Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Books That Remind Me of My Mother

This is very late, but Happy Tuesday (to those of you for whom it’s still Tuesday) and I hope all of you had a lovely Mother’s Day this past weekend. I’ve had a million things on my mind and had initially planned something a lot more in-depth for today’s TTT, but I figure it’s fine if I settle on 10 Books That Remind Me of My Mom, because she’s wonderful and I love her and she’s got awesome taste in literature.

This is one of those super weird lists that has a mind-boggling mix of genres on here, but you guys, I don’t think anything has ever captured my mother so well. These are all books she’s introduced to me over the years with an odd yet serious look on her face that says, “It’s okay if you don’t like it, but you’re wrong” while at the same time pleadingly communicating, “Please like these books so I have someone to gush about them with.”

Notable books that didn’t make it onto the top 10: Splashman by Lydia Weaver (which has no cover picture, anywhere on the Internet, but I know we own it and I’ll add a picture of it to Goodreads later), Beauty by Robin McKinley, the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews, the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer, Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, and the Fables graphic novel collection by Bill Willingham.

I also asked my grandmother, my mom’s mom, what book reminded her of her mother. This was the original prompt I was going to go with, sort of a guest-post style TTT featuring my mother’s mothers, but I was only able to talk to my grandmother about it. This is what she said:

“The first thing that comes to mind is The Bible. My mother wasn’t a very religious woman – we didn’t go to church all the time, but we went when we could. To me, she was like good woman in the Bible – so generous, she was one of those people that didn’t have a lot of money, but if she had nothing else she would give you the shirt off her back. She was the sweetest, kindest person I’ve ever met. I’ve never read about anyone as nice as my mother. Sometimes I’d get mad at her because she was too nice! And she was a strong woman, maybe not in the way you think of now, but she was a strong woman in a time when women weren’t, weren’t taught to be strong or independent. She was raised in the time period when women were submissive to men. She had to be strong because her husband was often gone, sometimes for a year and a half at a time while he was in the military, and she had 5 kids to raise and no car. Never had a way to go anywhere, totally dependent on other people. But she did it anyway.”

My mom didn’t have a specific book that reminded her of her mom, but if she had to pick, it would be the Norby Chronicles by Isaac Asimov. Fun fact: my grandma wrote him letters in the 50s and 60s, and we have their correspondence framed in my mom’s house because how effing cool is that. 

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What books remind you of your mom? What did you do for your TTT? Link them in the comments below! Happy blogging!