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Best Books for Mother’s Day: Mothers, Daughters and Families

These books look closely at mothers and daughters and the families around them, with warmth, honesty and humor.

Each book has a one-line hook and a plain note on what you get from it, so you can choose without opening every page.

Best for: Readers choosing a gift for a mother, or a book about one.

This list: 15 books picked by hand for the season.
Order: Not a ranking.

15 books

1925
Mrs Dalloway
Virginia Woolf
Classics · Thoughtful
A single day in the life of an upper-class London woman
What you get: Flowing, gorgeous prose that lets you feel the rhythm of a day in London.
Amazon Description
1927
To the Lighthouse
Virginia Woolf
Classics · Thoughtful
The Ramsays' summer at a seaside house on the Isle of Skye, built around a planned trip to a lighthouse
What you get: Luminous prose that helps you notice the beauty in everyday moments and the passing of time.
Amazon Description
1943
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Betty Smith
Classics · Warm
A girl grows up in a Brooklyn tenement
What you get: A heartfelt, hopeful story of a girl and her family, rich with city life and feeling.
Amazon Description
The Summer Book
1972
The Summer Book
Tove Jansson
Literary Fiction · Warm
A grandmother and a girl spend a summer on an island
What you get: A calm, beautiful read that helps you slow down.
Amazon Description
1989
Breathing Lessons
Anne Tyler
Literary Fiction · Warm
One long day of driving to a funeral, one long marriage
What you get: A gentle, witty story that makes you smile at the stubborn love between two people.
Amazon Description
1988
The Bean Trees
Barbara Kingsolver
Literary Fiction · Warm
A young woman finds an abandoned child
What you get: A bright, hopeful story with big heart and humor.
Amazon Description
1991
The Kitchen God’s Wife
Amy Tan
Historical Fiction · Thoughtful
A mother tells her daughter her secret past
What you get: A rich, moving story that gives you a new view of family secrets.
Amazon Description
1991
Saint Maybe
Anne Tyler
Literary Fiction · Warm
A man accidentally becomes a father to his brother’s children
What you get: A gentle, humane story about love and responsibility.
Amazon Description
1995
The Stone Diaries
Carol Shields
Literary Fiction · Thoughtful
The fictional autobiography of Daisy Goodwill, born in 1905
What you get: A beautiful, unusual portrait of one woman's life that makes you notice the meaning in ordinary years.
Amazon Description
1997
The Red Tent
Anita Diamant
Historical Fiction · Warm
The story of Dinah from the Book of Genesis
What you get: A warm, sensuous, immersive story full of sisterhood and ritual.
Amazon Description
2001
The Bonesetter’s Daughter
Amy Tan
Literary Fiction · Melancholic
A daughter finds her mother’s memoir
What you get: A rich, moving story that links generations.
Amazon Description
2009
Olive Kitteridge
Elizabeth Strout
Literary Fiction · Melancholic
A blunt retired math teacher in a Maine town, seen through thirteen linked stories
What you get: Tender, interlinked stories that make ordinary lives feel deep and real. You come away with a gentler view of difficult people and a lot of feeling.
Amazon Description
Please Look After Mom
2008
Please Look After Mom
Kyung-sook Shin
Literary Fiction · Melancholic
A family searches for their mother in Seoul
What you get: A moving, thoughtful story that may make you call your mother.
Amazon Description
2014
Everything I Never Told You
Celeste Ng
Literary Fiction · Melancholic
A family looks for the reason a daughter died
What you get: A moving, carefully built story that explores love, expectation and the things we leave unsaid.
Amazon Description
2017
Little Fires Everywhere
Celeste Ng
Literary Fiction · Thoughtful
Two mothers and a custody battle
What you get: A beautifully told story of two families and the secrets that connect them. It sparks lively conversation and keeps you turning pages to find out how it all fits together.
Amazon Description