Author Erin McHugh at Barnes & Noble

Like My Mother Always Said by Erin McHugh

Published by Abrams Image ISBN 978-1-4197-1173-2

Hardcover, $14.95, 133 pages

Erin McHugh, author of Good Deeds, recounting her journey to do one good deed each day for a year, has written the perfect book for Mother's Day- Like My Mother Always Said...Wise Words, Witty Warnings, and Odd Advice We Never Forgot.

Recently she spoke at Barnes & Noble on the Upper East Side in New York City in front of a large, appreciative crowd of fans. When we arrived, each of us was asked to write down our favorite "momism" for a drawing to win a free book.

McHugh got the idea for the book while staying with friends. Her friend said that McHugh should write a book called Like My Mother Always Said because McHugh frequently repeated that during her visit.

She asked people on Facebook and Twitter to send her their favorite sayings from their own moms. She was surprised that 35% of the respondents were men, but as she said, "Men LOVE their mothers!" (As the mother of two grown men, that brought me joy.)

Men shared touching memories, women shared funny ones or zingers from mom. McHugh's Facebook page became a "nutty eparlor game of top this", with everyone trying to top the others with their memories.

McHugh read some sayings from the book, like Potsie (a great mom name!) who told her daughter "If you marry for money, you earn every penny." And one Southern mom who, when seeing her adult daughter come home for a visit, said "Well aren't you wearing your hair just the way you like it?"

Wearing clean underwear was a popular momism, though no one topped the woman who was hit by a car on 96th Street and Park Avenue, and ended up in the middle of the busy intersection with her skirt in the air and her clean underwear on display for all. Good thing she listened to her mom.

McHugh was appalled to get this momism more than once-"If you do that again, I will rip your arms and legs off and hit you with the stumps."

Erin McHugh reading at Barnes & Noble

The ones that affected McHugh most of all came from Tina's mom, Hertha. Hertha fled Germany just before the Nazis began their reign of terror. Many of her family, including her mom, were left behind. Tina shared several of mom's sayings with McHugh, and McHugh noticed a recurring theme. All of her sayings dealt with survival, something that Hertha learned very early on.

McHugh read the crowd's momisms and the winner was "You don't look good in hats", which drew a huge laugh from the crowd. As we adjourned, someone asked McHugh if her next book would be Like My Father Always Said. McHugh told us to talk to her publisher, and the general consensus was that we would all love to read that one as well.

if you are looking for the perfect gift for Mother's Day, for Mom or anyone who has a mom (that would be everyone), run out and get Like My Mother Always Said. You'll laugh and tear up reading this sweet, funny book.

To see my full review on auburnpub.com, filled with lots of momisms, click here.
My review of One Good Deed is here.