Adoption and Mothering. Edited by Frances Latchford, $34.95

ADOPTION AND MOTHERING is an international and interdisciplinary collection that examines birthmothers and adoptive mothers; it investigates debate, discourse, and the politics of adoption that surrounds them and impacts contemporary notions of motherhood as biological and non-biological kin in North American contexts. Written by authors from disciplinary perspectives in the humanities and social sciences, its essays offer critical perspectives on adoption and mothering that challenge institutionalized ideas, assumptions, pathologies, and psychologies that are used to interpret birthmothers and adoptive mothers. Its authors interrogate questions of race, gender, disability, class and sexuality as they relate to the experience, identity, and subjectivity of ‘mothers’ who are marked by the institution of adoption. It investigates historical and contemporary themes, language, law, and practices that concern mothering in closed and open adoption systems, and in transracial and transnational adoption. It critically explores the expectations, scrutiny, and liminality that birthmothers and adoptive mothers often face. It looks at imperatives that mothers be the keepers of culture, potential adversaries, and borderland mothers. In effect, it creates a productive and exciting dialogue between birthmothers and adoptive mothers to challenge traditional notions of motherhood.

All Moms Work: Short-Term Career Strategies for Long-Range Success. Sharon Reed Abboud, $17.50

All Moms Work offers sound, short-term strategies for supplementing the family income and a long-range game plan for keeping your career on track, your skills current and your resume fresh.

An Anthropology of Mothering. Edited by Michelle Walks & Naomi McPherson, $34.95

In anthropology, cross-cultural research is fundamental. The experiences and ideas represented within this volume are much more than geographically diverse, as Indigenous and immigrant, rural and urban, religious and secular populations are represented, as well as one chapter focused on primate and hominid mothering. Through the consideration of the experiences of grandmothers, au pairs, biological and adoptive mothers, mothers of soldiers, mothers of children with autism, mothers in the corrections system, among others, it becomes clear that human mothering is neither practiced nor experienced the same the world over.

The Art of Waiting: On Fertility, Medicine, and Motherhood. Belle Boggs, $22.99

Belle Boggs eloquently recounts her realization that she might never be able to conceive. She searches the apparently fertile world around her — the emergence of thirteen-year cicadas, the birth of eaglets near her rural home, and an unusual gorilla pregnancy at a local zoo — for signs that she is not alone. Boggs also explores other aspects of fertility and infertility: the way longing for a child plays out in the classic Coen brothers film Raising Arizona; the depiction of childlessness in literature, from Macbeth to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; the financial and legal complications that accompany alternative means of family making; the private and public expressions of iconic writers grappling with motherhood and fertility. She reports, with great empathy, complex stories of couples who adopted domestically and from overseas, LGBT couples considering assisted reproduction and surrogacy, and women and men reflecting on childless or child-free lives.

In The Art of Waiting, Boggs deftly distills her time of waiting into an expansive contemplation of fertility, choice, and the many possible roads to making a life and making a family.

Babyproofing Your Marriage: How to Laugh More and Argue Less As Your Family Grows. Stacie Cockrell, Cathy O'Neill & Julia Stone, $18.50

Babyproofing Your Marriage is the warts-and-all truth about how having children can affect your relationship. The authors' evenhanded approach to both sides of the marital equation allows partners to understand each other in a whole new way. With humor, compassion, and practical advice, the Babyproofers will guide first-time parents and veterans alike around the rocky shores of the early parenting years.

Bad Mother: a Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities and Occasional Moments of Grace. Ayelet Waldman, $17.95

Writing with remarkable candor, and dispensing much hilarious and helpful advice along the way, Ayelet Waldman says it's time for women to get past being judgmental of themselves and other mothers, and get on with it in this wry, unflinchingly honest, and always insightful take on modern motherhood.

Bearcub and Mama. Sharon Jennings, illustrated by Mélanie Watt, $6.95 (preschool age)

Told in simple, evocative language and illustrated in rich, luminous colors, Bearcub and Mama is a reassuring story about growing up and the powerful bond between mother and child.

