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What is your mom reading in 2021?

Hello, everyone! It’s Mother’s Day again and we’re all still in quarantine. Isn’t that great?

I know, I know, these probably aren’t the most suitable choices for celebrating a mother’s love(no contemporary romance here) but the point is..
They are some of the books my mom loves to read and that’s what is really important.

No long winded introductions today. We’re here for the books.
So. Without further ado..

“To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow.”

― Maya Angelou

For the woman who still believes in fairies

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Anne Rice

The Witching Hour

Publication date: October 1990
Pages: 976
Genre: Novel, Horror, Fantasy fiction, Gothic fiction
Series: Book 1 of 3: Lives of the Mayfair Witches

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Demonstrating, once again, her gift for spellbinding storytelling and the creation of legend, Anne Rice makes real for us a great dynasty of witches–a family given to poetry and to incest, to murder and to philosophy; a family that, over the ages, is itself haunted by a powerful, dangerous, and seductive being.

On the veranda of a great New Orleans house, now faded, a mute and fragile woman sits rocking . . . and The Witching Hour begins.

It begins in our time with a rescue at sea.  Rowan Mayfair, a beautiful woman, a brilliant practitioner of neurosurgery–aware that she has special powers but unaware that she comes from an ancient line of witches–finds the drowned body of a man off the coast of California and brings him to life.  He is Michael Curry, who was born in New Orleans and orphaned in childhood by fire on Christmas Eve, who pulled himself up from poverty, and who now, in his brief interval of death, has acquired a sensory power that mystifies and frightens him.

As these two, fiercely drawn to each other, fall in love and–in passionate alliance–set out to solve the mystery of her past and his unwelcome gift, the novel moves backward and forward in time from today’s New Orleans and San Francisco to long-ago Amsterdam and a château in the France of Louis XIV.  An intricate tale of evil unfolds–an evil unleashed in seventeenth-century Scotland, where the first “witch,” Suzanne of the Mayfair, conjures up the spirit she names Lasher . . . a creation that spells her own destruction and torments each of her descendants in turn.

From the coffee plantations of Port au Prince, where the great Mayfair fortune is made and the legacy of their dark power is almost destroyed, to Civil War New Orleans, as Julien–the clan’s only male to be endowed with occult powers–provides for the dynasty its foothold in America, the dark, luminous story encompasses dramas of seduction and death, episodes of tenderness and healing.  And always–through peril and escape, tension and release–there swirl around us the echoes of eternal war: innocence versus the corruption of the spirit, sanity against madness, life against death.  With a dreamlike power, the novel draws us, through circuitous, twilight paths, to the present and Rowan’s increasingly inspired and risky moves in the merciless game that binds her to her heritage. And in New Orleans, on Christmas Eve, this strangest of family sagas is brought to its startling climax.

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Dean Koontz

Odd Thomas

Publication date: December 2003
Pages: 399
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Horror fiction, Suspense, Psychological fiction
Series: Book 1 of 7: Odd Thomas

Meet Odd Thomas, the unassuming young hero of Dean Koontz’s dazzling New York Times bestseller, a gallant sentinel at the crossroads of life and death who offers up his heart in these pages and will forever capture yours.

“The dead don’t talk. I don’t know why.” But they do try to communicate, with a short-order cook in a small desert town serving as their reluctant confidant. Sometimes the silent souls who seek out Odd want justice. Occasionally their otherworldly tips help him prevent a crime. But this time it’s different.

A stranger comes to Pico Mundo, accompanied by a horde of hyena-like shades who herald an imminent catastrophe. Aided by his soul mate, Stormy Llewellyn, and an unlikely community of allies that includes the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, Odd will race against time to thwart the gathering evil. His account of these shattering hours, in which past and present, fate and destiny, converge, is a testament by which to live—an unforgettable fable for our time destined to rank among Dean Koontz’s most enduring works.

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Stephen King

The Shining

Publication date: January 1977
Pages: 447
Genre: Horror fiction, Gothic fiction, Psychological horror, Occult fiction
Series: Book 1 of 2: The Shining

Before Doctor Sleep, there was The Shining, a classic of modern American horror from the undisputed master, Stephen King.

Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote . . . and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.

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John Saul

The Presence

Publication date: January 1998
Pages: 422
Genre: Fiction, Horror fiction, Thriller
Standalone

“Enough smoothly crafted suspense to keep readers turning pages long after dark.”—The Seattle Times

Beyond the sparkling Hawaiian beaches, masked by the deceptive beauty of the rainforest, evil awaits sixteen-year-old Michael Sundquist and his mother, Katharine, an anthropologist who has come to the Islands to study the unusual skeletal remains unearthed on the volcanic flanks of Halekala, Maui.

