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MAY: CELEBRATE MOMS, AUNTS, GRANDMOMS, CAREGIVERS
Mother's Day is the day to remember and celebrate the women in your life who've loved you and taken care of you. They can be mothers, aunts, sisters, grandmothers, stepmothers, cousins, family friends, mothers-in-law, guardians, foster moms...whomever has been important to you.
During May we're celebrating the diversity of mother figures with a variery of thoughts on the subject. Check out our selection of books, poetry, movies, music and websites.
Pictured above: Marian Robinson, the First Grandmother (aka Michelle Obama's mother). Read about grandmothers in Eye of my Heart: 27 writers reveal the hidden pleasures and perils of being a grandmother edited by Barbara Graham ; introduction by Mary Pipher.
And since May is a beautiful month...we've included Mother Nature. In New York, flowering cherry trees are in bloom. And the flowers outside the library are bursting with life. Come on over and enjoy!
Mom: a celebration of mothers from Storycorps by Dave Isay
In time for Mother's Day, Isay brings a satisfying second collection of StoryCorps selections after the bestselling Listening Is an Act of Love. Throughout 30,000 recorded interviews by everyday Americans are numerous memories of parents, and among the many mothers who share their stories in this collection are mothers of every variety-single, working, stay-at-home, with one child or a dozen. A couple describe an unexpected camaraderie between their mothers: one American, the other Ethiopian: "My mom would speak in English, and your mom would speak in Amharic, and then they'd laugh and throw their hands up."
A mother of 12 tells her youngest, age 12, about her oldest, a soldier killed in Iraq. Reunited at age 60 with the son she reluctantly gave away, Hilory Boucher tells him what happened as she rode away from a Boston home for unwed mothers: "You were handed off to a social worker at a stop on the Merritt Parkway, with your pink bunny and your layette." Readers will encounter an emotional range from heart-wrenching to inspirational in these compelling maternal accounts. Photos. Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
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Volver DVD
Two sisters learn that the bonds of family don't always end after death in this gentle observational comedy drama that marks celebrated Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar's 16th feature. The story explores the interactions between three generations of women in a Spanish family. Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) was born and raised in the apocryphal village of Alcanfor de las Infantas, in La Mancha, Spain. However, she now resides in Madrid, where she works as a janitor. She is married to Paco, an unemployed layabout, and looks after her daughter, Paula. Raimunda's mother, Irene, died several years back in a house fire. The story takes an unusual and mystical twist when Agustina mentions that Irene has begun reappearing in ghostly form -- a fact questioned by Raimunda and Sole. After a murder and an unexpected family tragedy, Paula's story is indeed corroborated by the appearance of Irene's spirit (who has come to comfort her family), and Sole must decide how to respond to the long-dead mother's strange, enchanting presence. Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
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Not my daughter by Barbara Delinsky
Delinsky proves once again why she's a perennial bestseller with this thought-provoking tale of three smart, popular teenage girls who make a pact to become pregnant and raise their babies together. Lily, Mary Kate, and Jess also happen to be the daughters of best friends Susan, Kate, and Sunny, and the mothers are thrown into a tailspin by this unexpected news. Susan, the principal of the town's high school, has the most to lose, when the schools superintendent and editor of the local newspaper question her abilities as a leader and mother, and other parents prove quick to blame her-a single mother herself who got pregnant as a teenager-as a poor role model. But all three women must come to grips with where they failed as mothers, how the dreams they had for their daughters are disappearing, and scathing smalltown judgment. Timely, fresh, and true-to-life, this novel explores multiple layers of motherhood and tackles tough questions. (Jan.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. Copyright 2010 Publishers Weekly
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Mama Mia DVD
Longing to discover the identity of her true father before she exchanges her wedding vows, the daughter of a once-rebellious single mother secretly invites a trio of paternal candidates to her upcoming wedding in this feature adaptation of the beloved stage musical. Independent-minded single mother Donna (Meryl Streep) has always done her best to raise her spirited daughter, Sophie, while simultaneously running a successful hotel on a small Greek island, but now the time has come for this hardworking mom to finally let go. Of course, Donna's lifelong friends Rosie (Julie Walters) and Tanya (Christine Baranski) will both be present at the wedding, but unbeknownst to the mother, Sophie has furtively invited three very special guests of her own. Now, as three key figures from Donna's past return to the picturesque Mediterranean shores they all walked 20 years prior, one beautiful bride will discover the secret of her past while one lonely mother finds out that it's never too late for a little romance. Featuring 22 classic ABBA hits. Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
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Singing bird by Roisin McAuley
Twenty-seven years after she adopted her baby daughter in Ireland, Lena Molloy receives a mysterious call from Sister Monica, the nun who set up the adoption. She claims that she wants merely to tie up loose ends before she retires, but Lena, who feels both anxious and frightened after the call, is tempted to probe deeper into the meaning of their conversation. Against her husband's wishes, and accompanied by her best friend, Alma—who is nursing a broken heart—Lena travels to the west of Ireland on a secret mission to trace the birth parents of her daughter, Mary, an up-and-coming star in the world of opera.
