Thought-Provoking Fiction

Try these books if you're looking for:

• thought-provoking fiction
• clean reads
• focus on characters and relationships
• strong characterization

The Awakening of Miss Prim 
Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera
F SANMARTI FENOLLER
"Prudencia Prim is a young woman of intelligence and achievement, with a deep knowledge of literature and several letters after her name. But when she accepts the post of private librarian in the village of San Ireneo de Arnois, she is unprepared for what she encounters there. Her employer, a book-loving intellectual, is dashing yet contrarian, always ready with a critique of her cherished Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott. The neighbors, too, are capable of charm and eccentricity in equal measure, determined as they are to preserve their singular little community from the modern world outside."-- Provided by publisher. This book has a feel of British authors from the 1930s that I've really enjoyed.

While Beauty Slept 
Elizabeth Canning Blackwell
F BLACKWELL
A Gothic retelling of the real story behind the legend of Sleeping Beauty. The writing is very lush and it provides an interesting behind-the-scenes look at Sleeping Beauty.

La's Orchestra Saves the World 
Alexander McCall Smith
F MCCALL SMITH
It is 1939. Lavender--La to her friends--decides to flee London, not only to avoid German bombs but also to escape the memories of her shattered marriage. Settling in a small town, she boosts morale by organizing an amateur orchestra from the village and the local RAF base--and falls in love with one of her prized recruits. McCall Smith creates amazing characters. His books are very soothing reads and have a lot more depth than you would expect.

The Buddha in the Attic 
Julie Otsuka
F OTSUKA
The story of a group of women brought from Japan to San Francisco in the 1900s as mail-order brides. I just read this one recently and was captivated. The way she wrote the book is very uniquely beautiful and manages to tell hundreds of stories in a few carefully-placed words.

Cold Comfort Farm 
Stella Gibbons
F GIBBONS
Flora Poste, upon finding herself orphaned, decides to go live with her great aunt Ada Doom on Cold Comfort Farm, where she can exert her exceptional skills to tidy up everyone's lives. This was written as a satire (mocking bucolic literature), so don't take it too seriously. But the writing is phenomenal and the points she's able to make through the satire will get you thinking about what we convey through literature.