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It’s Mother’s Day on Sunday 12 May! In this post we’ll give you mother’s day bookish gift ideas spanning 6 different categories!
Society will have you believe that all mothers dream of socks and vacuum cleaners. However, it turns out that mothers are just humans underneath. Humans who like a variety of different things … though they all LOVE books. All of them.
A mother’s natural habitat is a cosy sunroom, surrounded by towering bookshelves. Mums are considered to be the ultimate bibliophiles, literary queens who can whip up a mean lasagna while discussing the finer points of why it’s always best to carry a towel (most are Galaxy Hitchhikers from way back).
So, while mums might dabble in other hobbies, like knitting or gardening, let’s be real, their heart belongs to the written word.
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We encourage you to always source books from your local independent bookshop. However, we understand this is sometimes not practical based on location or budget.
Therefore, this post contains Amazon affiliate links. This means, if you click on the link and purchase the book from that link, I get a few dollars at no extra cost to you! This way we can both stock up on more mother’s day bookish gift ideas for mum! 😀
Happy Reading, Friends!
Cosy mysteries can be as comforting as a cup of Earl Grey tea on a rainy afternoon. Mothers, like all discerning readers, relish the charm of a small-town murder woven with the warmth of familiar settings and endearing characters. So put down that french press and your garden shears, and join us in the library with a candlestick for 3 cosy mother’s day bookish gift ideas …
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders. But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it’s too late?
This is Book One in the ‘Thursday Murder Club’ series.
In 1915, Sherlock Holmes is retired and quietly engaged in the study of honeybees in Sussex when a young woman literally stumbles onto him on the Sussex Downs. Fifteen years old, gawky, egotistical, and recently orphaned, the young Mary Russell displays an intellect to impress even Sherlock Holmes. Under his reluctant tutelage, this very modern, twentieth-century woman proves a deft protegee and a fitting partner for the Victorian detective. They are soon called to Wales to help Scotland Yard find the kidnapped daughter of an American senator, a case of international significance with clues that dip deep into Holmes’s past.
This is Book One in the ‘Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes’ series.
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surete du Quebec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it’s a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter.
This is Book One in the ‘Chief Inspector Gamache’ series.
Mums are always going on about their penchant for cozy fantasy reads! Like a sentient tea cozy hiding in the back of a kitchen cupboard, a comic light-hearted fantasy can transport your mother from the mundane to the magical. Let your mum dive headfirst into whimsical realms where dragons chat over afternoon tea and magic is as common as a misplaced sock. After all, in a universe as absurd as ours, why not indulge in a bit of whimsy with these 3 comic fantasy mother’s day bookish gift ideas …
Tiffany wants to be a witch when she grows up. A proper one, with a pointy hat. And flying, she’s always dreamed of flying (though it’s cold up there, you have to wear really thick pants, two layers). But she’s worried Tiffany isn’t a very ‘witchy’ name. And a witch has always protected Tiffany’s land, to stop the nightmares getting through. Now the nightmares have taken her brother, and it’s up to her to get him back. With a horde of unruly fairies at her disposal, Tiffany is not alone. And she is the twentieth granddaughter of her Granny Aching- shepherdess extraordinaire, and protector of the land. Tiffany Aching. Now there’s a rather good name for a witch.
This is Book One in the ‘Tiffany Aching’ series.
My name is David Wong. My best friend is John. Those names are fake. You might want to change yours. You may not want to know about the things you’ll read on these pages, about the sauce, about Korrock, about the invasion, and the future. But it’s too late. You touched the book. You’re in the game. You’re under the eye. It is crucial you keep one thing in mind: none of this is my fault.
This is Book One in the ‘John Dies at the End’ series.
S.T., a domesticated crow, is a bird of simple pleasures: hanging out with his owner Big Jim, trading insults with Seattle’s wild crows (i.e. those idiots ), and enjoying the finest food humankind has to offer: Cheetos ®. But when Big Jim’s eyeball falls out of his head, S.T. starts to think something’s not quite right. His tried-and-true remedies – from beak-delivered beer to the slobbering affection of Big Jim’s loyal but dim-witted dog, Dennis – fail to cure Big Jim’s debilitating malady. S.T. is left with no choice but to abandon his old life and venture out into a wild and frightening new world with his trusty steed Dennis, where he suddenly discovers that the neighbours are devouring one other. Local wildlife is abuzz with rumours of Seattle’s dangerous new predators. Humanity’s extinction has seemingly arrived, and the only one determined to save it is a cowardly crow whose only knowledge of the world comes from TV. What could possibly go wrong?
