Elizabeth Benedict on Books, Money, Hair, Mothers, Gifts & What Not

If you couldn't make it to our kickoff event at Politics & Prose , in Washington DC, you can listen to the podcast , by Slate Radio and produced by Politics & Prose . I was lucky enough to be with contributors Susan Stamberg and Eleanor Clift . It was a wonderful event. I hope that comes through in the podcast.

I was thrilled to learn that What My Mother Gave Me is one of Amazon's Top 10 Book Picks for Mother's Day - especially given the company, including Meg Wolitzer's The Interestings , Kate Atkinson's Life After Life and Sheryl Sandberg's  Lean In . Mother's Day is May 12. Visit our Tumblr page , look at photos of the gifts our mothers gave us, and find your favorite bookstore . Best news: it's a paperback, with a cover price of $15.95.

A MOTHER'S GIFTS LAST A LIFETIME by  ALICE CARY How do you approach Mother’s Day? With reverence and joy, or sorrow and trepidation? Are you fulfilled, exhausted or both from being a dutiful child or caretaking parent? No matter what your emotions, these engrossing books about mothers, children and parenting are bound to speak to you. Particularly wonderful is a collection gathered by Elizabeth Benedict,  What My Mother Gave Me . READ MORE

If you're a tweeter, Oprah Magazine/website & Algonquin, publisher of What My Mother Gave Me , are having a contest to give away 2 new e-readers loaded with the anthology, and a copy of the book itself. Take a look here. What's 1 thing your mom has taught you? Tell us & you could win a @ kobo ereader &/or copy of #WhatMyMotherGaveMe : ow.ly/kiozb — O The Oprah Magazine (@O_Magazine) April 22, 2013

The story of my grandmother, my first novel (chocked with sex), and another sort of first book, just published on Huffington Post's Book Page : My grandmother never used to phone me, so when I heard her voice on the phone that night in 1985, I was startled. "I just read your book," she said sharply, "and I don't like it." She meant my first novel,  Slow Dancing , which had recently been published by Knopf and greeted with far more attention than I had expected, "When are you going to write a book your grandmother will like?" I knew what she meant: the book was filled with sex -- the pre-marital kind -- and references to it, beginning with the opening line. MORE ...

Join me this Sunday, April 21, at the Westport, CT Public Library, talking about What My Mother Gave Me , co-sponsored by the Barnard Club of Connecticut. 2PM. Here's the info :  In other happy news: What My Mother Gave Me has made the extended Indie Bestseller List. Today we're number 38. Who knows how high we can climb. Algonquin has made it easy to purchase the book--it's an original paperback, with a cover price of $15.95.  AND if you go to your favorite indie and buy a Kobo (the indie answer to a Kindle) from now until May 13, you get a free copy of the anthology loaded on your e-reader.  Here's the offer , which is sponsored by Algonquin.  Thanks for checking in, thanks for reading. ~~Liz

It's been a great week for the launch of the anthology. Tuesday night at one of the country's premier bookstores, Politics & Prose, in Washington DC, we had our debut panel reading and discussion, with contributors Susan Stamberg and Eleanor Clift. We were honored to be introduced by P & P's co-founder, Barbara Meade, who came out of retirement to welcome us. The event was taped and will soon be on the P&P website. I'll post that here once it's up, and you can see the energy and emotion that gripped all of us. Thanks to everyone who came, to everyone at P&P, and to Eleanor and Susan.  The book got a fabulous review the following day by a women's organization, Changerous , written by Kirsty Clarke Brown, which includes my favorite review line to far: "This is not a sentimental read."  Yesterday, at Barnard College, my alma mater, I spoke to a group of alumnae over brunch about the book, about gifts, men, women, mothers and families. 

Our kick-off book event is this Tuesday, April 9th at 7pm , with contributors Susan Stamberg and Eleanor Clift , two legendary women broadcasters. Susan was one of the founders of National Public Radio, and was the long-time host of "All Things Considered." Eleanor has been a print journalist at Newsweek and the Daily Beast , but may be best known as one of the liberal voices on the McLaughlin Group , on PBS. We'll be talking about mothers, daughters and gifts at Politics & Prose , Washington DC's wonderful bookstore. Details are here .  Please join us. If you'd like a signed copy of the book but can't make it to the event, please call the store in advance, buy your book over the phone, and request that we sign it.  Phone numbers: 202 364-1919 - 800 722 0790. 

MORE magazine likes us, they really like us (May 2013).  What My Mother Gave Me is one of five books on mothers they reviewed "that dig deep":  "Longing, grief, and hard-won forgiveness pervade this essay collection by a stellar group of writers as they take stock of the gifts, visible and invisible, their mothers left behind."  Congratz to all the writers of these fine essays.

Thanks to FOBBIT author David Abrams, who curates the blog Quivering Pen, for inviting me to tell him about My First Time ... getting my picture taken, by legendary photographer, Tom Victor (RIP), which you can read right here . Tom was the go-to author photographer in the 1970s and '80s, and most famously took pictures of Susan Sontag - and lots of others.  Thanks for taking a look. 

The book is on sale today. Everywhere. Paperback. E-book. i-Book. Your local indie. Your favorite whatever. Here's a list of most of your favorite stores...   And if you want to submit a photo and a story about your favorite gift from your mother, please go to our tumblr account right here !