five mother's day book recs for all the cool moms in your life
and by "cool" i mean "pissed off"
I promise you, Mothers never think about their lot in life more than they do leading up to Mother’s Day.
How the hell did I get here, they wonder, staring at a mountain of dirty dishes after a long day at work. Wasn’t I supposed to have it all????????
Girl, you do. You have it all.
For eighty-four cents on the dollar.
My kid never behaves worse than he does on Mother’s Day. It’s as if the mere idea of an entire day about me is too much for him to bear. Wait a minute….if we’re thinking about you……..who will be thinking about me?!!?!?!?!?! he screeches as he throws himself to the floor.
Honestly, It wasn’t until I became a mother that I truly understood that I’d been sold a bill of goods. Mother’s Day is a scam, because motherhood is a scam! I grew up in the 80s—our mothers were wearing pants, going to work in offices, demanding equality. I distinctly remember being in elementary school and being told “Women can do anything!!! Even be President!!!”
Well. We know how that turned out.
When your mom and your teachers and Sassy magazine are all telling you that women are EQUAL and POWERFUL and can HAVE IT ALL (aka, careers and babies), you start believing that shit!
WOMEN CAN DO ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Except it’s not that women can do anything—
It’s that women DO EVERYTHING.
These days women get to have careers and also carry the responsibilities they’ve had on their backs since the beginning of time. Women get to be mothers, run households, cope with misogyny at work, while the media reminds them 24/7 that they’re too fat, too old, too wrinkly, too frigid, too too too.
I’m a mother to a teenager. I singlehandedly run a household, meaning, every single thing that happens to keep our world running happens because I did it. I take the car for maintenance, schedule the doctor appts and get the prescriptions. I buy the groceries and haul them inside. I cook the meals and do the dishes. I walk the dog and scoop the kitty litter and take the animals to the vet. I do the laundry. I make holiday magic, I plan vacations. I take the kid for haircuts, buy him new shoes, help him process his feelings, and on and on and on I go. Oh, and I also work a full time job where I lead a team of five. Oh, and I have a second full time job as a novelist. Oh, and third and fourth jobs as a podcaster and writer / performer.
I CAN DO ANYTHING!!!!! HERE I AM, DOING IT!!!!!
And it sorta sucks?????????
I hate to be grumpy about it, but TLDR: Mother’s Day is holiday best forgotten because all it does is shine a light on how much we do, and how little anyone cares. So if you’ve got a mom in your life, give her a real present this Mother’s Day, a book willing to get right down into the muck of motherhood, because what we need right now is SOLIDARITY, SISTERS.
a book about how turning into a dog is better than being a mother
If you’re turned off by the whole “turning into a dog” thing, I promise you that you can still love NIGHTBITCH. I’m super literal. I assure you that I’m not poetic and I don’t always “get” magical realism. And imma tell you, this book is amazing. The artful portrayal of the mind-numbing repetition of early motherhood. The pull towards freedom. The animal inside of us all. It’s fantastic. And soon to be a movie with Amy Adams!
a book about how the children are actively trying to kill us
Ok, this is a little dark, but in BABY TEETH, stay at home mom Suzette’s got a precocious little daughter who’s maybe trying to kill her. Or at the very least, doing that thing where she pits Suzette’s husband against her and you the reader see it but the husband never does. Men! Read this if you need to feel better about your own children. They’re not intentionally trying to kill you when they pee all over the toilet / break your TV / ignore everything you say! #Blessed
a book about how if everyone would just listen to their mothers, everything wouldn’t go to shit
I love Pachinko so much that this is my second time recommending it. It’s a story about a Korean family that sweeps through multiple generations in a way that is so satisfying and makes you think, jeez, this is what a life is, isn’t it? But let me tell you, absolutely no one listens to their mother, and you know what would happen if they did???? LESS CHAOS. MORE STABILITY. Would make for a less interesting book, but a pretty nice life!
a book about how imprisoning mothers makes sense because motherhood is a prison
I read THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD MOTHERS with my bestie
and we were both conflicted about it. There was stuff that made us crazy, but the imprisoning mothers for their mistakes of it all was so compelling and upsetting that we ultimately decided it’s an incredible read. And also a great reminder that if we put the wrong people in power, motherhood could be even worse!!!!!!!!a book that will make you feel better about what kind of mother you are, because this one is just so so so bad
I’M GLAD MY MOM DIED was on my favorite books of 2022 list! Not only is the writing very good, but it’s very funny and Jennette’s mom takes narcissism to a whole other level. You’re gonna be jaw dropped every other page and thinking, wow, I’m not fucking these kids up at all! At the very least they’re gonna be sad when I die! Go me!
happy endings!
I started a new book! A bunch of it takes place in the early 2000s and I am ~LOVING~ the Y2K of it all. Tramp stamps, frosted tips, one-strapped overalls, those hair twists with butterfly clips!!!! THE SPICE GIRLS. Once I wore pleather pants and a bandeau top with a PLAYBOY BUNNY logo on the chest in Panama City, Florida. GOOD GOD, the 2000s were something special.
And my first book, a romcom called THE FAN FAVORITE, will be out in summer 2025!!!! I am so excited!
I'm Elizabeth Gomez and I approve this list!