Want to snag a great read for your mom or wife this weekend? Check out our list.
This week POPSUGAR brings us a list of books that any mother in your life will love. Whether it’s touching books about life, dating, divorce loss, unexpected motherhood, or motherhood confessions, you can find something for everyone.
Mother’s Day is this Sunday, and if you’re looking for the perfect last-minute gift for Mom, we’ve got some books she’s sure to love. Whether she’s looking for something lighthearted and funny or an emotional memoir, these page-turners take on the issues mothers and mothers-to-be can relate to. And many of these are great for daughters, too, so you can borrow it when Mom’s done! Check out books that will make great Mother’s Day gifts now.
Advice From Clair Huxtable, Roseanne, and Other Onscreen Moms
What My Mother Gave Me
Elizabeth Benedict’s What My Mother Gave Me: Thirty-one Women on the Gifts That Mattered Most is filled with contributions from novelists and writers about the most sentimental gifts their mothers gave them and how it related to their relationship.
Moms Who Drink and Swear
Based on her popular Facebook page, Nicole Knepper’s Moms Who Drink and Swear: True Tales of Loving My Kids While Losing My Mindtakes a hard and hilarious look at motherhood.
The Mothers
Jennifer Gilmore’s The Mothers: A Novel is a touching look at the struggles of a couple trying to have a child, including the process of adoption.
Instant Mom
My Big Fat Greek Wedding‘s Nia Vardalos shares her hilarious personal story of adopting a preschooler with only 14 hours’ notice inInstant Mom.
Carrie and Me
Carol Burnett shows humor and love in her touching tribute to her late daughter, Carrie, in Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story. The memoir follows the relationship ups and downs between this famous mother-daughter duo.
My Foot Is Too Big for the Glass Slipper
In her memoir My Foot Is Too Big for the Glass Slipper: A Guide to the Less Than Perfect Life, Gabrielle Reece’s roller coaster life and relationships will make yours seem not so crazy.
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford was the original inspiration forMommie Dearest. Her daughter penned the memoir in 1978, describing the famous actress as an abusive alcoholic with militant love for order. But long before that, she was loved by the spotlight — and her older children.
It’s believed she had a breakdown at some point, but Joan Crawford: The Enduring Starputs her late-life reputation aside to examine her lesser-known, better-liked side.
No Cheating, No Dying
Elizabeth Weil gets real about relationships in her book No Cheating, No Dying: I Had a Good Marriage. Then I Tried To Make It Better. by telling the story of how her and her husband took measures to improve their pretty good marriage. This funny and honest book covers sex, money, in-laws, children, and more in relation to the crazy journey of marriage, and may give you a new perspective on your own life partner.
A Year and Six Seconds
In her sentimental and lighthearted memoir, A Year and Six Seconds: A Love Story, Law and Order actress Isabel Gillies shares the story of her life as a single mother of two struggling to deal after her husband leaves her for another woman.
The Long Goodbye
Slate journalist and poet Meghan O’Rourke tells the heartbreaking story of her final months with her dying mother and sorrowful aftermath in her memoir The Long Goodbye: A Memoir.
Cinderella Ate My Daughter
Peggy Orenstein finds out how sexualized girlhood impacts young women today in Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture. She wants to know how the girl power of the 1990s got replaced with today’s pursuit of physical perfection.
A Singular Woman
A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother tells the story of President Obama’s nontraditional mom, Stanley Ann Dunham. Reporter Janny Scott interviewed Dunham’s loved ones and went through letters and photo albums to give us a peek inside the woman who raised our commander-in-chief.
Another Piece of My Heart
Another Piece of My Heart by Jane Green follows the story of a woman dealing with the complications of marrying a divorcé with daughters who don’t want anything to do with her.
Prime Time
Workout pioneer Jane Fonda’s self-help book Prime Time: Love, Health, Sex, Fitness, Friendship, Spirit — Making the Most of All of Your Life offers advice for living a successful and mature life.
