The women around us shape us into who we are today. Whether it's for your mother, your grandmother, a mother-to-be, or a motherly figure who has played a significant role in your life, a book is a Mother's Day gift that can be cherished for years to come. Below are our recommendations of meaningful books that honor and inspire moms in every stage of life.
Click these links to jump to the section you need, or keep scrolling to explore the full list:
- Explore Books for the Reflective Mom
- Explore Books for the Spiritual-Seeker Mom
- Explore Books for the Naturalist Mom
- Explore Books for the Justice-Oriented Mom
Books for the Creative Mom
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.
Embrace Being a Total Amateur
In today's grind culture, hobbies become side hustles. Work creeps into leisure time. Perfectionism reigns. We look up to experts, and we look down on amateurs. But what if being a total amateur is actually a good thing? From Karen Walrond, author of The Lightmaker's Manifesto and Radiant Rebellion, comes In Defense of Dabbling: a delightful jaunt into how to resist grind culture and do the things you love, even if you're not any good at them.
Reclaim Your Story
We absorb the world around us through stories. It's how we make sense of our surroundings, our communities, and ourselves. But the stories we tell ourselves are not an end-all, be-all. Instead, they're all part of a larger, ongoing, unfinished narrative—one that we must continually refresh. That's where Story Work comes in. Through essays and prompting questions, GG Renee Hill invites readers to breathe new life into the stories we carry.
Embrace Imperfection in Your Creative Life
Whether you're a dabbler, a career creative, or a self-proclaimed tortured artist, The Artist's Joy is for you. Professional oboist and creativity coach Dr. Merideth Hite Estevez guides artists in all levels and disciplines to build a creative life that resonates deeply with their core values. Complete with practical guides and companion playlist.
Books for the Reflective Mom
Find Wonder in Your Daily Life
When everything feels gray and hopeless, curiosity emerges as an unexpected path back to color and life. Through personal stories, spiritual reflection, and practical ideas, Sacred Curiosity reveals how curiosity slows us down when life feels overwhelming, builds bridges across our deepest divisions, pushes past shame toward liberation, and rewilds our domesticated spirits. In this book, Britney Winn Lee invites us to follow breadcrumbs of wonder toward a more generous, hopeful way of being.
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.
Reconnect with Sacred Earth
What does it mean to become rooted in the land? Randy Woodley, an activist, author, scholar, and Cherokee descendant, recognized by the Keetoowah Band, guides us on a one-hundred-day journey to reconnect with the Earth. In Becoming Rooted, he invites us to come away from the American dream—otherwise known as an Indigenous nightmare—and get in touch with the water, land, plants, and creatures around us, with the people who lived on that land for thousands of years prior to Europeans' arrival, and with ourselves. In walking toward the harmony way, we honor balance, wholeness, and connection.
Rediscover Your Wholeness and Worth
The Enneagram for Black Liberation
For too long, conversations about the Enneagram and its personality types have been centered on and by whiteness. In The Enneagram for Black Liberation, certified Enneagram teacher and trained psychotherapist Chichi Agorom reclaims the Enneagram as a powerful tool for Black women to rediscover our wholeness and worth that existed long before systems of supremacy told us we weren't enough. Centering freedom, ease, and rest for Black women, Agorom invites each of us to claim the Enneagram as our tool for resilience-building in the continued fight for liberation.
Books for the Spiritual-Seeker Mom
Reflect on Simplicity, Connection, and Repair
Sojourners Magazine (Volume Editor)
For five decades, Sojourners magazine has been deeply engaged with the world while calling its readers to a new kind of life and faith rooted in justice and peace. Light for the Way is a powerful, yet meditative collection of pieces from the last fifty years of Sojourners magazine, exploring how contemplative practices, rest, simplicity, environmental engagement, and communal care are essential for sustaining our resistance and repairing our world.
Pray Alongside the Saints and Mystics
Pray and meditate along with saints through this luminous collection of one hundred block prints by artist Kreg Yingst, curator of the Instagram account @psalmprayers. Mystics like Teresa of Ávila, Howard Thurman, Black Elk, and Fannie Lou Hamer come alive. Everything Could Be a Prayer is a rich resource for private prayer and communal reflection.
Liberate Feminine Wisdom from the Patriarchy
Embracing the Old Witch in the Woods
Christian patriarchy teaches that women are dangerous, manipulative, and untrustworthy. Whether painting women as the archetypal old witch in the woods or the biblical temptress, toxic religion vilifies their wisdom and uses fear to maintain male power. And these harmful stereotypes aren't just historical; they persist in modern religious, societal, and political rhetoric, where confident women are called "nasty" or "radical." Embracing the Old Witch in the Woods is a road map for readers to challenge limiting beliefs, confront systemic injustices, untangle from patriarchal Christian attitudes toward women, and tap into the deep well of feminine wisdom.
Love and Care for Your Natural Hair
Shelia Burlock, Sylvia Burlock, Melissa Burlock
Learn how to love and care for your natural hair spiritually and practically. Uplifting and authentic, My Divine Natural Hair helps Black women embrace the God-created beauty of natural hair through inspirational readings and salon chair guidance on how to heal, consistently care for, and grow their coils.
Books for the Naturalist Mom
Revel in the Beauty and Wisdom of Trees
Discovering the Spiritual Wisdom of Trees
There is great wisdom to learn from trees, and when we connect intimately with them, we can deepen our spiritual lives and grow in the understanding that all beings are part of the fabric of the holy. Trees have much to offer as soul friends, and their millennia of growth and loss provide deep wisdom, if we know how to pay attention. Discovering the Spiritual Wisdom of Trees encourages us to revel in the beauty and wonder of trees as they increase our capacity to bear witness to loss and grief. Integrating science and spirituality, coauthors Beth Norcross and Leah Rampy explore the knowledge held within the living world of trees and planted within each of us.
Discover the Divine in the Natural World
Throughout millennia and across the monotheistic religions, the natural was often revered as a sacred text. As we grapple to make sense of today's tumultuous world, one where nature is at once a damaged and damaging source of disaster, as well as a place of refuge and retreat, we are called again to examine how generously it awaits our attention and devotion, standing ready to be read by all. Weaving together the astonishments of science; the profound wisdom and literary gems of thinkers, poets, and observers who have come before us; and her own spiritual practice and gentle observation, Barbara Mahany reintroduces us to The Book of Nature. We needn't look farther for the divine.
Books for the Justice-Oriented Mom
Change the World in Quiet Ways
Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul
Social justice work, we often assume, is raised voices and raised fists. But what does social justice work look like for those of us who don't feel comfortable battling in the trenches? Alongside inspiring, real-life examples of highly sensitive world-changers, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul expands the possibilities of how to have a positive social impact, affirming the particular gifts and talents that sensitive souls offer to a hurting world.
Read an interview with the author here.
Avoid the Emotional Toll of Advocacy Work
Many of us want to advocate for causes we care about—but which ones? We want to work for change—but will the emotional toll lead to burnout? In The Lightmaker's Manifesto, activist Karen Walrond shares strategies to help you define the actions that bring you joy, identify the values and causes about which you are passionate, and put them together to create change.
Channel Your Inner Badass
Creating the world you want to live in takes guts and grace and everything you've got. To heal the world, though, you've also got to find healing yourself. In Chingona, Mexican American activist, scholar, and podcast host Alma Zaragoza-Petty helps us claim our inner chingona, a Spanish term for "badass woman." Working for change while preserving her spirit, a chingona repurposes her pain for the good of the world. This work won't be easy. But by unleashing our inner badass, we join the righteous fight for dignity and justice for all.
To view all of our books and resources, visit broadleafbooks.com.
