mothers & daughters {a book review}

There is no doubt that the relationships between mothers and daughters are very complex and different depending on the family. I was blessed to have a very open and loving relationship with my mother... I'm sure there are things she has refrained from sharing with me, but I have always felt very comfortable being very vulnerable with her and knew that she has done the same with me.

I love reading about mothers and mothering, fiction set in a historical time period and about coming of age characters. Mothers & Daughters by Rae Meadows had it all!! One of the women starting a new life on the Orphan Train, one woman attempting to die of cancer in with dignity and one young mom trying figure out life as a mom . Each of the 3 women portrayed were very complex women attempting to balance motherhood, marriage and their own identities.

With my relationship with my mother as my only experience (thus far), I felt it was hard to connect with some of the mature maternal relationships described in Mothers & Daughters. Their relationships with one another seemed soo distant... daughters not knowing their mother's childhood stories and sometimes even a lack of emotion toward one another. The exception was Samantha; the modern day mother of an infant trying to get back into her life's work but not wanting to leave her baby daughter in the care of anyone else. It was very easy to relate to Samantha especially in the scene of picking up her baby from childcare after the first day... I have soo done that after leaving my kids in someone else's care:)

The book really challenged me to invest in my daughters' lives... not just to be a part of them and raise them well. Since Mothers & Daughters really brought to light how the mother/daughter relationship does affect ladies through their adulthood.

A summary and an excerpt from the book... HERE.
An interview with Rae and her mother... HERE.


Mothers & Daughters by Rae Meadows :: $25


*I was provided with the book to facilitate the review. The opinions are all my own.

**And just an FYI... this book does contain profanity, drug use, prostitution references, adultery, assisted suicide and possibly other things that could be offensive to some. None of these things were the main themes or explored in detail, just things that came up in these women's lives.