From My Mother's Hands: Remembrances and Recipes from Texas Women

Looking through this book, I realized that I might have achieved more in this life if I had been a daughter. The supporting relationships between daughters and mothers, so well detailed in this book by Susie Kelly Flatau, would make any guy a bit envious. Don't get me wrong--fathers are O.K. And, being a son to a mother is fine too, but reading this book it brought home to me that I could neither fully appreciate nor appropriate that special relationship enjoyed by a daughter and her mother.

Browsing through the index one is aware that most of these names are not that familiar (some are very, as in the case of Luci and Lady Bird Johnson) to the average reader. What is familiar, however, are the testaments given to some very average, yet phenominal mothers who have had a significant impact on the shaping of their daughters ideas, dreams and accomplishments. Anyone reading this book becomes immediately aware that the so called women's "revolution" was taking place long before bras were burned and names were hyphenated and most of the real battles were being fought from the kitchen as often as from an office or boardroom. These are no ordinary women and the daughters they raised atest to that fact. As De Lamartine asserted "there is a woman at the beginning of all great things" and nowhere is this more evident than between these pages.Although recipes are included from each mother/daughter team, this is so NOT a cookbook. It is a book to be placed by the bedside or on a table in the livingroom where one can just pick out a chapter at random and remember again just how important mother really was. It is a very personal journey and one that might even require a tissue or two. My only regret is that I cannot share this with my own mother who passed away before this book was published, but I can read and remember with a grateful heart. A perfect gift for the mom in anyone's life!

With a masterful hand of her own, Susie Kelly Flatau has captured the compelling dynamics of a positive mother-daughter relationship within this book. The enchanting tributes to their mothers by 33 prominent Texas women will entice readers to embark on their own reflective journey home to their mothers' arms.