I’m always looking for novels about older adults. I want to know how they live, how they deal with second-half challenges, what spurs them on and keeps them fired up. Here’s a partial list of what I’ve read. Click on the book image to go to the Amazon detail page.
My Midlife Fiction Recommendations!
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Two sisters, virtually estranged, come together later in life when Veronica, the younger by 4 years, is dying of cancer. Bitter Ruth feels she has no choice but to respond, and thus begins the journey of growth and understanding, but the author pulls no punches. This was one of the best books I’ve read. How great to read about the drama inherent in the lives of older characters. The ending was very satisfying but stopped too soon. I would have liked a big fat epilogue. Click here or on the book to see more.
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Mabel is in her eighties when her husband dies. A marriage of opposites, friends more than a grand passion, we get the sense that Arthur, a good man, got the short end of the stick. Mabel let life get past her, and now she’s old and alone. But Arthur left her a list, and she’s determined to follow it. In her quest, she makes new friends of all ages, friends who become like family, who encourage her to try new things. In the winter of her life, Mabel is blossoming. Pearson is an extremely gifted writer and I highlighted tons of passages, LOL and teary-eyed in turn. I loved this book and highly recommend it. Click here or on the book to see more.
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Newly widowed Jen Conrad finds solace in a vodka bottle until Renee, her best friend and the mayor of San Diego, volunteers her for an artistic project. Heritage Park, a community of seven historic homes, needs a makeover, and Jen is the perfect socialite to make it happen. Along with a band of friends, all in midlife or better, they struggle to make the Park come to life. This four-book series is a refreshing and realistic saga about people starting over in the second half of life. Click here or on the book to see more.
70yo Vivian has put her big beautiful home on the market and moved to the independent living facility where her husband is in memory care. It’s the beginning of the Covid pandemic, and everybody is scared, losing loved ones right and left, jobs being upended, families traumatized, workers exhausted. When her husband dies, Vivian stops the sale of her house and returns home. She invites one of the care workers, Luna, to come live with her. Luna has two troubled teenagers. She’s struggling financially and Vivian is terribly lonely, so everybody is motivated to make it work. But there are serious bumps in the road. This is the story of the creation of a new family, a new network of friends…of learning to see past stereotypes, and finding the strength and beauty to thrive. It’s a wonderful story. Click here to see more.
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Lovely, amazing, wonderful book. Main character is 95, but there’s a middle-aged woman and a kid just out of high school featured here, too. This is the story of the last living canoe carver in the village of Jinkaat, in Southeast Alaska. It’s a rich depiction of a vanishing culture (the Tlingit natives, with their art and hunting and healing).
Other themes: Family, who offer both frustration and sanctuary. A boy’s coming of age. A middle-aged woman dealing with grief and finding her true direction in life. The conflict between commerce, politics, power, and ancient lands. Losers and outlaws redeemed; the mighty brought low. There’s humor, wit, and compelling characters.
This book is one of the best I’ve ever read. I highly recommend it. You can find it here on Amazon.
A 71-year-old retired army captain in 1870, Texas, must return a ten-year-old girl, captured at age four by Kiowa, to her relatives in San Antonio. But she’s become Kiowa. Now, as Captain Kidd travels with her, he begins to worry about what will happen at the end of her journey. My review is here and you can buy it here.
A 70 yo woman, grieving the loss of her husband and adult son, finds healing thanks to her unusual friend at the aquarium. A story of grief, widowhood, family, and finding joy again. My review is here and you can buy it here.
The title of this book doesn’t begin to convey the sweep of personalities, the character arc, the rich cultural descriptions, and the earthshaking changes undergone by the three generations of characters. My review is here and you can buy it here.
Joy is 68, Stan is 70. After a lifelong marriage, Joy has disappeared. Stan looks guilty, and the adult children act as if they’re complicit. A sweeping, entertaining novel. My review is here and you can buy it here.
