My Mom will be 78 next month.  Can anyone suggest a nice mystery or happy book?  She doesn't like violence or sex, but loves to read a good story!

Would she like cozies?  They are very clean, fun mysteries - here's a link to a huge list of them!  Best Cozy Mysteries??
 

At 78, chances are probably good that she's already read James Herriot's "All Creatures Great and Small" series, but if not, they such wonderful books.  They're oldies, but good books never lose their charm!

I pretty sure there's sex in the Bride Quartet books.

I would ask this in Hidden Gems or Myster/Thriller forums. This forum is for questions about the useage of paperbackswap. You might get more suggestions in the other forums.

I suggest the series by Ellis Peters.  Medieval Mysteries with Brother Cadfael the monk.  It's good to read them in order.  I can't remember the name of the first one, but a search should turn them up.

What types of books did she love in the 50's and 60's??  Just because we turn 70 or 80 that doesn't mean we change the style of book we enjoy.

This type of question always amuses me.  As if all of us in our 70's MUST surely like the same books.  Uh no. 

Brother Cadfael Bk 1 is : A Morbid Taste For Bones.

A complete list, in order from Amazon HERE

-RD

Here are some suggestions:

• Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story - very funny and a very good mystery
• A Prisoner of Birth  - more of a thriller than a mystery but it's sort of a modern Count of Montecristo
• Savannah Blues - another funny mystery

Classic Mysteries:

• The Daughter of Time
• Whose Body?

Winter Garden or Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah

Sarah's Key- Tatiana de Rosnay

The Help- Stockett

Honolulu by Alan Brennert

Books by Jan Karon and Miss Read are very nice.  There is no violence, sex or dirty language in them.  Jan Karon's books may be condsidered Christian Fiction and I really enjoyed them as well as any Miss Read.

"Winter Garden."  +1 !  Great book!

Made me think of "The Thirteenth Tale," which was also fantastic!

When ordering for an older person, I always try to get the hardcover copy.  The pages and text are larger.

I myself have trouble reading tiny books nowadays, even with my reading glasses on, and I'm nowhere near 80.

You can't go wrong with the tried-and-true like a good Agatha Christie!

Richard Paul Evans' books would be one thought, and the Dearest Dorothy series by Charlene Baumbich is another.

My mom is the same age as yours, but for her, I would recommend non-fiction.  My mom is a voracious reader, but only informational books; no stories (she gets that from her Netflix, lol). 

I'm the opposite, though; I'll read a million stories before I'd sit down with something about politics or finances.  But Mom reads in short spurts so that content works for her.  I read for hours, I won't open my book unless I have an hour or more to devote to it.

For fiction I always recommend Luanne Rice for heart-felt stories.  She's a great writer with stories about family and relationships, lots of interwoven characters with life situation plot lines throughout her books, most have New England and coastal settings.

If she enjoys a good mystery I would recommend anything by Dorothy Cannell, especially her Thin Woman series. The protaganist lives in a small English village with her family and occasionally stumbles upon a murder or crime. All of the secondary characters are very well fleshed out and their backstories make for interesting reading. I always look forward to the next book in the series. Actually, you can almost never go wrong with any British cozy.

Another good author is Fannie Flagg.  Her "Can't Wait to get to Heaven" and "Standing in the Rainbow" are both nice reads and funny.

We would love to know what you eventually get for Mom to read and if she enjoys it; at least I would like to know, please!

Jan Karon worked very well in my family a few years ago - my 30-something sister, my 60-something mother, and my 80-something grandmother passed them around. Our family is generally very easy on books, but after those books made the rounds they were pretty beat up!

I haven't read them yet myself, though. :)

I second anything by Miss Read! Good stories for any age!

Also "The Ladies of Covington" series by Joan Medlicott

I'd third the "Mitford" series by Jan Karon.  All ages enjoy these.

I also like Dorothy Gilman's "Mrs. Pollifax" series, about a retired lady who inadvertantly becomes a spy for the CIA.  They are fun, suspenseful, and clean.

I would recommend the "Irish Country Doctor" series by Patrick Taylor. It takes place in the 1960's in a village in northern Ireland, full of wonderfully eccentric characters and (at least in the first one, which is the only one I've read so far) no sax or violins. ;-)

Cheryl

I used to pick out books for my mom. She liked old romance (Betty Neals was one of her favorites) which I don't read. But I got her interested in a few Debbie Macomber Series - Dakota, Cedar Cove and Blossom Street. At first I found them a little preachy (not religious, more on morals) but because my mom liked to talk about them, I ended up reading them too. My mom no longer reads much due to her age and health problems but I still read any new books that are issued from those series. There's some references to sex but no details if I remember correctly.