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Books With Characters in Their 90s and 100s
Whether you’re participating in the Lifetime of Reading Challenge, or simply interested in reading books with elderly characters in their 90s and 100s, we’ve curated a diverse list of recommendations! Our list includes a mix of memoirs and novels with nonagenarian and centenarian protagonists.
What is a nonagenarian?
The meaning of nonagenarian is a person between 90 and 99 years old.
What is a centenarian?
As you can probably guess from the context, centenarian means a person who is 100 to 109 years. Our book list even includes some supercentenarians who are 110 years old and older!
In selecting titles for our list of books with nonagenarian and centenarian main characters, we’ve focused primarily (but not exclusively) on contemporary stories that help us understand life in your 90s and 100s today. We’ve curated a diverse list of recommended books, ranging from cozy mysteries to literary fiction, and even a few memoir and nonfiction titles. In addition to reflecting a wide range of life experiences, the main characters also vary in ethnicity, religion, class, background, lifestyle, and more.
Best Books with Elderly Characters
Sign Up for the Lifetime of Reading Challenge
Sign up for our email list below to receive a free printable tracker for the Lifetime of Reading Challenge. Our weekly email newsletter helps you stay on track with friendly reminders while still allowing you the flexibility to read at your own pace.
Printable Version of the Challenge Book List
Readers who support The Book Girls’ Guide through our Buy Me a Coffee (BMAC) membership site as Inner Circle or BFF members can access printable versions of the reading challenge book lists. As we update the Lifetime of Reading Challenges throughout the year according to the challenge schedule, the lists will become available in a single-page printable format for our BMAC members.
We offer two membership levels. Both our BFF members and our Inner Circle members get access to the single-page printables for the year-long reading challenges. Visit our Buy Me a Coffee membership page for a full list of benefits for each level.
Our BMAC members help cover the cost of running the challenges so we can keep them free for everyone!
If you have a suggestion for a book that you think would be a great addition to this list, please fill out this form.
Book Lists By Character Age
Links to our book recommendations for all twelve of the Lifetime of Reading challenge prompts can be found below:
- Books Spanning a Character’s Lifetime
- Books With Characters in Their 90s and 100s
- Books With Characters in Their 80s
- Books With Characters in Their 70s
- Books With Characters in Their 60s
- Books With Characters in Their 50s
- Intergenerational Novels: Books that Connect Generations
- Books With Characters in Their 40s
- Books with Characters In Their 30s
- Books with Characters in Their 20s
- Books with Teenage Characters
- Books with a Child Protagonist (Bildungsroman Novels)
Other Books to Consider
If you found us looking for elderly protagonists and want more recommendations, be sure to check out our lists of 80-something octogenarian main characters, and 70-something septuagenarian main characters.
We hope you enjoyed this book list and found several books to add to your TBR (to be read list). If you’re choosing a book for our reading challenge, you are also welcome to read any other book that meets the challenge prompt.
You can read all about the Lifetime of Reading Challenge and sign up for a free printable challenge book tracker here.
A Century of Living
No matter our age, we can look back and reflect on how things have changed in our lifetime. But just think of the dramatic changes experienced by those who live for nearly a century of life (or more).
One hundred years ago, in the 1920s, troops had recently returned home from WWI. The newly ratified 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote in the US. Although, it still would be another 45 years before Black women were able to exercise that same right.
In the US, for the first time in history, more Americans were living in cities than on farms. Although cars were considered a luxury in the early 1920s, by the end of the decade they were a necessity.
Despite prohibition (or perhaps because of it), the Twenties were a roaring time in the US. But the decades that followed brought about the Great Depression and then World War II. The latter half of the 20th century saw the Cold War, Civil Rights era, the Vietnam War, and so much more.
Throughout a century of living, today’s nonagenarians and centenarians have seen dramatic advances in technology. From the first television broadcast in 1927 to the internet. And from the first personal computers in 1974 to the smartphones that we carry in our pockets and purses today.
If you’d like to read more about how world has changed throughout the past century, join our Decades Reading Challenge. For this challenge, we read a book set in a different decade each month, including the entirety of the 20th century.
What We Can Learn From Elderly Book Characters
In the US, the average life expectancy is around 78 years old. Globally, the average is between 72 and 73 years old. While there’s a 30% chance of reaching your 90th birthday, only 14 in 1,000 people will live to be 100 years old. That means that many of us aren’t lucky enough to have 90-something or 100-something relatives and neighbors in our lives.
Thankfully, through the wonderful characters in the elderly protagonist books that we’ve listed below, we can all have the opportunity to learn a bit about life at 90 and 100+. Many of these stories involve an elderly main character forming relationships with someone from a younger generation. In these books, the senior protagonist shares their life story and imparts the wisdom that comes with old age. Another common theme among these novels with elderly characters in their 90s and 100s is a willingness to still learn and try new things at this late stage of life.
