When I charged myself to meditate on literature appropriate to Mother’s Day, the first book that popped into my head was Kate Chopin’s 1899 novel The Awakening.

This reading list is, in its modest way celebrating National Poetry Month — not with poetry, but with titles that bring a uniquely penetrating voice to a difficult, unusual or even utterly mundane subject.

Every genre finds inspiration in the gaps between generations, and this month, our editors are inspired by generational stories from the fictional to the anthropological to the theatrical.

When I find a book that delights me, I tend to push it on all my friends with evangelistic zeal. The downside of lending out a beloved book, of course, is that a person then finds herself jealous of those who are reading it.

With a new year comes a new impulse to examine ourselves and the way the various pieces of our identities fit together.

Sometimes, grandmothers can provide something slightly magical that nobody else can.