On books about realistic moms

Moms are often given a bad rap in books - especially YA books. The mom is mean and evil or nonexistent or (at best) can't understand their child. Books about parents of adult children are even more confusing as that relationship becomes more nuanced and distant. Here are a few books that represent moms realistically and might give some power and strength to moms out there:

• Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb - Ronica Vestrit is a mom who is trying her hardest. She's spent years managing the family business while her husband sails around trading, while still trying to raise her two daughters well. Once her husband passes, Ronica is tasked with making some tough decisions, especially regarding her daughters. She makes plenty of mistakes and has a lot of learning to do about her children, but she's willing to admit to her mistakes and to give her daughters opportunities to make their own mistakes and learn their own lessons. Ronica is the kind of mom so many people have (or should have)- tough, no nonsense, and independent, but still humble enough to admit her shortcomings. Ronica's story arc throughout the series helps you (and her kids) see her as an active member of the family, not just as the mom.

• Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki - Told from the viewpoints of a wealthy mother struggling to connect with her children and a young artist trying to emulate her own mother, this story is all about motherhood. Lady Daniels is trying to write a memoir about raising her selectively mute teenage son while struggling to connect with him and tolerate her other toddler son. Esther has just graduated from college and been hired as a nanny by the Daniels, all for the purpose of spending the summer on her most ambitious art project ever - becoming her mother for the summer to better understand the woman who helped raise her. This story tells all about motherhood and learning about yourself, with all it's complexities and difficulties.

Pieces of Happiness: A Novel of Friendship, Hope and Chocolate by Anne Østby - Five friends retire together to Fiji and work to support each other, especially as they all go through the growing pains of growing old. Most relateable is Sina, whose relationship with her adult son is struggling as he continues to mooch off her and she struggles to set boundaries. This story shows some of the difficulties of being a good mom while sometimes having to play the bad guy in order to help your child grow.

• My Monster Mama Loves Me So by Laura Leuck - This lovely and delightful picture book helps children to identify ways that they can tell their mom loves them - and is still an adorable read for adults.

Have you read any of these books? What realistic moms do you enjoy reading about? What books give you a positive look at parenting? What books can you relate to as a parent?

Author Spotlight: Robin Hobb

Today, I'm spotlighting an author that I've been getting into recently, but haven't read much of. I'm eventually planning on reading everything Robin Hobb (aka Megan Lindholm) has written (because the little I've read has been absolutely brilliant), but in the meantime, here's a little more information on this fantastic fantasy writer.

(About the Author taken from Robin Hobb's website)

Robin Hobb is a fantasy novelist working from Tacoma, Washington. Best known for The Farseer Trilogy, she has been actively writing and published since she was eighteen years old. Born in California, she moved to Fairbanks, Alaska with her family in the early 1960’s. In 1970 at the age of 18, she married Fred Ogden and moved to Kodiak Island where he quickly infected her with his love of all things maritime. Over the course of the next forty years, as they followed the needs of his career. Her writing career began under the name Megan Lindholm. She wrote for local newspapers as well as children’s magazines such as Highlights for Children and Jack and Jill, as well as creating short fiction for children to be used in the SRA programmed reading material. In the 1980’s, she began to write short fantasy. Other works under the Lindholm name include The Reindeer People, Wizard of the Pigeons and Cloven Hooves. In 1995, Assassin’s Apprentice, her first work under the name Robin Hobb, was published by Bantam Books. She has since written The Liveship Traders Trilogy, The Tawny Man Trilogy, The Soldier Son Trilogy and the four volume tale, The Rain Wilds Chronicles. Her current work in progress, tentatively titled The Fitz and the Fool Trilogy, returns to the world of the Farseers and the realm of the Elderlings. Her works have been translated into over twenty languages, winning multiple awards globally.

MEGAN LINDHOLM BOOKS

ROBIN HOBB BOOKS

From what I understand, all books written under the Robin Hobb psuedonym take place in the same world and come together in really satisfying ways. So far, I've only read part of the Liveship Traders series, but I can already see how it would connect to the other series Hobb has written. They're masterfully written and compelling fantasy stories - definitely worth the time to read.

What Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm books have you read? What is your favorite Robin Hobb book? What other fantasy authors do you enjoy?

June: Best and Strangest

Ah! I’m so glad June is almost over. This month, I loved across the country AND started graduate school, so it’s been hectic. I think we’re finally unpacked and that I’m finally adjusted to being back in school. That being said, June has been crazy and I haven’t read nearly as much as I’d like to - at least not for fun. Graduate school involves a lot of reading - textbooks and articles especially. So while I have gotten a few books read, there aren’t as many to pick from in my summary as I had hoped for. The fun part of reading for school is that I’ve had to read a few books that I probably normally wouldn’t have tried out and I’ve been exposed to a lot of topics that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise. So hurrah for school! And reading new and interesting books and topics!

With all that in mind, here are this month’s best and strangest:

BEST

• Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb - I’ve been meaning to pick up a Robin Hobb book for ages and I finally got ahold of this one and IT WAS SO COOL. Magical ships and pirates and family drama and romance - this book has a bit of everything and I thoroughly enjoyed it and I’m so excited to try out the next book in the series. Highly recommended for pirate lovers and fantasy readers.

• Dune by Frank Herbert - In an effort to enhance my knowledge of classic sci-fi, I finally got around to reading this and I’m certainly glad I did. Not only is the world-building fantastic, but it’s an interest story and a unique one. I’m now trying to build a D&D campaign that’s loosely based on this book, so that will be interesting. Recommended for sci-fi lovers (slash why haven’t you read this yet?!)

• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion - I read this for a class and it really resonated with me. Didion shares her experience of the year following her husband’s death. She talks about other difficulties in her life and how she confronted her own grief and how the people around her were both helpful and harmful to her grieving process. It was a fascinating and very honest book and I’ve been thinking about it a lot since I finished it. Recommended for those who work with grieving individuals or who are working through their own grief.

STRANGEST

• Vibrator Nation: How Feminist Sex-Toy Stores Changed the Business of Pleasure by Lynn Comella - I didn’t read very many odd books this month that were worth mentioning -books I read were either exactly what I expected or were different, but in a boring way. This book was fascinating and not exactly what I expected, so I loved it. Comella shares her research of the first feminist sex-toy stores and how these stores both influenced attitudes and policies about sex. She also shares the strange and sometimes game-changing business practices of some of these stores and how they started a revolution in sex-toy shopping. This book was so serious and informational while still being about something that made me giggle a bit. I wanted so badly to tell everyone about all the interesting things I was learning in this book, but striking up a conversation with your dad about the development of high-quality vibrators doesn’t always seem comfortable. I highly recommend this book for anyone with an interest in feminism or in sex-positive literature.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

• Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Marya Hornbacher
• An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison
• Love and Other Alien Experiences by Kerry Winfrey

Library books: 0

Books I bought: 3

Overdrive Audiobooks: 1

Egalleys: 5

Goodreads Giveaway wins: 0

Amazon Lending Library: 0

Free books on Kindle: 0

Gifts: 0

Borrowed from friend: 0

Book Swapped: 0

Available online: 1

Total: 10

What have you read this month? What was the best book you read? The strangest? Have you read any of the books I read this month?