Hi everyone, I was hoping to get some help with a possibly strange request, I’m not exactly familiar with this subreddit. I spend a large portion of my day caretaking for my grandmother, and I try to read books to her. The problem I often run into is books often have too many characters for her to follow and she finds time skipping/setting changes to be pretty complicated and confusing. I was wondering if any of you had suggestions for books that are very easy to follow, but aren’t super corny or clearly made for young adults/early readers? I’m not sure if that exists. We recently read Lessons in Chemistry, and she seemed to think the pacing of those characters being introduced was manageable. However, when I tried reading The Lincoln Highway to her, she felt the characters were introduced much too quickly and there were too many.
Her memory has definitely began to fade, along with her cognitive abilities (she is 91 years old),so I recognize books can be very hit or miss, but I’d appreciate any possible suggestions. Thanks so much for your time!
by Riz15
2 Comments
Try MC Beaton’s Agatha Raisin or Hamish Macbeth books. Cosy mysteries and there are lots of them, not too demanding.
She might like L.M. Montgomery’s books, they’re simple yet funny, with easy to like, memorable characters, and a lot of beautiful landscape descriptions.
“Standing in the Rainbow” by Fannie Flagg might be a good one too. It starts off in the post-WWII era and is very nostalgia heavy. The main character, Dorothy Smith, runs an old timey radio show out of her living room, and it’s overall a very funny book. There are quite a few characters, but they’re all very distinctive and colorful, and feel like real people.