Gentle, comforting reads

[Yoyoyo1]

Sadly my dad has just died. My mum said she was enjoying gentle books, such as 'Seagulls in the Attic'. Can anyone recommend other similar books with no hard topics.

Leonard and Hungry Paul, by Ronan Hession, is one possibility. Not a huge amount of plot, but it's very pleasant and somehow reassuring.

... and I'm sorry for your loss (posted too soon)

I am sorry for your loss.

I very much enjoyed reading 'Miss Buncle's book' recently by D.E.. Stephenson.

Tha k you

Sorry for your loss OP x

I'm a big believer in 'bibliotherapy' (i.e using books to heal you). My first thought was P G Wodehouse. He is a wonderful tonic, but I wouldn't describe him as soothing. I guess you want something gentle and lyrical without any darkness or pain. How about Patrick Leigh Fermor's travel books? My favourite is A Time of Gifts, about his backpacking trip across Europe in the 1930s. Fermor is a superb stylist, and always cheerful and upbeat.

Personally, the books I reach for when I need consolation are:

David Copperfield (I prefer it to Great Expectations)
Pride and Prejudice
Kim
The Sherlock Holmes novels (especially read by Stephen Fry on audiobook)
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Brideshead Revisited
Orlando

I find Bill Bryson a pleasant, soothing read. I also find Sagan's Cosmos weirdly comforting. His sense of how small and brief and insignificant we are really puts things into perspective.

Maeve Binchey books

If she likes Victorian authors without the crash bang wallop of Dickens or the viciousness of Thackeray I suggest Trollope or Gaskell. Gaskell's 'Wives and Daughters' is particularly gentle and got my mother through last week after a nasty reaction to her chemo.

Sorry for your loss. A gentle undemanding read is always a comfort.

Can I recommend All Teachers Great and Small, by Andy Seed? You might need to get it from AbeBooks. Real life tales from a young primary school teacher and his wife settling in a Yorkshire village about 40 years ago. It's warm and gently humorous. And there are a few sequels if you enjoy it.

I second this with every fibre in my body. Such a treat.

I am currently enjoying thr andy seed all teachers books, there is variations about teachers, police memoirs

I did not see this post when I posted myself about it I have it on my kindle for ages, great books

Agatha Christie?

there’s something oddly comforting about Miss Marple

The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs (Fiction about Eliza Acton and her cooking manual)

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towle (Based on a real Moscow hotel)

A Month in the Country by J L Carr (A perfect book)

Another vote for Patrick Leigh Fermor.
So sorry for your loss, kindest thoughts to you and your Mum @Yoyoyo1.

Great minds, @WandaWonder .

I find good old fashioned writing with a gentle storyline almost like a meditation, so of course Jane Austen, also Edith Wharton, Custom of the Country, or The Age of Innocence (beautiful movie too) Henry James - some are quite impenetrable but The spoils of Poynton and Washington Square are lovely. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone

I'm reading a Barbara Pym novel at the moment. Nothing dramatic has happened - it's just daily life and conversations with the various people who live in the village so far.

I also find Katie Fforde's gentle romance novels soothing.

Thank you all, I will look into these. My mum seems to be favouring light reads at the moment. I have given her 'Driving Over Lemons' and she loved 'Up in the Air' by Betty Reigul.

My DH re read all the James Herriot books when he was grieving. Light, funny and with empathy. I re read Gerald Durrell when I want something unchallenging.

a Gentleman in Moscow recommended above is lovely.

More recently published the Richard Osman books.

The Miss Read books I seem to remember were very unchallenging.

I’m very sorry about your dad.

I agree with the James Herriot and the Miss Read books. Also Leonard and Hungry Paul which is heartwarming.

Alexander McCall Smith’s Scotland Street series set in Edinburgh is gentle and amusing. And if your mum enjoys them , there are lots to be going on with.

So sorry about your Dad @Yoyoyo1. If it's gentle non-fiction your Mum likes, this might be a bit of a random suggestion but I really enjoyed The Marriage Bureau: The True Story of How Two Matchmakers Arranged Love in Wartime London by Penrose Halson.

Actually, just realised the version I read was called Marriages Are Made in Bond Street x

l’m sorry.

in case your mum didn’t know, Seagulls in the attic is not the only one in that series.

I can also second the Miss Read recommendation. And if she likes Driving over Lemons, the Annie Hawes books Extra Virgin etc are also very good comfort reading.

Definitely Miss Read. These books have seen me through some difficult times. Simple undemanding stories but with a basis in reality so they they are not too sweet.

I am sorry for your loss.

Cold Comfort Farm is a lovely gentle book with a happy ending.

I love Elizabeth Von Arnie's books. The Enchanted April is lovely, as are the German Garden books (as per my username). They are about the healing power of nature and quiet rest, so they're very relaxing to read.