For Christmas I'm wanting to buy a book for my mom that we can both read together. I'm looking for something brief with a sense of humor, thought provoking or touching, and relatively not too explicit (my mom is a pretty devout christian, but occasionally if the book carries a strong enough message or if she enjoys the writing style enough she seems to step outside her comfort zone, ex. she enjoyed The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian). One of her favorite authors right now is Fredrik Backman, but I'm pretty sure she's read most, if not all of his books, and I think it would be fun to get her something new. In separate veins, she likes stuff ranging from WW2 novels like All the Light We Cannot See and Book Thief, through to good children's books like A monster calls and One and Only Ivan.
So that's sort of a spread of some of the stuff she likes. She reads like 30-50 books a year (which I'm sure may be on par with some people here but definitely not me lol) so it feels like a challenge to find something up her alley that she hasn't read without asking her, but I hope that if anyone has some suggestions I might be able to find something. Thanks so much!
Edit: I just wanted to add that she reads a lot of fiction, but it doesn't have to be fiction. She likes memoirs too, when I was a teenager we read A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, we both liked it and had a lot to talk about after. I'm in my early 20's, and I'm trying to reconnect deeper with my parents after some more turbulent years between us after distancing myself from the LDS church I was raised in. I miss reading and talking about books with my mom and it feels like a good opportunity to hopefully do something fun together.
by jswan42
3 Comments
I was going to suggest A Man Called Ove but then you mentioned she already read all of Fredrik Backman. Nice!
I recommend Midnight Library by Matt Haig and The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.
You can also read a non-fiction such as When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi.
Also books such as When The Mountains Echoed / A Thousand Splendid Suns / The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and Under The Whispering Door / The House in The Cerulean Sea by T.J Klune are books I enjoyed a lot and fit your description.
Nothing to see Here by Kevin Wilson and Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt both tick the humour box.
If you can live without the humour element, More Than This by Patrick Ness or Life After Life by Kate Atkinson might fit.
The All Girl’s Filling Station’s Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg will be perfect! I read it with my grandma
A really nice anxious lady is coping with her daughter’s weddings and her bonkers but hilarious mother, then learns a family secret. Half the book is flashbacks to a family of girls who ran a gas station during WW2 and became pilots. Very relatable, some sad bits, some hilarious bits, and a mystery to solve.