At first the trail seems to have gone cold. Saint Joseph's home for unmarried mothers has become an old people's home, and Sister Monica is dismissive and unforthcoming. Then a chance meeting sets Lena on a journey through Ireland and into the past, taking her through many twists and turns to an outcome she could never have anticipated.
Singing Bird is a fresh, penetrating novel filled with emotional complexity, psychological suspense and Irish charm. It is a story about deeply rooted secrets, the unshakable bonds between family and friends and the constant human struggle to unearth the truth about our own personal history. Roisin McAuley's debut novel is a beguiling and timeless tale of faith and devotion that will touch everyone who reads it.
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House rules by Jodi Picoult
Eighteen-year old Jacob Hunt has Asperger's syndrome, and his devoted single mother, Emma, has built their family's life around Jacob's needs, sacrificing her career to act as his caregiver and all but ignoring a younger son, Theo. But when Jacob is accused of murder, that carefully crafted life comes apart, and all of the hallmarks of Jacob's diagnosis begin to make him look guilty. Emma hires a young attorney whose attachment to Jacob brings him close to the family as he struggles to mount a defense for Jacob, whose inability to read social cues makes him less than an ideal client. Picoult's writing, line by line, is as smooth as ever, and she does a great job of getting into Jacob's head. Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.
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Duets: an American classic with Tony Bennett Music CD
Perfecting the art of excellence for over six decades, with 105 albums selling over 50 million copies, Tony Bennett has come to represent the essence of elegance, tradition and artistic accomplishments. Tony celebrates his 80th birthday recording Duets of his greatest hits with today's greatest artists: Bono, Michael Bublé, Elvis Costello, Celine Dion, Dixie Chicks, Billy Joel, Elton John, Juanes, Diana Krall, k.d. lang, John Legend, Paul McCartney, Tim McGraw, George Michael, Sting, Barbra Streisand, James Taylor, and Stevie Wonder.
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Listen to Tony sing at amazon.com
Love in a time of homeschooling: a mother and daughter's uncommon year by Laura Brodie
Told by elementary school teachers that her daughter, Julia, "needs to spend more time in our world," author Brodie (Breaking Out, The Widow's Season) decided that her daughter's unique intellectual needs would best be served by a year of home-schooling: "The more I looked into it, the more I discovered that short-term homeschooling is a growing trend in America, for a vast array of reasons." Chronicling the entirety of her homeschooling experience, from the decision-making process to Julia's successful re-entry into 6th grade, Brodie takes pains to show how difficult homeschooling can be: "How foolish I had been, to have believed that Julia's complaints over the past two years. stemmed from an institutional cause" (as it turns out, Julia simply doesn't like to be told what to do). Having been frustrated by other homeschooling books' Pollyanna attitude toward the parent-child relationship, Brodie's contribution to the field is full of honest revelations that make it vital for anyone considering homeschooling; happily, her gift for good storytelling and keen observation (of herself and others) make this an absorbing read for everyone else. Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
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For One More Day by Mitch Albom
This is the story of Charley, a child of divorce who is always forced to choose between his mother and his father. He grows into a man and starts a family of his own. But on one fateful weekend, he leaves his mother to secretly be with his father and she dies while he is gone. This haunts him for years. It unravels his own young family. It leads him to depression and drunkenness. One night, he decides to take his life. But somewhere between this world and the next, he encounters his mother again, in their hometown, and gets to spend one last day with her the day he missed and always wished he'd had. He asks the questions many of us yearn to ask, the questions we never ask while our parents are alive. By the end of this magical day, Charley discovers how little he really knew about his mother, the secret of how her love saved their family, and how deeply he wants the second chance to save his own.
