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
At sixteen Anne is grown up. . . almost. Her gray eyes shine like evening stars, but her red hair is still as peppery as her temper. In the years since she arrived at Green Gables as a freckle-faced orphan, she has earned the love of the people of Avonlea and a reputation for getting into scrapes....

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

Anything is possible
Strout, Elizabeth, author.
Paper Book
Two sisters: One trades self-respect for a wealthy husband while the other finds, in the pages of a book, a kindred spirit who changes her life.The janitor at the local school has his faith tested in an encounter with an isolated man he has come to help; a grown daughter longs for mother-love even...

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.

The brilliant life of Eudora Honeysett : a novel
Lyons, Annie
Paper Book
USA TODAY BESTSELLER! "One adorably British odd couple . . . Charming." -- People "An exquisitely poignant tale of life, friendship and facing death . . . heart-breaking yet ultimately uplifting . . Everyone should read this book." -- Ruth Hogan, author of ...

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. As the dig proceeds against a background of...

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
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A woman returns to her small Maine hometown, uncovering family secrets that take her on a journey of self-discovery and new love, in this warm and charming novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Evvie Drake Starts Over. "A...

Also available in Large Print, eBook and eAudiobook format.

If only they could talk
Herriot, James
Paper Book
The first of James Herriot's brilliantly funny memoirs about life as a Yorkshire vet.To young James Herriot, fresh out of veterinary college, Yorkshire appears to offer an idyllic pocket of rural life in a rapidly changing world. But even life in the sleepy village of Darrowby has its challenges:...

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
Just after the Second World War, in the small English village of Chawton, an unusual but like-minded group of people band together to attempt something remarkable.

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

One night on the island : a novel
Silver, Josie
Paper Book
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of One Day in December . . . When a double-booking at a remote one-room cabin accidentally throws two solace seekers together, it feels like a cruel twist of fate. But what if it's fate of a different kind? "A perfectly...

Also available in Large Print, eBook and eAudiobook.


A man called Ove
Backman, Fredrik
Paper Book
NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING TOM HANKS The million-copy bestselling phenomenon: a funny, moving, uplifting tale of love and community that will leave you with a spring in your step. 'Warm, funny, and almost unbearably moving' Daily Mail ...

Also available in Large Print, eAudiobook and CD format.

Marilla of Green Gables : a novel
McCoy, Sarah
Paper Book
A bold, heartfelt tale of life at Green Gables . . . before Anne: A marvelously entertaining and moving historical novel, set in rural Prince Edward Island in the nineteenth century, that imagines the young life of spinster Marilla Cuthbert, and the choices that will open her life to the...

Also available in Large Print, eBook and DAISY format.

Remarkably bright creatures : a novel
Van Pelt, Shelby
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestseller! A Read With Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! "Remarkably Bright Creatures is a beautiful examination of how loneliness can be transformed, cracked open, with the slightest touch from another living thing." -- Kevin Wilson, author of ...

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.

The spoon stealer
Crewe, Lesley
Paper Book
Born into a basket of clean sheets--ruining a perfectly good load of laundry--Emmeline never quite fit in on her family's rural Nova Scotian farm. After suffering multiple losses in the First World War, her family became so heavy with grief, toxicity, and mental illness that Emmeline felt their...

Also available in eBook.

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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