This request was asked by SBTB Tara on behalf of a friend:
I need a book recommendation for a friend. It needs to be a page turner, but it can’t have romance. It also can’t demand a lot of cognitive load. Her husband is in the ICU and wants to sink into something without using her brain.
I should mention that she’s already read everything by Becky Chambers and the whole Murderbot series.
Amanda: I did love Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel, especially on audio. It’s fully narrated, so it feels like a radio play. Reading it might require slightly more attention since it’s more of an epistolary format with journal entries, interviews, etc.
Perhaps Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz ( A | BN | K | AB ). Dungeon Crawler Carl ( A | BN ) is a wild ride and just a really fun experience.
I really like Jane Harper’s mysteries. Not too cozy and a great sense of place.
Shana: I was going to recommend Dungeon Crawler Carl. It recently got me through worrying about a relative’s illness.
Sarah: The Parisian Heist ( A | BN | K | AB ) and Everyone is Lying to You by Jo Piazza ( A | BN | K | AB ). The first is a dual timeline about the woman who made Van Gogh famous, his sister in law Jo. The second is a murder mystery set in the world of online influencers.
An older title: Charms for the Easy Life by Kaye Gibbons ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). Three generations of healers in North Carolina set during WWII.
What books would you recommend? Tell us in the comments!
Lucy Foley or Alice Feeney for thrillers, Riley Sager for something with more horror elements. For mysteries, I love the Vera books by Ann Cleeves.
Best wishes for her and her husband!
If the friend likes science, I loved An Immense World by Ed Young. It’s all about how animals sense the world. Different chapters cover different senses, so you can kind of pick it up wherever and you don’t need to remember the previous chapter. This is meant for a general audience, so it’s not covered in formulas or specialized vocabulary that only biologists understand. Fun fact I picked up in this book: lions can’t see zebra stripes while they are hunting, so there’s no way the stripes evolved to fool them.
I’m sorry the friend is going through such a difficult time.
Jade City by Fonda Lee and Slow Horses by Mick Herron are the first that come to mind. Jade City is like, multi generational crime family in an AU with kung fu magic, Slow Horses is the world’s worst spies in a very gritty but darkly hilarious way.
Both are series, both actually have good audio narrators, Slow Horses is also a great TV show (I can’t believe Jade City hasn’t been adapted yet).
For detective novels I love Tana French, and Jean-Claude Izzo’s Mediterranean noir doesn’t get enough love, but all of these while excellent page turners might not be sufficiently upbeat. When I am dealing with hospitals I personally can’t handle anything hopeful. Robert Parker’s Spencer novels, maybe? I grew up alongside them so I have a fondness that’s perhaps undeserved but they’re funny and occasionally hopeful. There’s an ongoing romance element but they’re very much detective page turners and there’s at least 40 of them (the ones written by others since suck).
KJ Charles has a gothic mystery that’s not a romance, but there’s a romance in a very gothic fashion, Oxford is the great house which is imo a genius way of doing things.
I actually love Dumas for a page turner, he’s imo far better than Dumas for keeping you hooked on the next installment.
I am going to ruminate on this, I am sure there are others that are brighter.
Oh, the James Herriot books maybe, I don’t think of them as page turners exactly but they are easy to dip in and out of…
Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series, maybe? If she starts with the Young Miles omnibus (as I did, when my own partner/husband was critically ill in ITU), then there isn’t any major romance until A Civil Campaign, many books into the series. It’s still my go-to series at times of stress, and/or when I feel in need of humour, wisdom and a really good (re)read.
My very best wishes to Tara and her friends.
The Magic of Four by Celia Lake
Kids (no romance) in their second year at a magic school
Low stakes, solid tactile worldbuilding
Andrea K Host’s book—specifically Medair and Slience of the Rose— got me through some Taliban attacks on Kabul. I’d also recommend a nice series I’m devouring, Sarah duLuc ‘s Greymire Supper House series. And I’ll second Celia Lake.
@Jeanine -I read Medair after you recommended it a year or so ago on one of these threads- it’s really good, and I wouldn’t have found it otherwise, so thank you for that! I’m going to give your other suggestions a look, too.
My thoughts to Tara’s friend and her husband.
When I’m looking for a similar style of book I find children’s/middle-grade books can be a good option – good writers aren’t patronising, but the attitudes can be different and the problems aren’t so adult-orientated. I love Francis Hardinge’s work and most of the main relationships are between friends/compatriots – she writes quirky fantasy. If your friend enjoys words and word play then Fly By Night could be a good one. I also enjoyed the Locke & Key series by Jonathan Stroud set in an England where only those under mid-teens or so can see and so fight ghosts, though I think there’s a little bit of emotional family backstory. He also wrote the Bartimaeus sequence which has a minor romance subplot, but much more of a very snarky golem rolling his eyes and thinking he is the best.
I love the Jade City trilogy mentioned above but I really wouldn’t recommend it in this instance personally as there are some characters in relationships who are hurt/worse and we then see the impact this has on the other partner.
Seconding Murderbot and James Herriot as comfort reads – my third comfort read that has gotten me through seasonal depression is the Abhorsen/Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix. A little bit of romance in the first one but but it takes a backseat, compared to more contemporary YA fantasy.