This is Book One in the ‘Hollow Kingdom’ series.
Mums are brave souls, tiptoeing through the shadowy corridors of supernatural thrillers like intrepid explorers in a haunted house. They’re drawn to the spine-tingling suspense like moths to a flickering candle flame. Exploring the dark corners of the human psyche is nothing after finding that mouldy jam sandwich under your bed. So, grab your flashlight and a trusty bookmark, as we recommend 3 spooky mother’s day bookish gift ideas …
It’s the summer of 1960 and in the small town of Elm Haven, Illinois, 5 twelve-year-old boys are forging the powerful bonds that a lifetime of change will not break. From sunset bike rides to shaded hiding places in the woods, the boys’ days are marked by all of the secrets and silences of an idyllic middle-childhood. But amid the sun-drenched cornfields their loyalty will be pitilessly tested. When a long-silent bell peals in the middle of the night, the townsfolk know it marks the end of their carefree days. From the depths of the Old Central School, a hulking fortress tinged with the mahogany scent of coffins, an invisible evil is rising. Strange and horrifying events begin to overtake everyday life, spreading terror through the once idyllic town. Determined to exorcize this ancient plague, Mike, Duane, Dale, Harlen, and Kevin must wage a war of blood–against an arcane abomination who owns the night.
This is Book One in the ‘Seasons of Horror’ series.
Whoever is born here, is doomed to stay until death. Whoever comes to stay, never leaves. Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a seventeenth-century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Blind and silenced, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. She stands next to children’s beds for nights on end. So accustomed to her have the townsfolk become that they often forget she’s there. Or what a threat she poses. Because if the stitches are ever cut open, the story goes, the whole town will die. The curse must not be allowed to spread. The elders of Black Spring have used high-tech surveillance to quarantine the town. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town’s teenagers decide to break the strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiraling into a dark nightmare.
This is Book One in the ‘Robert Grim’ series.
In upstate New York, within the woods, Dutchman’s Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked and fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other’s company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumours of the Creek and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss them. Soon, though, the men find themselves drawn into a tale as deep and old as the Reservoir. It’s a tale of dark pacts, of long-buried secrets, and of a mysterious figure known as the Fisherman. It will bring Abe and Dan face to face with all that they have lost, and with the price they must pay to regain it.
This is a stand-alone novel.
The allure of travel and the whimsy of wandering in remote locales, calls out to your mum like your brother who can’t be bothered to come downstairs and say things quietly. Travel is a journey not just of the feet, but of the soul. With each page turned, your mum will embark on a voyage of self-discovery, which is a lot better than another trip to Woolies. Lace up those walking shoes as we give you 3 more mother’s day bookish gift ideas for the travel loving mum…
Truly hilarious books are rare. Even rarer are those based on real events. Join A.J. Mackinnon, your charming and eccentric guide, on an amazing voyage in a boat called Jack de Crow. Equipped with his cheerful optimism and a pith helmet, this Australian Odysseus in a dinghy travels from the borders of North Wales to the Black Sea – 4,900 kilometres over salt and fresh water, under sail, at the oars, or at the end of a tow-rope – through twelve countries, 282 locks and numerous trials and adventures, including an encounter with Balkan pirates. Along the way he experiences the kindness of strangers, gets very lost, and perfects the art of slow travel.
This is a stand-alone novel.
