Just in time for Mother's Day, a group of America's celebrated literary women have come together to tackle a topic close to their hearts: Mom. These highly personal yet often universal stories offer windows into those influential mother-daughter moments that have forever shaped the lives And perspectives of the writers, powerful women-authors, spokespeople, scholars, teachers, and some mothers themselves. Jonis Agee's mother haunts her daughter's plumbing. Tai Coleman's mother struggled to raise five children on her own wits and a single paycheck. Heid Erdrich's mother showed her daughter both the falsity and the truth in the cliche of the "Indian Princess." Sheila O'Connor's mother, who ran a road construction company, was not like other mothers. Ka Vang's mother dodged the hand grenades that her husband's first wife threw on her wedding day. Morgan Grayce Willow's mother drove home late at night after selling cosmetics to farm wives as her daughter rode shotgun. In true tales of startling candor and rich insight, these and many other talented writers reflect on the women who raised them, revealing hard work and hardship, successes and failures, love and anger-mothers and daughters. Kathryn Kysar, the author of Dark Lake, teaches writing in Minneapolis. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Norcroft, the Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, and the Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
There is no bigger influence in a girl's life than her mother.:
There is no bigger influence in a girl's life than her mother. "Riding Shotgun: Women Write About Their Mothers" is an anthology of twenty-one pieces from women writers discussing the enigmas that are their mothers. Be it simple wisdom such as cooking or skill to win at scrabble every single time, these stories of mothers are heartwarming and charming, and will bring a smile to the face of any reader. "Riding Shotgun: Women Write About Their Mothers" is deftly compiled and highly recommended for community... more info
Redemptive, wise, and often sweetly comic essays:
Riding Shotgun is a remarkably honest and truly heartening gathering of essays, demonstrating with clarity and force the myriad ways that mothers and daughters share love and lives. But you needn't be a mother or a daughter - only human - to recognize what's universal in these painful, redemptive, wise, and often sweetly comic essays. This is simply a wonderful collection!
Mothers and Daughters -- Always a Complicated Relationship!:
This book is an excellent collection of essays from women who grew up in very different situations, and with very different relationships with their mothers. Read this book with your mother and/or your sister; it's bound to strike a chord.
Be Glad for Riding Shotgun's Difference:
Women are from Venus. Women's Intuition. The Feminine Mystique. Whatever you want to call it, women have a different kind of sensitivity and power from their Y-chromosomed counterparts, and that perception may be the most finely tuned with regard to one's mother. "We know things, my sisters assure me. We know the future. No, sometimes we know the future, I caution. My dead sister knew who was calling before she picked up the phone. I know when a person is moving toward me across time and place. I think... more info
