Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Mothers, Tell Your Daughters: Stories
Mothers, Tell Your Daughters: Stories | Bonnie Jo Campbell
25 posts | 23 read | 57 to read
From the author of National Book Award finalist American Salvage comes a dazzling and suspenseful new story collection. Named by the Guardian as one of our top ten writers of rural noir, Bonnie Jo Campbell is a keen observer of life and trouble in rural America, and her working-class protagonists can be at once vulnerable, wise, cruel, and funny. The strong but flawed women of Mothers, Tell Your Daughters must negotiate a sexually charged atmosphere as they love, honor, and betray one another against the backdrop of all the men in their world. Such richly fraught mother-daughter relationships can be lifelines, anchors, or they can sink a woman like a stone. In "My Dog Roscoe," a new bride becomes obsessed with the notion that her dead ex-boyfriend has returned to her in the form of a mongrel. In "Blood Work, 1999," a phlebotomist's desire to give away everything to the needy awakens her own sensuality. In "Home to Die," an abused woman takes revenge on her bedridden husband. In these fearless and darkly funny tales about women and those they love, Campbells spirited American voice is at its most powerful.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
Soubhiville
post image
Bailedbailed

Well, I made it about halfway through these short stories. The writing is very good, it flows well and is compelling. The subject matter is too much for me right now. I‘ve never tagged so many content warnings on StoryGraph before. I don‘t generally mind bleak stories, and if there had been any bright spots in the collection I‘d have kept reading, but every story here is packed with trauma. Frankly depressing.

Soubhiville Clearly Venkman is unbothered though. 😴🐈‍⬛ 2y
Leftcoastzen So cute !😸 2y
65 likes2 comments
blurb
Bookworm83
post image

@BooksForEmpathy I finally used the gift card you gave me ages ago 😊 I was waiting for just the right book! After reading Once Upon A River for #LGP I want to read all of her books. Thank you 😘

BooksForEmpathy Waitttt I want to read this but forgot about it. I‘m so glad you waited for the perfect book! Enjoy xoxo. 5y
75 likes2 stack adds1 comment
blurb
bibliobliss
post image

• I don‘t know if I have the stamina for anything more than short stories lately. I haven‘t been reading much 🙁 but sometimes a collection of short stories kicks the brain back into gear. Fingers crossed for this recent Little Free Library pick🤞 •

#tbr #shortstories #paperback #fiction

JamieArc This was recently recommended to me. I hope it does what you need it to 😊 6y
bibliobliss @JamieArc ty 👍🏼 6y
34 likes3 stack adds2 comments
review
kyraleseberg
post image
Pickpick

"Bury me at the crossroads so my spirit can travel, so even in death I won't be forced to rest or grow mossy. Every one of you children were born at the crossroads, because every woman giving birth becomes a crossroads."

A startling short story collection about women in rural America covering tenuous relationships with their mothers, lovers, and children. My favorites were the title story and The Fruit of the Pawpaw Tree.

30 likes2 stack adds
blurb
slightlyfoxed
post image
readordierachel Good one! 6y
YouReadMyEyes Excellent 👍🏼 6y
Liatrek Excellent 👍🏽 6y
24 likes3 comments
blurb
Well-ReadNeck
post image

@Liberty #READATHONSTORIES

I love a good short story collection. Hard to pick a favorite, but here are three collections that I read recently and absolutely loved and would highly recommend.

Librariana Oh, I just told @Cinfhen that American Housewife is one of my faves, too!! Yay! 7y
See All 11 Comments
SheReadsAndWrites I love this photo! How did you do it??? Teach me, sensei 🙏🏼 7y
Well-ReadNeck @SheWritesRomance 😆 I use the pic collage app on iPhone. 7y
SheReadsAndWrites Really? I have that one. You are WAY better at it than I am. I'll need to practice 🤔 7y
Well-ReadNeck @SheWritesRomance In the Pic Collage app, when u go to backgrounds, choose the search one, they give you categories with good backgrounds and you can also type in something specific (like empty bookshelves, e.g.) and it will search for images. 7y
SheReadsAndWrites Thanks!! 😃 7y
ReadingEnvy Looove Bonnie Jo Campbell 7y
nikirtehsuxlol The eveningland (?) one has a great cover! 7y
107 likes4 stack adds11 comments
blurb
Autolycus
post image
3 likes1 stack add
blurb
LWagoner
post image

I've read many, many amazing books this year! They have ranged from fiction, memoir, poetry and graphic novels. My goal is to continue to read diversely in 2017. Here are my favorites for 2016. #read #books #readdiversely

review
LWagoner
post image
Pickpick

Best short story collection I have read this year. Each story centered around a woman- a strong, independent and flawed woman. Absolutely loved this book!
Quotes from the story "Mothers, Tell Your Daughters."
P.89 "You can always find pain and suffering in this life, but why go looking for it."
P.103 "Everyone of you children was born at a crossroads because every woman giving birth becomes a crossroad."

