Mother's Day is this coming weekend in the US, which I generally love. We always go to church the night before so I get to sleep in on Mother's Day and Matt will pick up breakfast for me. A large chunk of the rest of the day is spent feting our own mothers so the early morning hours are what I get for me. And maybe during Sam's nap time.
This felt like an appropriate time to put together a list of books about mothers. Not parenting books, that's a whole different thing. I've read more of those than I ever expected and have a few more on my list I hope to get to soon. Some that make me feel empowered and some that make me feel like a failure. Hoping for more of the first.
At least 50% of our parenting is making things up as we go along and it's refreshing to read about other mothers, fictional they might be, getting things wrong or getting things right or generally just unsure about what they are doing.
1) The Late, Lamented Molly Marx by Sally Koslow
I have a deep affection for this book, owning it and having read it four times since randomly picking it up at Target 9 years ago. (Which I then returned and bought off Amazon for less...ahhhh...the days of dual income, no kids, when I bought books before reading them.). Molly is a wife and mother living in Manhattan and she dies. This is in the title so not a spoiler. She's watching over her left behind husband and young daughter from some form of the afterlife as well as checking in on her sister and best friend and parents and the detective who is trying to figure out how Molly died. I picked it up because we were about to visit New York for the first time but I keep coming back to it because of how Molly often feels like she's messing up (you can decide for yourself) but has a deep love for her daughter. I get teary every single time I read it, even knowing how it ends.
2) Where We Belong by Emily Giffin
I wrote a post about this one last year and was one of the first ones that came to mind when I was thinking of this post (before I scrolled through my Goodreads and found more mother books than I remembered!). Kirby is adopted, a teen, and about to meet her birth mother for the first time. The story flashes between Kirby and Marian, the birth mother, as they meet and deal with having each other in their lives. I tried not to make this list too adoption heavy but this is one of my favorite novels I've read that relate to it. It gave me a better perspective on birth mothers and what adoptees might be feeling as they get older. You don't have to have adopted for it to be an interesting and worthwhile read though!
3) The Life Intended by Kristin Harmel
Kate met her husband when they were young and since he died 10 years ago she hasn't been able to find a love like that again. She's about to get remarried and just can't get as excited about this new guy. She starts having very vivid dreams that feature her late husband and she kinda likes this dream world better than the life she is living awake. It has a bit of an alt-world thing going on but not in a sci-fi way. I was touched by the story and really liked how she didn't want to settle. Also, this is relevant to nobody besides me but, I think, 4 of the main/main-ish characters share names with 4 of Matt's siblings which I always find amusing when I read it.
4) Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
A woman living in San Francisco seems to have a wonderful life - newly married, just started her career as a physician when she finds out she can't have children. Across the world, a poor mother in India is giving her daughter up for adoption, one who will eventually be adopted by the woman in San Francisco. The story follows both these mothers of the daughter, as the daughter eventually finds her Indian family and how that affects them all. Our adoption story is quite different but there was still a lot I could relate to. Stories of older kids who were adopted young fascinate me since we'll be living that before we know it! I need all the perspectives I can get.
5) Class Mom by Laurie Gelman
Turning pages to something much lighter, Jen has two kids in college and now has another kindergartner and ends up as Class Mom. She's older than all the other parents and has been through this before, although this time is a little different. I read this a year before Luke started kindergarten and while his experience (and class Mom) have very little in common with this book, it was a humorous look at parenting in this culture and finding fun in the little things. There is a sequel coming out later this summer which I will be reading. (A whole post on this book here.)
6) The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Steadman
This book takes place in Australia after World War I, when a young man named Tom Sherbourne takes a job as a lighthouse keeper on a remote island with his wife. The supply ship only comes once a season; it's an isolated life. After a couple of years, two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the wife, Isabel, is desperate for a baby when one washes up in a boat with a dead man. Tom wants to report the baby. Isabel wants to keep it as their own. After two years with the little girl on the island they return to the mainland where they are reminded there are more than just the three of them in the world. It starts a little slow but is heartbreaking, trying to put yourself in their shoes. (There is also a movie that I thought was a good adaptation.)
7) Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
Based on real events from less than 100 years ago, this one tells the story of a young girl, Rill, who lives with her parents and 4 siblings on a shantyboat on the Mississippi River. When her father has to take her mother to the hospital for an emergency, Rill is left in charge of her siblings and strangers arrive to take them away. What Rill is told is happening is not the truth and she spend years knowing she shouldn't be put up for adoption, she has parents! Who are probably looking for her! The story flashes between Rill's story in 1939 and current day, where a young woman, Avery, goes back home when her father has a health crisis and starts digging in her family's past. Fascinating and heartbreaking.
8) What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
Another one that I wrote a post on last year and one I immediately thought of for this post. Alice is pregnant and happily married. They don't have a lot of money but do have a lot of love. She hits her head and wakes up 10 years later, on the verge of a divorce with 3 kids she does NOT remember and a whole life is apparently built but has no memory of. Really well written, very readable, and gives a lot of things to think about! What would shock me if I lost ten years of my life?
9) A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan
Another Alice, this one who is pretty happy with her life - a couple kids, a pretty good marriage, a part-time job she enjoys. Things are going well enough when her husband has a job change and Alice needs to go back to work full time. She gets a job at a start-up that thinks it's going to change the future of reading (does it need changed?). It seems she can "have it all" - a fulfilling career and personal life. And then, of course, that doesn't work it. The job isn't what she expected, the kids are growing up, her father has health issues, her bookstore owning best friend isn't thrilled with this new job. So what does Alice do?
Do you have any favorites to add to the list?
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