This week is an [International] Mother’s Day freebie. Now the UK Mother’s Day was quite a while ago, but never mind. The thing with me and my mum is that we’ve always shared books, ever since I finally learnt to read — I went from children’s books to her shelves within a year or two. Rare is the letter or conversation that doesn’t involve books somehow, so here are ten books I’d like my mother to read already.
- My Real Children, by Jo Walton. You might cry, Mum, sorry. Motherhood is quite important in this one, and it also handles dementia and how it effects families.
- City of Stairs, by Robert Jackson Bennett. I’m sorry I took my copy back; I’ll get you the ebook or something. It’s a great series, and it’s finished now, too!
- A Natural History of Dragons, by Marie Brennan. I think you’d enjoy this Victorian pastiche. It’s not as heavy-going as something like Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and the lead character is a lot of fun. Plus, dragons!
- Stories of Your Life and Others, by Ted Chiang. Mostly for ‘Stories of Your Life’, which the movie Arrival was based on. (I think you’d like the movie, too.) Warning, this will almost definitely make you cry, knowing you.
- Behind the Shock Machine, by Gina Perry. I’ve bought you this, so you have no excuse! It’s a fascinating exploration of Stanley Milgram’s experiments and conclusions, and very relevant to about two dozen conversations we’ve had in the last few years.
- Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Mostly to find out if you do enjoy it. I’ve been on the fence for years about whether you will. I think it’s very clever and very funny.
- The Carpet Makers, by Andreas Eschbach. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this one to you, but it’s a fascinating set of linked short stories. I have a copy, but I’m not sure if Lisa will let me lend it to you indefinitely. Maybe I’ll get you a copy.
- Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie. Rereading it recently, I enjoyed it a lot. People have emphasised the gender aspects of it, but there’s also a fascinating story about AI and individuality.
- The Fifth Season, by N.K. Jemisin. I haven’t got round to reading it either, but we really should.
- Children of Earth and Sky, by Guy Gavriel Kay. We have the same opinions on most of his books, so you can tell me if I should be shuffling this to the front of my list instead of letting it languish!
And for those who are not my mother, well, those are all good books anyway.
I love the kind of mother-child relationship I have with my mother, where we can discuss books and psychology experiments and space opera and the accuracy of portrayals of mental illness in books, and just about everything else under the sun. She always treated me as an adult in terms of my formed opinions, and that has undoubtedly enriched our relationship and conversation options greatly. I can recommend it as a mode of parenting pretty unreservedly.
I am so sad that I no longer really share books with my Mum. Like you, I grew up reading her books – I’m into SFF because she was when she was young, so she pushed Alan Garner and Lloyd Alexander at me when I was small and had Tolkien on the shelves when I was a little bigger. She has wonderful stories about being caught reading SF under her desk, only for her teacher to recommend John Wyndham. But now she won’t pick up anything SFF, so our tastes are miles apart. I’ll occasionally point her at a crime novel I’ve unexpectedly enjoyed (she reads an awful lot more crime than me) and we’ll very occasionally find a history book we can get excited about, but neither of us read enough non-fiction for this to be regular.
Love your list though – about half of it is on my TBR and the others I’ve read I really appreciate. I haven’t read any GGK since Tigana – I didn’t get excited about the Chinese setting and somehow I didn’t realise Children wasn’t another one in that series. But Mediterranean pirates?! I need to get on this…
imyril recently posted…A Conjuring of Light: the consequence of delay
My mum doesn’t get to read often enough anymore, but I’m so glad we share the same taste still! (Honestly I have the same tastes as both my parents, in many ways.) Most of the authors I love I’ve either shared with Mum, or they came from her in the first place!
Ooh, have you read Andreas Eschbach?
I haven’t – but looking at the synopsis, I should fix that 🙂 If I’m feeling really gung ho, I could read it in German – I’ve been wanting to read some works not in translation!
imyril recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: Mummy dearest
It’s a great book — me and my wife love it. I’ve heard his other books aren’t as great, alas, but The Carpet Makers… all thumbs up.
I share all my books with my dad-he’s a big fan of sex free urban fantasy, apocalypse, horror and zombies!
I love being able to share books with a parent!
Thank you. You have expressed exactly what I hoped you might say of our relationship and our relationship through books. Mum
I doubt I’d be the smartypants I seem to be without all the books and conversations about books we’ve had.
I haven’t heard of any of these books before but I should really check some of them out! Great list 🙂
They’re really awesome! Thanks for dropping by.
This is such a nice post! I love that you and your mom share a love of reading and enjoy talking about books (and everything else!). It sounds like a great relationship.
Thanks! We certainly never lack for conversation. 🙂
Lovely list! I’ve read The Fifth Season and absolutely loved it <3 And City of Stairs is on my TBR 🙂
City of Stairs is amazing, definitely recommended!
Great list! Your mum sounds very cool. 🙂 I can confirm that The Fifth Season is amazing and you should definitely read it, and I really need to read Ancillary Justice because I’ve heard nothing but good things.
Jess @ Curiouser and Curiouser recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday | Things I Want My (Hypothetical) Daughter to Read
She is, at least in her taste in books! (And music, actually — we share that too.)
My wife didn’t love Ancillary Justice, but I really did!
Sounds like you have a great relationship with your mom! Sadly, my mom didn’t share the reading hobby, so we can’t discuss it together xD Anyway, this is such a great list!
Tiffany @ The Bookish Thought recently posted…Best and Worst Mother and Daughter/Son Relationship
Aw, no! I can’t imagine not sharing books with my mum.
Great list! Your mom sounds great, it’s so cool that you can discuss books with her.
Thanks! And yeah, I wouldn’t trade her.