Because I Said So: 33 Mothers Write about Children, Sex, Men, Aging, Faith, Race & Themselves. Camille Peri & Kate Moses, $17.50

The founding editors of Salon.com's "Mothers Who Think" column and the subsequent anthology of the same name, have once again compiled a selection of intimate and fiercely honest essays on the profound issues that affect women and their children. Because I Said So offers 33 unique perspectives on motherhood that are witty and wise. Their stories range from the anguish of giving up child custody to the guilt of having sex in an era of sexless marriages; from learning to love the full-speed testosterone chaos of boys to raising girls in a pervasively sexualized culture; from facing racial and religious intolerance to surviving cancer and rap simultaneously. This is the collective voice of real mothers in all their humor, anger, vulnerability, grace, and glory.

Becoming Mum: How to Survive Childbirth and the Early Months of Motherhood. Kate Carberry, $27.95

What does a contraction feel like? Am I the only one finding these early months of motherhood overwhelming? How can I cope better with the tiredness from these sleepless nights? Becoming a mother is an intense, life-changing experience. No matter how many conversations you have with friends who have had children, nothing can prepare you for the changes ahead. Every woman is different, every birth is different, and every baby is different.

Becoming Mum strives to support the reader in a society where we don't always talk honestly about childbirth and the tough challenges of the months that follow. It is a reassuring voice to remind you that you're doing OK, that you're not losing your mind. Whether you are preparing for childbirth or in the midst of the often demanding early months, this book acts as a valuable aid that allows you the opportunity to learn from other mothers' experiences and to benefit from their hindsight.

The Best Mama in the World. Eleni Zabini & Susanne Lütje, $10.50

This sweet boardbook honours the special bond of mamas and their little ones.

Breaking the Good Mom Myth: Every Modern Mom's Guide to Getting Past Perfection, Regaining Sanity, and Raising Great Kids. Alyson Schafer, $17.99

From leading parenting expert Alyson Schafer, BREAKING THE GOOD MOM MYTH breaks down personal and cultural myths about motherhood while empowering mothers everywhere.

Buddhism for Mothers of Young Children: Becoming a Mindful Parent. Sarah Napthali, $18.95

In a clear and engaging manner, Sarah Napthali takes us on a journey through the challenges (and the joys) of raising children, using Buddhist teachings and principles to help her answer the eternal questions of mothers everywhere: Who am I now? Where am I going? And how can I do my best by my children and myself?

Writing from personal experience, and weaving in stories from other mothers throughout her narrative, Sarah shows us how spiritual and mindful parenting can help all mothers to be more open, attentive and content.

Catastrophic Happiness: Finding Joy in Childhood's Messy Years. Catherine Newman, $20.99

Much is written about a child's infancy and toddler years, which is good since children will never remember it themselves. It is ages 4-14 that make up the second act, as Catherine Newman puts it in this delightfully candid, outlandishly funny new memoir about the years that "your children will remember as childhood." Following Newman's son and daughter as they blossom from preschoolers into teenagers, Catastrophic Happiness is about the bittersweet joy of raising children — and the ever-evolving landscape of issues parents traverse. In a laugh out-loud, heart-wrenching, relatable voice, Newman narrates events as momentous as grief and as quietly moving as the moonlit face of a sleeping child. From tantrums and friendship to fear and even sex, Newman's fresh take will appeal to any parent riding this same roller coaster of laughter and heartbreak.

A Chair for My Mother. Vera Williams, $9.99

A young girl, who along with her waitress mother, saves coins in a big jar in hopes that they can someday buy a big, new, comfortable chair for their apartment, the kind of chair her mother deserves after being on her feet all day in the Blue Tile Diner. Finally the jar is full, the coins are rolled, and in the book's crowning moment mother, daughter, and Grandma search four different furniture stores, and after carefully trying several chairs, like Goldilocks, they find the chair they've been dreaming of at last.

The Conflict: How Modern Motherhood Undermines the Status of Women. Elisabeth Badinter, $17.99

In this explosive new book, acclaimed French author Elisabeth Badinter attacks a most unlikely force undermining women’s equality: liberal motherhood, in thrall to all that is “natural.” Attachment parenting, co-sleeping and on-demand breastfeeding—these hallmarks of contemporary motherhood have succeeded in tethering women to the home and family to an extent not seen since the 1950s. In sharp, engaging prose, Badinter names a reactionary shift that has been intensely felt but never clearly articulated until now. A bestseller in Europe, THE CONFLICT is a scathing indictment of a stealthy zealotry that cheats women of their full potential.

Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, $18.00

A few years ago, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received a letter from a dear friend from childhood, asking her how to raise her baby girl as a feminist. Dear Ijeawele is her letter of response.

