Gentle and Inoffensive Fiction

BRAILLE AND TALKING BOOK LIBRARY

(800) 952-5666; btbl.ca.gov; [email protected]

Gentle and Inoffensive Fiction Books

These books are uplifting and hopeful and contain no strong language, no

violence, no sex, and with characters that face mild confrontation and

challenges. These books should be ideal for the most sensitive of readers. To

order any of these titles, contact the library by email, phone, mail, in person, or

order through our online catalog. Most titles can be downloaded from BARD.

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

Read by Jill Fox

2 hours, 30 minutes

England. When the royal dogs stray into a mobile library parked near the

palace, the Queen feels obligated to borrow a book. She soon develops an

obsession with reading that changes her worldviews, distracts her from official

duties, and prompts her to write her own masterpiece--with surprising

consequences. Bestseller. 2007.

Download from BARD: The Uncommon Reader

Also available on digital cartridge DB066149

Download from BARD as Electronic Braille BR17649

Also available in braille BR017649

Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy

Read by Annie Wauters

12 hours, 47 minutes

While her philandering husband wants a divorce and her immature adult

daughters still live at home, Dublin cardiologist Clara Casey opens and runs an

underfunded heart clinic at St. Brigid's hospital. Clara assembles a

compassionate staff, ultimately realizing their efforts are making a difference

and people can change. Bestseller. 2008.

Download from BARD: Heart and Soul

Also available on digital cartridge DB068437

Download form BARD as Electronic Braille BR18107

Gentle and Inoffensive Books Page 2 of 13

A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy

Read by Martha Harmon Pardee

11 hours, 31 minutes

Chicky Starr returns home to Stoneybridge in western Ireland after twenty years

in New York City. Chicky restores a dilapidated mansion and makes it into a

boutique hotel with the help of her niece and a friend's son. A motley crew of

characters becomes their first guests. Bestseller. 2012.

Download from BARD: A Week in Winter

Also available on digital cartridge DB076309

Download form BARD as Electronic Braille BR19902

Also available in braille BR019902

The Banishment by Marion Chesney

Read by Yvonne Fair Tessler

5 hours, 32 minutes

In Regency England, Isabella, the eldest of six Beverley daughters, is

disappointed to have gone through the London season without becoming

engaged. The men were bored by her only interest: Mannerling, the family

mansion. When her father gambles away the home, the Beverleys, banished to

poorer surroundings, all agree Isabella must marry Mannerling's new owner to

reclaim their wealth.

Download from BARD: The Banishment

Also available on digital cartridge DB042437

An Elm Creek Quilts Sampler the First Three Novels in the Popular Series

by Jennifer Chiaverini

Read by Mitzi Friedlander

35 hours, 5 minutes

Women forge friendships while sharing their needlecraft. In The Quilter's

Apprentice, Waterford, Pennsylvania, newcomer Sarah McClure takes quilting

lessons from her crotchety employer Sylvia Compson. In Round Robin, the

quilters open an instructional camp. In The Cross-Country Quilters, five new

members join the group. 2001.

Download from BARD: An Elm Creek Quilts Sampler the First Three…

Also available on digital cartridge DB065774

Gentle and Inoffensive Books Page 3 of 13

The Bookshop on the Corner a Novel by Jenny Colgan

Read by Pilar Witherspoon

11 hours, 22 minutes

Downsizing has left English librarian Nina out of a job. But she is not willing to

give up on her love of finding people their perfect book. While on vacation in a

small village in Scotland, she impulsively buys a van and opens a mobile

bookshop. 2016.

Download from BARD: The Bookshop on the Corner

Also available on digital cartridge DB086665

Download from BARD as Electronic Braille BR21744

Also available in braille BR021744

Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas

Read by Faith Potts

9 hours, 8 minutes

Depression-era Middle Swan, Colorado; 1936. Elderly Hennie Comfort

befriends newcomer Nit Spindle, a newly married seventeen-year-old. Hennie, a

natural storyteller, entertains the lonely girl by reminiscing about the seventy

years she has spent in the mountains while the menfolk mined for gold. 2009.