A favorite COVID lockdown-era read for me was Theodora Goss’s The Athena Club trilogy.
I love Dungeon Crawler Carl but it gets to be a lot to keep track of, plot and character-wise, so I don’t necessarily consider it a “no brain” read.
I’ll second @Jeanine’s recommendation of books by Andrea K Höst. My favorite is the Touchstone series the first of which is Stray and that is free on Kindle in most countries. Hmm, admittedly there is pining and a romance.
I’d recommend Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion, but
once again there is romance.
Okay, Andy Weir’s The Martian has no romance; I found it a real page turner that made me laugh aloud from time to time. His more recent Project Hail Mary is also a great read; it has been described as a bromance.
A favorite series is Linesman by S.K. Dunstall which might be described as a space opera. It has only the barest hint of romance developing over the three books.
All good wishes to your friend, @Lara, and her husband.
The Confederation of Valour series by Tanya Huff is one of my top comfort/distraction read recommendations. The first book is Valour’s Choice. It is military sci-fi and I found the books impossible to put down. There is a bit of a romantic relationship in the later few books as I recall but that is not hugely central to the story. What I really enjoy about it is that it is set in a world without any sexism. The MC is a staff sergeant and while she does spend lots of time dealing with difficult to manage diplomats and creatively managing less than competent officers, there is never any sign that she is less respected because she is a woman.
Seconding The Martian as well, it is super engaging and easy to get sucked into and distracted.
Terry Pratchett–There’s a chart floating around on the internet that breaks down the Discworld books into sub-series. I like the witches and the Watch series. Pick a sequence & read in order.
P. G. Wodehouse–Any of the Jeeves stories or the Galahad Threepwood/Lord Emsworth books. Both Pratchett and Wodehouse are funny, but the latter is much lighter.
Ilona Andrews–Innkeeper Chronicles, starting with Clean Sweep. While these hover between sci-fi & fantasy, there are some romantic elements in a couple of these books. They are neither explicit nor mushy, and they are my favorite comfort reads. Also they are the page turningest.
Donna Leone–Commissario Brunetti series, police procedural series set in Venice
Laurie R. King–Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes mysteries
Finally, I would second Bujold, but while romance is not the focus of the series except in A Civil Campaign, it is an element in a number of the Vorkosigan books. The Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan books are excellent. The Penric novellas might also be a possibility, especially for someone with a difficult schedule.
If the reader enjoys thoughtful mysteries, I suggest P.D. James’ An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. The series character is Cordelia Gray, not Adam Dalgliesh, and there are (alas) only two books featuring Cordelia.
@PamG
I’d put books 4 and 6 in Innkeeper Chronicles as Romance genre and arguably books 1-2 are a Romance genre duology.
Robert Jackson Bennett’s Ana and Din mysteries. I could not put them down.
The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong
Nilima Rao’s Fiji mysteries
Ovidia Yu mysteries
I also second the Ana and Din mysteries. Very compelling and interesting.
And Jack Reacher, if you really want to turn your brain off. What I like about them is that Reacher is very competent, it kind of scratches that competency porn itch. Also it is pretty much guaranteed that the bad guys get caught/punished. Some of my favorites are the early ones Killing Floor (book 1, vs small town crime conspiracy), Die Trying (book 2, vs right wing militia) and One Shot (a bad guy framed for an assassination asks Reacher for help)
I rarely read anything but romance and adjacent, but I’d highly recommend First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston. I read it for a bookclub and it was absorbing, twisty, and propulsive but still didn’t demand a lot of brain power.
I’d recommend Travis Baldree, especially his newer books, which have higher levels of adventure. There’s a lot of good friendships and found family but not much romance beyond the first book (and even that is pretty negligible).
I’d also suggest Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series, which is 95% wild adventure in and out of books; there’s a second-chance romance that crops up in the later books but it takes a back seat to the shenanigans. Lots of British humor and bad puns.
Suzanne Palmer’s Finder tetrology! They are space opera and the main character is ace.
Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth.
Tell Two Friends by Ann Garvin.
Like Kir I also want to recommend books for middle grade, there are some really good ones out there that are fun and easy reads. I specifically loved The Moon Base Alpha series by Stuart Gibbs, it’s a mysterie in space and all of Percy Jackson.
Definitely Pratchett, and young adult is a great idea. Could even go classic for some Lucy Maud Montgomery or Louisa May Alcott if she needs a gentler vibe.
Or my personal favorite, The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues.
Maybe a fun heist novel like Moorewood Family Rules. There may be a romance plot in there somewhere, but that’s not what I remember about it. There must be more fun heist/con artist books out there.
The first Emily Wilde doesn’t have a romance (only a bit at the end), so that might work.
There’s also John Scalzi’s Starter Villain. But really, I’d probably be obsessively re-reading Exit Strategy in her place. All good thoughts to her and her husband.
Oh, and if she likes mysteries, I have scads. Kerry Greenwood has a book for Phryne Fisher short stories: The Lady with the Gun Asks the Questions. Short stories might work if she has a short attention span, as who wouldn’t?
Laurie R King’s Sherlock holmes and Mary Russel adventures. (There is a touch of romance but it isn’t very romantic)