This intelligent novel is about the bawling boring baby months that feel like years, as described by an acerbic intellectual American mom. There is fury, depression, loneliness and love but it is the friendship forged between two new mothers that shines. Erica James’ twenty-fourth novel is a wonderfully compelling family drama that touches upon some serious and fairly dark issues. Her characterisation is excellent, the setting is beautiful and the slow reveals are delicately and sensitively handled. Looking for a stellar Mother's Day gift that'll make her feel more seen than a tea kettle? We've gathered some of the best books for moms, ranging from funny memoirs to inspirational escapes, and everything in between. Each of these selections looks at motherhood from a different angle.

The real drama begins when we discover that Naomi, in her middle sixties, has met a man, Ellis, and is having a serious relationship with him. He has rented the house next door to Naomi by chance before discovering they were at university together. The two girls think it is far too soon for Naomi to move on and are very reluctant to meet Ellis. They think he must be a man on the make and do not know of their history. Martha in particular, having been so close to her father and being very touchy because she failed to become pregnant is particularly against the poor man. There are plenty of other people out in the world that can play devil’s advocate. What we need more than a naysayer is someone to validate our experience and make us feel supported,” says Fish. Practice reflective listening I loved this!! One of those stories when you're sad to leave the characters as you immediately feel at ease with them and want to carry on watching over them as they come to terms with the loss in their lives, but begin to move on.

Confessions of a Domestic Failure by Bunmi Laditan

Woman gives birth, game over. The choppy narrative style reflects the state of perpetual interruption that is motherhood. Offill sketches the pressures it inflicts on marriage and on the creative self as the mother wishes she could become an “art monster” once more. “I think I must have missed your second book,” an old friend says when he bumps into her. There isn’t one, she replies. This is Offill’s second book, fifteen years after her first. But this holiday is not entirely like some of them expected. The community where they are staying is far removed from what they term as civilisation. It’s a dry community, although private drinking may be conducted discreetly. It’s oppressively hot, the sun can burn in minutes and also they’re forced to deal with each other’s company perhaps more than even good friends should on holiday. In such an isolated place there’s no where to go to escape each other’s differing opinions and the fact that no one stays the same forever. Bronte and Janey are no longer friends, as they were in childhood and they also find Tess much changed from when she left Melbourne. When Morag’s teenage stepdaughter arrives it adds even more to an already volatile pot.

A captivating story about a mother’s relationship with her two daughters, to protect them she has kept secrets and her daughters now understanding their mother is a free and independent woman, she has every right to live where she chooses, start a new relationship and fall in love. Another woman up half the night every night, another nice but useless husband. The mother does her best to submit to her new role, smiling through her exhaustion, trying not to scream – and then she starts turning into a dog. Yoder brilliantly articulates the frustration accompanying self-obliteration as well as the ways in which ostensibly sweet men shirk childcare. It may be a good idea to remember everyone’s doing the best they can with the resources at hand. Avoid blame Fiona, Caro, Morag and Amira all met when their children began school together, almost ten years ago now. Fiona, Caro and Amira all have daughters – Bronte, Janey and Tess. Morag is sort of the odd one out, having twin boys, the only experience with girls being her rebellious sixteen year old stepdaughter. Fiona, Caro, Morag and Fiona’s daughter Bronte and Caro’s daughter Janey are all travelling to remote Western Australia to visit Amira and her daughter Tess. Amira and Tess moved to an Aboriginal community at the beginning of the year, about nine months ago and they haven’t seen each other since. Each of them are looking forward to catching up with Amira and Tess and for Morag this is her first real holiday ‘alone’. No husband, no twin boys, no younger son and no stepdaughter. Or so she thinks. When Kate gets a call at work that her daughter Amelia has been suspended for cheating, she panics and leaves work, only to arrive at the school to find a tragedy. Amelia has jumped to her death, according to officials. While it’s hard for Kate to believe this, she is overcome by guilt and grief over the loss. But when Kate receives an anonymous text insisting Amelia didn’t jump, she sets out to find the truth to vindicate her daughter’s memory.I loved this book and was really sorry when I had finished it. Erica James’ writing appears so effortless, and from the first paragraph, I was drawn into the story.

Recreate a favorite memory or tradition together, such as having afternoon tea, making a family recipe, or doing each other’s hair. I thought the author did a perfect job of blending all the different personalities and showing how they each reacted to change and personal challenges – as well as focusing on the difficulties that arise when someone wants to reclaim their own life in the face of opposition from others. Author Peggy Orenstein is a journalist who had built a career writing about girls and women when she learned she was pregnant with a daughter. She was terrified; she was supposed to be an expert on girls behavior, what if she couldn’t raise, as she put it, an ideal daughter? In this eye-opening nonfiction read full of facts about the “princess mania” in media and merchandising (bruuuuuh Disney) and honest insight from a conflicted new mother, Orenstein examines what it means to raise a daughter who is aware of her femininity without being encumbered by it. Turns out this is quite the undertaking. Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple When Sophie is sent from Haiti to New York to reunite with her estranged mother, she discovers secrets that no 12-year-old should know. The only way for her to heal is to return to Haiti to the women who raised her. Edwidge Danticat’s literary debut is the unforgettable story of grace, strength and heartache. Unbeknown to her daughters, Naomi has recently met a Ellis an old love from her past. He has awakened feelings and companionship which Naomi had forgotten about. Should Naomi take a chance on a new beginning ? What will her daughters feel about her having her own life?Mothers and Daughter is both a compelling and hugely relatable family drama centred around recently widowed sixty-three-year-old Naomi and her thirty-something adult daughters, Martha and Willow, as they move forward with their lives. Just over two years ago, Naomi’s husband, Colin, and the father of both her daughters, died suddenly leaving her a widow in the Tilsham cottage the family once shared. Having rebuilt her life and reconnected by random chance with Ellis, a friend from university, Naomi is ready to start afresh but worried about both her daughter’s reaction to a new man, especially that of Martha who idolised her father. The truth of the marriage and the real man behind Colin’s bonhomie is something that Naomi has kept from both her daughters, but as Martha and Naomi each meet Ellis, they are harbouring concerns of their own..