A review by abookishaffair
What My Mother Gave Me: Thirty-one Women on the Gifts That Mattered Most by Elissa Schappell, Caroline Leavitt, Lisa See, Roxana Robinson, Judith Hillman Paterson, Susan Stamberg, Katha Pollitt, Marge Piercy, Eleanor Clift, Dahlia Lithwick, Mary Morris, Jean Hanff Korelitz, Joyce Carol Oates, Cheryl Pearl Sucher, Lillian Daniel, Mameve Medwed, Ann Hood, Charlotte Silver, Elinor Lipman, Mary Gordon, Martha McPhee, Karen Karbo, Elizabeth Benedict, Abigail Pogrebin, Sheila Kohler, Maud Newton, Margo Jefferson, Cecilia Muñoz, Rita Dove, Luanne Rice, Emma Straub

4.0

I read this book just in time for Mother's Day and I actually passed on my copy of "What My Mother Gave Me" to my mom. This book is a collection of stories of what each author's mother gave her. Some gifts are tangible. Some are not. They vary from author to author. Some of the stories are happy and some of them are sad but I think that's sort of a normal reflection of the relationships that women have with their mothers. Whether happy or sad, the gifts that you get from your mother are incredibly important. They truly are things that you carry with you for your entire life, which is exactly the point that the book makes.

I really, really enjoyed this book. This is a book that you will want to share with the women in your life. It would make a great gift book for just about any occasion (but do you really need an occasion to share a book??? No way; books are for anytime!!!) So many of the stories really tugged on my heart. A couple of them made me smile. A couple of them made me tear up.

I suggest reading this book story by story. It's hard to stop in the middle of each story as I think you kind of lose momentum that way so make sure that you have time to sit down and read the whole story all the way through. I could see this being a great book to read one story at night or something like that. I feel that some of the stories in this book are definitely meant to be savored a little bit.

Overall, this is a great book!