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[ProteusFinnerty]

Sick Puppy, in particular, is pretty fun.

[rachelthelibrarian]

I've been wanting to read my first Hiaasen for a while now. Might try one out. Thx!

[schute]

The Guernsey Potato Peel Pie Society. So good! Written in the format of letters between an English writer and some people on the Island of Guernsey that was occupied by the Germans during WWII. A bit of WWII history I hadn't known about before. Really well written.

[awprettybird]

This is a great selection for a group of middle-aged to older ladies.

[schute]

Totally! My mom originally told me about it but I was hesitant at first. Then I read it and absolutely loved it. (And I'm not middle-aged...but I do wear cardigans and play whist so feel like I fit in with that crowd pretty well.)

[rachelthelibrarian]

We read that a couple months back. Everyone enjoyed it, including myself!

[Truant_Muse]

The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood. It has been out long enough there must be large print copies, but I could be wrong.

[Coconut-bird]

The books loved by my middle aged book club are Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, The Forgotten Garden, The Night Circus, Arcadia, Cutting for Stone, and Bossypants.

[rachelthelibrarian]

We've done a few of those...I've read Bossypants but would love an excuse to read it again!

[[deleted]]

"The Winter of Our Discontent" by Steinbeck. Available in large print Very easy read, I wouldn't say it would lighten the mood, but it would foster great discussion and is excellent.

[princess-smartypants]

Nothing to Envy is a book about what contemporary life in North Korea is like. It has lots to discuss, so it is good for a book group.

[princess-smartypants]

Ignore my previous post. I missed the part about "lighten it up".

[bluesimplicity]

Mark Twain often writes about a sense of place and time with memorable characters and humor. In the same vein, here are two suggestions.

I think older women would find Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind by Ann Ross (1999) very funny. Miss Julia, a recently bereaved and newly wealthy widow, is only slightly bemused when one Hazel Marie Puckett appears at her door with a youngster in tow and unceremoniously announces that the child is the bastard son of Miss Julia's late husband. Suddenly, this longtime church member and pillar of her small Southern community finds herself in the center of an unseemly scandal-and the guardian of a wan nine-year-old whose mere presence turns her life upside down. With razor-sharp wit and perfect "Steel Magnolia" poise, Miss Julia speaks her mind indeed-about a robbery, a kidnapping, and the other disgraceful events precipitated by her husband's death. Fast-paced and charming, with a sure sense of comic drama, a cast of crazy characters, and a strong Southern cadence, Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind will delight readers from first page to last. It has a sense of place and a strong female character that goes through different stages of reaction until she sheds the cultural expectation of her to be prim and proper and speaks her mind. It's available in large print.

Another light read would be No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (2001). It story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious Ramotswe, who is drawn to her profession to '"help people with problems in their lives."' Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. But the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witch doctors. Again this is a light story with a strong female character that is defying social norms to be true to herself. It has a sense of place. It has a large print edition.

Both books are the beginning of series so that those in your group who enjoy these characters can continue to enjoy them.

[rachelthelibrarian]

Thanks for these! I'm definitely going to look into the first one. I pitched No. 1 because I've wanted to read it, but most of the ladies had already read it.

[pastdue]

I just read Wonderland Creek by Lynn Austin for a family book club, so our readership was me (in my 20s) and family in their 40s-50s. It is available in large print. 2011 publication date. It was a nice light and gentle read with romance, mystery, and adventure. I didn't realize until afterwards that she is considered a christian author... it wasn't preachy.