Intergenerational Favorites: Books My Daughter and I Both Loved

I have a great relationship with my kids. I really do. We have our ups and downs but for the most part we communicate really well, have a lot in common and genuinely enjoy spending time together.

Book recommendations? This is where we differ. No matter how much they like me, I am still mom and my book recommendations are still MOM book recommendations. You know what I mean, I recommend a book I think they’ll like and I get the kickback with eye roll like I don’t know what I am doing, like its not MY JOB. Literally.

But recently on our week long family vacation, I recommended three books to my 19 year old that I’d read and loved and she read them all! I was SHOCKED. Not only did she take my suggestions without eye roll, she said thanks and promptly read each one in a day. The power of a good book, right? So if you are looking for a book that can reach across ages and appeal to many, here are three that we both read and loved, a 48-year-old mom of four and 19 year-old college student.

Park Avenue by Renée Ahdieh. Okay this is easy with its comp being Crazy Rich Asians. Both of us loved Crazy Rich Asians hence I recommended it to her. It’s rich people behaving badly, a little bit of romance with a GREAT twist at the end that we both loved. Easy peasy.

Everyone is Lying To You by Jo Piazza. Listen. I just love Jo’s stories and this one does not disappoint. It’s fast paced, it’s suspenseful, a page turner. But what I knew Eleanor would love is the “ripped straight from the headlines” nature of this one with its focus on the #tradwives industry that everybody seems to be following these days. Think Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. You don’t have to follow them to enjoy this one but if you do, BONUS.

I am definitely encouraged by Eleanor’s openness to my suggestions and it gives me hope that my other three will eventually follow suit and I will no longer be just a mom giving book recommendations, but a fellow reader they trust!