This I Believe: On Motherhood
This I Believe: On Motherhood is a compilation of essays on motherhood. This fascinating collection features pieces that show the joys and struggles of raising children, something all moms and moms-to-be will relate to.
Unraveling Anne
Laurel Saville’s Unraveling Anne explores the glamorous turned tragic life of her mother Anne Ford, a beauty queen turned model and fashion designer in ’50s LA. In her memoir, Laurel tries to piece together how her beautiful and talented mother became the angry alcoholic she knew growing up, and asked herself if there’s forgiveness and healing for the relationship even after her death.
Mom: A Celebration of Mothers From StoryCorps
Mom: A Celebration of Mothers From StoryCorps shares emotional conversations and stories between parents and children, spouses, siblings, and more to explore what motherhood means in America.
Are You My Mother?
Alison Bechdel, the best-selling author of Fun Home, shares an intimate look at the heartbreaking, complicated relationship she shares with her mother. Are You My Mother? is a graphic memoir that gives readers a portrait of Bechdel’s mother through stunning visuals and moving imagery.
Then Again
Actress Diane Keaton shares intimate and emotional stories about her life and her relationship with her mother in her memoirThen Again. Along with personal stories, Diane incorporates bits and pieces from her mother’s extensive journals to paint a portrait of herself and her family’s history spanning generations.
B
After receiving praise for her poem “B,” a love letter about the relationship between moms and daughters, author Sarah Kay transformed her poem into an illustrated book B. This whimsical ode to mothers and daughters is sure to bring a smile to any mom’s face.
Love, Mom
Doree Shafrir and Jessica Grose, the editors of Postcards From Yo Momma, pulled together a collection of the funniest mom emails from their site in the book Love, Mom: Poignant, Goofy, Brilliant Messages from Home. Our moms may not be the most tech savvy people out there, but we love them anyway!
Some Assembly Required
After writing about her own adventures of being a single mom in her memoir Operating Instructions, author Anne Lamott now tackles what it was like to become a grandmother when her 19-year-old son had a baby in Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son’s First Son. In this brutally honest, touching, and laugh-out-loud funny book, Anne chronicles the struggles she faced helping her son and the baby’s mother raise this child.
My Two Moms
In his book My Two Moms: Lessons of Love, Strength, and What Makes a Family, Zach Wahls opens up about what it was like growing up with same-sex parents. Last year, the now 21-year-old engineering student caught the world’s attention when he spoke out in support of marriage equality in front of the Iowa House Judiciary Committee, saying, “The sexual orientation of my parents has had zero effect on the content of my character.”
The New Yorker Magazine Book of Mom Cartoons
All kinds of moms are sure to enjoy The New Yorker Magazine Book of Mom Cartoons, a collection of 100 witty cartoons about mothers from The New Yorker.
Dear Daughter
Dooce mommy blogger and author of It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita, Heather Armstrong, compiled the monthly letters she wrote to her daughter, Leta, for her first five years of life in Dear Daughter: The Best of the Dear Leta Letters. The love-filled notes chronicle the ups and downs of first-time motherhood with honesty and humor.
Confessions of a Scary Mommy
Jill Smokler tackles parenting with a sense of humor in her book Confessions of a Scary Mommy: An Honest and Irreverent Look at Motherhood: The Good, The Bad, and the Scary. Jill started an online baby book to journal her life as a stay-at-home mom that evolved into a community of parents and now a book. Her followup is Motherhood Comes Naturally (and Other Vicious Lies), a new collection of essays about the lies parents are told.
Girl Walks Into a Bar . . .
Saturday Night Live alum Rachel Dratch gets real and really funny in Girl Walks into a Bar . . . Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters, and a Midlife Miracle. In her memoir, Rachel hilariously recounts her dating experiences and how she unexpectedly became a mother at 44.
POPSUGAR Links:
The Best Advice From Your Moms!
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