Download from BARD: Prayers for Sale

Also available on digital cartridge DB069184

Download from BARD as Electronic Braille BR18622

Also available in braille BR018622

The Walk by Richard Paul Evans

Read by Guy Williams

5 hours, 38 minutes

Seattle advertising executive Alan Christoffersen has everything--until his

beloved wife dies, his business partner steals their clients, and his house is

repossessed. Alan decides to walk across America to Key West, Florida, in

search of new meaning while keeping a journal and befriending people along

the way. 2010.

Download from BARD: The Walk

Also available on digital cartridge DB071348

Download from BARD as Electronic Braille BR19058

Also available in braille BR019058

Gentle and Inoffensive Books Page 4 of 13

Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg

Read by Jill Ferris

10 hours, 15 minutes

Elmwood Springs, Missouri. After octogenarian Elner Shimfissle falls off her

ladder and dies, the townsfolk reminisce about her. When Elner meets her late

sister Ida in heaven, Ida is still fuming over her bad-hair day at her funeral--then

a miracle happens. Includes recipes. Bestseller. 2006.

Download from BARD: Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven

Also available on digital cartridge DB062789

The Land of Mango Sunsets by Dorothea Benton Frank

Read by Carol Dines

11 hours, 50 minutes

New York socialite Miriam Swanson, estranged from her grown sons, has

become a miserable social pariah since her divorce. But, after visiting her aging

hippie mother in Sullivans Island, South Carolina, Miriam changes her attitude.

With the help of her tenants she begins to enjoy life. 2007.

Download from BARD: The Land of Mango Sunsets

Also available on digital cartridge DB064906

Download from BARD as Electronic Braille BR17385

Also available in braille BR017385

Charms for the Easy Life By Kaye Gibbons

Read by Yvonne Fair Tessler

7 hours, 10 minutes

The tale of three generations of North Carolina women, narrated by Margaret,

daughter of Sophia and granddaughter of Charlie Kate. Charlie Kate once

rescued the victim of a lynching, who gave her the "easy-life charm" he had

been wearing. It does not always work for Charlie Kate, known to the

community as a midwife and healer, but she maintains her status as family

matriarch and sees that Sophia and Margaret have a better life. Bestseller.

1993.

Download from BARD: Charms for the Easy Life

Also available on digital cartridge DB035924

Download from BARD as Electronic Braille BR15407

Also available in braille BR015407

Gentle and Inoffensive Books Page 5 of 13

Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth

Read by Barry Bernson

6 hours, 23 minutes

An account of happy family life in the 1920s. The author's father, an efficiency

expert who believed in living fully, entertained and practiced some very

unconventional ideas about raising his many children. This edition contains an

update on the twelve original Gilbreths and their many children. 1963.

Download from BARD: Cheaper by the Dozen

Also available on digital cartridge DB023282

Download form BARD as Electronic Braille BR17784

Also available in braille BR017784

The Scent of Water by Elizabeth Goudge

Read by Jill Ferris

10 hours, 39 minutes

Middle-aged businesswoman Mary Lindsay retires to an English country home,

left to her by an eccentric cousin (whom she never met). Seeking solutions to

her own problems, Mary helps her neighbors solve theirs. At the same time, she

begins to understand her cousin's enigmatic personality. 1963.

Download from BARD: The Scent of Water

Also available on digital cartridge DB051360

Home to Harmony: A Harmony Novel by Philip Gulley

Read by Derald Breneman

6 hours, 37 minutes

Quaker minister Sam Gardner and his family move back to Sam's small

midwestern hometown. There Sam relives his childhood in a series of vignettes

and introduces town residents including a narrow-minded church elder and Dr.

Neely, who was Harmony's only doctor for fifty years. 2002.

