Clean secular novel recommendation?

amother

Lightgreen

Sun, Jul 17 2022, 10:36 am

amother [ Lightgreen ] wrote:

I have been reading a lot of really old novels, like 19th century or early 20th century. They are almost completely clean, sweet, a nice look back at a world that doesn't exist anymore. Best thing is that they are in the public domain, so available for free on kindle.

If you're interested, I can list the authors that I have read that I consider the best.

amother

Emerald

Sun, Jul 17 2022, 11:09 am

amother [ Lightgreen ] wrote:

If you're interested, I can list the authors that I have read that I consider the best.

Not OP, but I would be interested!

amother

Oatmeal

Sun, Jul 17 2022, 12:09 pm

PG Wodehouse is clean, funny, and clever. He wrote so many books that you'll be set for a while.

amother

Skyblue

Sun, Jul 17 2022, 2:38 pm

I liked The Princess Academy and The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. They are JA books, but very nice books. Some fantasy.

(I did not care for her other JA books or for her novel for adults. I mean, it was clean by your standards, but I didn't care for it. ...Read these about 7-10 years ago, so it's possible she's put out new stuff since then.)

amother

Lightgreen

Sun, Jul 17 2022, 2:50 pm

amother [ Lightgreen ] wrote:

If you're interested, I can list the authors that I have read that I consider the best.

Anthony Trollope
Elizabeth Gaskell
Wilkie Collins
Edith Wharton
Mary Roberts Rinehart

I have a lot of additional authors whose books aren't great writing but are pleasant, relaxing reading.

Louis Tracy
J.S. Fletcher
E. Phillips Oppenheim
E.R. Punshon
M.E. Braddon
Mrs. Margaret Oliphant
Edgar Wallace
Anna Katharine Green
Gene Stratton-Porter

amother

Foxglove

Sun, Jul 17 2022, 3:33 pm

Interesting what was said above about cozy mysteries, which is mostly what I read. But I keep a list of authors who were too coarse, to not get their other books. (Also sometimes I just find them lacking depth of characters, or they're police procedurals which I find boring.)

amother

Emerald

Sun, Jul 17 2022, 4:55 pm

amother [ Lightgreen ] wrote:

Thank you so much!!!! I really appreciate this list.

amother

Firethorn

Thu, Jul 28 2022, 4:40 am

Lianne Moriarty. My hands-down favorite, but skip her older works. My favorites in order:

What Alice Forgot
Apples Don't Fall
The Hypnotist's Love Story
Big Little Lies
Nine Perfect Strangers
The husband's Secret - a short love scene, I just skim over those.

The other weren't as good.

All clean, suspenseful, unique, and thought-provoking.

FreshGrandma

Thu, Jul 28 2022, 4:57 am

Fjodor Dostoevsky: bad spirits
Leon Uris: Mila 18
Leon Uris: Exodus
Chaim Potok: DAvita's harp

amother

Orange

Thu, Jul 28 2022, 7:15 am

amother [ Plum ] wrote:

I would argue in some ways christian romance is worse than reading secular books w relations

Me too.

amother

Emerald

Thu, Jul 28 2022, 7:29 am

Some older authors that are really good - Rex Stout, Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Georgette Heyer. L.M. Montgomery supposedly wrote for kids but I've read all her books many times as an adult and nothing happened to me Smile

.

ETA: James Herriot

Chayalle

Thu, Jul 28 2022, 8:13 am

FreshGrandma wrote:

Fjodor Dostoevsky: bad spirits
Leon Uris: Mila 18
Leon Uris: Exodus
Chaim Potok: DAvita's harp

I don't think Leon Uris is so squeeky clean.

I've been reading Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls. Cleaner than her other book The Glass Castle.

amother

Skyblue

Thu, Jul 28 2022, 9:45 am

sequoia wrote:

Not Dostoevsky.

Why not Dostoyevsky?
Curious, because I had considered reading Crime and Punishment or one of his other books.