Books by Shirley Jackson, Kate Mulgrew and Angela Flournoy make...

Books by Shirley Jackson, Kate Mulgrew and Angela Flournoy make good pMother's Day presents. Credit: Penguin/Little, Brown/Houghton M

With Mother's Day a week away, some gift suggestions:

LIFE AMONG THE SAVAGES and RAISING DEMONS, by Shirley Jackson. Best known for her creepy classic story "The Lottery" and macabre novels such as "The Haunting of Hill House," Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) also wrote two autobiographical books about raising a family in small-town Vermont in the 1950s. Jackson mines these true tales of Little League, faulty appliances, music lessons and IRS woes for pure comic effect. "Raising Demons," the second of the two, is back in print after many years. (Penguin, $16 each)

BORN WITH TEETH, by Kate Mulgrew. Mom doesn't have to be a fan of "Star Trek: Voyager" or "Orange Is the New Black" to appreciate this memoir by the actress who first gained recognition on the soap opera "Ryan's Hope." Mulgrew recalls her mother -- a high-spirited Irish-Catholic housewife whose own dreams were swallowed by the demands of seven children -- and shares the story of her own daughter, given up for adoption and rediscovered 20 years later. (Little, Brown; $28)

THE TURNER HOUSE, by Angela Flournoy. This debut novel, set in Detroit, tells the story of a large African-American family of 13 siblings, bound by love for the declining matriarch, Viola, and the house on Yarrow Street where they all grew up, now abandoned and at risk of mortgage default. Author Flournoy explores the complicated family bonds and even throws in an element of the supernatural -- "haints" that may or may not be haunting the eldest brother, Cha-Cha. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $23)

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