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Community Corner

Books for Mom!

This Mother's Day, give mom a gift full of laughter, tears, advice or tasty recipes.

Mother’s Day is a time when we show Mom how wonderful she is with loving attention and special gifts—chocolates, brunch, a special dinner. Another idea is to dust off the chaise lounge, pour a glass of Mom’s favorite beverage and let her relax the day away with a good book.

Here are five possibilities she might enjoy:

Water for Elephants: A Novel by Sara Gruen.

If you haven’t yet read this popular book described by Publishers Weekly as a “romantic page turner,” it might be a good time now that the movie is in theaters.

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I just started reading it myself, and the story grabbed me from the beginning. If you’ve read it, I’d love to hear what you think.

Bossy Pants by Tina Fey.

From the hilarious comedian of Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock and Sarah Palin impersonations, this book should provide plenty of laughs.

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Fey humorously chronicles her life from childhood through her various jobs writing and performing comedy.

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.

This book is the result of Rubin’s year-long quest for happiness. She advises how you, too, can achieve happiness in a book Publishers Weekly calls “curiously compulsive reading” as well as “both inspirational and forgiving, and sprinkled with just enough wise tips, concrete advice…to qualify as self help.”

The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

Number 4 on the NY Times Fiction Bestseller List, The Help is written in the point of view of three women in 1962 Mississippi: 22-year-old Skeeter, black maid, Aibileen and Aibileen’s best friend Minny.

The Washington Post calls it “a page-turner…of social awakening as seen from both sides of the American racial divide.”

Cristina Ferrare’s Big Bowl of Love by Cristina Ferrare.

Oprah Winfrey had this to say about television personality Cristina Ferrare’s cooking: “Cristina is probably the best cook I've ever met, other than Maya Angelou and my own mother.

She's cooked three Christmas dinners for 80 people, and I was sitting at the table for all of them.” That might be enough of a recommendation for this cookbook full of recipes for both everyday meals and celebrations.

All of these books are available at and at either in-store or online purchase.

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