Really great modern literature for someone with conservative taste?

Hi, everyone,
I'm looking for a Christmas present for my wife. I want to find her something written for an adult audience that will be really meaningful, moving, uplifting, empowering, or at least a lot of fun, with really great characters and story. The trouble is that I also want minimal swearing, sex, or really disturbing violence. I'm hoping for something that is not offensive to someone sensitive to those things, but will make readers feel like they read something worthwhile! It's been hard for me to find books like that, but I'm sure it's mostly because I don't know where to look.

She enjoyed:
To Kill a Mockingbird
The winter of our discontent
Dracula
The narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass
The Clockwork Universe
The Hobbit
The Hunger Games
Harry Potter

To give you more of an idea, we also both read The Kite Runner. She had very mixed feelings about it- though there is something very beautiful and tragic about the story, there were so many awful things that happened in the book. It was an incredible, emotional story, but I'm not looking for things that will be quite so painful to read.

I'd like to find some books with:
1) Minimal (or no) swearing and sexual content
2) Not sci-fi or fantasy, unless it's absolutely amazing
3) Modern, or at least fairly recent (within last 60 years or less)
4) A really great, moving human story
5) Believable, interesting, sympathetic characters

Does anyone know anything that fits this?
Thank you all in advance!

It isn't modern, but Two on A Tower by Thomas Hardy is very readable. It's got a sad ending but it's very charming and very very romantic.

You'll be hard pressed to find something modern that has no swearing or sexual content in it.

I read the "The time traveler's wife" by Audrey Niffenegger recently and looking at your list and requirements I think it will really fit the bill. OK there is some fantasy (the time traveller!) but it *is* absolutely amazing, and with more believable, interesting, and sympathetic characters than you'd expect from science fiction. It's certainly a "lot of fun". It has minimal swearing, sex, and violence, but if it's too much for you then you should be thinking of going back to the Victorians! Try Nicholas Nickleby by Dickens...

The list provided sounds like my nephews would put together for themselves.

And I thought The Time Traveller's Wife was utterly boring. :smilewinkgrin:

My offerings:

East of Eden

Stardust

My Cousin Rachel

Outlander

A Monster Calls

A Room With A View

Bel Canto

If everything else fails, a nicely bound edition of Little Women or Pollyanna.

I would recommend Marilynne Robinson. Housekeeping is probably her most accessible book.

Certainly one of the best living writers and so refreshing to find one who doesn't use shock tactics or postmodern games to impress.

I would suggest 'Brideshead Revisited' by Evelyn Waugh. It meets all of the criteria and is one of the best post-war novels: it was published in 1945.

an older female friend of mine is enjoying the mitford series by jan karon...

If you're looking for something more contemporary, Mark Halperin's new novel In Sunlight and in Shadow is quite good.

Penelope Fitzgeral Offshore or The Gate of Angels would be my recommendation.

Also Barbara Pym The Sweet Dove Died (one of her later, 70s, books. Excellent Women and Glass of Blessings are the best of her earlier 50s work.)

Thank you, everybody! I know this criteria might seem ridiculous to some people, but I can't tell you how much I appreciate your help! I'll check out the ones given so far. If anyone has more ideas, by all means, keep them coming.

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

A Room With A View

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That's a good one, and a less risky choice than the Time Travellers Wife, which tends to split people...

Brideshead Revisited gets very painful to read, after a glittering start. A Room With A View isn't painful at all.

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

Thousand Splendid Suns

Awesome! Has anyone read Mark Helprin's "Winter's Tale"? Do you think it would fit these criteria?

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Originally Posted by LivesForever

Awesome! Has anyone read Mark Helprin's "Winter's Tale"? Do you think it would fit these criteria?

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I read a good chunk of it, but it was a total snore and I couldn't finish it. It read like it was written by someone who was way too much in love with his own writing.

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Originally Posted by LivesForever

Awesome! Has anyone read Mark Helprin's "Winter's Tale"? Do you think it would fit these criteria?

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It has a bit of a weak ending, but until then, it is an amazing book. It has a bit of magic realism going for it (the reason why I suggested his later one is because it is more "conservative")

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Originally Posted by Calidore

I read a good chunk of it, but it was a total snore and I couldn't finish it. It read like it was written by someone who was way too much in love with his own writing.

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Didn't get that at all. I think his tongue-in-cheek style works really well.

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Originally Posted by LivesForever

Thank you, everybody! I know this criteria might seem ridiculous to some people, but I can't tell you how much I appreciate your help! I'll check out the ones given so far. If anyone has more ideas, by all means, keep them coming.

