Book for MIL

[Juliecloud]

Can anyone recommend a book for my Christian MIL for Xmas? I thought I might put together a box with a candle, tea, face mask and a book for her Xmas. But she’s difficult to buy books for, because she doesn’t like anything with swearing or sex in it (pretty much every book I read then 😆). Also, she does not like anything that might be considered blasphemous.
I am at a lost! Thanks!

www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Call-Midwife-Stories-1950s/dp/1780224923?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Call the midwife books?

I haven’t read them so cannot comment on the presence of sex and swearing but my v Christmas MIL likes them!

Or a Karen Armstrong book? (She’s an ex nun and a very well respected theologian). She had academic books but her autobiography is excellent

www.waterstones.com/book/the-almanac/lia-leendertz/9781784725211

Anything by Barbara Pym is a delight, but I'd particularly recommend Excellent Women. Or if you want something more literary and philosophical, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.

British Library Crime Classics too. Traditional whodunnit type stories.

Or Agatha Christie. Miss Marple etc.

Do you have a local independent book shop? Ours is great at recommendations.

Perhaps a classic ie Persuasion or some classic crime. The 4:50 from Paddington is a good read.

I've just realised how much sex and blasphemy is in my book collection!

Thank you, this is great! I had never heard of most of these. I’ll look into them all.

I once read an autobiography of an Australian nun who became a prostitute after leaving the monastery but I guess that’s not the kind of book you have in mind (it was entertaining though).

‘The myth of perpetual summer’ by Susan Crandall sounds like a beautiful book (it’s on my list!) and a safe option.

This is her autobiography

Seconding Marilynne Robinson - Gilead and Home are both superb. My (Christian) Mum is ok with sex/swearing if it’s not gratuitous or the whole point of the book and if the book is well written, so is getting Bel Canto by Ann Patchett and Circe by Madeleine Miller.

If it doesn’t have to be prose heavy, Charlie Mackesy’s book The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse makes a lovely gift.

It’s a collection of ink drawings and quotes that are really quite sweet.

Otherwise, try Maisie Dobbs by J Winspear

It’s gentle post-war fiction about a female PI who sets up an agency. The first book is about her background and a few cases which don’t go near any “dangerous” topics. It’s also quite well written and there is a series (i think) so if she likes it then that’s her birthday present sorted!

Have a look at the Persephone Books list, some of them would be suitable for your MIL I think. "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day" is gentle and humorous. The Persephone books are all beautifully produced and a joy to own, so very suitable as a gift.

Has she read The Guernsey Literary and potato peel pie society? I don’t see how anyone could take offence at that. Or Nicola Upton has written a series of books where Josephine Tey is the detective. They are good, no swearing, easy to read.