My grandma, like me, loves to read. Unfortunately for her, she’s lost most of her eyesight, so audiobooks other people pick out for her are her only option. Unfortunately for me (to whom the responsibility often falls), our taste overlaps in very few places and she has no desire to enter the 21st Century.
I’ve tried many times to talk her into letting me buy her a mp3 player and an audible account. But she’s convinced she won’t be able to work it, even if I’ve pre-loaded it for her and found a mp3 player that only has three buttons. And since she’s only just gotten comfortable with CD’s, she might be right.
And this is where we get to the other problem, because she immediately vetoed tons of my favorite books by saying:
No Vampires, Wizards, Shape-Shifters, Sirens, or Mermaids
I can’t imagine a world (anymore) in which I wouldn’t want to read about breaking headboards and leg hitches, but my gram still lives there. And when she asked me what The Hunger Games was about, I summarized it for her, she told me it sounded stupid, and I figured dystopian novels were out, too.
So I did what any resourceful person who likes living in the 21st Century would do: I googled “books my grandmother would like”.
And I came up with:
Books I’ll Never Recommend to my Grandma
Yes, this was the most common recommendation. What’s your grandma like? Because mine wouldn’t like this one.
Yeah, again, looking for books for my grandma. Not her thing.
Um, no. Just no.
Yeah, she’s been a widow for 30 years. I think she’ll pass.
This really exists? And it’s legal to buy it outside California?
I did eventually find some safe women’s fiction recommendations that the library had in stock. But I was confused whether the responses people made to various book bloggers were all joking or if some people’s grandmothers are just VERY different than mine.
What books for Grandma of Grandpa’s would you recommend… or not?
