Light Reading recommendation please.

[Ariela]

I am sure you can help find me a follow up book to Dear Mrs Bird.

My friend has not read a book for at least 20 years, she simply has been too unwell to - she is diagnosed schizophrenic and has been very unwell at times, but of late the current drug regime seems to suit she's leading a steady and more normal life (if you can consider her life normal), and she had recently said she felt up to trying to read again, so I sent Dear Mrs Bird which she is enjoying.
Part of the issue, she thinks, is the drug set she is on is designed to slow the brain from working too fast , thereby suppressing the weird thoughts she would otherwise have. Consequently she has found it difficult to concentrate on a book. So number one factor has to be that is must have a good page-turning quality to it. Must be well written and nothing too vivid or graphic or too complicated plot or with too many character to follow - not the sort of book you have to turn back 40 pages to find out just how the new character is related to the heroine. Something gentle and amusing would be good.
Can't think of anything I've got to send her next (recently had a clear out), so thought I'd ask for suggestions from the well-read Mumsnetters.
Thank you

Any suggestions, anybody?

What about The Help by Kathryn Stockett?

Thank you, I'll take a look at that.

Maybe look up things like 'cosy mysteries', I think they're easy to read type books and they seem really popular.

Will do.
Have found a couple of recommendations by popping into a local independent bookseller. (Bell Street Bookshop in Henley) Such a shame there aren't many left.

The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery (of Green Gables fame) is a lovely entertaining read.

Try The Librarian

Maybe a book of short stories? Very good and don't usually take too much concentration. You sound like a lovely friend.

SOme great suggestions, thank you - when we were at school (eek that's almost 50 years ago) she liked Green gables a lot more than I did. And I like the short stories idea too.

It's a thousand years old now and very dated but I still love Emma & I by Sheila Hocken. Easy to get on Amazon or whatever. The childhood and youth of a blind woman who was then approved for a guide dog, who turned out to be a labrador called Emma...

Likewise very dated (50s) but still terrific fun is Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis. Especially good as it's essentially a book of short stories so you can go a chapter at a time. A young boy in the States whose distant and authoritarian father dies, leaving him rich, goes to live with his glamorous aunt...

Another oldie but goodie children's book - Betsy (sometimes called Understood Betsy) by Dorothy Canfield. A young girl whose life in the city has been carefully controlled by loving aunts has to go and live in the country on a farm...

Thank you will have a look for those too - should keep her going for a while!

I find so many great books through the Goodreads app. One of the best apps I've ever downloaded.

How about the number one ladies detective agency?

Thank you, I'd not thought of that one, good idea

I was going to suggest Alexander McCall Smith too. I love the Scotland Street series.

I don't know if it would be too many characters but Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City stories are light, gossipy and entertaining,

The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford.

Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals or any of James Herriot's vet books would tick the gentle and amusing box.

I wonder if Bridget Jones would seem dated now?

Definitely James Herriot. There is a collection of articles by Sue Townsend called The Public Confessions of a middle aged woman aged 55 that might suit?

Anything by Anne Tyler. I read Clock Dance a few weeks ago and A Spool of Blue Thread not long before. She is always very readable.

Love on a Branch Line and Darling Buds of May are both safe, light and easy reads.