It is so difficult to recommend books to friends let alone people we don't know and as someone writing from a 'foreign country' I would suggest your friend visits the library and checks the shelf/shelves where the popular/newest/bookclub reads are held. In our small town library we have this system right by the counter, maybe placed there for folk with little time to browse, with a selection of p/backs of the latest popular fiction or tied in with a recent TV drama/series.

Are these book-displays available in other RP'ers public libraries?

Vee, we have this kind of thing at the libraries I go to. In my local library there are several displays. One is right in front as you walk in and handy to the check out machines. So a reader in a hurry can find a good recently published book and leave in seconds!

I agree that it is hard to suggest something short when you don't know the reader's tastes. Libraries do usually have a Help Desk and can refer the reader to something suitable on hand that they might like.

Perhaps your friend might like to read an anthology of short stories.

I like to dip into collections of mystery stories as I can find new writers that way.

One short story that amused me took me into two interesting series by the same author. I wouldn't have come across her otherwise.

Our public libraries here have special displays of new acquisitions for readers to browse.

An author I like is Ian McEwan. His novella, "On Chesil Beach", is quite short.

For the past several years, Anne Perry has written a short novel featuring one of the minor characters from her two mystery series. The one for this year is A Christmas Return, due out November 7.

Though certainly not current but crackling good reads are Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/ Maturin series. Master and Commander is the first book in the series. None of them are long books...historical fiction based on the Napoleonic Wars...so plenty of food for someone who usually reads for information. Bonus is that Jack Aubrey and Steven Maturin are great characters. O'Brian did a fantastic job with the chemistry between the two.

Okay, I found two or three light, comic romances. She liked them, but told me that was probably enough. (!) On her own she read We Have Always Lived in the Castle, which she liked a little less but finished.

A little late to the party here, but I love the Brendan O'Carroll books beginning with The Mammy. They are short, sweet and funny.

“News of the world” by Jiles. Very good.

i think most people would like it.

re the Brendan O'Carroll books. Do you have his show on the TV where you live? Mrs Brown's Boys. Mrs Brown played in 'drag' by B O'C as the mother of a large family who, with neighbours/friends live a totally mad life. Set in working class/blue collar Dublin but made in Scotland. Much ad lib-ing and jokes that would cause US censors to faint as the air turns a bright blue.