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© St. Petersburg Times, published May 9, 2002
Books are always a good gift choice. New books ideal for Mother's Day were featured on Sunday in the Times' book pages. Check them out on www.sptimes.com. Moms with a taste for the tried and true might appreciate these suggestions:
Marmee is the perfect Mother: the patient and calm matriarch who showers love with equal generosity on all her little women -- even one as difficult as Jo, the budding writer. Give this to your Mom if she is the picture of perfection (or if you want to nudge her in that direction).
Joan Crawford was the ultimate anti-Mom: the hysterical and self-absorbed parent who makes therapy sessions so rich. If your mom has doubts about her parenting skills, give her this memoir with a note attached: See, Mom? You're doing great!
Although your mama may not have had a past that was as wild as Vivi's, I'll bet she has a few divine secrets of her own. And, like narrator Siddalee, you probably could be more understanding about what she has had to face in her life. Give this tale of mother-daughter reconciliation, a favorite choice of reading groups, to your mama along with a promise to take her to the movie version, due out in June.
Here the four traditional women who play mah-jongg together are Chinese, but their sometimes exasperating, always loving ties to their more modern daughters find echoes in Jewish, Italian, African-American and other ethnic groups as well. Give this to your mother if she drives you crazy and you want her to know that you love her anyway.