Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week a new Top Ten list will be posted. Everyone is welcome to join. Link back to The Broke and the Bookish so everyone can check out other bloggers' lists. It's a fun way to get to know fellow bloggers.
This week is Top Ten Mother's Day whatever- a freebie. I decided to go with books with great moms, and books with, um, not-so-great moms. Split it up. This was actually kind of a fun one as I had to really think about the different portrayals of parents- and we all know in YA that can be especially problematic. So... here we go.
GOOD MOMS
Frances' mom is awesome. Even though Frances is a study machine, she pretty much pushes herself, and her mom actually is very supportive but also tells her to take time and live a little. Plus they order pizza and watch shows together.
Madeline has a biting wit and doesn't take any shit but she has her kids' backs and is funnier than anything.
Ellison is an awesome mom and a riot - oh and she finds lot of dead bodies.
The mom in this one has a daughter who is found unconscious and possibly assaulted at a party in the garden- which is really a huge communal space behind the homes and townhouses of a neighborhood inn London. She's a good mom in a tough spot.
I don't remember a ton about the mom here but I included it because the family dynamics were so strong- and the MC goes back home when her impending marriage falls apart.
BAD MOMS
This mom sucks because she's a researcher on a secret island and when her daughter shows up she is shocked to find out what her mom is doing. Plus mom chose her researcher life over her daughter.
This mom makes her three cloned daughters take turns attending school, and they can't date or have much of a social life so that their secret isn't revealed. But that ain't gonna last...
All the moms in this one must suck because they ship their daughters off to a school for unruly young ladies. Little do they know that the daughters are trained to be spies, rather than whipped into shape.
Oh man... where to start? Catelyn Stark is controversial- some fans hate her for how she treated Jon. And she starts a war basically but I also think she gave her son good advice and she was often right about various aspects. Definitely a debatable one.
The mom here is a trip. Kyla is mindwiped and placed with a new family, she doesn't know her real family. The mom who takes her in watches her but comes to care for her too, so she's a mixed bag- Kyla doesn't know if she can trust her or not. I liked the evolution of the mom.
I loved Madeline in Big Little Lies! The mum in The Originals sounds horrific and now I badly want to read that book, it sounds great! And I do kind of hate Catelyn for how she treated Jon, but for the other Stark children, she was rock solid.
ReplyDeleteMadeline was awesome! And yeah the mum in the Originals was pretty bad...
DeleteI kinda hate Catelyn, I totally get what Jon meant to her, seeing him everyday but after so many years you'd think she would have been over it or put 2+2 together...
ReplyDeleteYou'd think, I mean otherwise would Ned act so weird? With all of his honor did she really think he slept around?
DeleteAwesome list and idea, Greg. I haven't read all these books. I'm gonna check out the good moms list. :)
ReplyDeleteYay! And thanks. :)
DeleteI need to read some more books with good moms. They seem so rare. Radio Silence is high on my TBR! Fractured sounds like a really interesting relationship.
ReplyDeleteI know! I really liked the mom in Radio Silence...
DeleteCatelyn Stark is definitely debatable! I think she was a good, even great, mom to her kids but they way she treated Jon was just cruel and made her a bit more unlikeable. Radio Silence and Big Little Lies are on my TBR to read ASAP :)
ReplyDeleteShe was great to Robb although you see it more in the books I think- giving him certain advice- but yeah to Jon she was horrible!
DeleteYes love Madeline!! I just bought The Originals and excited for it. Great list!
ReplyDeleteMadeline is the best! And yay I hope you like The Originals...
DeleteI can understand why Catelyn Stark would bring about debate. She is horrible to Jon and seems to have little time for Arya. Cersei Lannister would be on my bad mother list too, just for spawning Joffrey! Good excuse to talk GoT again anyway!
ReplyDeleteCatelyn was awful to Jon. No question about and Cersei- definitely!
DeleteI always thought of Catelyn Stark as a good mother, but I can see why that would be debatable. I mean, if Ned had just told her the truth, maybe she would have treated Jon better!
ReplyDeleteAgreed. And I think Catelyn was good, she gave Robb lots of good advice, but yeah Jon bore the brunt...
DeleteI love that you included A School for Unusual Girls. It's a recent discovery for me and a fun read. It could be argued that the headmistress Emma Stranje is a mother figure, albeit an unusual but empowering one.
