Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood - Hardcover

This book should come as manna to mums: a multitude of small, wry voices reminding us we're not alone. Mothers Who Think is a collection of pieces from the Salon magazine column of the same name. The column (and the book) has no fixed perspective, no set goal, no political agenda--just a bunch of women writers mouthing off about changing nappies. Okay, more than just nappies. There's Rahna Reiko Rizzuto on her gruesome labour (the mucus plug ... fell out of my underwear and onto my husband's shoe); HipMama editor Ariel Gore on family court (I learned that two professionals on a case are usually worse than none. That three can be dangerous.); Susan Straight on being a single mum and taking care of everything yourself (I just wish I didn't look so bad doing it.); and Elizabeth Rapoport on being a married mum and taking care of everything yourself (I must confess I'm a little jaded by these sociological pissing contests. Just wake me when the dads are doing 50 percent. Period.) A couple of dozen others chime in as well, notably novelist Anne Lamott, New York Times reporter Alex Witchel and sexpert Susie Bright.

Editors Camille Peri and Kate Moses have created a chorus with range: This is not a stream of white, privileged voices interrupted only occasionally by news from the underclass, news from women of colour, news from sexual minorities. If anything, the book is too focused on a wide variety of very personal stories--one often wishes for the gesture of expansion, the linking of the personal to the cultural. Still, that's a small gripe with a book that takes us into the brainier, funnier kitchens of motherhood all over America. --Amazon.com

Chicago Tribune Wistful, tender, hilarious...will move you the way only good writing can.

Los Angeles Times [These] essays...are not so much issues as personal truths, spun out with equal parts observation, honesty, and good humor. They are sad, and funny, and poignant, and real.

Ms. Magazine Finally, we who share the joy and the fury can share a book that embraces both and, unlike any other book on the subject, invites us to honor ourselves for simply doing the best we can.

Elizabeth Taylor, literary editor Chicago Tribune Trade the parenthood guides in for this collection of provocative essays. I read most of them late at night on Salon, the Internet magazine, and revisited, they come alive again. The sheer intelligence and range of these mothers, from Jayne Anne Phillips to Sallie Tisdale and Alex Witchel, enlarge the world of motherhood.

Miami Herald This book is a lot like motherhood itself full of joy, trauma, insanity, hard work, exhaustion, and more than a few good laughs.

Austin Chronicle (TX) A must-read for anyone contemplating motherhood and a bible for all of us whose lives have been warped, splendored, and expanded by our dear little ones.

The Bellingham Herald (WA) Most popular press articles on the joys and tribulations of mothering are mildly insulting. Good friends may share true feelings with you, but not the press. [The web site] "Mothers Who Think" is where you go when you realize you've been duped...Heartfelt, exuberant essays...Funny, straight-talking...

Mirabella Full of dames both besotted and fed up...Essays by these mothers who think deal with the sweet, the sour, and the unthinkable.

Minnesota Parent Here, at last, is a parenting book for those of us who have made the desperate search for some literature (any literature!) that reflects our own intense, horrific, hilarious, joyful, maddening, bewildering, sublime experiences as mothers.

New York Newsday Motherhood, apple pie, angst. This book offers proof that good parenting exists on many levels...Reflective and crisply written.