Walking has been the constant in Ailsa Piper’s life. Setting down one foot after the other takes her to a transformative-and transcendent-place. Her bestselling memoir Sinning Across Spain was inspired by the tradition of medieval walkers who were paid by others to carry their sins to holy places. The cargo included anger, envy, pride and lust. She hiked alone through the endless olive groves of the Camino Mozárabe, from the legendary southern city of Granada toward the centuries-old pilgrim destination, Santiago de Compostela, in the far north-west of Spain. In dusty pueblos and epic landscapes, miracles found her. Angels in both name and nature eased her path. When faced with the untimely death of her husband, Peter, her ‘true north’, Ailsa returned to the Camino trail, this time in France, to walk through her sorrow. This second pilgrimage is the story of a walk where the burden is her own.
This is a stand-alone novel.
Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than $200. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, 67-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. By September 1955 she stood atop Maine’s Mount Katahdin, sang America, the Beautiful, and proclaimed, I said I’ll do it, and I’ve done it. Driven by a painful marriage, Grandma Gatewood not only hiked the trail alone, she was the first person-man or woman-to walk it twice and three times. At age 71, she hiked the 2,000-mile Oregon Trail.
This is a stand-alone novel.
Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, your mother found themselves ensnared in the enchanting web of a magical love story. Well .. she will once you buy these 3 books. Knights in shining armour are swapped for wizards with wands, and damsels in distress have a knack for brewing potions instead. Love is at the heart of most things, and a warm tale of adventure born from the heart, will be just the mother’s day bookish gift idea that you’re after.
Beautiful, flaxen-haired Buttercup has fallen for Westley, the farm boy, and when he departs to make his fortune, she vows never to love another. So, when she hears that his ship has been captured by the Dread Pirate Roberts (no survivors) her heart is broken. But her charms draw the attention of the relentless Prince Humperdinck who wants a wife and will go to any lengths to have Buttercup. So starts a fairy tale like no other, of fencing, poison, true love, hate, revenge, giants, bad men, good men, snakes, spiders, chases, escapes, lies, truths, passion and miracles, and a damn fine story.
This is a stand-alone novel.
Life moves at a leisurely pace in the tiny town of Wall – named after the imposing stone barrier which separates the town from a grassy meadow. Here, young Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the beautiful Victoria Forester and for the coveted prize of her hand, Tristran vows to retrieve a fallen star and deliver it to his beloved. It is an oath that sends him over the ancient wall and into a world that is dangerous and strange beyond imagining.
This is a stand-alone novel.
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. The black sign, painted in white letters that hangs upon the gates, reads: Opens at Nightfall, Closes at Dawn. As the sun disappears beyond the horizon, all over the tents small lights begin to flicker, as though the entirety of the circus is covered in particularly bright fireflies. When the tents are all aglow, sparkling against the night sky, the sign appears. Le Cirque des Raves. The Circus of Dreams. Now the circus is open. Now you may enter.
This is a stand-alone novel.
Well what can I say about bookish home decor. It’s bookish! Mums just can’t resist turning their homes into literary wonderlands. Cosy reading nooks nestled between stacks of novels, where every lampshade has a touch of literary whimsy and every throw pillow screams “curl up with a good book.” Your mother is a leading lady worthy of a Jane Austen novel, so here are some more nice mother’s day bookish gift ideas that are not actual books. Or are they? No ….
Look at this fancy glass! Has your mum actually been transported to a fantasy realm where any moment a woodland creature will want to pour them a pot of tea and serve something that has cooled in a stream? Yes! Don’t shame your mother by getting her a standard old mug – get her something like this that feels like it’s for company and probably too good to use.
Flowers are great. But flowers in a bookish vase?!? Move over the Greatest Showman, you’ve just been out-greated! How sweet is this vase! It can sit on a bookshelf and serve up flower energy while your mum settles down with a good book. You can smell the love already!
Maybe your Dad likes to go to sleep next to a normal lamp. But your mother? Your mother dreams of big things – for you and for her! So give her the moon! Unlike the actual moon, this will probably fit on her bedside table, and won’t cause chaos in the natural world. So you could say, you’re also saving the environment!
Mothers are already setting the world on fire with their achievements, and don’t need to start throwing matches around the house when it comes to candles. Thankfully, you’re a good child and/or neighbour and have the sense to get your mother a candle warmer lamp. They’re great! The best sniffing still to be had of any scented candle you choose – just pop it under the light and you have instant atmosphere! What wonderful mother’s day bookish gift ideas!
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