Reader Sends in Book Suggestions
A Mother-Daughter Book Club.com reader just sent in a list of suggestions for books moms and daughters may enjoy reading togehter. Here’s a note from Ingrid D.:
I have a few suggestions for some mother/daughter reads—all of which I have read either with my daughter or we both read the book on our own. They might be above a younger teen but still worth looking into. All the best,Ingrid D.
- Not Without My Daughter, by Betty Mahmoody—This is non-fiction and was written about 20 years ago. About a young American mother who agrees to visit her Iranian-American husband’s family in Teheran, where they become virtual captives. Mahmoody’s husband decided to keep his family in Teheran. At last he agrees to let Betty leave but will not let her take her daughter. Betty was unwilling to have her daughter raised in the environment that oppressed women—she engineers a dramatic and dangerous escape with her six year old daughter. It was made into a movie some years ago (Sally Field). The movie did a pretty good job of sticking to the book but the book was a page turner.
- Jezebel’s Daughter, by Wilkie Collins—I saw that someone mentioned The Moonstone and The Woman in White, Collins classics, but he wrote other books and a lot of them feature very strong women. This one is about the daughter of a poor, disgraced woman and her romance with a prominent man—with the murder, melodrama and intrigue that you always get with a Collins book.
- The Girl With No Shadow, by Joanne Harris—This is a sequel to Harris’ book “Chocolat” that was made into a movie with Johnny Depp. It is very whimsical, almost a fairy tale, about the magical mother from Chocolat and her two daughters. A little complex and maybe you will want to read Chocolat first. Written about 2 or 3 years ago.
- Lady Vernon and Her Daughter, by Jane Rubino and Caitlen Rubino Bradway—This is a very interesting revision of an early work that Jane Austen wrote when she was very young, 19 or 20. The orginal book was a novel written in letters—this book expands on the work and fleshes out the characters, incorporating a lot of the original material. Actually written by a mother and daughter. (They also have a web site called janetility.com where they do “Jane Austen reviews” that are LOL funny, especially the ones of the Twilight movies.)
Thanks so much for the suggestions and the synopses of these books Ingrid. I always welcome reader input, and I look forward to checking out some of these titles myself. They all look very interesting.
I have actually read two of these books! ‘Not Without My Daughter’ was a ‘page turner’ – i could not put it down – one of those books i read cover to cover and much more dramatic than the movie. I remember in the 80s or maybe early 90s the author was on the old Phil Donohue show. A big Jane Austen fan i loved ‘Lady Vernon and Her Daughter’ – a lot of Austen books out now but this was the most authentic to her style imho – almost a ‘new’ Austen work and i have recommended it to everyone i know. There is also a very pretty book trailer up on youtube and maybe on the book site at Amazon. I also recommend as a good mother daughter read Austens ‘Sense and Sensibility’ – for the Dashwood family – a widowed mother and her three daughters and the other interesting mothers – the hilarious Mrs Jennings and her two daughters. In fact Austen has some good conversation-starting mothers and daughters in all of her books.