11 likes1 stack add
blurb
LWagoner
post image

Next Read!

9 likes1 stack add
blurb
rwrkb
post image

With a friend like Bonnie Jo Campbell, who sends you comics about her awesome books, who needs more friends?!

7 likes1 stack add
review
AshleyS
post image
Pickpick

This book is fantastic. It is wonderfully written, but was very hard to listen to at times. It explores all different women's experiences and hardships. Certain stories gave me a literal stomachache because of the topics. I listened to this on overdrive and the narrator is amazing

20 likes2 stack adds
blurb
OutlandishLit
post image

Bonnie Jo Campbell: "If you see a problem you can solve, solve it. If you see a problem you can't solve, write about it." This is a photo of her being great and calling out the photographer (me). Feels good to hear somebody talking about the importance of stories right now.

vivastory @OutlandishLit Looks like a great event. I take it you saw her at Magers and Quinn? 7y
SuperPunkNinja Sound advice. 7y
OutlandishLit @vivastory yes! I work there 7y
See All 6 Comments
vivastory @OutlandishLit I lived in uptown from 2009-2011 and then moved to anoka until 2013. I don't miss the cold/snow but I do miss the great literary culture (including bookstores like Magers & Quin which was my favorite bookstore there). I went to so many amazing readings in Minneapolis. 7y
WordWaller @vivastory that's so great!! I work there too, with @OutlandishLit. I love all the readings Mpls has elsewhere too!! 7y
vivastory @WordWaller Some of my best memories are of readings I attended in Minneapolis, especially Salman Rushdie and Seamus Heaney. 7y
42 likes3 stack adds6 comments
review
Tanner
post image
Pickpick

Overall, I enjoyed this book, although I don't think I "get" some of the stories. The last two are my favourites. And here is a pic of me and my Mom, taken on a long-ago Hallowe'en.

blurb
JenniferJR
post image

Sunday plans: this and not much else. #sundayreads

6 likes1 stack add
blurb
JenniferJR
post image

Two library trips in two days. Basically, I'm Winning at life. #bookstack #shelfie #weekendreads

blurb
Marlee
post image

Excited to start this collection!

2 likes1 stack add
blurb
Liberty
post image

What an amazing privilege it was to see Bonnie Jo Campbell read today! She is simply incredible. And she gave us a comic to go along with her most recent book!!! ❤️📚🤘🏻

MamaGina I didn't know "rural noir" is a thing ... But I like it!? 7y
Lizpixie @MamaGina another "rural noir" novel that's amazing is 7y
MamaGina Thanks @Lizpixie, I have that one marked To Read, it sounds SO good!🤓 7y
BookishFeminist So jealous! I love BJC so much. 7y
WordWaller She's so great!! 7y
191 likes20 stack adds5 comments
blurb
jessicabrazeal
post image

Poignant, honest, heartbreaking.

review
DocBrown
Pickpick

Achingly devastating. So much tragedy in these women's lives -- so much of it visited upon them by men. Not always pleasant reading, but not always morose either.

review
DocBrown
Pickpick

Achingly devastating. So much tragedy in these women's lives -- so much of it visited upon them by men. Not always pleasant reading, but not always morose either.

review
brariane42
post image
Pickpick

A great collection of short stories! Some were hilarious, some horrifying, and all of them stayed with me long after I finished reading them. I picked this up when it came out in October but never finished it, and I finally did!

BookishFeminist This is seriously one of my all time favorite short story collections. Incredibly powerful, 8y
5 likes1 stack add1 comment
review
andreadmw
post image
Pickpick

Wow, these were strange little stories. They made me uncomfortable and I liked it. I read these mixed with another book and I feel it helped set the disturbance off. I am not sure if I would feel different if I read this in 1 sitting.

blurb
BethFishReads
post image

Short stories & ice cream. Emotionally strong stories about a variety of women in tough situations. Set in Michigan. I'm reading them one or two at a time. @24in48 @Litsy #24in48 #ShortStories

31 likes3 stack adds
quote
BettySueBlue
post image