What My Mother and I Don't Talk About
by Michele Filgate
About the book
An anthology in which fifteen writers explore the things they've never quite been able to say to their mothers — grief, distance, love, resentment, tenderness, silence. Curated by Michele Filgate, the essays span very different lives and relationships, yet they weave together into an honest, layered portrait of how mother–child bonds shape us long into adulthood.
What I thought
This gave me a different way of thinking about the silences that run through so many families. What I connected with most was how honest each essay is without being performative — you can feel the writers really thinking on the page. It's a book that makes you want to sit quietly for a while afterward. It doesn't push toward tidy resolutions; it just holds space for complicated love, which felt like one of the most respectful things a book on this topic can do.