We all remember the Mother's Days when a makeshift card on a piece of construction paper was enough to make mom's year. As we grow older and become mothers ourselves, it's now easy to see why something so small meant so much. At Always, we know how much your daughter means to you. Whether you need real-world advice or a little comic relief when parenting becomes too much, we've found a book for you.

1. Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood
   
By Camille Peri
Published by Pocket Books

The editors of the online magazine, "Salon," come together in this book with honest, provocative essays and some awesome illustrations. From the sometimes gruesome and sometimes hilarious realities of being a mother to the greatest joys of motherhood, this book touches on it all.



2. Mothering Without a Map: The Search for the Good Mother Within
   
By Kathryn Black
Published by Penguin USA

Most women will admit that their most powerful role model has been their own mother. However, there are many women who grew up without mothers or with mothers who were distant. This book reaches out to those women and their aspirations to be the good mothers they never had.



3. The Hip Mama Survival Guide: Advice from the Trenches on Pregnancy, Childbirth, Cool Names, Clueless Doctors, Potty Training, Toddler Avengers, Domestic Mayhem, Support Groups
   
By Ariel Gore
Published by Hyperion Books

Ariel Gore is known as both a mother and as the publisher of "Hip Mama," the website for alternative parents. In her latest survival guide, she offers nontraditional parenting advice for mothers from a wide variety of lifestyles, whether they are teenagers or radical feminists. Complete with humor and an anything but run-of-the-mill attitude, Gore relays advice to moms from all walks of life.




4. The Mom Book : 4,278 of Mom Central's Tips.. For Moms from Moms
   
By Stacy DeBroff
Published by Free Press

A compilation of easy-to-read tips from parents, this book imparts advice from mothers who have been through it all and lived to tell the story. Much like a survival guide, this book can be kept around as a handy reference.



5. Confessions of a Slacker Mom
   
By Muffy Mead-Ferro
Published by Da Capo Press

For those mothers who feel like they could use a dash of empowerment and a sprinkle of inspiration, this book offers a refreshingly honest and funny take on parenting and motherhood.