Yet far below the black depths of the Pacific, a mysterious substance snakes through undiscovered fissures in the ocean floor, as nature itself seems to portend the terror to come.

Then, with the sudden, unexpected death of Michael’s friend, a disturbing truth dawns: the corporation that is funding Katherine’s dig has a far greater investment than she ever imagined—an investment in medical terror. And her son may be part of their hideous grand plan. . . . 

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V.C. Andrews

Flowers in the Attic

Publication date: January 1979
Pages: 420
Genre: Novel, Gothic horror, Horror fiction, Psychological fiction
Series: Book 1 of 11: Dollanganger

A major Lifetime movie event—the novel that captured the world’s imagination and earned V.C. Andrews a fiercely devoted fanbase. Book One of the Dollanganger Family series.

At the top of the stairs there are four secrets hidden. Blond, beautiful, innocent, and struggling to stay alive…

They were a perfect family, golden and carefree—until a heartbreaking tragedy shattered their happiness. Now, for the sake of an inheritance that will ensure their future, the children must be hidden away out of sight, as if they never existed. Kept on the top floor of their grandmother’s vast mansion, their loving mother assures them it will be just for a little while. But as brutal days swell into agonizing months and years, Cathy, Chris, and twins Cory and Carrie realize their survival is at the mercy of their cruel and superstitious grandmother…and this cramped and helpless world may be the only one they ever know.

Book One of the Dollanganger series, followed by Petals in the Wind, If There be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday, and Garden of Shadows.

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Tom Savage

The Inheritance

Publication date: August 1998
Pages: 288
Genre: Psychological thriller, Fiction, Mystery
Standalone

“WELCOME TO RANDALL HOUSE.”

With these words, an ordinary young woman is ushered into a strange new world. Yesterday, she was Holly Smith, living a comfortable, middle class life in Southern California. Today, all that has changed. For Holly Smith is actually Holly Randall, born twenty-four years ago to a woman convicted of a heinous crime, and given up for adoption as an infant. Now, the mysterious death of a great aunt she never knew has made Holly one of the richest women in America–and heiress to a magnificent Connecticut estate.

In the beautiful mansion above Long Island Sound, they are waiting for her: Uncle John and his imperious wife, robbed of what they believe to be rightfully theirs; the odd, reclusive great uncle, lost in his faded scrapbooks and disturbing memories of dark family secrets; the troubled young woman who roams the estate, murmuring cryptic warnings; the handsome servants’ son to whom Holly is dangerously attracted; and the silent teenage boy who watches Holly’s every move. But who are her friends and who are her enemies?

For Holly, the answers may come too late. From the moment she crosses the threshold, she sets in motion a series of tragic events that will reveal the true–and terrifying–price of her inheritance. Yesterday, she was Holly Smith. Today, she is Holly Randall. Tomorrow, she may be dead.

Welcome to Randall House.

From its ominous opening pages to its final devastating surprise, The Inheritance will keep you guessing–and gasping–long into the night. With the graceful style, intricate plotting, and relentlessly mounting suspense that are his trademarks, Tom Savage has redefined the classic Gothic mystery.

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James Patterson

The Angel Experiment

Publication date: April 2005
Pages: 464
Genre: Novel, Fantasy fiction, Science fiction, Adventure
Series: Book 1 of 9: Maximum Ride

Max soars above the world . . . but in James Patterson’s thrilling adventure, fantasy can come crashing down to reveal the nightmares of the Angel Experiment.

Maximum Ride and her “flock” — Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman and Angel — are just like ordinary kids, only they have wings and can fly. It may seem like a dream come true to some, but their lives can morph into a living nightmare at any time.

Angel, the youngest member of the flock, is kidnapped and taken back to the “School” where she and the others were experimented on by a crew of whack jobs. Her friends brave a journey to blazing hot Death Valley, CA, to save Angel, but soon enough, they find themselves in yet another nightmare: fighting off the half-human, half-wolf “Erasers” in New York City. Whether in the treetops of Central Park or in the bowels of the Manhattan subway system, Max and her adopted family take the ride of their lives.
Along the way, Max discovers that her purpose is save the world. But can she?

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And that’s all I can think of right off the top of my head.
These are books my mother or I introduced to the other and we both ended up really enjoying them. Our love of books is something we share and can always find some common ground with so.. it makes them all the more special.

I hope you find something you’ll enjoy reading and that you’re having a fantastic Mother’s Day!

What do you and your mother share a love of?

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