The Year of Pleasures is about a recently widowed 55-year-old woman. Besides being a great story, there’s so much wisdom here. It was a joy to read, but also enlightening. Click here or on the book to see more.
Two Old Women by Velma Wallis
Two old women, left to starve by their Alaskan tribe, discover strengths they never knew they had. My review is here and you can buy it here.
Three lifelong friends meet in France to relax and reconnect, but nothing works out as expected. My review is here and you can buy it here.
Alice and her husband Ken are close to seventy when he punches her in the face for the last time. The Other Son is partly a story of domestic abuse, but the main theme is how we adapt over time. My review is here and you can buy it here.
When three families move into a new neighborhood, their lives appear to be great, wonderful, totally okay. But then the secrets begin to unravel. A story about midlife women becoming strong and honest. My review is here and you can buy it here.
Grace, a physician, takes her two teenagers back to her childhood village in an effort to escape her abusive husband. A lovely story of growth and renewal in an Irish setting. My review is here, and you can see it on Amazon here.
Margo is in her 50s, had a sad childhood, is bumping along in her halfway life, and then a non-wedding sets into motion a series of madcap events, starting with the jilted bridegroom joining her for a trip to Palm Springs in a vintage MG, while chasing the runaway bride. My review is here and you can buy it here.
By the quirky author of The Accidental Tourist, a story about a midlife woman coming to understand who she is, after all these years, and being okay with it. Click here or on the book to see more.
Ruth Devon, 42, is re-evaluating her life. Five stars for a story modeled after the amazing Doris Burke, the former basketball player and now-legendary NBA sidelines reporter. I’m not even a basketball fan and I loved it. My review is here, and you can order it here.
Scientists in the Amazon, life and death! You get two for one: a 45-year old main character, and a 70-year-old antagonist, both women, both richly drawn. My review is here and you can buy it here.
A childless older couple in Alaska in the 1920s are blessed with a family, in an unusual way. Heartbreakingly beautiful story. My review is here and you can buy it here.
A sweet story with multiple voices, led by that of an elderly woman coming to grips with the truth of her family. My review is here and you can buy it here.
A wonderful story about a 60-yr-old Englishman who, widowed, dares to love again. Read my review here and you can buy it here.
Wilber is 115 and living in an old-age home. In his last days, he develops mental powers, like communicating without speaking and moving objects with his mind. He uses these tools to benefit the people who populate this book. A sweet, uplifting novel. My review is here and you can buy it here.
Kent Haruf wrote so simply and richly about the experience of aging. Here two older souls (in their late 60s? 70s?) find each other, and defy their families. Made into a movie starring Redford and Fonda. My review is here and you can buy it here.
A wonderful book about a collection of characters who are forced to grown and change within and around their relationships with each other. It includes some midlife peeps so that’s why it’s in this collection. A keeper. My review is here and you can buy it here.
Although most of my recommendations are women’s fiction or romance, this crime fiction selection features an older guy. I loved that Harry Bosch is now of retirement age, but still in the thick of crime fighting. My review is here and you can buy it here.
A lovely book, based in rural Tennessee in the mid-1970s. Sam Peek, is 81, frail, smart, and independent. After his wife’s funeral, he is surrounded by his grown kids and grandkids-a loving family. What happens could be described as magical realism or maybe it was reality at its most magical. You can buy the book here.
A 56-year-old woman is put in the position of competing with her daughter for a prized TV spot. They handle it with love and wisdom. My review is here and you can buy it here.
What it’s like to be an empty-nester and working in sexist Hollywood. Brutally funny midlife memoir by the woman who wrote and produced The New Adventures of the Old Christine and others; she writes like you’d think Julia Louis-Dreyfus would sound. My review is here here and you can buy it here.
Trudy, 47, finds out her husband is having an affair and kicks him to the curb. And then she falls apart, because she loves him passionately. My review is here and you can buy it here.
