Go Buy the Book this Mother's Day - Good Books Make Good Gifts

Nothing beats a good book. And now that summer is nearly upon us, a good book is a must-have accessory whether you're poolside, relaxing in a hammock, or at the beach. Plus it's brain candy that feeds mind, body and spirit.

The following - all recent releases - are recommended as gifts or as worthwhile additions to your personal library:

FICTION
Daughters of the North
by Sarah Hall

We had Hurricane Katrina. The UK had massive floods in the North of England. British novelist Sarah Hall uses this motif for a story set in a very plausible future devastated by global warming.

Floodwaters have displaced thousands and swept away democracy; Great Britain is now a police state in which every female is implanted with a contraceptive device. One woman dreams of escape to a legendary community of women called Carhullan, off the maps and beyond the reach of the ruling Authority.

Reminiscent of both 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale, Daughters of the North is a well-written literary novel infused with raw, provocative moments. It asks some very hard questions about gender roles, war and peace, and how much we are willing to risk for freedom - or sacrifice for security.

NON-FICTION
Lust in Translation: Infidelity From Tokyo To Tennessee
by Pamela Druckerman

We may think we're a debauched society, but our Puritanical roots are showing in this funny and surprising book about adultery around the globe. You'll see how prudish Americans really are and how we barely rate on the worldwide adultery scale.

Pamela Druckerman, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, started writing this book after being stationed in Latin America, where men hit on her constantly as a single woman.

It's a credit to her tolerant husband that she was able to continue her research after their marriage, jetting across the Far East and Europe - not to mention the U.S. and Africa - to interview locals as to whether or not they've been unfaithful.

Prepare to have all your sexual stereotypes shattered by this lively, unexpectedly upbeat look at infidelity.

CELEBRITY AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love and Leading Roles
by Kathleen Turner and Gloria Feldt

As a rule, I avoid meeting famous people as they typically disappoint. But I'd break that rule for Kathleen Turner.

With help from her friend, writer and activist Gloria Feldt, Turner has penned a memoir that is honest, forthright, gutsy, and candid about her experiences as an actress, wife, mother, activist, recovering alcoholic, survivor of chronic illness, and thoroughly unique individual.

She tells tales about the Hollywood glitterati that have made some nervous (including actor Nicholas Cage, who threatened a lawsuit when the book was released).

But all in all, Send Yourself Roses is less concerned with the external trappings of fame, and more concerned with the internal journey of a woman finding herself.

Turner knows what she wants and has taken even more risks as she's grown older, proving to herself and to the rest of us that aging isn't a crime, but an honor for those who know how to embrace experience and accept who they are.

HUMOR
Still Hot: The Uncensored Guide to Divorce, Dating, Sex, Spite, and Happily Ever After
by Sue Mittenthal and Linda Reing

Enough about those Sex in the City girls already. It's easy to live the glamorous life when you're single, independent, and haven't gone a little crazy satisfying the demands of a husband and kids. But what might Carrie Bradshaw be like 18 years from now when Mr. Big decides to trade up for the latest model?

You don't have to speculate - just pick up Still Hot and see how a couple of smart, attractive, yet cheated-on wives pick up the pieces after their marriages deep-six.

Yes, Virginia, there's life after divorce; but there's no pity in this short, page-turning read - just the kind of laughs that will have even your most fragile going-through-a-separation girlfriend snorting into the book as she recognizes every cliche that describes her errant soon-to-be ex.

Part stand-up routine and part tongue-in-cheek extended rant, Still Hot is a survivor's guide that forces you to giggle even when you feel like crying.

It's a book women buy for women, and laugh over together.

MEMOIR
Sixtyfive Roses: A Sister's Memoir
by Heather Summerhayes Cariou

This book was years in the making and it shows. It's my choice for the most lyrical, the most gorgeously crafted and the most heartfelt of all those recommended here.

It's the tale of a promise kept - an older sister's story of a beloved younger sister diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at age 4. Too young to pronounce her disease, Pammy Summerhayes called it 'sixtyfive roses' and lived beyond anyone's expectations, even when the good days were overshadowed by the bad.

As the memoir opens, Heather describes Pammy's last moments and her command to her older sister to "tell our story" and to tell the truth. The truth, as Heather conveys it, is an intensely revealing look inside a family that held itself together despite extreme stretches of dysfunction and despair; perhaps because of a love that sustained them even in the worst of times.

This book is not an easy read, but it is a rewarding one. For every labored breath that Pammy fights for, you'll be aware of your own good health and how much you may be taking for granted.

Sixtyfive Roses is beautiful in the way fragile, impermanent things are beautiful; it reminds us of what it means to be alive.