ReplyDeleteOh good, have you read the next two? They're good too (Refuge for MAsterminds comes out Tuesday). And I love Emma you're right she would be a great mother figure!
DeleteThere are some pretty epically bad moms out there, and some great ones too! My favourite recent example of great moms in fiction are the moms from Saving Montgomery Sole, a quiet, thoughtful YA about a young teenager who becomes paranoid that a local preacher is out to get her because she has two moms. Her moms are badasses and really great parents. Such a good read!
ReplyDeleteI know?? That sounds like a great read, I'll take a look. :)
DeleteI love that you did both good and bad moms, I agree with Catelyn Stark. I liked her but she also left her kids for a rather long period of time. Also whats is her name from that book might have been a better mom even if she was a little crazy and sleeping with her brother. :) Great list!
ReplyDeleteYeah she did go AWOL for a while. Definitely a mixed bag. And yes you are so right, mommy's a littler crazy (and incestuous lol) but other than that she's pretty good. :)
DeleteBad moms - Love it!
ReplyDeleteI never finished the series but the mom in Renegade by J.A. Sauders was really awful and manipulative.
In YA you're lucky to have a mom lol
For What It's Worth
LOL I know right? Where are all the YA moms?
DeleteLove your 'good mom' list! Some books that I still want to read there. Game of thrones! Yes - WHERE to start with all the bad moms....!!!
ReplyDeleteNice post Greg. I did a selection on stepmoms: http://marelithalkink.blogspot.co.za/2017/05/ttt-bring-me-her-heart-said-every.html
There are SO many bad moms... :)
DeleteThat's why I'm such a bog fan of GoT! because the characters are SO REAL. Catelyn Stark was awesome BUT she did treat Jon poorly. Only if she had known right?? LOL I blame Ed!!! He should have told her that secret. She was reliable. BUT we wouldn't have such a great plot if he had done so. I'm at home sick [mommy sick which means just exhausted :)] and binge watching GoT!!!
ReplyDeleteNed should have told her! But Lyanna must have made him promise no one. Pesky promises. :)
DeleteHope you feel better. :)
I found Catelyn kind of boring. She was all talk and no action. Plus the way she treated Jon was horrible! Sad times.
ReplyDeleteShe was tough on Jon. I thought she had some good qualities, but she made some terrible mistakes too, no question.
DeleteOhh I have a copy of Eight Hundred Grapes! REading that one soon. :D
ReplyDeleteI liked it a lot!
DeleteI am of the hating Catelyn Stark club. Not just because of how she treated Jon, which let's be real was absolute crap, but also for all of her bad decisions. She does offer good advice, and she is willing to take on assassins to save her children, but man is she hard to like. Kidnapping Tyrion was just such a dumb move!
ReplyDeleteAlso, the cover to The Girls in the Garden is ridiculously pretty! I will have to check it out!
My TTT.
Ha I think a lot of people are! She is definitely polarizing. She was awful to and while she did give some good advice, kidnapping Tyrion was pretty boneheaded.
DeleteThe Girls in the Garden was a good book!
Ah yeah I'm not a fan of Catelyn (or Cersei for that matter). I hate how she treated Jon. It wasn't his fault.
ReplyDeleteYeah Jon got the shaft. I liked her in some ways but not how she treated him...
DeleteI did my list on missing mom's, so its nice to see that there are some good moms out there in YA.
ReplyDeleteMy TTT: http://books.thetechchef.net/top-ten-tuesday-25/
I agree! We need all the good moms we can find in the YA...
DeleteLove your list Greg! :-) So many great ideas!
ReplyDeleteThanks Chrissi!
DeleteYou know I agree 100% with Big Little Lies! There are a few great moms in that book. (And some not-so-great moms, too.) I like how you split the list this week.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, there really are. Madeline is great of course and Jane too. I wish I remembered some of the names of the other moms... the whole gossipy anecdotes thing cracked me up!
DeleteI loved most of your "good mom" books, but still need to read Girls in the Garden.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite good.
DeleteI have major mixed feelings about Catelyn too. Lots of good things about her, but lots of bad ones too.
ReplyDeleteYes I agree. I think she gave some good advice but man did she make some bad decisions too, so definitely a mixed bag.
DeleteI haven't read any of these, but I'm so excited for Radio Silence. Great list!
