Mother’s Day book recommendations by Latinx and by authors. I’ve been asked several times this week for a Mother’s Day book recommendation list. And while I’ve been putting together the books, I have also been looking at GFMs of mothers and families who are trying to escape the genocide and Gaza. And so what I have done is that I have added some of the gofunmies that I have donated to the link in my bio, as well as the fact I wanted to feature some of them here in order for you to maybe help donate and help these mothers this mother’s day.
First, we have a gofundme for sisters Noha and Arij. Noha is currently 7 months pregnant and Arish has a 3 little ones. They have lost absolutely everything and need to get out of Rafa and rebuild their lives. This gofundme is currently at 93% and I think it’s very attainable to get them to hundred percent of their goal to rebuild their lives.
The next GFM that I have donated to is for Haya and her family. At beginning of the GFM, she was in need of an emergency C section, which she has subsequently have. So her family has grown from three to, for children during the time they have escaped to Egypt. And they are currently in need of funds in order to rebuild their life in a new country, which also includes all the necessary paperwork to ensure that they are following the immigration laws in Egypt. So please help them if you can. It is linked to my bio.
Then there is Samar, who is eight months pregnant. Her and her family of almost 20 are trying to evacuate. Some have and some have not. This is a pretty lofty goal. They’re not even halfway there. But I feel like everyone donating a little bit can help Samar and her family be closer to all fighting safety. This motherhood list explores a myriad of ways that motherhood can be experienced.
The first book I’m recommending discusses family separation and displacement. It is called The Windows, My Name by Isabella Yende. And it begins in 1938 in Nazi occupied Austria where a young five year old boy named Sam is placed on a kinder transport train and separated from his mother in order to be saved from the Nazis Australia by Hirado. Samana Cordova discusses grief and loss as well as the ultimate acceptance of the loss of a child through the use of a grief monster. Last man, that is, by Esmeralda Santiago is available in Spanish, and it explores how aunts and cousins can also be mothers, as well as deep, dark same family secrets and what we will do to keep our family safe.
Mothers can have postpartum depression, as in the nursery by Sylvia Monar, and they can also come back. This book explores the slow return back postpartum. I also want to incorporate some books that are joyful in their exploration of motherhood and pregnancy. Linia Negra by Jasmina Pereira is a collection of essays that explores pregnancy, new motherhood, maternity and all these joyful bodily experiences that you have. It is translated by Christina Mcsweeney. There are those on the quest of motherhood through in vitro fertilization. And that is captured in vitro on longing and transformation by Isabel Sabata and translated by Robin Mires. There can be something called maternal ambivalence, and it can be the community and neighbors who help raise a child and be mothers in, and that is explored in stillborn by Guadalupe Metal and translated by Rosalind Harvey. Mothers and their children can be experiencing the same grief and be living under the same roof, but be experiencing completely differently due to generational differences. That is explored in Floris and misspella by Melissa. There are stories and myths that flow through Metro linear lines of multiple generations of families. And you can explore something like that in Sabrina and Corina by Kali, Fajardo and Stein. And finally, if you’re looking for a wonderful work of non fiction, then Anna Malco Tubbs, the Three mothers, how the mothers of Martin Luther King junior, Malcolm X and James Baldwin help shape a nation. This book explores their invisible work that went into shaping the minds of these men who not only help impact politics and the United States, but the world at large. Any commissions I make on the sale of these books will be donated to our operation, all of French families.