Recommended Reads from Valleyview Municipal Library
By Liz Griffiths
Reading is more than just entertainment; it is one of the most powerful ways to keep the mind active and engaged throughout life. Studies have shown that regular reading can help support memory, concentration, and critical thinking, which are all important for maintaining cognitive health and preserving neuroplasticity as we age. Reading also reduces stress, encourages lifelong learning, and helps people stay connected to new ideas, cultures, and experiences. In a world where it’s become far too easy to isolate ourselves, books help us foster connection, empathy, and a sense of community.
Whether it’s a gripping mystery, a fascinating memoir, or a lighthearted novel, reading provides both mental stimulation and enjoyment, making it an important part of healthy aging, which is why I’ve curated a list of ten books from the 2020s to help you discover a love of reading no matter your age, genre preference, or topics of interest.
The Berry Pickers
By Amanda Peters (2023)
The Berry Pickers follows an Indigenous Canadian family whose young daughter, Ruthie, goes missing while they are working as berry pickers in Maine in the 1960s. Through alternating perspectives, the story shows how her disappearance fractures her family and echoes across decades. Meanwhile, a girl named Norma grows up in a troubled suburban household in Maine, gradually becoming suspicious about her parents’ distant and evasive behaviour. At times quite heavy and featuring subject matter such as abuse, addiction, and kidnapping, this book is just as much a story of resilience, connection, identity, and family as it is a story about tragedy and grief.
The Thursday Murder Club
By Richard Osman (2020)
Released as a film in 2025, The Thursday Murder Club remains as popular as ever among fans of cozy mysteries and comedic crime novels. In a quiet retirement community, four sharp-witted residents start a weekly club in which they meet up to investigate unsolved murders. But when a murder case begins to unfold around them, they find themselves becoming involved in something a lot less casual and a lot more dangerous. Both hilarious and at times heart-stopping, this novel shows that brilliance and curiosity have no age limits.
Lessons in Chemistry
By Bonnie Garmus (2022)
This award-winning book resonates with women of all ages, but being set in the 1960s allows mature readers to connect with it on a more personal and nostalgic level. Lessons in Chemistry is a story about challenging societal norms and finding power as a woman in a male-dominated world. It tells the story of a research chemist fighting for her spot at the table as she navigates the world as a doctoral candidate, woman in STEM, new mother, and, most unexpectedly, a pseudo-celebrity. While Lessons in Chemistry fearlessly broaches subjects like discrimination and harassment in a way that can feel heavy at times, this story is ultimately one of triumph and perseverance and does an excellent job of balancing its serious subject matter with moments of lightheartedness and humour.
Five Little Indians
By Michelle Good (2020)
Written by a Cree Canadian author, Five Little Indians is a novel that was more than a decade in the making. Telling the story of five residential school survivors over the course of their complicated lives after the closing of the residential school they were taken to as children, author Michelle Good actually based much of the book on the real-life experiences of her own mother and grandmother, both of whom experienced the Canadian Indian residential school system. While many books tell stories of the horrors kids faced within the residential schools, few tell the stories of their lives after leaving them, and this book does it beautifully, bringing to light the very real issues survivors face as they are forced to fend for themselves with no family, no support, and no real-world experience. While a bit bleak and dismal at times, Five Little Indians is a tale of acceptance and compassion and is a must-read for anyone interested in the continued impact of residential schools.
Killers of a Certain Age
By Deanna Raybourn (2022)
When four of the deadliest assassins in the business are sent on a vacation to celebrate their upcoming retirement, it doesn’t take long for them to realize what’s really going on: They’ve been marked for death. After forty plus years of loyal service to the Museum, the women are being terminated, their impeccable methodology being phased out for a more tech-based approach to subterfuge and intrigue. But they aren’t going to go out without a fight. With only each other to rely on, they plan to teach the Museum why the most dangerous thing they could have done is underestimate these skilled and dangerous killers-for-hire.
The Midnight Library
By Matt Haig (2020)
What if you could revisit the key moments in your life and see what would have happened if you’d done things differently? That’s exactly the opportunity Nora Seed gets when she is introduced to the Midnight Library, a sort of purgatory filled with books showing the various other paths her life would have taken had she made different choices. In one life, she is married to an accomplished surgeon, in another, she is a famous musician, and in yet another, she is a glaciologist living in the Arctic. In this poignant and fantastical exploration of choice, regret, depression, and meaning, The Midnight Library shows us that sometimes even the wrong turns can lead to the right endings.
Demon Copperhead
By Barbara Kingsolver (2022)
Don’t let the admittedly odd title fool you: This book tells a very familiar story. A contemporary retelling of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, the novel adds a modern grittiness that makes it relatable to a whole new generation of readers. Set in the Appalachian Mountains, it follows the life of the eponymous Demon Copperhead from the trailer park he grew up in with his drug-addicted mother, through his brief stint as a star quarterback for his high school football team, to the various streets, halfway houses, and rehabs he finds himself in all across the United States. Updated to fit into the current political climate, Demon Copperhead touches on prevalent issues like racism, domestic abuse, the opioid crisis, and how easy it is to fall through the cracks of the social services system, all while keeping the original story and its themes clearly in frame.
The Swimmers
By Julie Otsuka (2022)
A bittersweet look into the complicated connection between mothers and daughters, The Swimmers is, on the surface, a story about a group of people who are forced out of their local swimming pool when it falls into disrepair. But it’s mostly a story about Alice, a woman who held onto her daily routine at lane swimming as a way to feel grounded when the rest of the world was fading away around her. Struggling with dementia, Alice has begun to lose control of her mind, often confusing the past and the present. Suddenly, without the support of her fellow lane swimmers and her daily routine, the world feels chaotic and scary, and the only person Alice has left to reach out to is her estranged daughter, who finds herself caring for a woman she barely knows anymore.
The Authenticity Project
By Clare Pooley (2020)
Julian, a solitary man in his 70s, wants to know what the world would be like if people were completely and totally honest about themselves. And so, he begins an experiment: Julian writes the truth about himself and his life in a notebook and leaves it at a cafe, hoping someone will find it and follow suit. And they do. They read his story and add their own, but each new person who adds to the project searches for ways to make the lives of the other participants just a little bit brighter. And each new writer adds a new perspective to the story, creating a lively little microcosm of how all of our lives can intermingle in unexpected ways. At times funny and at other times devastating, The Authenticity Project is a sweet story about connection, community, and the importance of, well, authenticity.
Anxious People
By Fredrick Backman (English translation, 2021)
This book sets itself up to be a mystery unlike any other. An apartment for sale, a wanna-be bank-robber, a mysterious man in a bunny suit, and a group of accidental hostages, each of whom has their own complicated issues. But, at its core, Anxious People is not so much about crime or intrigue as it is a heartfelt, compassionate, slapstick adventure where there is no good vs. evil, just a bunch of anxious people doing their best. It’s the kind of story that draws readers in with its absurdity and laugh-out-loud moments, only to then warm their hearts with its overarching lessons on hope, forgiveness, and moving forward.
Liz Griffiths
Liz is a proudly Indigenous woman, a mother to the most wonderful young person ever created, and a total weirdo. It goes without saying that Liz is a lover of books of all genres and formats; however, she is also a video game nerd, frequent TTRPG Gamemaster, cryptid enthusiast, and fanatic of all things horror, so much so that in her spare time, she writes book and film reviews for a (semi) well-known horror site. Liz has worked at the Valleyview Municipal Library for eight years and counting, and would love nothing more than to make her childhood dreams come true by one day being a writer and getting her degree in Library Science.