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Wedding Etiquette Forum
bunni727
member
Book Recs for Mom in Hospital
My mom will be going in for her LVAD surgery later this week and will have a pretty long recovery stay. I'm putting her a little basket together with a sudoku book, variety puzzle book, coloring book, pens, crayons, aloe-infused gripper socks, an eyemask, and some of her favorite snacks.
I would like to include a novel of some kind, but she and I have very different tastes. I really like modern and postmodern lit, and don't care about level of language or violence, linear narratives, or happy endings. Mom likes things that are interesting, but not too violent, tense, or graphic. She also doesn't like sci-fi or high fantasy. She likes a straightforward plot with good characters that have a neatly wrapped up ending in which all questions are answered. The only books I can think of that she liked are To Kill a Mockingbird, The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe, and all of Mitch Albom's books. She also likes Joyce Meyer and Max Lucado, but I think she'd prefer a fiction work while she's recovering.
Any suggestions?
I would like to include a novel of some kind, but she and I have very different tastes. I really like modern and postmodern lit, and don't care about level of language or violence, linear narratives, or happy endings. Mom likes things that are interesting, but not too violent, tense, or graphic. She also doesn't like sci-fi or high fantasy. She likes a straightforward plot with good characters that have a neatly wrapped up ending in which all questions are answered. The only books I can think of that she liked are To Kill a Mockingbird, The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe, and all of Mitch Albom's books. She also likes Joyce Meyer and Max Lucado, but I think she'd prefer a fiction work while she's recovering.
Any suggestions?
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Re: Book Recs for Mom in Hospital
50 in 2012 Reading Challenge: 2 books read
my read shelf:
Hunger Games is a no-go, basically because I liked it. Actually, I told her what it's about once and she said, "That's just awful. Don't know who'd want to read about kids killing each other." I just raised my hand and we laughed. She is very surface about things; if a character or situation in a book is or does something bad, the whole book must be bad.
Where the Heart Is may be a good option.
The only Jodi Picoult book I'm familiar with is My Sister's Keeper. Do they all have a sci-fi lite kind of feel?
I Second The Weird Sisters rec.
Hunger Games is likely too violent for her.
Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis. To Say Nothing of the Dog is really funny.-the other two are more serious.
They are all about historians using time travel to research history. Doomsday Book is about a young historian researching the plague years, To Say Nothing of the Dog is a romantic comedy about two historians in the Victorian era, and Blackout/All Clear is about life during the bombing of London in WWII. While they are science fiction because of the time travel, really they're goo historical novels about those periods.
Hope these help.
I took a Science Fiction class in college, and we had several girls who were just in there for an easy grade argue over who got to do that book as their big project, so it kind of stuck in my head.
The Plain Truth sounds like it's worth looking into; she just doesn't like "weird" (science fiction, unconventional structure, multiple narrators) books, so it's kind of hard to pick things out for her.
I always recommend Jane Austen for sick reading. She's entertaining and intellectual while still being sort of easy and romantic to stick with.
If she's at all interested in historical fiction, The Other Boleyn Girl is good as is Innocent Traitor.
[QUOTE]Would she go for anything with vampires? The Sookie Stackhouse novels go quickly, are very lighthearted, but really entertaining.<strong> The last one is coming out this year </strong>so it's not like she'd have to wait forever for the series to end either. I always recommend Jane Austen for sick reading. She's entertaining and intellectual while still being sort of easy and romantic to stick with. If she's at all interested in historical fiction, The Other Boleyn Girl is good as is Innocent Traitor.
Posted by vonclancy[/QUOTE]
<div>OMG like ... the LAST last one?! I love that series.</div>
[QUOTE]That's the movie I was thinking of, made me cry. Plain Truth isn't weird, unless you think Amish are weird, and I guess they are a little, but not Scientology weird, just old timeyweird. It is an easier weird to swallow.
Posted by Liatris2010[/QUOTE]
<div>Yes, I liked the Plain Truth. I don't think her stuff leans sci-fi at all. I've also read House Rules, which is about a boy with Aspergers that is accused of murder, and Perfect Match, which is about the aftermath of a child sexual assault. </div><div>
</div><div>I like Sherman Alexie as well. I think his book of short stories The Toughest Indian in the World might be your mom's taste, from what your describing. Some of his other stuff is a little more abstract. Oh, and both of Jeannette Walls's books (The Glass Castle and Half-Broke Horses) are phenomenal, have a story line, and aren't too abstract.</div>
I just really want her to like her basket, especially since I won't be able to visit very much. I can go down the day of her surgery and stay for a few days, but need to save most of my vacation for when she comes home and needs someone with her.
I ditto the Art of Racing in the Rain but it is a tearjerker. I would argue that dog lovers and non-lovers alike might appreciate it, but it is definitely sad. Same with Marley and Me--that one has some hilarious parts in it though and really just the ending is sad.
Another good one is Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah. It is SUCH a good book if she has a sister she is close to or a really close girlfriend. The ending is sad but in an uplifting way as well and it's a favorite of mine. It follows two close friends from adolescence all the way through their lives.
Emily Giffin has some "chick lit" type books. I enjoyed them as some light reading.
For an older book, has she read Gatsby? That is one of my all-time favorites.
Update: Our bookstore had absolutely none of the suggestions. They were having a sale though, so I was able to get her a couple to better my chances. I got her The Notebook (I think it will be okay, but I've just seen the movie. Another friend liked the book) and something I had never heard of and can't remember the title now. A lady sees a missing children flyer, and her adopted son is on it. So I guess it's a mystery/courtroom drama type thing. It's hard to find mysteries that aren't about "fitin' and killin' (mom's words)," so I'm optimistic about it.
Thank you all for your help. Her hospital is in the city, so I might have to pick up a few of them while we are out there.
I also really loved 'Snow Flower and the Secret Fan', by Lisa See. It's not happy, persay, but it's incredibly well written and relatable. I picked it up in a train station on a whim as a college freshman and have read it annually or more in the five years since.
I also loved, as a history teacher, The Bonesetter's Daughter, for it's perspective on storytelling and the way it blended multi-generational stories into one cohesive whole. It was wonderful, and sad.
Speaking of wonderful and sad, I sobbed readding The Memory Keeper's Daughter, a phenomenonl contemporary (or largely contemporary - for your mom, but not for me bornin the late 1980s/1990s) tale of what makes of family by blood or by friendship.
I also cried while reading "The Secrets of Jin Shei", which is a predominamly female novel with few fantasy elements. It really focusecd on the relationships between the relationships between girls and women, which I liked.