Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 13. Read a novel or memoir about motherhood (and grandmotherhood) and have a happy Mother’s Day!
Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg
After the death of her husband, Helen Ames is shocked to discover that he spent their retirement savings before he died, but what he did with their money leads Helen and her 27-year-old daughter Tessa to embark on new adventures.
How to Be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway
Entreated to visit her ancestral family in Japan in place of her ailing mother, Sue uncovers family secrets that influence her life in unforeseen ways, offer insight into her mother’s marriage to an American GI and reveal the role of tradition in shaping personal choice.
29 by Adena Halpern
Ellie Jerome is a 75-year-old who feels she has more in common with her granddaughter, Lucy, than her daughter, Barbara. After a birthday wish to be 29 again for a single day, she and Lucy are sent on an adventure of unexpected twists and turns.
Bloom: A Memoir by Kelle Hampton
Recounts the author’s first year with her newborn daughter, Nella–who has Down syndrome–and her own journey of transformation as she realized that she had been chosen to experience an extraordinary and special gift.
Watermelon by Marian Keyes
When her husband, James, leaves her after she delivers her first child, Claire retires to her family in Dublin, where she slowly recovers from the experience, giving James a big surprise when he shows up again.
The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty.
When her daughter accidentally hits and kills another high school girl with the family’s car, Leigh, a troubled mother, is forced to confront her relationship with her daughter and her long-buried feelings towards her own neglectful mother.
Things I Want My Daughters to Know by Elizabeth Noble
Having received letters and a journal from their mother written at the end of her life, four sisters struggle through their first year without her, a time marked by their bereavement and efforts to achieve joy and passion.
Not Becoming My Mother: And Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way by Ruth Reichl
Reflects on the author’s mother, focusing on her early life as a bookstore owner and housewife and the diaries she kept which had been retrieved by her daughter after her death.
Best Friends, Occasional Enemies: The Lighter Side of Life as a Mother and Daughter by Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella
A mother and daughter present personal essays that explore life through their close bond, in a volume inspired by their weekly column, “Chick Wit,” that discusses such topics as their relationship, their carb counts, and the green jacket that almost caused a catfight.
The Leopard Hat: A Daughter’s Story by Valerie Steiker
The author describes her magical childhood growing up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side with her mother, a Belgian Jew hidden as a child from the Nazis during World War II, whose appetite for joy, flamboyance, and protectiveness surrounded her family with love, and the tragic loss of her mother during her junior year at Harvard.