CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE MOTHER & DAUGHTER SOUL: Stories to Warm the Heart and Honor the Relationship

This latest addition to the Chicken Soup series will seem mawkish and sappy to some readers, but it is pleasantly uplifting overall. While some of the contributors are well known—Jaquelyn Mitchard and Eda LeShan—most are not. Perhaps, that's why these emotional mother-daughter stories resonate. The vignettes all revolve around the unique bond between mothers and daughters that is often surprising or not fully appreciated until after someone is ill or dies. For example, Julia A. Doyle writes, "In 1990, my mother's life was cut short by the selfishness of a drunk driver. I was sixteen, and had so much left to learn from Mom, but she had already taught me her greatest lesson—loving and caring unselfishly." In "The Lost Heart," Therese Brady Donohue remembers being present while one of her daughters gave birth—at the very same hospital where her middle daughter had died of cancer just days earlier: "On Easter Sunday, I was back in Boston at the same hospital that had been my daughter's last hope. As I held my grandson in my arms, the emotional pendulum was swaying much too fast...." This is a perfect gift for women of all ages. (Mar.)