ReplyDeleteMegan @ http://wanderingsofabookbird.blogspot.co.uk/
I thought Radio Silence was great!
DeleteI love this post and that you included bad moms -- that's just plain fun! I agree that Catelyn Stark is debatable. Depends on which child's POV you're looking from. There's a few books up there that are new to me so I'm going to check those out. Thanks so much for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteI know! Gotta have some bad moms... :) And I totally agree about Catelyn. Depends on how you look at it. I hope you find a good new read or two!
DeleteOh Ellison is a great choice! I love how their relationship really feels real. So often fiction makes mother/teenage daughter relationships either all bad or perfection. I haven't read the others though after reading your blurb I'm wondering what's taking me so long to read A School for Unusual Girls
ReplyDeleteEllison is great isn't she? BTW did you know the 5th book comes out next week? Just an fYI if you weren't aware. :)
DeleteSchool for Unusual Girls is fun, and I just read the third one early thanks to the author. Loved it!
I haven't read any of the books on your list. I do have the Lisa Jewell book and Game of Thrones on my TBR list.
ReplyDeleteSome good reading, I liked the Girls in the Garden.
DeleteGame of Thrones is a great addition to this list - there are so many complicated mom characters in the series, I love how even the "good" moms have debatable aspects, and same goes for the "bad" moms as well. Like Cersei who is such a vile women, but even Tyrion has to admit she loves her children, which is her one redeeming quality (and her cheekbones!) :D
ReplyDelete~Mogsy @ BiblioSanctum
I could have included so much more from GoT, but I stuck with controversial Catelyn. And yes Cersei might be awful but she's a mom and loves her children. And lol about cheekbones!
DeleteI wasn't the biggest Catelyn fan, especially because of the way she treated Jon (definitely a fan of his though, lol!). She made some very questionable decisions, but she also loved her children. I see her as the archetypal ASoIaF character - neither wholly good nor wholly bad.
ReplyDeleteTotally right. they're all flawed in those books lol. And she was bad to Jon. I liked some things about her (in the books- HATED her on show)...
DeleteI love that you found balance with this week's topic. I haven't read any of these and even though I agree that the mothers in A School for Unusual Girls suck, I like that their bad decisions kind of backfires.
ReplyDeleteThanks Alicia! And I agree, I love those 5 characters at the school and little do they know what their daughters are rEALLY up to... :)
DeleteThe Girls in the Garden intrigues me. I haven't read any of Lisa Jewell's books but I've heard great things about them.
ReplyDeleteI've read two of hers now, that one and I Found You. I liked The Girls in the Garden better and highly recommend it!
DeleteI've been eyeing The Girls in the Garden at the library recently - now more so!
ReplyDeleteIt's good!!
DeleteBoth are excellent, love those books.
ReplyDeleteHahaha - There are so many bad moms in the GoT series. :D
ReplyDeleteToo many!!!
DeleteAww those do sound like good moms, especially the first. But those last five don't sound so great. I think the one who chose research and the one who makes her clone daughters rotate win my vote for worst lol.
ReplyDeleteI know, and in YA no less??? Although I guess they're not all YA. And yes, I think you make some good choices. Both those moms.
DeleteThere are so many bad parents in YA that the really good family dynamics always stand out. I've read a few great ones recently that I know I commented on how awesome the moms are in the reviews. It takes all kinds to make the stories work though.
ReplyDeleteI know! It's nice to see decent parents making a comeback (or first appearance??) in YA. I've noticed there seems to be more attention paid to reasonable parents these days...
DeleteThis is so much fun! I loved both Vitro and The School for Unusual Girls. I love the way you mention the moms in the stories as not being so great. :-)
ReplyDeleteBoth books were good. And thanks! They were fun... :)
DeleteI really need to read Big Little Lies! I've heard so many good things about this book.
ReplyDeleteHere is my TTT. Thanks!
Oh man...I haven't read any of these^^ *hangs head in shame* I think I've kicked my reading slump (FINALLY) so hopefully I can fix this soon :)
ReplyDeleteThough I've heard of Little Big Lies and The Originals, I've not read any of these books. Fractured looks really interesting though! That one, I'll have to look that one up. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting Finding Wonderland, Greg.
I liked your inclusion of bad moms. I don't think anyone else did that. :D
ReplyDelete