Whether you've started your own book club or just want an unofficial shared reading experience, I've got 10 new books about mothers and daughters for you to read with your mom. No matter what genres you like, there's something on this list for every book nerd and her mother to enjoy.
As we age, our relationships with our mothers can easily grow strained. After all, you can only hear — and say — "I told you so" a limited number of times before you feel the need to break out of that problematic pattern. It isn't always easy for Millennials to get breathing room, however. The most common living arrangement for my generation is at home, with parents, and more young adults are living at home today than at any time since 1940.
Regardless of your living arrangement, reading a book with your mother can benefit your relationship, especially if it's begun to spiral into negativity. A shared reading experience gives you something to talk about that isn't related to finances, religion, politics, or anyone's love life. If you're being perfectly honest, you know that's exactly what you and your mom need.
Check out these 10 new books about mothers and daughters, and then let's hear your favorite books to read with your mom on Twitter!
1'After the Bloom' by Leslie Shimotakahara
When 60-year-old Lily Takemitsu disappears from her home in Toronto, her daughter Rita must piece together the fragments of her mother's broken memory, particularly those concerning the California camp where Lily lived during the Second World War.
2'Hot Milk' by Deborah Levy
Rose experiences strange symptoms unexplained by modern medicine, and her daughter Sofia has grown tired of dealing with her mother's illness. Sofia agrees accompany her mother to Spain for an experimental treatment, but when Rose becomes more of a mystery than ever, her daughter must dive headfirst into investigating her symptoms.
3'The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane' by Lisa See
Adopted by a California couple, Chinese-born Haley grows up with little information on her origins. An ocean away, her mother Li-yan leaves her remote village for a life in the city. Over the years, both women delve into the study of Pu'er, the black tea that their ancestors farmed, as they slide into the search for one another.
4'The Opposite of Everyone' by Joshilyn Jackson
A strange note from her estranged mother drives an Atlanta divorce attorney back into the itinerant lifestyle of her childhood in this novel from SIBA Award-winning author Joshilyn Jackson.
5'Rabbit Cake' by Annie Hartnett
In Freedom, Alabama, Elvis Babbitt spends her 18-month mourning period for her accidentally drowned mother investigating the strange new behaviors her sister and father have taken up in the wake of her passing.
6'The Book of Polly' by Kathy Hepinstall
Polly Havens was in her late fifties when she buried her husband and gave birth to her third child. Now, 10-year-old Willow Havens is obsessed with the thought of her mother's death, and hungry for information on the family that Polly left behind decades ago.
7'Modern Girls' by Jennifer S. Brown
When unplanned pregnancies interrupt the lives of a Jewish immigrant and her daughter on the Lower East Side in 1935, both women must weigh their plans for the future with the demands of tradition.
8'The Fifth Season' by N.K. Jemisin
In a world plagued by major seismic events, Essun lives with a dark secret: she is an orogene, one of a feared and regulated few who can control the planet's tremors. When her husband kills one of their orogene children and kidnaps the other, Essun sets out on a fateful course to hunt him down and avenge her children.
9'The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem' by Sarit Yishai-Levi
In this novel set against the sweeping backdrop of the mid-20th century, Gabriela searches for answers to the problems of her beautiful mother Luna's estranged relationships with her daughter, husband, and mother after Luna's death.
10'The Sunlight Pilgrims' by Jenni Fagan
Set during an apocalyptic U.K. winter in the near future, Jenni Fagan's The Sunlight Pilgrims centers on a ragtag family of outcasts that includes single mother Constance and her 12-year-old transgender daughter, Stella.
