Books I would get my mom for Christmas

Happy Thursday, friends! And happy holidays! Whether it’s Christmas, Hanukkah, or just a winter (or summer) break, I hope you’re having a great holiday season.

Today, I wanted to do a kind of personal post. I lost my mom in March 2020, which was obviously a massive loss in my life. One of the biggest holes is in my reading life: my mom loved books just as much as I did, and often (especially near the end of her life) read the same books I was reading so that we could talk about them and she could understand what I liked. It’s really something that I miss. I have people in my life that read, but it’s different y’know?

In the two years she’s been gone, I’ve read a bunch of books I either know she’d love or want to know her thoughts on. I also always loved deciding what books to get her for Christmas — it was like a puzzle or something for me, trying to find the perfect mix of books to get her.

So today, I thought I would write a blog post about the books I would be getting my mom for Christmas this year, if she were still with us. This is going to be both books I’ve read and know she’d have loved, or books on my TBR/that I’ve seen in the wild that I think she’d want to read.

Run Towards the Danger by Sarah Polley: I got this book from my dad this year, and in an alternate timeline, my mom and I probably read it at the same time. But I want to know her thoughts on it so badly.

Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker: this book follows a family with six schizophrenic sons, and talks about schizophrenia research. My mom was a psychiatrist and I think she would have loved this.

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe: this book is about the IRA and the troubles. My mom was part Irish, and I know she would have loved this. I read this book in 2020, just a couple of months after she passed away, and the only thing I could think (besides how good it was) was how much she would have loved it. If I could only give her one book from this list, I would want it to be this one, and I hope that wherever she is, she gets to read it.

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe: I would also give her Keefe’s other book while we’re at it. This was so infuriating and interesting, and I think we would have had a lot to talk about.

Dava Shastri’s Last by Kirthana Ramisetti: this book follows a woman who decides to publicize her obituary before she dies by MAID to see what people say about her. It’s a bit more fluffy and gossipy than I think my mom would usually go for, but I think she would have found it super interesting nonetheless. My mom was considering MAID, and I think she would have had a lot to say about this book and Dava (also if you need a different type of Christmas book, I highly recommend this one!).

Fayne by Ann-Marie MacDonald: one of my mom’s favourite books was Fall On Your Knees by MacDonald. I recently came across signed copies of her her new book, Fayne, and immediately thought “I need to get that for mommy”. I have no idea what it’s about, but I know it would have been the perfect gift for my mom.

Who Cooked the Last Supper? by Rosalind Miles: my mom loved history, and she was a Christian, and she was a feminist, and I feel like this book is the perfect collection of those things.

The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Eijun Wang: I meant to get my mom this book for either Christmas or her birthday, and decided to get other ones instead. I actually used to have a Goodreads shelf called “for mommy” that was books I wanted to buy her, and this was the only one on it when she passed away.

So those are the books I would be getting my mom for Christmas if she were still with us. Have you read any of these? What were your thoughts? If they’re readers, what books do you get your parents for Christmas? Let me know!

Ally xx

---

Twitter // Instagram // Goodreads // Buy me a coffee!