Please recommend me a wonderful book

[Sameoldsameold78]

I’m reading a lot of books about loss and grief at the moment, I lost my mum this year and I think it’s helping me process, can anyone recommend a beautiful book? I read a lot but not classics and not light chick lit either, something in the middle! If it’s cheap on kindle even better!

Sorry to hear about the loss of your mum. A series of books I return to in difficult times is The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard. You can get them on kindle or as a paperback bundle (there are 5). Her niece, Louisa Young has also just published a new sequel which I’ve enjoyed. It’s a gentle family saga which is well written and engaging but not too challenging. My book group read them all in lockdown and everyone loved them.

Oh gosh, where to start... Do you enjoy non fiction?

I love Katherine May's books Wintering and Enchantments. I think Wintering would be a nice one with what you are going through.

Motherwell is a beautiful if a bit raw book. Not sure whether you'd find it helpful right now though. Deborah Orr's autobiographical book about her relationship (difficult) with her mother. Sadly Deborah passed away since the book was written. It made me cry and think a lot about my childhood but it was a beautiful book.

I am currently enjoying Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow though I am quite slow these days. Not sure how it'll develop.

Sorry for your loss. O Now! by Niall Williams. Beautiful, new and short. Also on BBC Sounds at the moment.

The correspondent by Virginia Evans - an easy read but very poignant. Loved by our book club.

I loved Elizabeth Jane Howard - The Light Years - it's a bit of an upmarket family saga. It appears to be free to download onto a Kindle from Amazon. Set just before the war so might not suit if you don't like historical fiction.

Anything by Mary Lawson.

I loved Barbara Kingsolver - Demon Copperhead but it's a big book so might be annoying if you've bought it and don't enjoy it!

Great minds think alike!

If you haven’t read Still Life by Sara Winman please please read that.

Read the books by Dr Richard Shepherd.
“Unnatural Causes” and the “Seven Ages of Death.”
Unnatural Causes is the only book I have ever finished and directly re-read, it is so good. He was a Home Office pathologist and it is the story of many cases you will remember, interwoven with his personal story which I found very affecting.

Three days in June - Anne Tyler
Anything by Elizabeth Strout
Anything by Anna Quindlan (I've just finished "Alternate Side" loved it!)

Thank you I read half of Demon Copperhead and just couldn’t get on with it but I should go back. I had liked it until that point.
i started Still Life so maybe I should go a k to that, also have Cazalet Chronicles on my kindle and read a bit of it.
I think I want books where people are grieving, the heavier and more upsetting the better! It helps, I don’t know why but it does.

Anne Tyler's The Accidental Tourist is an absolute heartbreaker about grief.

Thank you I like Anne Tyler

Have you tried Devorgilla Days by Kathleen Hart?

It's the author's story of her recovery after a serious illness. She builds a new life for herself in a beautiful part of the world. It explores the power of nature and community and I found it gentle, wise and healing. I borrowed it from the library at first but bought a copy which I keep to dip into when I need it.

So sorry to hear about your mum. Wishing you peace and comfort.

The Go Between by LP Hartley. I think it’s a beautiful book, it contains the immortal line ‘the past is an another country, they do things differently there’.
So sorry to hear about your mum

Land by Maggie O’Farrell is beautiful and centred around loss. Grief is the thing with Feathers by Max Porter was another one that helped me.

A God in Ruins. Check what it's about first in case it's too much, but it will make you SOB. - Given that you've said that's what you're looking for.

Also, a fabulous book.

Sorry for your loss. X

The correspondent is so moving, a bit different, one of the best books I have read because of the way the characters build and develop and then the emotional connection that I developed as the book progressed. I don’t want to give too much away but I highly recommend it.

Highly relevant is A Monster Calls - Elliot Ness

On themes of loss and impermanence Birdsong, A Fools Alphabet or A Possible Life - Sebastian Faulkes

I loved The Names by Florence Knapp. It is an easy read but thought provoking and some really lovely characters. There are some sad moments and lots around grief and loss.

Thank you I’ve read the names, birdsong and god in ruins, all excellent. I need to make a list!

I've just read Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner and I was surprised to find how much it stayed with me.

Seconding Unnatural Causes by Richard Shepherd. He presents Cause of Death too, on C5.

Sorry about your mum.

The Winter House - Nicci Gerrard?

I’ve just read Forever, interrupted by Taylor Jenkins Reid. 99p on kindle atm. About a woman who loses her husband, sad and moving. Not sure if it’s what you’re after but I loved it.

Have you read Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion? It’s non-fiction about the year after the death of her husband, I read it when I was grieving and found it really helpful and felt less alone. I also read Breath Becomes Air by Paul
Kalanithi about his own terminal diagnosis. Then I read A Grief Observed by CS Lewis about losing his wife. I also read Hamnet at that time. All are very intense and heavy but also beautiful. After that I felt I needed to return to books not exclusively about grief. I am so sorry for your loss.

Thank you all for your kindness