9 Books That Make Great Mother-Daughter Gifts

I'm tapped out. Over the past several decades, I've given my mom just about everything for Mother's Day. Jewelry, purses, bathrobes, personalized toiletry cases, flowers, golf balls, and spa gift certificates. I'm throwing in the monogrammed towel. This year, I'm sticking to books. As the host of podcast, "Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books," I feel confident in my ability to pick out a few books I know she'll enjoy. Pair these books, all written by podcast guests of mine, with a personal note and cross Mother's Day off to the to-do list. At least, until next year.

Wrap up this book with a box of Kleenex. This mother-daughter memoir features alternating chapters from the point-of-view of a mother, Sally Bardach, who is battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and her daughter, Marisa Bardach Ramel, then a senior in high school. It's sad but inspiring, uplifting, and truly life-affirming. You'll want to clutch your mom tight after reading it. (Release date: May 7, 2019.)

This breezy, Hamptons-based novel about a single mother who struggles to figure out how to handle a wild development in her daughter's life, reads like a movie. Fast-paced, brimming with summertime images, art, divorce, benefits, and local history, DRAWING HOME, by best-selling author Jamie Brenner, will definitely get your mom to stick her nose in a book. It features scenes in local Sag Harbor haunts like the American Hotel and the Sag Harbor bookstore. Take your mom to the Hamptons just by reading this!!

Add a personal note to this slim, sleek, advice book for chefs and home cooks. Tell your mom how much all her meals have meant to you over the years and you'll strike Mother's Day gold! Food stylist and chef, Lauren Braun Costello of @itslaurenofcourse gives short, pithy, easy-to-implement tips in a sophisticated, classy way. Add a beautiful cutting board from the Thomas Hayes Studio or elsewhere for an extra wow! Or, bake her a favorite dessert, too!

This retro-styled book with real pictures of mothers in their heyday sends your mom the message: she's got style! Laminate a picture of her in one of her best ensembles and tuck it inside as a bookmark or pair this book with a new ultra-sleek pair of sunglasses. This is the first book by author, Piper Weiss, who went on to write the fantastic, dark memoir about her former tennis pro and his descent into mental illness called YOU ALL GROW UP AND LEAVE ME. You'll make your mom smile with this one!!

This collection of short, clever essays by Alabama-born Helen Ellis, author of AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE, includes gems on how to hostess, what to do if you accidentally steal a coat at the coat check - keep it - and how to use the dining room table as your closet without losing your husband. Laugh-out-loud funny, this brilliant collection will make any mom chuckle. Check out Helen's podcast of the same name, "Southern Lady Code!"

This concise, perky, funny advice book by the hosts of comedy podcast, "One Bad Mother," is an upbeat, humorous, reassuring way to thank mom for all the ways she works wonders. Like, just by waking up. Sometimes all she needs to hear is that you really see her! Be extra creative and write a few more ways she personally wins at parenting in the back of the book! Or steal a few of these tongue-in-cheek gems!!

Funniest. Book. Ever. Your mom will laugh out loud until she cries!! Essays in this collection by "Cathy" comic strip author/illustrator, Cathy Guisewite, include how to escape from a sports bra and the agony of trying to drive with your 90-year-old mother. It's relatable, hilarious, and just awesome. The comic additions make it even better. Definitely wrap up a copy of this one!!!

This memoir about a daughter's love for her outlandish mother and how she copes with her own relationship in the face of family illness will make you stop and marvel at the beauty of its sentences. Magnificently written by The Paris Review editor, author Jeanne McCulloch, this story will transport you to the beaches of the Hamptons in the 1980s and show, yet again, that money can't buy love.

Dani Shapiro's DNA test yielded some truly unexpected results. This best-selling author of many novels and memoirs shares her detective-like work to discover her family and then examines in beautiful detail what it means to be a family. Add an Ancestry.com kit to this book and you've got the perfect gift. (Plus, make sure your mom is really your mom!) Dani's podcast, "Family Secrets," shares similar tales of family intrigue. Don't miss it!