Download from BARD: Home to Harmony: a Harmony Novel

Also available on digital cartridge DB059650

Gentle and Inoffensive Books Page 6 of 13

Promised to Me Coming to America by Robin Lee Hatcher

Read by Laura Giannarelli

8 hours, 19 minutes

1908. Karola Breit leaves Germany for Idaho after waiting eleven years for her

beloved, farmer Jakob Hirsch, to send for her. Karola wants romance--but when

she arrives she discovers that Jakob is widowed and has three children who

need a mother. 2003.

Download from BARD: Promised to Me Coming to America

Also available on digital cartridge DB076436

In Tune with Wedding Bells: A Novel of Enduring Romance by Grace

Livingston Hill

Read by Lynn Schrichte

7 hours, 5 minutes

Reuben Remington is about to embark on a month-long vacation when

coworker Gillian Guthrie faints at her desk and needs to be taken to the

hospital. But she will not go until she knows someone will take care of Noel, her

five-year-old brother. Having no specific holiday plans, Reuben volunteers.

Attracted to Noel's religious beliefs, Reuben soon finds faith in God is important

in his life, as are Gillian and Noel.

Download from BARD: In Tune with Wedding Bells: a Novel of Enduring…

Also available on digital cartridge DB036841

Download form BARD as Electronic Braille BR09311

Also available in braille BR009311

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt a Novel by Beth Hoffman

Read by Nona Pipes

11 hours, 1 minute

1967. After twelve-year-old CeeCee’s mentally ill mother dies in Ohio, CeeCee’s

great-aunt Tallulah "Tootie" Caldwell decides to take her home to Savannah,

Georgia, rather than leave CeeCee with her negligent father. CeeCee is

introduced to genteel Southern living, eccentric family friends, and the

housekeeper Oletta. 2010.

Download from BARD: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt a Novel

Also available on digital cartridge DB072437

Gentle and Inoffensive Books Page 7 of 13

A Light in the Window by Jan Karon

Read by Gary Tipton

14 hours, 10 minutes

Father Tim has returned from his two-month visit to Ireland and finds much in

the Southern village of Mitford the same. His neighbor, Cynthia, still has a

special place in his heart, but he just can't seem to commit himself to her. And a

wealthy widow is chasing after him. Sequel to At Home in Mitford (DB 44194).

Download from BARD: A Light in the Window

Also available on digital cartridge DB044195

Download form BARD as Electronic Braille BR12270

Also available in braille BR012270

Lady of Milkweed Manor by Julie Klassen

Read by Kristin Allison

11 hours, 24 minutes

England, early 1800s. Charlotte Lamb, a twenty-year-old vicar's daughter, is

banished to a London home for unwed mothers when she becomes pregnant.

Charlotte is mortified to find her former suitor, Dr. Daniel Taylor, working there,

but Daniel--now married--becomes her protector. She soon discovers he has a

secret. 2007.

Download from BARD: Lady of Milkweed Manor

Also available on digital cartridge DB075572

The Inn at Lake Devine a Novel by Elinor Lipman

Read by Anne Hancock

7 hours, 56 minutes

Romantic comedy set in the 1960s. As a child of twelve, Natalie is offended

when her Jewish family is told by a Vermont innkeeper that their most

"comfortable" guests are gentiles. Over the years she develops various

schemes to infiltrate the resort, and eventually she spends a weekend with the

owner’s son.

Download from BARD: The Inn at Lake Devine a Novel

Also available on digital cartridge DB048606

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The Inn at Rose Harbor by Debbie Macomber

Read by Theresa Conkin

10 hours, 44 minutes

Army widow Jo Marie Rose buys a bed-and-breakfast in Cedar Cove,

Washington, and makes it her own with help from handyman Mark. Her first

guests include Josh, returned to reconcile with his dying stepfather, and Abby,

in town for her brother's wedding. Bestseller. 2012.

Download from BARD: The Inn at Rose Harbor

Also available on digital cartridge DB075370

44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith

Read by Annie Wauters

11 hours, 17 minutes

Follows the episodic adventures of an eclectic group of residents of an

Edinburgh apartment building. There's overbearing Irene and her precocious

young son Bertie, sixty-year-old widow Domenica, twenty-year-old newcomer

Pat, and handsome, self-absorbed surveyor Bruce--Pat's flatmate. At her new

gallery job Pat identifies an expensive portrait that subsequently disappears.

