Recommend me a book for a poorly 74 year old

[Pices]

Mum has covid and is miserable. She's very afraid and could use a book to distract her. Nothing too heavy and needs a reasonably happy ending.

The Richard Osman one?

Hope your Mum gets well soon.

Try the st Mary’s ones
booksvooks.com/the-great-st-marys-day-out-a-chronicles-of-st-marys-short-story-pdf.html
Lovely fun easy read, intelligent, unusual plot and just great.

Miss peregrine lives for a day ? Guernsey literary potato peel society

Also audio books , so she can lie still and listen

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse
The Switch by Beth O Leary

Check whether she's read them first, they've been around for a long time, but anything by E.F. Benson or Barbara Pym might fit the bill, and if she liked the first one your got her you could keep them coming, there are lots.

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Oops I am rubbish at doing links!
The 100 year old man who climbed out of a window and ran away.

This is happiness, by Niall Williams.
About life in County Clare in the 1950s.
Not much happens, nothing upsetting definitely, but beautifully written.
Some of the most lyrical, evocative writing I've come across.
Poetry in prose

Comes to mind as I’m just rereading them after a long time after seeing the tv programme, what about James Herriot’s books? and would second the Jodi Taylor Chronicles of St Mary’s books recommended by a pp. Hope she feels better soon

I read Georgette Heyer regency romances when I'm ill and i once worked through a bad patch of the glooms by working my way through all the Bill Brysons i could find in charity shops, one after another.

Me and my mum have just discovered the Victorian murder mysteries by Jim Eldridge. Currently reading Murder at Madam Tussauds. Or maybe an Agatha Christie? Hope she gets better soon.

What sort of book does she usually like? Heavy highbrow? Chick lit?aga sagas, jilly Cooper?

Short stories can be good when you’re not well. Or essays maybe. Something she can get to the end of. Maeve binchy is always comforting & did some short stories.
Bill Bryson is very very funny if she likes that, or some later terry pratchetts. Maybe not the Death ones to begin with although the Hogfather is excellent.

Georgette Heyer's Regency romances. I'd suggest Frederica, Cotillion or perhaps the Grand Sophie (though the latter suffers from isolated but egregious anti-semitism).

Try Alice Taylor books.
Latest one tea for one .

Cotillion by Georgette Heyer. It's my go to miserable/ill/worried book, I read it most winters.

Also definitely Bill Bryson as suggested above, anything by Alexander McCall-Smith, and would she maybe enjoy the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett? My 74 year old mum loves them.

@LadyIsabellaWrotham

Georgette Heyer's Regency romances. I'd suggest Frederica, Cotillion or perhaps the Grand Sophie (though the latter suffers from isolated but egregious anti-semitism).

Snap! 😁

The book thief

Oops I am rubbish at doing links!

The 100 year old man who climbed out of a window and ran away

That's such a good book

A Del of a Life by David Jason is surprisingly uplifting.

The book thief is not particularly happy though!

We found my mum liked us reading childhood classics out loud - or listened to them on audible.

Agree with Miss Peregrine lives for a day - fabulous book!

Lots of great recommendations here @Pices

Just wanted to say how kind and thoughtful you are.

Hope your mum gets better soon.

A few years ago I got my dad, "the long way round", I can't remember why as he isn't interested in motorbikes and I doubt he knew who Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman are but it was a surprise hit.

Cecelia Ahern writes stories that are like modern day fairy stories. Very easy to read and usually a happy ending.

The Butterfly Summer - Harriet Evans
Black Rabbit Hall - Eve Chase
Anything by Marcia Willetts

Not the Richard Osman one! Or anything that contains elderly people coming to terms with aging and infirmity.

In her circumstance I would listen to or read PG Wodehouse, Miss Read, Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes, Jane Austen, or old favourites in general.

Anything in the Persephone comedy section! Miss Buncle's Book, The Diary of a Provincial Lady, Miss Pettigrew are all wonderful.
If she would like something more contemporary then Mick Herron's Slow Horses book is an addictive series of page turners with plenty of black comedy. They're easy to read and brilliant fun.