Gentle Reads for Adults

Stories to curl up with that aren't going to get your heart racing. We've included a selection of fiction and non-fiction titles that feature folks you might like to spend time with. These titles were selected with accessibility to multiple formats.

Updated August 15, 2023
G
Greater Victoria Public Library
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Anne of Avonlea
Montgomery, L. M.
Paper Book
The second story in the ever-popular Anne of Green Gables series. Now Anne is half past sixteen and she's ready to begin a new life teaching in her old school. She's as feisty as ever and is fiercely determined to inspire young hearts with her own ambitions. But some of her pupils are...

Also available in Large Print, eBook, eAudiobook and CD format.

Anything is possible
Strout, Elizabeth
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * An unforgettable cast of small-town characters copes with love and loss in this "compulsively readable" (San Francisco Chronicle) novel from #1 bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout "This book, this writer, are...

Also available in Large Print, CD, eBook and eAudiobook.

The kitchen front : a novel
Ryan, Jennifer
Paper Book
From the bestselling author of The Chilbury Ladies' Choir comes an unforgettable novel of a BBC-sponsored wartime cooking competition and the four women who enter for a chance to better their lives. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY GOOD HOUSEKEEPING *...

Also available in Large Print and eBook.

Eudora Honeysett is quite well, thank you
Lyons, Annie
Paper Book
'An exquisitely poignant tale of life, friendship and facing death... Everyone should read this book' Ruth Hogan, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Keeper of Lost Things USA TODAY BESTSELLER *Shortlisted for the RNA Contemporary...

Also available in Large Print and CD format.

The Chilbury Ladies' Choir : a novel
Ryan, Jennifer
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * "A delightful debut."--People    For readers of Lilac Girls and The Nightingale, The Chilbury Ladies' Choir unfolds the struggles, affairs, deceptions, and triumphs of a village choir during World War II. ...

Also available in CD, eBook and eAudiobook.

The dig
Preston, John
Paper Book
In the long hot summer of 1939 Britain is preparing for war. But on a riverside farm in Suffolk there is excitement of another kind. Mrs Pretty, the widowed farmer, has had her hunch proved correct that the strange mounds on her land hold buried treasure.

Also available in Large Print.

Lessons in chemistry
Garmus, Bonnie
Paper Book
#1 GLOBAL BESTSELLER WITH MORE THAN 6 MILLION COPIES SOLD * Meet Elizabeth Zott: "a gifted research chemist, absurdly self-assured and immune to social convention" (The Washington Post) in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a ...

Also available in Large Print, eBook and eAudiobook format.

Flying solo : a novel
Holmes, Linda (Radio talk show host)
Paper Book
Smarting from her recently cancelled wedding and about to turn forty, Laurie Sassalyn returns to her Maine hometown of Calcasset to handle the estate of her great-aunt Dot, a spirited adventurer who lived to be ninety-three. Alongside boxes of Polaroids and pottery, a mysterious wooden duck shows up...

Also available in Large Print, eBook and eAudiobook format.

If only they could talk
Herriot, James.
CD

Available in Large Print format.

An Irish country welcome
Taylor, Patrick
Paper Book
An Irish Country Welcome is a charming entry in Patrick Taylor's internationally bestselling Irish Country series. In the close-knit Northern Irish village of Ballybucklebo, it's said that a new baby brings its own welcome. Young doctor Barry Laverty and his wife Sue...

Also available in Large Print, CD and eAudiobook.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Shaffer, Mary Ann.
Paper Book
It's January 1946, and London is emerging from the shadow of World War II. Author Juliet Ashton is having a terrible time finding inspiration for her next book when she gets a letter from Dawsey Adams from Guernsey, a British island that had been occupied by the Nazis. He found her address in an old...

Also available in CD, eBook and eAudiobook.

The Jane Austen Society
Jenner, Natalie
Paper Book
* INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * "This novel delivers sweet, smart escapism." --People "Fans of The Chilbury Ladies' Choir and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society will adore The Jane Austen Society... A charming and...

Also available in Large Print, CD, eBook and eAudiobook.

A man called Ove : a novel
Backman, Fredrik
Paper Book
"You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll feel new sympathy for the curmudgeons in your life." --People The #1 New York Times bestseller about the grumpy old man next door that's an uplifting exploration of the unreliability of first impressions and a reminder that life...

Also available in Large Print, eAudiobook and CD format.

Remarkably bright creatures : a novel
Van Pelt, Shelby
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A Read With Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! NAMED A BEST BOOK OF SUMMER by: Chicago Tribune * The View * Southern Living * USA Today "Remarkably Bright Creatures [is] an ultimately feel-good but deceptively...

Also available in Large Print, eBook and eAudiobook.

A single thread
Chevalier, Tracy
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestselling Author1932. After losing both her beloved brother and fiancé in the Great War, Violet Speedwell appears doomed to a life of spinsterhood. Unwilling to spend her life caring for her grieving, embittered mother, Violet moves to the town of Winchester, home to one of...

Also available in Large Print, eBook, CD and DAISY format.

The story of Arthur Truluv : a novel
Berg, Elizabeth
Paper Book
"I dare you to read this novel and not fall in love with Arthur Truluv. His story will make you laugh and cry, and will show you a love that never ends, and what it means to be truly human."--Fannie Flagg An emotionally powerful novel about three people who each lose the one they...

Also available in Large Print and eBook.

The wonder boy of Whistle Stop : a novel
Flagg, Fannie
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A heartwarming novel about secrets of youth rediscovered, hometown memories, and the magical moments in ordinary lives, from the beloved author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe "A gift, a blessing and a triumph . . ....

Also available in Large Print, eBook, eAudiobook, CD and DAISY format.

You Are Here
Nicholls, David
Paper Book
A highlight for 2024 for the Sunday Times, Guardian, Independent, New Statesman, i, Observer, Grazia, GQ, Irish Times, Sunday Independent, Prima, Good Housekeeping'Magnificent' MARIAN KEYES'A beautiful book'...

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