Mums always love a good read – treat her to a few hours of ‘me time’ with a good book! If you’re looking for a Mother’s Day gift, here are six of the best picks for every kind of mum, from historical fiction, quirky who-dunnits, thrilling action tales and the story of a Kiwi couple who overcame all for love.
THE TOP 6 BOOKS FOR MOTHER’S DAY GIFTS:
The Winter Dress by Lauren Chater
A richly-imaged historical novel by the bestselling author of The Lace Weaver, this gorgeous book is perfect for snuggling up with on a Sunday afternoon. Two women are separated by centuries but connected by one beautiful silk dress in a tale based on a real-life shipwreck discovered off Texel Island in The Netherlands.
Jo Baaker, a textiles historian and Dutch ex-pat is drawn back to the island where she was born to investigate the provenance of a 17th century silk dress. Retrieved by local divers from a sunken shipwreck, the dress offers tantalising clues about the way people lived and died during Holland’s famous Golden Age.
Jo’s research leads her to Anna Tesseltje, a poor Amsterdam laundress turned ladies’ companion who served the enigmatic artist Catharina van Shurman. The two women were said to share a powerful bond, so why did Anna abandon Catharina at the height of her misfortune?
Jo is convinced the truth lies hidden between the folds of this extraordinary dress. But as she delves deeper into Anna’s history, troubling details about her own past begin to emerge.
This one is escapist and charming with a main character you’ll love as much as Eleanor Oliphant – and was most recently our book club read of the month!
Molly the maid is all alone in the world. A nobody. She’s used to being invisible in her job at the Regency Grand Hotel, plumping pillows and wiping away the grime, dust and secrets of the guests passing through. She’s just a maid – why should anyone take notice?
But Molly is thrown into the spotlight when she discovers an infamous guest, Mr Black, very dead in his bed. This isn’t a mess that can be easily cleaned up. And as Molly becomes embroiled in the hunt for the truth, following the clues whispering in the hallways of the Regency Grand, she discovers a power she never knew was there. She’s just a maid – but what can she see that others overlook?
The Maid is a story about how the truth isn’t always black and white – it’s found in the dirtier, grey areas in between.
The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs
A sensual feast of a novel exploring freedom, friendship and the quiet joy of cooking – perfect if your mum’s happy place is in the kitchen.
England 1835. Eliza Acton is a poet who dreams of seeing her words in print. But when she takes her new manuscript to a publisher, she’s told that ‘poetry is not the business of a lady’. Instead, they want her to write a cookery book. That’s what readers really want from women. England is awash with exciting new ingredients, from spices to exotic fruits. But no one knows how to use them
Eliza leaves the offices appalled. But when her father is forced to flee the country for bankruptcy, she has no choice but to consider the proposal. Never having cooked before, she is determined to learn and to discover, if she can, the poetry in recipe writing. To assist her, she hires seventeen-year-old Ann Kirby, the impoverished daughter of a war-crippled father and a mother with dementia.
Over the course of ten years, Eliza and Ann developed an unusual friendship – one that crossed social classes and divides – and, together, they broke the mould of traditional cookbooks and changed the course of cookery writing forever. The perfect Mother’s Day gift!
The Leonard Girls by Deborah Challinor
Love, loss and the sorrows of war come together in the compelling final novel Deborah Challinor’s Restless Years series.
Rowie’s pro-war, her sister Jo’s a protester. And they’re both in Vietnam. In 1969, at the height of the Vietnam war, nurse Rowie Leonard is serving a 12-month tour of duty. She supports the war and is committed to caring for wounded New Zealand and Australian troops. After a few months, however, she realises that nothing at all about the conflict is as clear-cut as she’d assumed.
Her younger sister, Jo, is the opposite – a student at the University of Auckland, a folk singer and a fervent anti-war protestor. But when Jo falls for professional soldier Sam Apanui, home on leave to visit his ill father, she finds herself torn between her feelings and her convictions. As the three of them grapple with love, loss, and the stresses and sorrows of war, each will be forced to confront and question everything they believed.
A haunting tale of heroism from the author of The Rose Code, this book, despite being set int he 40s, is remarkably relevant for the current times.
She’s the war’s most lethal sniper. And the one they least expect. In the snowbound city of Kiev, aspiring historian Mila Pavlichenko’s life revolves around her young son – until Hitler’s invasion of Russia changes everything. Suddenly, she and her friends must take up arms to save their country from the Fuhrer’s destruction.
Handed a rifle, Mila discovers a gift – and months of blood, sweat and tears turn the young woman into a deadly sniper: the most lethal hunter of Nazis.
Yet success is bittersweet. Mila is torn from the battlefields of the eastern front and sent to America while the war still rages. There, she finds an unexpected ally in First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and an unexpected promise of a different future.
But when an old enemy from Mila’s past joins forces with a terrifying new foe, she finds herself in the deadliest duel of her life.
The Diamond Eye is a haunting novel of heroism born of desperation, of a mother who became a soldier, of a woman who found her place in the world and changed the course of history forever.
The Modern Singhs by Abbey and Money Singh
This is a heart-warming and true New Zealand story of a marriage of two cultures. Abbey and Money Singh are better known as The Modern Singhs, Kiwi social media celebrities with a rich and tangled love story to tell.
Shared through the eyes of this inspiring duo, The Modern Singhs reveals their experiences as migrants to New Zealand as they struggled to find footing in new surroundings. They describe how they met and pursued a relationship that was forbidden by Money’s culture, where he felt he had to choose between his family and the love of his life. The couple opens up about the difficult birth of their son, their journey with mental health, a complicated sense of home, and what it’s like to raise bilingual children across three cultures.
The rest is history – or at least uploaded to YouTube, where Abbey and Money’s joyful outlook and celebration of tradition unites 1.3 million viewers from all over the world, encouraging others to embrace difference with open hearts. What’s better for a Mother’s Day gift than a story of true love?