You know how we older women say we feel invisible? What if you really were? A fun, sweet, wise book. Here’s my review and you can buy it here:
A 60 yo man, hiding from life, is fired from his job and suffers a conk on the head. Now he’s obsessed with remembering, but what he really needs is to wake up. A slow start but a lovely book. My review is here and you can buy it here.
A 49-yo woman in a difficult marriage must decide whether to stay with her husband or pursue the love of her life, now that the kids are grown and flown. Great story! My review is here and you can buy it here.
I had mixed feelings about this beautifully written book. A middle-aged painter is trying to transcend his past. He’s kind of a jerk, but he lives in a beautiful place and writes about fly fishing like it’s poetry. Here’s my review and you can buy it here.
In this story, a couple in their 60s have made their peace, of sorts, following a horrific event in middle age. Then the husband decides to take action that will change everything. For those who think “old people” can’t change, and anyone else on the planet, read this lovely book. My review is here and you can buy it here.
Fantastic story about an 82-yr old heroic veteran (he was a sniper in Korea) who goes up against Serbian war criminals to save a 4-yr-old boy. Reminds me of City of Thieves by D. Benioff. My 5-star review is here and you can buy it here.
In this follow-up to Norwegian by Night, above, middle-aged Chief Inspector Sigrid Ødegård returns with her dry wit and quietly ballsy attitude. It’s very droll. I laughed myself sick at some of the passages. My review is here and you can buy it here.
Middle-aged Clara Perry, a nurse/midwife, flees from a manslaughter charge and hides out on a remote island on Lake Erie. My review is here and you can buy it here.
I loved this book but it’s a challenging read. Cleaver, in his 60s, is grief-stricken and at the end of his rope. He takes his overweight and out of shape body and his tech-addicted, codependent mind off on a crazy quest to find some kind of peace and independence in a very rural mountain village in Germany. There, he will either end it all or find himself. My review is here and you can buy it here.
Most of the characters in this book are over 50. It’s masterfully written by the best of the best. My review is here and you can buy it here.
I really enjoyed this midlife novel by Marj Charlier. Three women in their 50s buy a fixer-upper in South America. My review is here and you can buy it here.
A lovely romance in the Welsh countryside featuring a couple around age 60. My review is here and you can buy it here.
This book had me riveted. The plot is about a woman falling in love with a terminally ill man, but the story is really about her growing up unloved and deciding how and whether to live her own life. My review is here and you can buy it here.
The sequel to Julie and Romeo, featuring a couple around age 60. I enjoyed it, and I appreciate Jeanne Ray (Ann Patchett’s mother) for getting mad, like me, about the lack of novels featuring older adults, who have their own unique journeys to undergo. My review is here and you can buy it here.
What a fun, joyful book about two people over 60 who hate each others’ guts and then change their minds. My review is here and you can buy it here.
A 69-year-old man discovers that his wife of 40 years, who recently died, had a secret life before she met him. His pursuit of her secrets leads him to evolve. My review is here and you can buy it here.
Two brothers, both ranchers, both in their 60s, must undertake a trip via horseback and canoe in contemporary Nebraska to understand their impact on the land. I reviewed this award-winner here and you can buy it here.
A divorced couple in their 40s, grieving over the death of their 11-year-old son, find redemption in their friendship with a still-evolving 104-year-old neighbor. My review is here and you can buy it here.
Wonderful short book about a colorful 75 year old woman living in San Francisco. My review is here and you can buy it here.
The two main characters are a lonely 87-year-old woman who flew in WWII and has a terrible secret, and a 15-year-old girl who needs a friend. Fantastic story. My review is here and you can buy it here.
Hildy is a 60 year old realtor who is wry, egotistical, alcoholic, and still learning about herself. The historic setting, a pricey Boston seafront town, is engaging as well. My review is here and you can buy it here.
This is a love story, and surprise! It’s Older Adult Romance, set in an assisted living environment. I read it in one day and very much enjoyed it. My review is here and you can buy it here.
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