Mother's Day is just around the corner, and what better way to express love and gratitude for the mothers in our lives than with a carefully chosen book? Whether it's for your mother, grandmother, or a motherly figure who has played a significant role in your life, a book is a gift that can be cherished for years to come. Below are our recommendations of meaningful books that honor and inspire moms, while also recognizing the challenges of motherhood. These books are sure to offer comfort and wisdom to the mothers, grandmothers, and mothers-to-be who have shaped us into who we are today.
Learn from Nature's Mothers
What does it mean to be a mother in an era of climate catastrophe? In prose that teems with longing, lyricism, and knowledge of ecology, Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder writes of the silent flight and aural maps of barn owls, of nursing whales, of real and imagined forests, of tidal marshes, of ancient single-celled organisms, and of newly planted gardens. The creatures inhabiting these stories teach us about centering, belonging, entanglement, edgework, homemaking, and how to imagine the future. Rooted in wonder while never shying away from loss, Mother, Creature, Kin reaches toward a language of inclusive care learned from creatures living at the brink.
Make Beauty in a Broken World
Why should we make art while injustice and suffering wreak havoc? How can we justify making beautiful things? From award-winning author Mitali Perkins comes an essential companion for writers, artists, and other creatives who long for a more just world. We must keep making art infused with truth, beauty, and goodness, not to ignore a world in distress but for the sake of loving it. With vivid stories, practical ideas, and reflection and discussion questions, Just Making will inspire you to keep making beauty in a broken world.
Build a Life That's Creative, Sensual, and Playful
For far too long we have relegated the erotic to the bedroom, when in reality it is a fundamental energy that helps us connect more deeply with ourselves, each other, the earth, and the creative potential within us. In Turned On, artist and musician Brie Stoner redefines the erotic, stating that it is more than just human intimacy; it can be the antidote to feeling anxious, disconnected, and uninspired. By reframing Eros as the energy of life and creativity itself, Stoner invites us to reawaken presence, playfulness, and possibility as the gateways to transformation.
Grapple with Parenting in the Age of Climate Collapse
We are living in an era of climate collapse, and climate anxiety touches nearly everything we do—including our parenting. This Sweet Earth wrestles with our questions and fears and dares to argue that while the future remains unknown, there is still awe and wonder, love and struggle, gratitude and joy to be found. As we raise our children toward this uncertain future, Lydia Wylie-Kellermann helps us see that those same children shift our posture, slow us down, and invite us to fall in love with the ground on which we stand.
Celebrate the Creative Power of Women
Few women artists feature prominently in the history of art, and even fewer who are mothers. Are motherhood and creativity at odds, or are other factors at play? The Mother Artist twines intimate meditations on motherhood with portraits of the work, lives, and studios of mother artists, placing us in the company of women from the past and the present who persevere in both art and caregiving.
Appreciate the Small Moments of Parenthood
Ordinary Blessings for Parents
Those of us who care for children know how hard and heroic caring for young people can be. But when we're caught up in the day-to-day challenges of raising children, we can easily miss the sanctity of these moments. Gifted poet, empathetic pastor, and mom of three Meta Herrick Carlson names the moments we take for granted or that make us second-guess ourselves. Ordinary Blessings for Parents includes blessings for washing bottles, for belly laughs, for the death of a beloved adult, and for the legacy we want to pass on.
Find Deeper Meaning with the Enneagram
Too many of us are stuck on the treadmill of consumer spirituality, clinging to the illusion that we are in charge of our own spiritual growth and development. But the path of true transformation isn't in doing more, but in doing less—in letting go of control and adopting a contemplative posture that will naturally lead us to our true self. Letting Go, Finding You will show how a contemplative spiritual path, informed by the Enneagram, will allow you to finally stop striving after false promises and start surrendering to the truest version of yourself.
Love Your Children's Children Well
Marilyn McEntyre, Shirley Showalter
Loving our children's children well is an art—one we keep learning as they grow. Making memories and fostering relationships with our grandchildren in the midst of a fast-moving culture isn't easy, and a legacy that lasts isn't crafted overnight. Through inspired ideas teamed with simple practices and engaging stories, The Mindful Grandparent serves as your guide and source of refuge for the sacred and sometimes bewildering work of grandparenting.
Slow Down and Savor Life
Once you begin looking for joy, you can find it pretty much anywhere. In Jennifer McGaha's fifty-fifth year, she began to take note of simple, everyday things that struck her as beautiful or humorous or intriguing and kept a list of all the accomplishments, large and small, that actually mattered to her. These observations became her Joy Document, a radical act of reclaiming joy and an exercise in paying attention. Full of wit, heart, and reflective questions to help readers create their own joy documents, The Joy Document is a welcome companion for midlife transformation.
Defy Expectations about Growing Older
Join Karen Walrond, author of The Lightmaker's Manifesto, in this intriguing investigation into how we can reclaim aging, cultivate joy, and resist ageism. In Radiant Rebellion, Walrond does a deep dive into dimensions of getting older, including health, beauty, spirituality, connection, adventure, and purpose. With wisdom from luminaries who light our way, she helps us radiantly rebel against the fads and assumptions that hold us back, redefine the adventure of getting older, and create a shining future of expanded potential. We might even raise a little hell while we're at it!
Find Grace and Peace in Stepmotherhood
Every year more American women become stepmothers, just as Dorothy Bass did. In Stepmother, Bass explores the complicated, and oft-maligned, role. Brimming with practical insights from sociology, history, and clinical studies, Stepmother points readers to the central necessary work—the work done in our own heart—so we can find grace and peace.
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