Any recommendations for a beautiful book for mother's day please?

[LowLevelBlinging]

I usually get my mum a couple of books for mother's day but I'm struggling to find one this time and I don't have time to go and browse the shelves.

So, she likes Booker shortlist types, literary and thoughtful. More leaning towards the family saga/relationships kind of style than gripping thrillers.

The last books she recommended to me were Jamrach's Menagerie, The Song of Achilles and The Marrying of Chani Kaufman if that helps.

She also likes poetry and in the past I've bought her some Ted Hughs and Slyvia Plath and also a Radio 4 Poetry Please Anthology.

She also loved Letters of Note and Lists of Note which I thoroughly recommend if anyone else is looking for a gift!

So, anyone got any recommendations please? A beautiful gift-type book would be nice, but not the classics as she's read most of them (having done a lit degree).

Thank you!

oh she likes maps too!

any nice map books??

ba da bump

The Miniaturist?

Norah Webster (Colm Toibin)?

Or what about H is for Hawk? That was extremely well reviewed.

Or the new Ann Tyler - A spool of blue thread

Thank you hack mum, I'll check those out.

I was going to say H is for Hawk as well. I loved it and my Mum did too. I read it on a kindle but I believe it has an attractive cover which would make a nice present.

Ooh a second recommendation, good stuff!

Have a look at Persephone books (sorry cannot link), they make beautiful presents.

Definitely Persephone, beautiful books or also check the Virago Modern Classics available on Amazon. A great selection of books and beautiful too.

Waterstones do a BEAUTIFUL Hb copy of The Miniaturist, it's white with a blue floral pattern & a lovely gold ribbon page marker.

If your mum hasn't already read them , the Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard are available from the Book People at the moment at a great price. Excellent family saga, very absorbing and enjoyable.

I enjoyed these !
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Longbourn by Jo Baker

thanks guys, these are great suggestions!

I've ordered:
the Miniaturist
H is for Hawk
Staying Alive
Nora Webster

I think that's a nice little bundle.

I've bought my mum the Bletchley Girls book... looks very interesting. Will have to borrow it once she has read it!

Six poets from hardy to Larkin is a lovely new anthology curated by Alan Bennett with some really quite funny comments on some of the poets. Beautifully presented.
I bought my daughter the three volumes of staying alive this year. I'm impressed by a lot of the content and the price - and the "curation" but for a present, the presentation - three huge volumes - is a bit unattractive.
My favourite poetry book this year, although possibly not suitable for Mother's Day, is Owen sheers extraordinary new verse drama pink mist, about young returning afghan soldiers. I bought it after hearing sheers read an extract at this year's LSE space for thought festival, in a fascinating item on how literature addresses traumatic memory. Sheers' poem made me cry. If it was me I would definitely buy it for her, but spontaneously at some other time of the year.

Btw I am very jealous of you being able to buy poetry and thoughtful novels for your mum to enjoy. My mum has advanced vascular dementia (no short term memory) and is spending her first Mother's Day in a nursing home. She's only 80. Packing up her lifelong collection of books was very sad - so many volumes she bought but never got around to reading. Now she still likes to be read childhood favourites but that's about it.

oh Figment, so sorry to read that