Generations: Essential Reading
For many of us, the holidays include a plethora of multi-generational family gatherings. This month, in honor of the complex family ties that bind us, our editors and columnists have picked a few special books that explore the theme of “generations.” We think these titles really shine, and hope that you add them to your list!
Spread the joy! Download the list here and bring it to your favorite mama-friendly bookstore!
Susan Ito, Fiction Co-Editor and Columnist, writes: “The Family on Beartown Road: A Memoir of Love and Courage, By Elizabeth Cohen, is tender and moving, as she chronicles her baby daughter’s learning about the world, learning to walk and talk, as the same time that her father is forgetting the very same things.”
Suzanne Kamata, Fiction Co-Editor, writes: “In Marge Piercy’s Three Women, Suzanne, who is enjoying her midlife as a single woman, suddenly finds herself living with her troubled adult daughter and her exasperating elderly mother after she has a stroke. These three women, who drive each other crazy, somehow manage to find their way back to forgiving each other.”
Violeta Garcia-Mendoza, Literary Reflections Co-Editor, suggests Amy Tan’s, The Joy Luck Club: “This novel orbits around the past, and the present’s making sense of it. Reading it, I loved being infuriated, mystified, and awed by the elderly women in this novel — women who’d lived in various geographic and cultural landscapes, and whose lives and secrets become slowly uncovered and entangled in their children’s.” 
Caroline Grant, Senior Editor and Columnist recommends: “Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson. I didn’t think this book about an old man looking back on his life, his regrets about his son, would have much to say to me, but it did. It does. I read it slowly, letting every word sink in, and when I finished, I turned back to the beginning and started reading it all over again.” Nicole Stellon O’Donnell, Columns Editor, agrees: “Gilead was an amazing book. I didn’t want it to end either.”