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The eighth promise: an American son's tribute to his Toisanese mother by William Poy Lee
While many immigrants are focused on assimilation, Lee's mother, Poy Jen Lee, came to America with a different agenda. In 1948, Poy Jen agreed to leave Suey Wan, her Toisan village in the Pearl River delta of China, to come to America as the wife of a Toisanese-American man. Before leaving, she made eight promises to her mother, among them that she'd find good husbands for her sisters and arrange immigration papers for her mother and brother; teach her children Chinese and Toisan customs, so they'd know their heritage; keep clan sisterhood strong; and cook traditional medicinal soups. The eighth promise bound Poy Jen to the fundamental Toisan ethos, "to live her life in complete compassion" for all people-her family, her Chun clan sisterhood and her larger community. In this remarkable memoir, mother and son, in alternating chapters, tell the story of their life in San Francisco's Chinatown from the 1950s to the present. Between American racism and power struggles in the Chinese community, it's a tribute to Toisan endurance that Poy Jen not only held her family together but also brought her children back to China to fortify their clan connection. Fans of Amy Tan and Maxine Hong Kingston shouldn't hesitate to embrace this formidable matriarch and the son she taught to cook her chi soups. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
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The daughter trap: taking care of mom and dad-- and you by Laurel Kennedy
Is caring for elderly parents the responsibility of families, government, nonprofit groups, religious organizations, business, the community-or all of the above? Kennedy, founder of the Boomer consulting firm Age Lessons, says "all of the above" in this scattershot polemic, not quite a call to arms and not quite a practical guide for adults facing the problems of helping older parents near the end of life. The author's argument that daughters, or daughters-in-law, are the primary caregivers for elderly parents, is contradicted by a Met Life survey she cites showing that 40 per cent of caregivers are men; as well, she devotes a chapter to sons who provide care. Kennedy asserts that the women who fought for child-care services 30 years ago should now form a movement for elder care, yet that child care movement was far less successful than she claims. Most of the book argues points that are already obvious to caregivers, yet the part of her case that is aimed more at policymakers is too thin to be persuasive. Her practical suggestions are scattered and often dependent on persuading businesses to support caregiving employees. Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
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Celebrating moms in poetry
Listed below are several poems selected by the Poetry Foundation on motherhood. Some of the poems are tender, funny, loving, and mournful. Some are about parenting a small child, and others consider motherhood from the vantage of an adult. All of the poems affirm the relationship between mother/caregiver and child.
Click on a title to see the poem.
1. Lunchbox Love Note by Kenn Nesbitt
In this poem—notable for its hard end rhymes—the poet discovers a valentine in his notebook and wonders who wrote it. Jennifer? Jo? He opens it and “Then wham! as if / it were a bomb, / inside it reads, / “I love you—Mom.”
2. To a Child by Sophie Jewett
Late nineteenth-century poet Jewett frames the mother-child relationship using natural imagery: a forest tree that shelters a wild, sweet bird from the north wind. When the wind calms, the bird sings for one golden hour. Recalling the song, the mother feels her heart—and the world—grow young again.
