Looking for good clean fiction books to read

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prolifewife

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I’m on a reading kick and need some good clean fiction books to relax with. Any suggestions on titles or authors? Thanks! 🙂
 
I absolutely am hooked on the “Love Inspired” series by Steeple Hill Publishers. They’re paperbacks by Christian authors (not necessarily Catholic, but nothing against Catholic teachings either). You can get them at the library or buy them in pharmacies and even supermarkets. I prefer the library myself, but I also love searching them out at used book sales since there are many in the series that have been printed in the past 8 years or so. They put me in a wonderful, faith-oriented mood, and now I can’t go back to reading any of the old ones I used to read by Nicholas Sparks or others since there is so much implied or actual immoral actions in them.
The Steeple Hill Publishers also have mysteries and other types besides love stories.
Happy reading no matter what you choose!
 
*First, welcome to CAF. 🙂 Second, I don’t read a lot of fiction, but I picked up a book that a friend urged me to read called ‘‘Escape.’’ Oh wait, this isn’t fiction. But, you might like it, it’s very suspenseful. True story about a woman who escapes a polygamist compound in Utah. It is really good. It’s not ‘unclean’ per se, but her observations were sometimes a little graphic…

Other than this, I typically read non fiction biographies, Catholic books, etc.

When it comes to fiction, in my opinon–can’t go wrong with the classics!! :)*
 
You might enjoy Dorothy L. Sayers’ “Lord Peter Wimsey” series. . .Starting with “Whose Body” and ending with “Busman’s Honeymoon”, these are usually readily available. The early ones are ‘puzzles’ primarily, the later ones are richly nuanced detective stories that are as formed as the literary great novels of the 19th century. She writes with a tremendous breadth of knowledge and it’s great fun looking up the authors whose ‘snippets’ she uses to open chapters, etc. If you like detective stories, you’ll love them. . .and even if you think you don’t, these are so erudite yet so readable you might well convert.

My favorites are two of the later ones “The Nine Tailors” and “Gaudy Night”, but the early novels are great fun. She started writing in the 1920s so the books are of that era and very insightful. And if you like Scotland, you’ll ADORE the Five Red Herrings, och aye. And anybody who is frustrated with today’s commercialism will find plenty to chuckle and/or sigh over in “Murder Must Advertise”.
 
I have been enjoying books by Anne Rice lately. Yes, this is the same Anne Rice who wrote vampire books for years. She has come back to her Catholic faith and has written Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, and Angel Time.

The first 2 are written as fiction about Jesus. The book is faithful to Church teaching, (i.e., perpetual virginity of Mary, etc.) but it is written as a story, and so there are conversations, etc. that are made up.

The third book is also fiction but not about Jesus.

When I was younger, I read some of her books, like Interview with a Vampire, etc. and so I knew I would like the writing style.
 
I just finished reading Awakening by Claudia McAdam. It was written for teens but I read it to see if it was something my daughter would like. We both loved it. It is written by a Catholic author, and well worth reading. It will make you think about what you have read in the bible alot more.
 
I just finished “Fatherless” which I thought was pretty darned good. 😃
 
Oh man, I love reading and getting new books!!

I’m very surprised no one has said C.S. LEWIS!!. He is my favorite author. He has a great selection of fiction and nonfiction. As far as fiction is concerned, I would highly suggest “The Screwtape Letters” and “The Great Divorce,” but really, I don’t think you can go wrong with any of his books.

I am also HIGHLY anticipating “An Ocean Full of Angels” by Peter Kreeft (coming 2010!!).
 
Try the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters. It’s a mystery series about a husband and wife Egyptian archaeologist team set in Victorian times. The characters will have you laughing out loud and you always learn a bit too since the author has a PhD in Egyptology. Amelia Peabody is what you would get if you crossed Indiana Jones with Mary Poppins. These are usually available in the library.
 
Francine Rivers writes some really wonderful Christian fiction.
 