2005.

Download from BARD: 44 Scotland Street

Also available on digital cartridge DB064303

Corduroy Mansions by Alexander McCall Smith

Read by Jill Ferris

13 hours, 47 minutes

Tale of the quirky residents of Corduroy Mansions, a four-story building in the

London neighborhood of Pimlico. Middle-aged widower William French hopes

his grown son Eddie moves out; young ladies Jo, Caroline, and Dee share a

flat; and caterer Marcia fancies William. 2009.

Download from BARD: Corduroy Mansions

Also available on digital cartridge DB074001

Gentle and Inoffensive Books Page 9 of 13

Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery

Read by Gerry Kasarda

8 hours, 13 minutes

Anne Shirley, once a scrawny, tempestuous, red-haired orphan, is now a lovely

young woman teaching in the school where she herself was taught. As she

goes about her daily tasks, love slips into her life so gradually that she doesn't

even recognize it. For grades 5-8 and older interested readers.

Download from BARD: Anne of Avonlea

Also available on digital cartridge DB014907

Download form BARD as Electronic Braille BR07431

Also available in braille BR007431

Flowers in the Rain & Other Stories by Rosamunde Pilcher

Read by Jill Ferris

10 hours, 6 minutes

A collection of sixteen stories, mostly concerned with the romances of British

women in their thirties. The title story tells of a reunion between a young woman

who visits an old friend and the friend's grandson, on whom she once had a

crush. Other stories portray a mother talking with her son on his wedding day; a

young woman jilted by her lover; and a boy's love for his sister and widowed

mother. Bestseller.

Download from BARD: Flowers in the Rain & Other Stories

Also available on digital cartridge DB034018

The Empty House By Rosamunde Pilcher

Read by Jill Ferris

5 hours, 36 minutes

Three months after her husband's accidental death, Virginia Keile reluctantly

leaves her children with her mother-in-law and their nanny and takes a vacation

in Cornwall. There she encounters Eustace Philips, a farmer she had fallen in

love with at seventeen. As Eustace chides her into taking control of her life, the

two untangle the reasons they drifted apart years before.

Download from BARD: the Empty House

Also available on digital cartridge DB041478

Also available in braille BR002793

Gentle and Inoffensive Books Page 10 of 13

The Beloved Invader by Eugenia Price

Read by Terry Hayes Sales

9 hours, 22 minutes

The romantic, inspiring story of a northerner who comes to war-ravaged

Georgia on business. He loses his heart to St. Simons Island and dedicates his

life to its people. First novel of the St. Simons trilogy; the second is New Moon

Rising (RC 10711), and the third is Lighthouse (RC 23288).

Download from BARD: The Beloved Invader

Also available on digital cartridge DB033235

Bright Captivity by Eugenia Price

Read by Mitzi Friedlander

23 hours

St. Simons Island, Georgia, 1815. Anne Couper, about to celebrate her

eighteenth birthday, is positive that something dramatic is going to happen in

her life. When the British arrive and capture all the guests at a house party on a

nearby island, Anne immediately falls in love with her captor, Lieutenant John

Fraser. After being allowed to marry, the couple struggles over where to live--

England or Georgia. Volume 1 of Georgia Trilogy. Bestseller.

Download from BARD: Bright Captivity

Also available on digital cartridge DB033002

Download form BARD as Electronic Braille BR08538

Also available in braille BR008538

Ellie and the Harpmaker by Hazel Prior

Read by Katharine McEwan and Philip Battley

10 hours, 5 minutes

Dan Hollis lives a happy, solitary life carving exquisite Celtic harps in his barn in

the countryside of the English moors. On the anniversary of her father’s death,

Ellie Jacobs takes a walk in the woods and comes across Dan’s barn. Unrated.

Commercial audiobook. 2019.

