Mother’s age: 55 Reading habits: She likes the bestsellers, easy lit. Other clues: golf, retirement, grandchildren, social studies. Melissa Denyes, Toronto

Dear Melissa I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard of Kate Atkinson, but she’s the British author of the wildly successful novel Life After Life. It’s witty and compelling and moving, and it dazzles from the start right to the finish. It poses the question: what if you could live again and again, until you got your life right? Ursula Todd, the author’s main character, is reincarnated with every death. It sounds like a dark novel, and in a few ways it is, but mostly it’s a joyful pageturner. It’s my No. 1 suggestion whenever anyone tells me that they’re starting a book club, and I think your reader will love this one.

Speaking of great writers, Jo Jo Moyes is another talented author and Me Before

You is absolutely captivating. It’s a thoughtprovoking, tightly plotted love story, with a main character in Louisa Clark that you will root for. Louisa has played it safe at life. She’s never left her small town, she’s never taken chances and when she finds herself out of work, she’s left to do a job she’s not sure she’s qualified for when she becomes a caregiver to a quadriplegic man. Will is her opposite in every way. Where Louisa is quirky and chatty, Will is taciturn and bitter. Soon they develop a close friendship, and they discover that they are exactly what each other needs. I don’t want to give away much more of the plot, but trust me when I say that Me Before You is a book that will leave you reeling — in a good way.

Another wonderful writer that you may have heard of is Jodi Picoult. Whenever Jodi writes another novel it becomes a bestseller, and there’s a reason for that. Jodi knows how to tell a story, and she’s outdone herself with her latest, Leaving Time, which tells an emotional and poignant story about motherhood and ... elephants. Yes, you heard me right. The book focuses on the behaviour of elephants — how they grieve and how they discover emotion. It’s a story filled with hope and love and the drive to know where you come from. Evan, publicity