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After careful research, you will notice that my suggestions are the best ones by a mile.

Jus' sayin'.

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Originally Posted by mal4mac

That's a good one, and a less risky choice than the Time Travellers Wife, which tends to split people...

Brideshead Revisited gets very painful to read, after a glittering start. A Room With A View isn't painful at all.

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I didn't find Brideshead at all painful but I will agree that 'A Room With a View' is an outstanding novel. The only problem is that it was written early in the 20th century and therefore doesn't fall within the last 60 years as requested.

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Originally Posted by Emil Miller

I didn't find Brideshead at all painful but I will agree that 'A Room With a View' is an outstanding novel. The only problem is that it was written early in the 20th century and therefore doesn't fall within the last 60 years as requested.

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Brideshead Revisted was published 67 years ago.

I hear 50 Shades of Grey is popular with women... :brow:

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

Brideshead Revisted was published 67 years ago.

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Well I mentioned it as being published in 1945 but that's quite a bit different to 1908.

Awesome. Would anyone else recommend Housekeeping, A Room with a view, A Thousand Splendid Suns, or Winter's Tale?

I'm still open to other suggestions, too.
Thanks!

Oh, has anyone read "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri? Someone recently suggested that, or her other book, "Namesake", to me.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett (This one is very popular with the lady's book clubs.) They also made it into a movie, so you could get her both.

The problem with this book is that it is not "literature," although it is a best seller and a very likable read by many. It is engaging and well written, but I doubt it will be read a hundred years from now. It fits the conservative bill very well. Ask the ladies at your work if anyone read it, I'm sure there will be a few who can tell you about it.

Good luck to you! What a nice husband you are- lucky lady.

Thanks, she's read The Help and really liked it. You were spot on! I just forgot to mention it. Maybe I should clarify- I don't suppose it necessarily has to be a literary masterpiece. Just a pretty darn good book is all that's required. I'd like it to be accessible, engaging, and memorable, if possible.

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Originally Posted by LivesForever

Awesome. Would anyone else recommend Housekeeping, A Room with a view, A Thousand Splendid Suns, or Winter's Tale?

I'm still open to other suggestions, too.
Thanks!

Oh, has anyone read "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri? Someone recently suggested that, or her other book, "Namesake", to me.

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Housekeeping ~ Heavy with descriptions and introspection to the point of depressing. If you will consider something by Robinson, I would recommend Gilead.

A Room with a View ~ An engaging storyline (love story, to boot) and already established itself as a "classic".

A Thousand Splendid Suns ~ An engaging tearjerker with some hope thrown in so that the Western reader does not feel too upset.

Interpreter of Maladies ~ A short story collection. Some of them read easily, some harder going but all very good... If you are interested in cultural issues.

How about Middlesex?

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

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I'll second that one as well - a fascinating book.

I also give that one a thumbs up. It was very popular when it first came out.

Perhaps have a look at some of the films you've watched and enjoyed recently, as many films are adapted from original novels.

Sounds like Anthony Powell's 'A Dance to the Music of Time' would be a pretty good fit for what you're looking for.

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

Thousand Splendid Suns

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I agree I have read both of them and loved them.

I have just finished reading The Giver - there are four books in the series. I read it because I read a review that said if you like The Hunger Games you will love this book. It is more like 1984 than The Hunger Games but still a good read.

A set of novels by Barbara Pym might be what she would enjoy.

I agree about Pym - excellent woman ( forgive the pun)

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Originally Posted by mal4mac

I read the "The time traveler's wife" by Audrey Niffenegger *is* absolutely amazing, and with more believable, interesting, and sympathetic characters than you'd expect from science fiction.

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I hope you're kidding. I really am. That was a triple offense. Right there. Isn't it three penalties, and you're out?

For the thread: obviously 1984 and F451.

Try D.H Lawrence for romance. Of Sons and Lovers is addictive in a romantically-justifiable-mush-kinda way.

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Originally Posted by Joreads

I have just finished reading The Giver - there are four books in the series. I read it because I read a review that said if you like The Hunger Games you will love this book. It is more like 1984 than The Hunger Games but still a good read.

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Say it ain't so...

Admittedly, I have read only the first book in the series (I thought it was a 3-book collection?) but the sugar-coatedness and superficial writing put me off enough not to consider reading the others.

It'd be great to find out which books LivesForever has decided to get but we have probably scared him off with our suggestions and incessant bickering over which books are worthwhile :D