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 Rosie Project

Something by Bill Bryson

I didn't know Persephone had a specific comedy section!

Must go browse.

I went with The Thursday Murder Club. Someone recommended the author and this one looked good. I'm going to try a few more from this list too. Thank you all so much. She's so scared. It's been a dreadful time. She was talking about ending her own life last night and it's all been very upsetting for me too. She was so fit and healthy before this happened to her.

Georgette Heyer's books! She wrote early ones for an invalid and they work really well to uplift and amuse. A real escape. Not too romantic despite being in that genre.

Marion Keyes, the break up. Laughed until I snorted (Grown ups is newer but crap).

I went with The Thursday Murder Club. Someone recommended the author and this one looked good. I'm going to try a few more from this list too. Thank you all so much. She's so scared. It's been a dreadful time. She was talking about ending her own life last night and it's all been very upsetting for me too. She was so fit and healthy before this happened to her.

Oh I'm so sorry. Has she spoken to the GP about how she feels?

If she's poorly I'd go for audiobooks - Dorothy L Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey books, Agatha Christie, PD James and the like...

I was going to recommend the Stuart McLean Vinyl Cafe series. If she is feeling to weak to sit up and hold a book you find recordings of him reading on Spotify.

I Capture the Castle is a lovely gentle read, and The Swish of the Curtain is sweet & nostalgic, both very easy on the brain!
I really hope your poor Mum starts to feel better very soon.

The Village series by Rebecca Shaw. They're not great books, they're not well written, but if she wants something comforting and undemanding, they're easy to read (I read the whole lot when the DC were little and I was in a permanent brain fog). Very, very gentle.

Second Maeve Binchy, Marian Keyes, Bryson, Pratchett, Christie as PPs have said.

The Green Knowe books by Lucy M Boston are absolutely lovely, and are based on a real house in Cambridgeshire that's open for visitors again now. If she likes the books, then perhaps you could suggest a visit there for sometime in the future when she's recovered? www.greenknowe.co.uk/

Anything by Mc Beaton
full-english-books.net/english-books/full-book-finessing-clarissa-read-online
So stress free and lovely

I see that others have said some of these but this is what I thought on reading your OP:
Agatha Christie (novels, NOT short stories)
Sherlock Holmes (short stories, NOT novels)
PG Wodehouse
Armistead Maupin Tales of the City - very funny
Katherine Mansfield - short stories are lovely

Oooh or Diary of a Nobody, that;s very funny. And short.

Hope your mum feels better soon op.

The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper

or Philip Pullman's Northern Lights

The Children's Book A S Byatt

The morning gift by Eva Ibbotson
Or any of her vintage YA romances. Mostly set in beautiful european locations in the 1940s with valiant heroes and brave heroines, and happy endings.

Maeve Binchy, they always seem gentle and positive, to me anyway

I second the Agatha Raisins by M C Beaton and also the no 1 Ladies detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith.

The marraige bureau for rich people. Such a sweet book, I read it while recovering from a c section and the flu at the same time! Hope your mum gets better soon.

I would pull back on Thursday Murder Club if you still have time. It's set in a retirement community and it's quite funny and light but it does inevitably deal with the realities of ageing.

If she's really poorly a magazine or an audio book might be better as being ill can affect your concentration.

Do you think she would be willing to talk to the GP?

Does she have an ipad or tablet? I use the BorrowBox app on my phone, it lets you borrow library ebooks and audiobooks for free.

Failing that, maybe some nicely illustrated children's books like Fox and the Star by Coralie Bickford-Smith? Always cheers me up. Or Pippi Longstocking, or the Little Prince?

Does she like cats?

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

There are thousands of books on openlibrary.org. (internet archive) What I love is they are mostly scanned books, so you can enjoy the original covers. They have a fine selection of Heyer, Wodehouse etc. You can sometimes "borrow" for a fortnight but even if a book is checked out you can read it for an hour at a time and keep renewing. I always look on there before I buy an ebook now.

Anything by Katie Fforde and as mentioned up-thread, audiobooks are a good idea. Hope she is feeling better soon.

@heldinadream

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.

I second Barbara Pym - Crampton Hodnet, Some Tame Gazelle or Excellent Women would be my choice. Period pieces now -(early 1930’s-1950s) but lovely, easy reads, with a very gently wicked sense of humour. But not Quartet in Autumn, which is v good but largely about the trials of getting older. So much depends on personal tastes though.

My DM used to like the Miss Read books, I think classed as ‘cosy’ but I haven’t read read them so can’t comment.