Download from BARD: Ellie and the Harpmaker

Also available on digital cartridge DB096388

Gentle and Inoffensive Books Page 11 of 13

Winter in Thrush Green by Miss Read

Read by Patricia Kilgarriff

6 hours, 36 minutes

The Christmas season in an English village is captured in this novel about the

lives of the town's inhabitants. Plans for a suitable memorial to a respected

citizen, weddings, births and a robbery take place amid Christmas preparations.

Download from BARD: Winter in Thrush Green

Also available on digital cartridge DB030166

Miss Julia Paints the Town by Anne B. Ross

Read by Mitzi Friedlander

11 hours, 17 minutes

Miss Julia rallies her town of Abbotsville, North Carolina, to protest plans of a

New Jersey developer to replace city hall with condominiums. Miss Julia plots to

scare off the Yankee by showcasing local eccentrics. In the meantime the

husbands of three of Miss Julia's friends have disappeared. 2008.

Download from BARD: Miss Julia Paints the Town

Also available on digital cartridge DB067666

Download form BARD as Electronic Braille BR18121

Also available in braille BR018121

Laddie, a True Blue Story by Gene Stratton-Porter

Read by Mitzi Friedlander

14 hours, 45 minutes

Little Sister, the narrator of this autobiographical novel, is the twelfth child in the

Stanton family. She is dubbed the "unwanted child," but as a result of her

special relationship with her older brother Laddie--a paragon of virtue, intellect,

and physical attainment--she is eventually recognized as a special gift to the

family.

Download from BARD: Laddie, a True Blue Story

Also available on digital cartridge DB032108

Also available in braille BR008394

Gentle and Inoffensive Books Page 12 of 13

The Magic Garden by Gene Stratton-Porter

Read by Faith Potts

4 hours, 19 minutes

After her parents' divorce, young Amaryllis Minton runs away and meets

painter's son John Forrester. John introduces Amaryllis to his magic garden and

romance blossoms, but John's father sends Amaryllis home. Years pass, but

neither John nor Amaryllis forget their love as they await their reunion. 1927.

Download from BARD: The Magic Garden

Also available on digital cartridge DB062396

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

Read by Corrie James

7 hours, 56 minutes

London, 1946. Writer Juliet Ashton corresponds with Dawsey Adams and other

members of a literary society created as a front during the Nazi occupation of

the British channel island Guernsey. Through letters, Juliet learns about their

wartime experiences. Intrigued, Juliet sails to Guernsey, where she finds new

inspiration. Bestseller. 2008.

Download from BARD: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie…

Also available on digital cartridge DB067526

An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor

Read by David Cutler

10 hours, 38 minutes

Newly graduated doctor Barry Laverty accepts his first job as assistant to Dr.

O'Reilly in the Northern Ireland town of Ballybucklebo. Barry is puzzled by the

village eccentrics and Dr. O'Reilly's bedside manner and falls in love with

engineering student Patricia Spence. Includes recipes. 2004.

Download from BARD: An Irish Country Doctor

Also available on digital cartridge DB067767

Gentle and Inoffensive Books Page 13 of 13

Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

Read by Laura Giannarelli

14 hours, 3 minutes

Valentine Roncalli rescues the Greenwich Village custom shoe-making

company of her grandmother Teodora Angelini. While learning the business

from Teodora, Valentine falls in love with restaurant owner Roman Falconi, who

also has strong Italian American familial ties. Valentine and Teodora travel to

Italy, where they discover family secrets. 2009.

Download from BARD: Very Valentine

Also available on digital cartridge DB068757

Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty

Read by Laura Giannarelli

10 hours, 44 minutes

A quiet novel celebrating a large Southern family. In September 1923 nine-year-

old Laura travels to her cousin's wedding in the Mississippi delta. Laura is glad

to be enveloped by the family because her mother has recently died. She

enjoys the boys' wildness, the girls' companionship, and her aunts' and uncles'

strong love. .

Download from BARD: Delta Wedding

Also available on digital cartridge DB042722