Here are fifteen invaluable suggestions — compelling, direct, wryly funny, and perceptive — for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman. From encouraging her to choose a helicopter, and not only a doll, as a toy if she so desires; having open conversations with her about clothes, makeup, and sexuality; debunking the myth that women are somehow biologically arranged to be in the kitchen making dinner, and that men can “allow” women to have full careers, Dear Ijeawele goes right to the heart of sexual politics in the twenty-first century. It will start a new and urgently needed conversation about what it really means to be a woman today.

Difficult Mothers: Understanding and Overcoming Their Power. Terri Apter, $17.00

Mother love is often seen as sacred, but for many children the relationship is a painful struggle. Using the newest research on human attachment and brain development, Terri Apter, an internationally acclaimed psychologist and writer, unlocks the mysteries of this complicated bond. Apter explores the dilemma at the heart of a difficult relationship: why a mother has such a powerful impact on us and why we continue to care about her responses long after we have outgrown our dependence. She then shows how we can conduct an “emotional audit” on ourselves to overcome the power of the complex feelings a difficult mother inflicts. In the end this book celebrates the great resilience of sons and daughters of difficult mothers as well as acknowledging their special challenges.

The Emotionally Absent Mother: a Guide to Self-Healing and Getting the Love You Missed. Jasmin Lee Cori, $18.00

Was your mother too busy, too tired, or too checked-out to provide you with the nurturing you needed as a child? Men and women who were undermothered as children often struggle with intimate relationships, in part because of their unmet need for maternal care. The Emotionally Absent Mother will help you understand what was missing from your childhood, how this relates to your mother's own history, and how you can fill the mother gap by examining the past with compassion for yourself and your mother.

Even June Cleaver Would Forget the Juice Box: Cut Yourself Some Slack (and Raise Great Kids) in the Age of Extreme Parenting. Ann Dunnewold, $20.95

If you're feeling overstressed, overtired, or overscheduled, noted psychologist Ann Dunnewold can help you rewrite the rules of motherhood by introducing a new, healthier paradigm, one that replaces the dysfunctional myth of the June Cleaver mom.

Expecting the Unexpected: an Honest Look at Miscarriage, Postpartum Depression, and Motherhood. Amy Kim, $22.75

Amy Kim believed that having a baby would be one of the most exciting and happiest experiences in her life. But she never could have predicted having to endure a miscarriage and postpartum depression, in addition to the many other obstacles inherent with motherhood.

Join Amy on her sometimes heartbreaking, often hilarious, and always relatable journey through motherhood. Experience with her the ups and downs, and the need to laugh at herself and her situation as she learns to embrace her new identity as a mother.

Finding Your Inner Mama: Women Reflect on the Challenges and Rewards of Motherhood. Eden Steinberg, Editor, $22.50

Finding Your Inner Mama explores the profound inward challenges and rewards of motherhood, from first giving birth to the empty nest. The editor — herself a mother of two sons — has chosen some of the most insightful writings about the emotional and spiritual landscape of motherhood drawn from the best books, articles, and essays, as well as two original essays. The authors speak from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives, each exploring a unique dimension of the journey of motherhood.

From the author-illustrator of the best-selling Furry Logic comes a book of smile-provoking, truth-telling adages just for parents. Accompanied by touching water-color paintings of the most expressive animals you've ever seen, Furry Logic: Parenthood will speak to the hearts, souls, and funny bones of anyone who's experienced the joys of being a mom or dad. Seabrook's paintings uncannily capture the highs and lows, loves and fears that all parents feel.

Good Enough is the New Perfect. Becky Beaupre Gillespie & Hollee Schwarz Temple, $19.50

Good Enough is the New Perfect introduces readers to working moms who have rejected the all-or-nothing choices of the past to become the first generation to wrest true control of their lives. It identifies the perils and roots of our obsession with Having It All — and offers a roadmap for leaving that all behind. Discover the New Perfect for yourself — and see just how happy modern motherhood really can be.

Good Mother, Bad Mother. Gina Ford, $26.99

Pressurised by the media, scrutinised by their peers, frowned upon even by those closest to them, mothers today face relentless criticism and pressure. Breast or bottle? Work or stay at home? Routine or feeding-on-demand? The choices are infinite and at the heart of each question is the more controversial and divisive debate of what makes a good mother. Good Mother, Bad Mother is an illuminating, moving and thought-provoking study of this enigmatic question. Never before has the subject of motherhood been tackled with such unflinching honesty. 

