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"For Mother&amp;#039;s Day, reward Mom with a wonderful book by a woman, along with the promise that she&amp;#039;ll get the time to put up her feet and read it. You can brag to your friends that you sent your mom on an expense-paid trip \u2014 of the imagination, that is. In memory of our own mothers, the Book Babes offer this baker&amp;#039;s dozen of new and refreshing books, both fiction and nonfiction. Good reads and good gifts, all! Fiction 1. In the Company of the Courtesan, by Sarah Dunant. You can almost see the boats bobbing in the canals in this novel about a woman surviving on her wit and charm in 16th-century Venice. Her partner in the world&amp;#039;s oldest profession is a dwarf whose canny observations about the city&amp;#039;s venerable citizens and the state of male-female relations will amuse and enlighten. 2. Abide with Me, by Elizabeth Strout. As a young minister struggles with grief and a troubled daughter following the death of his capricious wife, the congregation he serves responds in kind. This story about one community reflects the spirit of a key individual in its midst. 3. The Madonnas of Leningrad, by Debra Dean. This elegy to old age spotlights a Seattle woman who lived through the siege of Leningrad during World War II and is now slipping into dementia. She increasingly returns to the memory of how art and her determination helped her survive. 4. The Doctor&amp;#039;s Daughter, by Hilma Wolitzer. At midlife, the title character becomes estranged from her husband and her idealized vision of her parents&amp;#039; relationship. In re-evaluating her parents&amp;#039; marriage, she gets a new perspective on her own. 5. Digging to America, by Anne Tyler. Anne Tyler is a master at offering insight into the domestic worlds of ordinary people. In her latest novel, she follows a middle-class white couple and an Iranian-American family who are brought together when each adopts a daughter from Korea. 6. Labyrinth, by Kate Mosse. Not a Da Vinci Code wannabe, this novel about the Holy Grail provides a twist: time travel with female protagonists, one from the present day and the other living in France 800 years ago. Nonfiction 1. My Life in France, by Julia Child with Alex Prud&amp;#039;homme. For those of us who miss Child&amp;#039;s booming TV voice and good-humored approach to cooking, this book feels like receiving a diary and family album after the death of a loved one. Child, who died in 2004, collaborated on this memoir with her son-in-law, writer Prud&amp;#039;homme. Just one disappointment: The book has no recipes. 2. Lighting the Way: Nine Women Who Changed Modern America, by Karenna Gore Schiff. Not all of the women profiled here are household names. But Schiff, daughter of former Vice President Al Gore, sets out to change that with profiles of such groundbreaking progressives as Ida B. Wells, Mother Jones, Frances Perkins, Dolores Huerta and Gretchen Buchenholz. Perkins, for example, was the first woman cabinet member and worked to establish Social Security. Schiff portrays the women honestly, as complex individuals who &amp;quot;had the extraordinary vision to combat injustice.&amp;quot; 3. Mixed: My Life in Black and White, by Angela Nissel. The author, whose father was white and mother was black, deals with the question, &amp;quot;Are you black or white?&amp;quot; Her candid and sometimes funny look at growing up biracial in America has already been optioned by Halle Berry for an HBO movie. This story has lessons for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider. 4. Great with Child: Letters to a Young Mother, by Beth Ann Fennelly. A poet and writer, Fennelly shares the joys of being a parent and life with her young daughter in this superb collection of letters she wrote to a pregnant friend. 5. A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation, by Catherine Allgor. Hello, Dolley! The wife of President James Madison, Dolley was one of the country&amp;#039;s first female celebrities. She was not only a perfect hostess in the mold of Jacqueline Kennedy but also a master politician who, like Hillary Clinton, was her husband&amp;#039;s most trusted adviser. But she wasn&amp;#039;t much of a feminist. Her impressive energy was always channeled toward furthering her husband&amp;#039;s career. 6. Writing to Change the World, by Mary Pipher. The woman who led the crusade to help raise girls&amp;#039; self-esteem with Reviving Ophelia returns with another cause. This time, she challenges women to use the power of the pen to make the world a better place.  7. Mother-Daughter Wisdom: Understanding the Crucial Link Between Mothers, Daughters, and Health, by Christiane Northrup. Newly out in paperback, this book springs from the premise that our relationships with our mothers start before birth and greatly affect our health as adults. Northrup, an obstetrician and gynecologist, also offers plenty of practical advice about raising daughters from infancy to the teen years. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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