I’m looking for some suggestions for my mum who is in her 70s. She had a stroke a couple of years ago and has started reading a lot since then. She is fine mentally but processes things a bit slower and can’t concentrate as long, so am looking for more light or easy reads. She really enjoyed The Help and The House of Eve, so I thought she might like some others that are set during the years that she was coming of age. Fiction or non fiction is fine just something that is easy for her to put down and pick up in the middle of a chapter. It doesn’t have to be a story that’s all rainbows and roses, just nothing super intense. She also read None of This is True by Lisa Jewel and Just Another Missing Person by Gillian McAllister recently and enjoyed both of them.
I’m open to all suggestions! I’m the one who puts books on her ereader and am running out of book ideas for her! I have a lot of recent releases on hold at the library for her, but there’s months wait for some of them. Lol.
by NicolesPurpleHair
4 Comments
Maybe ‘Just Kids’ by Patti Smith?
Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon is a masterful book that fits this genre. It’s about a 12 year old boy growing up in Alabama in the early ’60s. It has some light fantastical elements to it but the story is being told by an old man remembering his childhood so the fantastical elements aren’t literal but rather the way he saw things with his imagination when he was a kid.
It’s a heartfelt book with strong characters and lots of nostalgia. It has some scary parts but they’re light (not too scary). There’s a murder mystery as a backdrop to the story but it’s only a small part of the narrative. Most of it is the main character’s life, growing up.
Themes include family ties, friendships, childhood, coming of age, imagination, adventure, loss, overcoming difficult situations, time period (1960’s), nostalgia, sense of wonder, light horror.
It’s also easy to read while at the same time having really good writing.
Maybe Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy or Outer Banks by Anne Rivers Siddons.
Secret Life of Bees- Sue Monk Kidd