I love Jane Austen, and another excellent author is Georgette Heyer. While she wrote some distinct “historical” books “Royal Escape” about Charles II’s flight to France, and “The Conqueror” (William I of England), most of her books are called “Regency” and are set between 1800-1820 (the period where George III was incapacitated and his son the Prince Regent ruled, hence “regency”). They are love stories marked by really wonderful witty dialogue and gloriously free from the ‘bodice ripper’ sensuality and crazy plot lines of the typical ‘historical’ romance. And you learn a lot about dress, manners, etc. of the typical young man/woman of the time.

One of the best is “Venetia”; other really top notch ones are “Black Sheep”, “The Talisman Ring”, “Frederica”, “Cotillion”, and “False Colors”. Two set slightly before the Regency, and among her earliest works, written in her 20s, are “These Old Shades” and “Devil’s Cub”; they are actually about the same family but two different generations.

She also wrote (in the 1930s) some detective novels; a bit frothy but fun.
 
Don’t forget Jules Verne! There’s nothing like a hot cup of cocoa/tea, some nice warm sugar cookies etc. while you curl up with “Around the World in 80 Days”, “5 weeks in a balloon”, “Journey to the Center of the Earth”, “From the Earth to the Moon, and Round the Moon”, “20,000 Leagues under the Sea”, and “The Mysterious Island.”
 
And if you’d like to be both entertained and instructed, check out Richard Armour. “American Lit ReLit”, “It All Started with Eve”, “It All Started with Columbus”, etc. Just don’t take these out and read them ‘in public’ because you’ll be breaking into laughs constantly. These are the books that are my reading equivalent of going and watching a Bugs Bunny marathon when I’m feeling sad and lonely–I just can’t help but laugh! (and you get an education too. Come on, admit it, when you hear certain pieces of classical music to this day, don’t you find yourself automatically going, “Kill the WAB-Bit, Kill the WAB-Bit. . .?”)
 
You may also enjoy Mary Webb’s “Precious Bane”. That’s one of my favorite novels. Though the dialect may be a bit hard for those who aren’t used to reading 19th century Brit-lit, it’s not insurmountable, and the main character is one of the interesting women in fiction.

You may also enjoy Sarah Orne Jewett’s “The Country of the Pointed Firs” (set in Maine).
Also set in Maine is “Calico Bush” by Rachel Field.
My mother loves Frances Parkinson Keyes’ work (mostly set in Louisiana) especially “Crescent Carnival”.

You may also enjoy Gwen Bristow’s “Jubilee Trail”, “Calico Palace” (both set in California just before and during the Gold Rush) as well as the Revolutionary war tale “Celia Garth”.

An excellent writer of works set in North Carolina is Inglis Fletcher. Works you might enjoy are “Lusty Wind for Carolina”, “Raleigh’s Eden”, and “Men of Albemarle.”

My mother loves “Ramona” by Helen Hunt Jackson.

Goodness, bed time. I could go on for probably hours, LOL, as I love to read. I’ll just quickly put in Edith Peter’s “Brother Cadfael” series, and if you like nuns who sleuth, Sister Carol Ann O’Marie’s books including “A Novena for murder”.

Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason novels are usually cleverly plotted.

An interesting ‘mystery’ about a detective who investigates Richard III is Josephine Tey’s “The Daughter of Time.”
 
I highly recommend The Purple Mantle It is an excellent book on the persecutions of Diocletian, written from the perspective of Saints. At the end is a little brief bio of the Saints. The book is relatively short, but it’s a great read. I would love to see it turned into a movie.

In Christ,
Andrew
 
I recommend anything by Tolkien if your taste is into high adventure. They are timeless stories about the struggle between good and evil. And the prose is beautiful.

G.K. Chesterton’s Fr. Brown stories are quite good.

Sigrid Undset’s books, especially the Kristin Lavransdatter series is recommended. A number of her books have recently been re-issued.

Henryk Sienkiewicz, especially Quo Vadis, but also his Trilogy starting with With Fire and Sword and The Teutonic Knights. (Find the recent translations which are far better than the early ones by Curtin.)

jb
 
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