The Thursday Murder Club
Richard Osman
Four retirees who meet each Thursday to study cold cases get pulled into a real murder. Witty, kind to its older characters and easy to read a chapter at a time.
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Books for Grandparents
Grandparents often have time for a story that rewards unhurried reading, so these eight are gentle, warm or true. They include a retirement-village mystery, a Moscow hotel novel and two true stories.
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The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Rachel Joyce
A retired man in Devon sets out on foot to reach a dying former colleague at a hospice hundreds of miles away. Gentle, funny in places, and about a long marriage.
A Gentleman in Moscow
Amor Towles
A count is sentenced in 1922 to live inside a grand Moscow hotel and stays there for decades. Polished, witty and made for long evenings.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
A writer in postwar London trades letters with the people of Guernsey and their unusual book club. Told in short pieces, so it suits unhurried reading.
Unbroken
Laura Hillenbrand
A true story about an Olympic runner who survives a plane crash, weeks adrift on a raft and Japanese prison camps. A gripping choice for someone who likes real history.
A Walk in the Woods
Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson sets out to hike the Appalachian Trail with an old friend and reports back with plenty of jokes. Light and funny, and good for reading aloud.
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
Scout Finch grows up in 1930s Alabama while her father, a lawyer, defends a Black man charged with a crime he did not commit. A classic that rewards a second reading.
A Man Called Ove
Fredrik Backman
A cranky Swedish widower has his plans interrupted again and again by new neighbors. Funny first and then moving, with a hero older readers may recognize.
Books like A Man Called Ove
How to choose
Start with what they already read. For mysteries, The Thursday Murder Club is the easy choice. For gentle fiction, try The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry or The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and for a long, absorbing novel, A Gentleman in Moscow. Unbroken and A Walk in the Woods are true stories, one gripping and one funny. If you give a physical copy, pick a light paperback and look at the type size, since small print tires many readers.
Check the themes before wrapping. Unbroken describes wartime prison camps, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is set partly under the German occupation. To Kill a Mockingbird deals with racism and a rape trial, A Man Called Ove includes suicide attempts, and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry touches on grief and the suicide of a son.
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