Books for Mothers Day
Mother’s Day is coming up on Sunday, May 14! Why not celebrate with a book?
April 26, 2023
Mother’s Day is coming up on Sunday, May 14! Why not celebrate with a book?
Looking for more? Check out lists from previous years: 2021
Non-Fiction
What My Mother Gave Me
Thirty-One Women On The Gifts That Mattered Most
Elizabeth Benedict
Presents a collection of essays in which daughters remember their relationships with their mothers and the complicated bonds they shared with them, symbolized by gifts or memories of emotional encounters.
The Kids Are In Bed
Finding Time For Yourself In The Chaos Of Parenting
Rachel Bertsche
A best-selling author discusses ways for harried parents to enjoy the limited downtime they have to engage in fulfilling and pleasurable activities and reconnect with their real adult selves.
Screaming On The Inside
The Unsustainability Of American Motherhood
Jessica Grose
In this timely and necessary book, New York Times opinion writer Jessica Grose dismantles two hundred years of unrealistic parenting expectations and empowers today’s mothers to make choices that actually serve themselves, their children, and their communities.
It. Goes. So. Fast.
The Year Of No Do-Overs
Mary Louise Kelly
A longtime NPR Reporter discusses how childhood has an expiration date and how it is easy to lose site of the ticking clock while working and putting off the important things, like attending soccer games and other rites of childhood.
I’ll Show Myself Out
Essays On Midlife And Motherhood
Jessi Klein
The New York Times best-selling author and Emmy Award-winning writer and producer hilariously destroys the cultural myths and impossible expectations of modern-day motherhood and explores the humiliations, poignancies and possibilities of midlife.
Nurturing Healing Love
A Mother’s Journey Of Hope And Forgiveness
Scarlett Lewis
The mother of one of the children killed in the Newtown massacre discusses how the tragedy led her to a path of promoting peace and forgiveness, and counsels readers on how to deal with the unimaginable in their own lives.
Biography & Memoir
The Natural Mother Of The Child
A Memoir Of Nonbinary Parenthood
Krys Malcolm Belc
Krys Malcolm Belc’s visual memoir-in-essays explores how the experience of gestational parenthood–conceiving, birthing, and breastfeeding his son Samson–eventually clarified his gender identity.
Under Our Roof
A Son’s Battle For Recovery, A Mother’s Battle For Her Son
Madeleine Dean, Harry Cunnane
A Pennsylvania Congresswoman recounts her son’s ten-year battle with opioid abuse from the perspective both of a legislator and a mother, describing their journey as a means of offering hope to families similarly affected by this far-reaching, unspoken disease.
Bloom
A Memoir
Kelle Hampton
“The author of the popular blog Enjoying the Small Things interweaves lyrical prose and stunning four-color photography as she recounts the story of the first year of her daughter Nella–who has Down syndrome–and celebrates the beauty found in the unexpected, the strength of a mother’s love, and, ultimately, the amazing power of perspective.
This Boy We Made
A Memoir Of Motherhood, Genetics, And Facing The Unknown
Taylor Harris
In this moving examination of the bond between mother and child, the author, a black mother, questions everything she thought she believed about science and medicine, about motherhood and about her faith as she searches for the cause of her son’s illness.
Mother Noise
Cindy House
Told in essays and graphic-narrative shorts, this memoir illustrates the author’s struggles with addiction and motherhood and her ongoing efforts to reconcile the two, capturing the desire to look hopefully forward, while acknowledging the darkness of the past.
Honey, Baby, Mine
A Mother And Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love (And Banana Pudding)
Laura Dern, Diane Ladd
This collection of personal conversations from the actress and mother-daughter duo Laura Dern and Diane Ladd covers topics from ambition and legacy to intimacy, love, success and marriage.
Gorilla And The Bird
A Memoir Of Madness And A Mother’s Love
Zack McDermott
Shares the story of a young man fighting to recover from a devastating psychotic break and the mother who refuses to give up on him.
White Dresses
A Memoir Of Love And Secrets, Mothers And Daughters
Mary Pflum Peterson
Serving as a reminder of the unbreakable bonds between mothers and daughters, a captivating memoir from a successful television journalist at Good Morning America recounts her journey through loss and redemption, and her battle to rescue her mother, a former nun, from compulsive hoarding.
Forever Boy
A Mother’s Memoir Of Autism And Finding Joy
Kate Swenson
With her popular blog, Finding Cooper’s Voice, Kate Swenson has provided hope and comfort for hundreds of thousands of parents of children with Autism. Now, Kate shares her inspiring story in this powerful memoir about motherhood and unconditional love.
Fiction
A Good Mother
Lara Bazelon
Returning from maternity leave, LA attorney Abby Rosenberg agrees to defend a young mother accused of murdering her husband, a decorated combat veteran, and as evidence mounts against her client, the case careens toward an outcome no one expects, especially Abby.
The School For Good Mothers
Jessamine Chan
After one moment of poor judgment involving her daughter Harriet, Frida Liu falls victim to a host of government officials who will determine if she is a candidate for a Big Brother-like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother’s devotion.
Things I Wish I Told My Mother
Susan Patterson, Susan DiLallo
When Laurie, a nomadic artist, surprises her mother, an elegant perfectionist, with a dream vacation to Paris, which brings an unexpected sparkle to her eyes, mother and daughter unpack a lifetime of secrets and hopes in the City of Light.
The Mothers
Genevieve Gannon
When one women learns her embryo was implanted in the another’s uterus, she must make a devastating choice: live a childless life knowing her son is being raised by strangers or seek custody of a baby who has been nurtured and loved by another couple.
The Nursery
Szilvia Molnar
Struggling with postpartum depression, a new mother, ill at ease with this state of perpetual giving, carrying, and feeding, strikes up a tentative friendship with her ailing upstairs neighbor, but they are both running out of time, and something is soon to crack.
Today A Woman Went Mad In The Supermarket
Hilma Wolitzer
Reintroducing a beloved writer to a whole new generation of readers, this collection of short stories–most of them originally published in magazines in the 1960s and 1970s–are evocative of an era that still resonates deeply today.