Drawing on her experience of thousands of mothers, bestselling parenting author Gina Ford has turned her attention to the women charged with bringing up the next generation. She addresses the challenges of contemporary motherhood and fervently argues that these awe-inspiring women seldom receive the support, respect and admiration they deserve. And for the first time, in a candid, personal account, Gina interweaves stories from her own childhood, revealing how her relationship with her own mother has shaped the choices she has made. 

How Mothers Love and How Relationships Are Born. Naomi Stadlen, $22.99

When adults relate to each other, they are building on the foundations usually laid down by their mothers. HOW MOTHERS LOVE offers unique insights into how mothers and babies learn to communicate intimately with one another, and build the foundations for a lifetime of relationships.

How Not to Calm a Child On a Plane and Other Lessons in Parenting from a Highly Questionable Source. Johanna Stein, $23.00

For Johanna Stein (writer/comedian/forward/slash/abuser and occasionally neurotic/immature/way-too-candid mom), parenting is an extreme sport. Her stories from the trenches may not always be shared experiences — Have you ever wondered if your baby's "soft spot" is like a delete key? Trained your preschooler for a zombie invasion? Accused a nearly nude stranger of being pregnant? Made sweet, bimonthly love to your spouse while your toddler serenaded you through the adjoining wall? Attempted to calm your screaming baby on an airplane with a hand puppet, only to have it lead to one of the most disgusting experiences of your life? — but they will always make you laugh.

How She Really Does It: Secrets of Successful Stay-at-Work Moms. Wendy Sachs, $18.95

Wendy Sachs, stay-at-work mother of two, has interviewed women from every walk of life, from celebrities to everyday moms and has uncovered some inspiring stories. HOW SHE REALLY DOES IT will validate the millions of women now attempting to “have it all,” or at least some of it all the time — revealing the keys to staying at work, staying sane, staying satisfied, and staying at the heart of her family as well.

I Love Mondays and Other Confessions from Devoted Working Moms. Michelle Cove, $18.95

I LOVE MONDAYS explores the difficulties faced by working mothers — and provides helpful new perspectives and mom-tested strategies for alleviating anxiety and honing work/home juggling skills.

I Want My Epidural Back: Adventures in Mediocre Parenting. Karen Alpert, $24.99

If you are the kind of mom who shapes your kiddo’s organic quinoa into reproductions of the Mona Lisa, do not read this book. If you stayed up past midnight to create posters for your PTO presidential campaign, do not read this book. If you look down your nose at parents who have Domino’s pizza on speed dial, do not read this book.

But if you are the kind of parent who accidentally goes ballistic on your rugrats every morning because they won’t put their shoes on and then you feel super guilty about it all day so you take them to McDonald’s for a special treat but really it’s because you opened up your freezer and panicked because you forgot to buy more frozen pizzas, then absolutely read this book.

I Want My Epidural Back is a celebration of mediocre parents and how awesome they are and how their kids love them just as much as children with perfect parents. Karen Alpert’s honest but hilarious observations, stories, quips and pictures will have you nodding your head and peeing in your pants. Or on the toilet if you’re smart and read it there.

It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita. Heather Armstrong, $21.99

Heather Armstrong shares, with biting wit and unrelenting honesty, all the minor details of pregnancy and motherhood that no one cares to mention — like anxiety, constipation, and postpartum depression. There are lonely days, sleepless nights, and endless screaming. There’s the boredom that comes with caring for someone whose primary means of communication is through their bowels. And there’s the heart-swelling joy and utterly irresistible and totally redeemable fresh baby smell that makes it all worthwhile...

It Sucked and Then I Cried is a brave cautionary tale about crossing over that invisible line to the other side (the parenting side), where everything changes, and it can get pretty unpleasant. But more importantly, it’s a celebration of a love so big it threatens to make your heart explode.

Life Stages and Native Women: Memory, Teachings, and Story Medicine. Kim Anderson, $27.95

A rare and inspiring guide to the health and well-being of Aboriginal women and their communities.

The process of “digging up medicines” — of rediscovering the stories of the past — serves as a powerful healing force in the decolonization and recovery of Aboriginal communities. In Life Stages and Native Women, Kim Anderson shares the teachings of fourteen elders from the Canadian prairies and Ontario to illustrate how different life stages were experienced by Métis, Cree, and Anishinaabe girls and women during the mid-twentieth century. These elders relate stories about their own lives, the experiences of girls and women of their childhood communities, and customs related to pregnancy, birth, post-natal care, infant and child care, puberty rites, gender and age-specific work roles, the distinct roles of post-menopausal women, and women’s roles in managing death. Through these teachings, we learn how evolving responsibilities from infancy to adulthood shaped women’s identities and place within Indigenous society, and were integral to the health and well-being of their communities.

