Help An Undutiful Daughter Make Good
October 29, 2015 10:30 AM Subscribe
My mother turned 70 yesterday. I COMPLETELY FORGOT. Hit me with some great book recs for the following specs!
For the record: Mom is totally fine with it and forgiving. She assumed (correctly) that work has been a bear, and I called as soon as I got the nagging text from Dad and she was just happy as a clam either way. But I went kinda elaborate on Dad's birthday (I rounded up a few random people to send him funny cards as an elaborate in-joke), so I wanna get her something, that gets shipped out today, to assuage my own guilt. So this will most likely be an Amazon purchase.
Any of the following would work:
* Art. (Mom majored in painting in college.)
* Travel, or cozy books about Paris. (They're traveling more now; they liked Paris, but Mom didn't like the Louvre much.)
* Something funny about book clubs. Mom just joined one, and is more into it for the social element (the book they're reading now is I am Malala, and Mom grudgingly confessed that....she thinks it's a little boring.)
Nothing too lengthy or heavy; Mom is a bit of a slow and careful reader, so something that can be dipped into and out of would be ideal. A joke book or funny-stories-about book on any of these topics would work great. And nothing scary - Mom has a bit of a tender-hearted streak (we went to see The Fellowship Of The Ring and she was having nightmares about Orcs for weeks after).
Help! thanks!
For the record: Mom is totally fine with it and forgiving. She assumed (correctly) that work has been a bear, and I called as soon as I got the nagging text from Dad and she was just happy as a clam either way. But I went kinda elaborate on Dad's birthday (I rounded up a few random people to send him funny cards as an elaborate in-joke), so I wanna get her something, that gets shipped out today, to assuage my own guilt. So this will most likely be an Amazon purchase.
Any of the following would work:
* Art. (Mom majored in painting in college.)
* Travel, or cozy books about Paris. (They're traveling more now; they liked Paris, but Mom didn't like the Louvre much.)
* Something funny about book clubs. Mom just joined one, and is more into it for the social element (the book they're reading now is I am Malala, and Mom grudgingly confessed that....she thinks it's a little boring.)
Nothing too lengthy or heavy; Mom is a bit of a slow and careful reader, so something that can be dipped into and out of would be ideal. A joke book or funny-stories-about book on any of these topics would work great. And nothing scary - Mom has a bit of a tender-hearted streak (we went to see The Fellowship Of The Ring and she was having nightmares about Orcs for weeks after).
Help! thanks!
perhaps bill bryson's 'neither here nor there: travels in europe'?
posted by koroshiya at 10:42 AM on October 29, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by koroshiya at 10:42 AM on October 29, 2015 [3 favorites]
Lorna Landvik is light, easy reading: Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons
Maybe not funny, per se, but a touching book about a book club.
posted by vignettist at 10:48 AM on October 29, 2015 [1 favorite]
Maybe not funny, per se, but a touching book about a book club.
posted by vignettist at 10:48 AM on October 29, 2015 [1 favorite]
Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 by Francine Prose. It's based on a famous Brassaï photograph (art!), set in Paris, and written in the form of letters to the narrator's parents.
posted by bgrebs at 10:53 AM on October 29, 2015
posted by bgrebs at 10:53 AM on October 29, 2015
If you can find a copy, and it'd probably be a used copy as I think it's out of print now (but there are used copies on Amazon) Peg Bracken's "But I Wouldn't Have Missed it for the World" is a wonderful humorous travel-tip book and while fairly dated now (my copy is from 1974) contains a lot of useful advice and general commiseration. Actually any of Peg Bracken's books are gold, but this one is specifically related to travel. Bracken has a wonderful way with words.
On not speaking the language:
"For example, it may be true that cellar door is the loveliest word in the English language , as H.L. Mencken remarked, but I must first get the angular, unlovely image of the thing out of my head before I can hear the melody. And so with French. Koestler mentions somewhere the pure beauty of L'usage du cabinet est interdit pendant l'arret du train en gare -- how it melts away like the music of the speheres. But the Frenchman would percieve instantly that he musn't use the toilet while the train is standing in the station; and the practicality of the message would obsucre the harmonics.
And so the language innocent is, in one way, ahead of the game. Pattes d'oie sound more charming than crow's feet, as chair du poule is daintier than gooseflesh. Glace, tout parfums is more appealing than thirty-one flavors, even if the ice cream isn't as good. Driving along the country roads, I like Passage des Grands Animaux better than Watch Out For Cows; and to me, Mardi: jour de repos has a nearly celestial serenity, which you can't say for Closed Tuesdays."
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 11:08 AM on October 29, 2015 [2 favorites]
On not speaking the language:
"For example, it may be true that cellar door is the loveliest word in the English language , as H.L. Mencken remarked, but I must first get the angular, unlovely image of the thing out of my head before I can hear the melody. And so with French. Koestler mentions somewhere the pure beauty of L'usage du cabinet est interdit pendant l'arret du train en gare -- how it melts away like the music of the speheres. But the Frenchman would percieve instantly that he musn't use the toilet while the train is standing in the station; and the practicality of the message would obsucre the harmonics.
And so the language innocent is, in one way, ahead of the game. Pattes d'oie sound more charming than crow's feet, as chair du poule is daintier than gooseflesh. Glace, tout parfums is more appealing than thirty-one flavors, even if the ice cream isn't as good. Driving along the country roads, I like Passage des Grands Animaux better than Watch Out For Cows; and to me, Mardi: jour de repos has a nearly celestial serenity, which you can't say for Closed Tuesdays."
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 11:08 AM on October 29, 2015 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: If I Only Had A Penguin's recommendation has taken an early lead (and now I wanna read it too); it hits a sweet spot of cozy and with a happy ending. ooh, and now I'm also thinking I may throw in a copy of the classic Mrs. 'Arris Goes To Paris as well.
But keep it coming!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:11 AM on October 29, 2015
But keep it coming!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:11 AM on October 29, 2015
Response by poster: OH. ADDITIONAL TOPIC. If there is any such thing as a cute picture book of adorable little kids in Halloween costumes, that'd be great - because apparently, over in the "halloween with a toddler" thread, there is a comment that proves I spoke well about Mom on her birthday, and I can definitely spin that. (Plus she'll love the "d'awwww cute kids" pictures - she was a preschool teacher for most of my childhood.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:30 AM on October 29, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:30 AM on October 29, 2015 [2 favorites]
If she hasn't read it yet, Paris Out of Hand is a deliciously cozy fake-travel guide, really the perfect book for browsing just before bed.
posted by thetortoise at 11:30 AM on October 29, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by thetortoise at 11:30 AM on October 29, 2015 [1 favorite]
i bought my artsy mother giotto to durer - it's certainly not fluffy, with a fairly dense commentary, but it's packed full of good quality prints, the writing is very readable, and you could dip in and out without much of a problem.
posted by andrewcooke at 3:00 PM on October 29, 2015
posted by andrewcooke at 3:00 PM on October 29, 2015
Response by poster: Right - I actually went with If I Only Had A Penguin's recommendation (a bookshop in Paris with an owner that always seems to know just what book to suggest to people), and I paired it with Chocolat - and a friend suggested I also throw in actual chocolate, and I found a small box of Godiva "Birthday cake" truffles, and all of those things are now on their way to Massachusetts and I feel like a little less of a heel. Thanks!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:15 PM on October 29, 2015
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:15 PM on October 29, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 10:39 AM on October 29, 2015 [1 favorite]