I’ve spoken to a couple of patrons recently who were looking for pleasant recreational books for a homebound relative. So I suggested books I’ve liked – anything by Rhys Bowen who writes light, humorous mysteries where the setting, in her three different series is; Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, respectively. The Irish series starts with Murphy’s Law, another is the Constable Evans Series and the third is her Royal Spyness series. Another series I like starts with Seneca Falls Inheritance
by Miriam Grace Monfredo and is set in nearby Seneca Falls during the 1800’s. If you like historical family sagas, try Belva Plain’s Evergreen and if you like humorous historical characters, Amelia Peabody can’t be beat. The first book about Amelia by Elizabeth Peters is Crocodile on the Sandbank. Series books don’t have to be read in order but I prefer to read them that way and remember you can always stop at the reference desk and ask us for the order. We like to get to know our patrons and love talking about books.
And don’t forget that we have a database called NOVELIST that you can reach from our database page where you can put in your favorite author and it suggests some read-alikes. We librarians refer to pleasant recreational books as “gentle reads”and you will find a list of those in Novelist also as well as a list of series in order of their publication.
Phyllis Rogan, Reference Librarian
Steele Memorial Library