Older Adults

Celebrate the wisdom and freedom that comes with age! Try one of these books about older-than-average people.

Updated May 18, 2026
LINCC (Libraries in Clackamas County) Milwaukie Ledding Library
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Older Adults

Celebrate the wisdom and freedom that comes with age! Try one of these books about older-than-average people.

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Angle of repose
Stegner, Wallace
Ebook
Stegner's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of personal, historical, and geographic discovery   Confined to a wheelchair, retired historian Lyman Ward sets out to write his grandparents' remarkable story, chronicling their days spent carving civilization into the surface of...
Britt-Marie was here : a novel
Backman, Fredrik
Paper Book
The New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry, and Anxious People captivates readers with this "warm and satisfying" (People) story "about a woman rediscovering herself after a personal crisis...fans...
Brooke Shields is not allowed to get old : thoughts on aging as a woman
Shields, Brooke
Audiobook
Excuse me while I disappear : tales of midlife mayhem
Notaro, Laurie
Paper Book
A laugh-out-loud spin on the realities, perks, opportunities, and inevitable courses of midlife. Laurie Notaro has proved everyone wrong: she didn't end up in rehab, prison, or cremated at a tender age. She just went gray. At past fifty, every hair's root is a symbol of knowledge...
Grandma Gatewood's walk : the inspiring story of the woman who saved the Appalachian Trail
Montgomery, Ben.
Paper Book
Winner of the 2014 National Outdoor Book Awards for History/Biography Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than two hundred dollars. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, 67-year-old great...
The lady in the van : and other stories
Bennett, Alan
Paper Book
Now a major motion picture starring Maggie Smith, Alan Bennett's famous and heartwarming story "The Lady in the Van," and more of Bennett's classic short-form work Alan Bennett has long been one of the world's most revered humorists. From his acclaimed story collection Smut...
A man called Ove : a novel
Backman, Fredrik
Paper Book
Now a major motion picture A Man Called Otto starring Tom Hanks! #1 New York Times bestseller--more than 3 million copies sold! Meet Ove. He's a curmudgeon--the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside...
Mrs. Plansky's revenge
Quinn, Spencer
Audiobook
Mrs. Pollifax unveiled
Gilman, Dorothy
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * "Mrs. Pollifax gives Agatha Christie's Miss Marple a rival to reckon with."--The Toronto Star After facing down hijackers on a flight to the Middle East and saving the lives of the passengers on board, a young American woman steps off the plane...
The murder at the Vicarage a Miss Marple mystery
Christie, Agatha
Paper Book
The tranquility of St Mary Mead has been shattered when the local magistrate, Colonel Lucious Protheroe, is found with a bullet through the head. He was a thoroughly despicable character and it seems that nearly everyone in town had a reason to want the Colonel dead. Nobody heard the shot, and there...
News of the world : a novel
Jiles, Paulette
Paper Book
Now a Major Motion Picture National Book Award Finalist--Fiction In the aftermath of the Civil War, an aging itinerant news reader agrees to transport a young captive of the Kiowa back to her people in this exquisitely rendered, morally complex, multilayered...
The old man
Perry, Thomas
Paper Book
A finalist for the Barry Award for Best Thriller Edgar Award-winning author Thomas Perry writes thrillers that move "almost faster than a speeding bullet" (Wall Street Journal). The Old Man is his latest whip-smart standalone novel. To all appearances, Dan...
The old man and the sea
Hemingway, Ernest
Paper Book
Ernest Hemingway's most beloved and popular novel--now in a gorgeous new package designed for the modern reader. The last novel Ernest Hemingway saw published, The Old Man and the Sea has proved itself to be one of the most enduring works of American fiction. It is the...
Our souls at night
Haruf, Kent.
Paper Book
A spare yet eloquent, bittersweet yet inspiring story of a man and a woman who, in advanced age, come together to wrestle with the events of their lives and their hopes for the imminent future. In the familiar setting of Holt, Colorado, home to all of Kent Haruf's inimitable...
Remarkably bright creatures : a novel
Van Pelt, Shelby
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Now a Netflix Film 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...
Roctogenarians : late in life debuts, comebacks, and triumphs
Rocca, Mo
Audiobook
The sowing season : a novel
Powner, Katie,
Paper Book
Forced to sell his family farm after sacrificing everything, 63-year-old Gerrit Laninga no longer knows what to do with himself. 15-year-old Rae Walters has growing doubts about The Plan her parents set to help her follow in her father's footsteps. When their paths cross just as they need a friend...
Still life with bread crumbs : a novel
Quindlen, Anna.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A "marvelous romantic comedy" (The New York Times Book Review) from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anna Quindlen "[A] wise tale about second chances, starting over, and going after what is most important in life."--Minneapolis...
The Thursday murder club
Osman, Richard
Paper Book
A New York Times bestseller | Soon to be a major motion picture from Steven Spielberg at Amblin Entertainment "Witty, endearing and greatly entertaining." --Wall Street Journal   "Don't trust anyone, including the four septuagenarian...
The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry : a novel
Joyce, Rachel.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE * NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST Meet Harold Fry, recently retired. He lives in a small English village with his wife, Maureen, who seems irritated by almost everything...
Vera Wong's unsolicited advice for murderers
Sutanto, Jesse Q.
Audiobook
A USA Today bestseller Edgar Award Winner for Best Original Paperback Audie Award Winner for Mystery Libby Award Winner for Best Mystery A lonely shopkeeper takes it upon herself to solve a murder in the most peculiar way in this captivating mystery by...
We solve murders
Osman, Richard
Ebook
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! "Madcap fun, with an entertaining new cast of characters and Osman's trademark wit. Delightful!" --Shari Lapena From the #1 bestselling author of The Thursday Murder Club Series A brand new mystery. An...
What makes Olga run? : the mystery of the ninety-something track star and what she can teach us about living longer, happier lives
Grierson, Bruce.
Paper Book
A fascinating look at the way we age today and the extent to which we can shape the process In What Makes Olga Run? Bruce Grierson explores what the wild success of a ninety-four-year-old track star can tell us about how our bodies and minds age. Olga Kotelko is not your...
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