What to Read This Mother’s Day
Here’s a Mother’s Day reading list from head book buyer Gaël featuring fiction and nonfiction titles exploring the complexity of mothers and motherhood.
To Read:
BOMB SHELTER: Love, Time, and Other Explosives by Mary Laura Philpott
(Atria Books, $27)
From the bestselling author of I Miss You When I Blink comes a poignant and powerful new memoir that tackles the big questions of life, death, and existential fear with humor and hope.
BUY THE BOOK
THIS BOY WE MADE: A Memoir of Motherhood, Genetics, and Facing the Unknown by Taylor Harris
(Catapult, $26)
A Black mother bumps up against the limits of everything she thought she believed—about science and medicine, about motherhood, and about her faith—in search of the truth about her son.
BUY THE BOOK
I LOVE YOU BUT I’VE CHOSEN DARKNESS: A Novel by Claire Vaye Watkins
(Riverhead Books, $27)
A darkly funny, soul-rending novel of love in an epoch of collapse—one woman’s furious revisiting of family, marriage, work, sex, and motherhood.
BUY THE BOOK
OF WOMEN AND SALT: A Novel by Gabriela Garcia
(Flatiron Books, $16.99)
A sweeping, masterful debut about a daughter’s fateful choice, a mother motivated by her own past, and a family legacy that begins in Cuba before either of them were born
BUY THE BOOK
TIME IS A MOTHER by Ocean Vuong
(Penguin Press, $24)
The highly anticipated collection of poems from the award-winning writer Ocean Vuong
BUY THE BOOK
I’LL SHOW MYSELF OUT: Essays on Midlife and Motherhood by Jessi Klein
(Harper, $26.99)
The eagerly anticipated second essay collection from Jessi Klein, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestselling debut You’ll Grow Out of It.
BUY THE BOOK
THE LOST DAUGHTER by Elena Ferrante
(Europa Editions, $16)
Another penetrating Neapolitan story from New York Times best-selling author of My Brilliant Friend and The Lying Life of Adults
BUY THE BOOK
BREASTS AND EGGS by Mieko Kawakami
(Europa Editions, $16.95)
The story of three women by a writer hailed by Haruki Murakami as Japan’s most important contemporary novelist, WINNER OF THE AKUTAGAWA PRIZE.
BUY THE BOOK
MEMPHIS: A Novel by Tara M. Stringfellow
(The Dial Press, $27)
A spellbinding debut novel tracing three generations of a Southern Black family and one daughter’s discovery that she has the power to change her family’s legacy.
BUY THE BOOK
WITH TEETH: A Novel by Kristen Arnett
(Riverhead Books, $27)
From the author of the New York Times–bestselling sensation Mostly Dead Things: a surprising and moving story of two mothers, one difficult son, and the limitations of marriage, parenthood, and love
BUY THE BOOK