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Forum -> Hobbies, Crafts, and Collections -> Reading Room

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shaindifer

Thu, Apr 15 2010, 7:15 am

Hi, if you have read any really good books ( no violence) that I would be able to find at the regular library, please post. Thanks!

6coop

Thu, Apr 15 2010, 7:24 am

By "no violence" are you excluding all murder mysteries? There are some pretty good ones that aren't gruesome.

I recently read The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff and it was pretty interesting.

shaindifer

Thu, Apr 15 2010, 7:30 am

6coop wrote:

By "no violence" are you excluding all murder mysteries? There are some pretty good ones that aren't gruesome.

I recently read The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff and it was pretty interesting.

Yeah, no murder mysteries. I get scared easily.

6coop

Thu, Apr 15 2010, 7:46 am

shaindifer wrote:

6coop wrote:

By "no violence" are you excluding all murder mysteries? There are some pretty good ones that aren't gruesome.

I recently read The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff and it was pretty interesting.

Yeah, no murder mysteries. I get scared easily.

The 19th Wife is not a murder mystery although technically someone does get killed in it. It's not scary at all. It's about polygamy in the u.s. and it reads more like an historical fiction.

MiamiMommy

Thu, Apr 15 2010, 7:52 am

I highly recommend March and Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. Both great!

MiamiMommy

Thu, Apr 15 2010, 7:55 am

BTW, March is a twist on Little Women, so read that too, if you haven't!

bubby

Thu, Apr 15 2010, 8:12 am

If you want light but thought-provoking, go for Jodie Picoult novels.

racheleezzy

Thu, Apr 15 2010, 8:52 am

The Help, katherine stockett

PinkFridge

Thu, Apr 15 2010, 9:42 am

The Mossy Creek series is sweet.
Alexander McCall Smith's books by and large are pretty tame.

Mimisinger

Thu, Apr 15 2010, 9:47 am

bubby wrote:

If you want light but thought-provoking, go for Jodie Picoult novels.

LIGHT? What??? They are so depressing....nothing light about them. That's to say, I do like reading her stuff, but they're so sad.

KAlex

Thu, Apr 15 2010, 9:56 am

Deafening by Frances Itani is a great book. It does have a couple of scenes with a stretcher-bearer in the trenches in WWI, so I don't know would that rule it out for you or not.

Does it have to be fiction? I really enjoyed Taking on the World by Ellen MacArthur, about how she became a sailor, and the fastest woman to sail around the world alone. (It came out before she became the fastest person to sail around the world alone, so there may be another book now.)

PinkFridge

Thu, Apr 15 2010, 1:41 pm

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was beautiful.

sarahmalka

Sun, Apr 18 2010, 5:19 pm

racheleezzy wrote:

The Help, katherine stockett

I loved this book!

Ok, don't laugh, but I recently started re-reading the whole Little House on the Prairie series (remembered it from childhood) and they are soooo good. Very wholesome, well-written, sweet. The first one is "Little House in the Big Woods" and the author is Laura Ingalls Wilder. It will be in the Children's or Juvenile or Young Adult section of a library.

Another good series, this one for adults, is the Horatio Hornblower series by C.S. Forester. These are maritime novels about British sailors and life in the high seas which I know sounds incredibly dull but they are so readable and somehow whimsical and transporting. Even though I know some of it goes over my head b/c I have zero sailing background. Plus there's the added incentive that you will feel very literary for reading these, LOL! Very Happy

I also have to avoid violence in books these days (after having babies I am so much more sensitive) and these are definitely safe.

PinkFridge

Sun, Apr 18 2010, 7:06 pm

sarahmalka wrote:

racheleezzy wrote:

The Help, katherine stockett

I also have to avoid violence in books these days (after having babies I am so much more sensitive) and these are definitely safe.

I'm not laughing at all. During the dog days of summer, especially when the kids were little and I needed some good laughs I would read, and reread Gordon Korman.

I did just read a fine Jewish book, if you have access to a Judaica library, Terra Incognita by Libi Astaire. Apparently there's a lot more to it than the serialization, which I didn't read.

dee's mommy

Sun, Apr 18 2010, 9:32 pm

Well, if "children's books" are acceptable to recommend, then I would like to present you with a semi- long list of my childhood favourites:

A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett (it's so lovely, and I chose to see it as a secular mussar book)
The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett

All books by Lucy Maud Montgomery, especially:
The Anne series (special mention goes to Anne of Green Gables, Anne's House of Dreams and Rilla of Ingleside, though it is helpful to read them in order.)
The Blue Castle
The Emily series
Also, check out her short story collections. They are wonderful
(but if I were you, I would read just about all of her published works.) Thumbs Up

I also really liked the All of a Kind Family series, by Sydney Taylor when growing up.

Ballet Shoes by Noelle Streatfield

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. (some people find her a bit preachy, but I rather enjoy this, and some others by Alcott that I have read so far.)

I second the Little House series

I just want to point out that I still like to read these books. I don't think they are just for children.

And for some more, "Grown up" favourites, I recomend the Jane Austen Novels

Also, Seven Blessings, by Ruchoma King

Also, for something a little different, the Griffen and Sabine Trilogy by Nick Bantock.

sequoia

Thu, Apr 22 2010, 12:42 am

Everything that's been recommended so far is great.

I would add Vice Versa by F. Anstey which is very funny. It's about a boy and his father who switch bodies. The father has to go to his son's school while the son runs the household. Very giggly, silly, but also very literary sort of book.

shanie5

Thu, Apr 22 2010, 7:06 am

Jasper Fforde-author. he's got a very different outlook on things-writes in a genre all his own-but I look forward to every new book. its best to read them in order. His first one is called "The Eyre Affair"

Fri, May 14 2010, 8:41 am

the help was great as was the irresistable henry house

bbmom

Fri, May 14 2010, 10:07 am

MiamiMommy wrote:

I highly recommend March and Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. Both great!

I also liked People of The Book by her

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