she now lives in. He really wants to help her get back to being able to speak and find herself again.
The Best (worst) Christmas Pageant Ever is pretty good.
Sariah Wilson writes lovely rom-com, sweet books that deal with some deeper issues, but no one dies. I think the Paid Bridesmaid is my favorite. Not saccharine, but not too intense.
For the Love of Friends by Sara Goodman Confino is a lovely story about friendship and love.
Maybe some P. G. Wodehouse? Everything he wrote is just pure joy.