Every Mother Is a Daughter: The Neverending Quest for Success, Inner Peace, and a Really Clean Kitchen (Recipes and Knitting Patterns Included)

This book is so well written and so, so personal. I found myself, with Sheila (Perri's mother), going back to my growing-up years. My own mother was far kinder than Sheila's, but I could see how childhood experiences carry forward. . .forever. These are two strong, accomplished women that I admire very much. The book is just a small taste of their lives, but so, so worth your time. I recommend it very highly.

Beautifully written, beautifully read, I thoroughly enjoyed this book which I actually listened to but then bought the book for my mom to enjoy which, in time, I'll borrow back and re-gift to my daughters. Dr Klass and I are both pediatricians, both of our dear fathers have died and we are both the eldest daughters of smart, literate mothers. We somehow did not get the genetic code for applying make-up, but I do like to knit and children literacy is close to our hearts!

It's a beautiful book. I love the format - daughter writes a section, mother replies, mother writes a section, daughter replies. It brings about a wonderful comedic banter that isn't at all forced. I so envy that Perri and Sheila now has this wonderful memoir to pass on. It's a quick and easy read and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys their own mother or daughter immensly.

It was such a treat to read this book! I love memoirs, but often you finish them feeling rather depressed about the state of relationships today. Here a mother and daughter who love and respect each other take turns writing about their lives together and apart. They are both authors, and so the writing is skilled, but warm and down to earth and never overblown and literary. Some moments I especially enjoyed---how both mother and daughter spoke about how they never really learned to wear make-up or have their hair done---something I often feel very alone about as I share that trait! Perri making her mother a vest---her mother's reluctance to have any fancy or labor intensive done for her, and how the buttons cost $30, which Perri said she would never tell her mother and of course could not resist telling her right away! How both mother and daughter remember their husband/father---this book is a fine tribute to him. The tale of Bingo---the dumbest and most useless dog around---one of the only dog stories I've ever read that didn't end with everyone loving the hopeless mutt! I almost missed reading this book, as the title and the cover dont't really describe well what it is---a memoir. I thought it was an advice book, or a book of stories of MANY mothers and daughters, not a specific pair. I am glad I read it anyway, based on my enjoyment of previous Klass books. It is a heartwarming book in the most true, non-sentimental way.

Every Mother is a Daughter is a window, albeit a rose-tinted one, into the lives and the relationship of Perri Klass and her mother Sheila. They're both smart, funny, talented writers, and they speak on the ways in which they're alike and the ways they think they're not, and speculate on the reasons why that might be. Sometimes, though, it feels as if they skip over tough points and disagreements, and even when they try to criticize each other they turn that into a compliment to the other person and a put-down on themselves. The only exception to that rule is Sheila's mother, Perri's grandmother, who seems to get portrayed warts and all. Aside from that, this is a colorful, heartwarming portrait of the psyche of these two colorful, interesting women, and would make a great mother-daughter read. PS. Those of you thinking of buying it because the word knitting is in the title, I'd think twice. It's not a knitting book. There is a pattern, but that's it. Go with "Two Sweaters for my Father" instead and there you won't be disappointed.