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Mother’s Day, 2018
By
Published: May 03, 2018
Category:
Beyond Classification
My mother is now 101. My Mother’s Day gift? I call her every day. Your mother or wife or daughter is not 101. You may want to give her something tangible. So here are 14 suggestions….
BOOKS
Georgia: A novel of Georgia O’Keeffe
This uniquely American story — told in this novel by O’Keeffe — starts as the tale of a woman with a good story and a killer bod. A tale of Branding and Marketing? Well, she has a man who wants the best for her and knows how she can get it. But in the end, this is a book about a talent so fierce it crushed pretty much everything in its path — a rare story of artistic triumph.
Meg Wolitzer: The Female Persuasion
This is very much “the book of the moment.” And the next moment too. It deals with male oppression and female subjugation, female friendship and female ambition, youthful Idealism and adult careerism, and every other #RightNow topic that has provided full employment for pundits. Yes, it is almost entirely about privileged white people. But I opened “The Female Persuasion” in the morning and didn’t put it down until I’d finished it — the ultimate compliment — for a reason that has nothing to do with politics and issues and everything to do with the people. Simply, I fell in love with them. I felt I knew them. And I wanted to know them better, even when their foibles and flaws made me want to yell “Turn back!” at them, as if they were characters in a horror movie.
The Affliction
Maggie and Hope aren’t like the biddies of old English mysteries, picking up clues over tea and stuffing them for safekeeping in their knitting baskets. They’re sharp and youthful, and they solve a crime at Rye Manor, a girls’ boarding school — yes, a girls’ boarding school. Whodunnit is the least of the pleasures here; everything about Rye Manor is grist for the kind of observation that Edith Wharton perfected and Dominick Dunne modernized.
Colette: Break of Day
In 1928, Colette was just coming off the huge success of three sexy novels. This memoir is many things, but above all, it’s a love letter from Colette to her mother, in which she asks a remarkable question: Who obsesses a woman most — her mother or her man?
What My Mother Gave Me: Thirty-one Women on the Gifts That Mattered Most
Elizabeth Benedict collected essays from women not inclined to platitudes. A strong, smart, complex anthology.
HEALTHY TREATS
Manuka Honey
Manuka honey comes from New Zealand, where it’s made by bees that feed on the nectar of the manuka tree. Their honey is dark and thick. Its aroma has been described as “damp earth, heather, aromatic.” But the benefits!
Pu-erh tea
Reader Review: “Two years ago I found out yet again my triglycerides were high. The next day you recommended a fermented tea that Alice Waters said lowered her triglycerides. I drank it every day for a year and then forgot about it. Just got new blood work done. Triglycerides are fine.” Tastes great. Unique packaging.
VIDEO
Borgen
A female President? It happens in “Borgen.” And although Birgitte Nyborg — in the series, Denmark’s first female prime minister — is torn between keeping the support of her modest majority and being a good wife and mother, she really does do it all. She even moves the country forward. Until she’s brought down. And has to come back. “The West Wing” in Denmark? Maybe better.
STYLE
Diptyque candles
A Diptyque candle lasts much longer than most other candles — between 50-60 hours. And once it fills a room with scent, you can blow it out and the room will continue to be gently perfumed for hours. And… it’s better.
Fashion Lives: Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis
It’s big as a MacBook and heavy as a small barbell, but if your mother likes to read about fashion, she’ll find it as light as an airport page-turner. Dish? Honey, the dish does not quit. Emotion? Hey, this is fashion, not physics. Intelligence, compassion, ideas — yes, in quantity, and not so much because the 19 designers, photographers and editors interviewed here are so verbal but because the interviewer is so warm and well prepared that her guests nearly forget they’re onstage at the 92nd Street YHMA.
Park Avenue Potluck: Recipes from New York’s Savviest Hostesses
They’re not savvy because they’re rich, but because they know not to serve overly fancy food. The soups here are simple and toothsome. There are no fewer than 15 casseroles, including a mac-and-cheese punched up with dry mustard. And meat loaf — yes, these women live in the real world.
ART
Shirley Hartman
Because you can’t buy her a real Matisse.
BEAUTY
Clarins Beauty Flash Balm
“It’s like eight hours of sleep in a tube.”
T-3 Professional Salon Hair Dryer
No more bad hair days — ever.
L’Artisan Parfumeur Nuit de Tubéreuse Eau de Parfum
It’s $165 at Bloomingdale’s.
It’s $164 at Saks.
It’s $65 at Amazon.
PRACTICAL
Zojirushi Vacuum Drink Mug
What is astonishing about the Zojirushi is how long hot stays hot and how long cold stays cold. Fill it with 16 ounces of steaming coffee in the morning, and six hours later, you can still burn your lips. Put ice cubes in a cold drink, and, six hours later, there’s still ice. Stylish? It’s sleek. At 9.5 inches, it’s just the right size for a tote.
MUSIC
Porgy & Bess
Ella Fitzgerald sings a verse. She is cool and formal. A lady. Not to be taken lightly. Now it’s Louis Armstrong’s turn. Tender, but let’s not kid ourselves — this is not singing as others define it. This is melodic speech: rough, gutteral. And thus he is ideally cast: His Porgy may have his charms, but he’ll have to stretch to keep Bess.
