M.K. Oliver is a former English teacher and headteacher originally from Liverpool. He long dreamed of becoming a writer and after many years of working in schools, he took the exciting decision to put down the whiteboard marker, take up the keyboard, and give it a go.
Oliver's new novel is A Sociopath's Guide to a Successful Marriage.
At People magazine the author tagged "a few great books in which mothers range from a little bit selfish to completely, dreadfully awful!" One title on the list:
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria SempleRead about another entry on the list.
This one concerns a soul-searching mother whose self-interest (or loss of self) sometimes gets the better of her maternal instinct. This is a wise,thought-provoking read while also being a wonderful delight. Bernadette isn’t so much a bad mother as a mother who has lost herself after the birth of her daughter to such an extent that she seems to want to erase herself completely.
This is about the conflict between the maternal instincts and the creative urge to be a unique individual who wants to find their voice again. What is great about the "bad mother" here is she’s not really bad at all, she’s just honest about the emotionally demanding and difficult aspects of motherhood.
Where’d You Go, Bernadette is among Tom Ryan's six adult novels featuring young sleuths, Kate McIntyre's seven top novels about only children, Francesca Segal's seven best books to prepare for motherhood, Kelly Simmons's six books to read with your teen or twentyish daughter, Jeff Somers's top five novels whose main characters are shut-ins and five books that use cultural anthropology to brilliant effect and top five novels featuring runaway parents, Heidi Fiedler's thirty-three books to read with your mother, the Star-Tribune's eight top funny books for dire times, Chrissie Gruebel's seven great books for people who love Modern Family, Charlotte Runcie's ten best bad mothers in literature, Joel Cunningham's seven notable epistolary novels and Chrissie Gruebel's five top books for readers inspired by Nora Ephron.
--Marshal Zeringue
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