3. Waterwings by Cathy Song
Song captures the poignant transience of mothering a small child. The morning her son decides he doesn’t need waterwings she watches him swim away with sadness because “he will not remember / that he and beauty were aligned”, and imagines the future time when he will wait for her “having already outdistanced this body, / the one that slipped from me like a fish, / floating, free of itself.”
4. Pre-Text by Marie Ponsot
This poem tenderly notes the connection between all of us by watching a baby—a “Caesar or Sappho / or Mary’s Jesus”, a “Young Anyone”—amazed at taking his first steps.
5. To Any Reader by Robert Louis Stevenson
The poet imagines a mother who envisions her child at play, and presents himself as such a child who cannot be summoned now because he has grown, is “a child of air.”
6. The Little Book of Hand Shadows by Deborah Digges
When the poet makes hand shadows for her child she is god-like, populating the world with creatures from her hand. But she knows her child will eventually eclipse her, and with his shadow, does. As shadows, the two of them are formless—anything—and they watch their descendents “grow out of the dark, out of themselves,” into other animals who will finally become shadows themselves.
7. The Great Blue Heron by Carolyn Kizer
When the poet sees the heron on the beach, she wonders, “Heron, whose ghost are you?” and then, realizing, runs up the path to her mother. Her mother also catches a glimpse of the bird drifting out of view and understands that the bird is a symbol of her death. Fifteen years later, haunted by the bird, the anguished poet asks the heron why he has stood patiently “Waiting upon the day . . . / My mother would drift away”.
8. Tintype on the Pond, 1925 J. Lorraine Brown
“Believe it or not,” the poem begins, and in a tone mixed with skepticism and empathy, the poet tries to imagine her mother, now an old woman, ice skating on the rib bones of a roast tied to her boots with waxed twine.
9. Not Here by Jane Kenyon
The poet discovers mice have nested in her bureau and ruined her mother-in-law’s linens. She uses the occasion to both mourn an absent generation of women (“There’s almost no one left / who knows how to crochet lace. . . .”) and the life that also passes with time. The mice are her metaphor: “making themselves / flat and scarce while the cat / dozed with her paws in the air, / and we read the mail / or evening paper, unaware.”
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Need a poem for a project or pleasure? Try our online poem finder at LitFinder!
The Tappan Library offers access to a variety of online resources on topics from auto repair to poetry & school projects to investing & genealogy. To take a look:
- please visit our homepage at http://www.taplib.org
- click the Adult Services tab & select Databases from the drop-down list
- click on "Search our online subscriptions"
- scroll down the list to select your choice
MOTHER NATURE
Dawn light: dancing with cranes and other ways to start the day by Diane Ackerman
The award-winning author of books on an eclectic range of subjects, Ackerman (The Zookeeper's Wife) now turns her attention to the dawn. This collection of essays is arranged seasonally from spring to winter and ranges geographically between Palm Beach, FL, and Ithaca, NY. Essays cover everything from the behavior of doves in Florida at dawn and Monet's use of light in his art to a discussion of festivals that take place at dawn and teaching young whooping cranes to migrate. Ackerman focuses on the natural world, especially birds, but she also explores mythology, art, and literature. Verdict These pieces are accessible and lyrically written, and they flow well, one after another, making reading the book a true pleasure. Ackerman's fans and readers who appreciate nature writing at its finest will love this. 2009 Reed Business Information.
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Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating a nationwide network of trails from former rail lines and connecting corridors to build healthier places for healthier people to walk, bike, rollerblade and enjoy the outdoors.
They've supported the development of rail-trails since opening oin 1986. Then, there were fewer than 200 known rail-trails. Today, there are more than 1,600 preserved pathways that form the backbone of a growing trail system that spans communities, regions, states and, indeed, the entire country.
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy remains dedicated to the creation of a nationwide network of trails. Further, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is committed to enhancing the health of America's environment, transportation, economy, neighborhoods and people—ensuring a better future made possible by trails and the connections they inspire.
Find a trail near you!
Tappan Library Pictures: including springtime!
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