By understanding how healthy communities were created in the past, Anderson explains how this traditional knowledge can be applied toward rebuilding healthy Indigenous communities today.

The M Word: Conversations about Motherhood. Edited by Kerry Clare, $22.95

In this original and sometimes provocative collection of essays, Saleema Nawaz, Alison Pick, Nancy Jo Cullen, Carrie Snyder, and many others explore the boundaries of contemporary motherhood. There are the women who have had too many children or not enough. There are women for whom motherhood is a fork in the road, encountered with contradictory emotions. And there are those who have made the conscious choice not to have children and then find themselves defined by that decision.

Making Babies: Stumbling Into Motherhood. Anne Enright, $18.50

Anne Enright is one of the most acclaimed novelists of her generation. THE GATHERING won the 2007 Man Booker Prize. Now, in MAKING BABIES, Enright offers an unapologetic look at the very personal experience of becoming a mother. With a refreshing no-nonsense attitude, Enright opens up about the birth and first two years of her children's lives. Enright was married for eighteen years before she and her husband Martin, a playwright, decided to have children. Already a confident, successful writer, Enright continued to work in her native Ireland after each of her two babies was born. While each baby slept, those first two years of life, Enright wrote, in dispatches, about the mess, the glory, and the raw shock of motherhood.

Here, unfiltered and irreverent, are Enright's keen reactions to the pains of pregnancy, the joys of breast milk, and the all-too-common pressures to be the "perfect" parent. Supremely observant and endlessly quizzical, Enright is never saccharine, always witty, but also deeply loving. Tender and candid, it captures beautifully just what it's like for a working woman to become a mother. The result is a moving chronicle of parenthood from one of the most distinctive and gifted authors writing today.

Mama Gone Geek: Calling On My Inner Science Nerd to Help Navigate the Ups and Downs of Parenthood. Lynne Brunelle, $18.95

With great enthusiasm, Lynn shows how she shares her inner geek — the part of her that is gleefully curious and wide-eyed with wonderment — with her children. For Lynn, science is the stardust that makes common things glow. Why not pass that magic along to the kids? When Lynn brought her passion for science into her parenting, it began to make all the difference to her and her kids. Her heart lifts when her boys are elbow-deep in mud searching for crystals and when she catches them debating whether a chicken is related to a dinosaur. Science isn't just for geeks. It's the future. If you're a parent or planning to become one, it's your future.

Mama Tried: Dispatches from the Seamy Underbelly of Modern Parenting. Emily Flake, $29.00

New Yorker cartoonist Emily Flake relates the hilarious horrors of pregnancy, birth, and early parenting in this funny, poignant, and beautifully illustrated book. 

For most people, having a child doesn't go exactly as planned. Not many are willing to admit that not only did they dislike the early days of parenting, they sometimes hated it. Mama Tried is a relatable collection of cartoons and essays pertaining to the good, bad, and (very) ugly parenting experiences we all face. Subjects range from "are you ready for children?" to "baby gear class-warfare." With incredible honesty, Flake tackles everything from morning sickness to sleep training, shedding much needed light on the gnarly realities of breastfeeding, child proofing, mommy groups, and every unrealistic expectation in between. Mama Tried will be an indispensable companion for sleepless parents and a fond reminder for those already out of the woods.

Mars Needs Moms! Berkeley Breathed, $21.00

From Pulitzer Prize–winning comic strip creator of Bloom County and bestselling author Berkeley Breathed comes a funny, poignant book about how the unique love that binds our families can be overlooked in the rush and tumble of everyday lives... especially those of disgruntled little boys.

M.O.M. (Mom Operating Manual). Doreen Cronin & Laura Cornell, $19.99

Moms are complex machines who run at full speed, on little fuel and almost no sleep whatsoever.  This guide to caring for your Mom will help you to get years of enjoyment out of your model.

MOMfulness: Mothering with Mindfulness, Compassion and Grace. Denise Roy, $15.99

Denise Roy combines the hard-won wisdom of a parent with the insights of meditation to create a spiritual practice that goes to the heart of everyday life: mothering with mindfulness. Through anecdotes, reflections, and specific practices, this book invites mothers to wake up and embrace their lives, discovering that they are always standing on holy ground.

Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhood. Karen Maezen Miller, $19.95

Combining humor, honesty, and plainspoken advice, MOMMA ZEN distills the doubts and frustrations of parenting into vignettes of Zen wisdom.  This compelling and wise memoir follows the timeline of early motherhood from pregnancy through toddlerhood. MOMMA ZEN takes readers on a transformative journey, charting a mother’s growth beyond naive expectations and disorientation to finding fulfillment in ordinary tasks, developing greater self-awareness and acceptance — to the gradual discovery of “maternal bliss,” a state of abiding happiness and ease that is available to us all.

In her gentle and reassuring voice, Karen Miller convinces us that ancient and authentic spiritual lessons can be as familiar as a lullaby, as ordinary as pureed peas, and as frequent as a sleepless night. She offers encouragement for the hard days, consolation for the long haul, and the lightheartedness every new mom needs to face the crooked path of motherhood straight on.

The Mommy Book. Todd Parr, $9.50

The Mommy Book celebrates all different kinds of moms and highlights the many reasons they are so special. 

The Mommy Group: Freaking Out, Finding Friends, and Surviving the Happiest Time of Our Lives. Elizabeth Isadora Gold, $22.00

In 2010, seven women met in Brooklyn, New York, to form a Mommy Group. Over coffee, croissants, wine, and the occasional baby carrot, they commiserated about typical new-mother issues: difficult births, babies who slept in ten-minute increments, and breast pumps that talked back in the middle of the night. And then things got complicated.

Elizabeth and Melissa suffered from postpartum depression and anxiety. Jane’s daughter was diagnosed with developmental delays. Anna’s husband left her when their baby was two weeks old. Through it all, the Mommy Group laughed, supported, and learned lessons from one another that the myriad “experts” hadn’t delivered. The journalist of the bunch — author Elizabeth Isadora Gold — reached out to other Mommy Groups around the country and found that similar bonds were forming far beyond brownstone Brooklyn.

A witty, relatable, and honest look at the realities of parenthood today, The Mommy Group is a companion that will help any mom feel understood and empowered, and keep her laughing all the way.

Moms Gone Mad: Motherhood and Madness, Oppression and Resistance. Edited by Gina Wong, $34.95

Cultural meanings extolled on motherhood are often overlooked and many women struggle and personalize issues to themselves and remain silent. This anthology synthesizes and roars out marginalized experiences of moms in a culture that relegates unconventional experiences to ‘craziness’ and madness. From a feminist perspective, scholars in motherhood across disciplines and mothers steeped in the experience have come together to capture multifarious experiences of oppression to resistance in a groundbreaking anthology that embodies motherhood empowerment.

The Monster Within: the Hidden Side of Motherhood. Barbara Almond, $23.50

Whether it is uncertainty over having a child, fears of pregnancy and childbirth, or negative thoughts about one's own children, mixed feelings about motherhood are not just hard to discuss, they are a powerful social taboo. In this beautifully written book, Barbara Almond draws on her extensive clinical experience to bring this issue to light. In a compelling portrait of the hidden side of contemporary motherhood, she finds that ambivalence of varying degrees is a ubiquitous phenomenon, yet one that too often causes anxiety, guilt, and depression. In a society where perfection in parenting is the unattainable ideal, this compassionate book offers some prescriptions for relief by showing women how they can affect positive change in their lives.

The Mother-Daughter Project: How Mothers and Daughters Can Band Together, Beat the Odds, and Thrive Through Adolescence. SuEllen Hamkins & Renée Schultz, $15.00

At once simple and revolutionary, this book details the success of the Mother-Daughter Project's groundbreaking model, providing the reader with a roadmap for strengthening her bond with her own daughter, and providing strategies for staying close through adolescence and beyond.

Whether you are interested in starting a mother-daughter group in your own community or would simply like to ensure a close relationship with your daughter as she grows up, this groundbreaking book will show you the way.

The mother-daughter relationship sets the stage for our state of health and well-being for our entire lives. Because our mothers are our first and most powerful female role models, our most deeply ingrained beliefs about ourselves as women come from them. And our behavior in relationships–with food, with our children, with our mates, and with ourselves–is a reflection of those beliefs. Once we understand our mother-daughter bonds, we can rebuild our own health, whatever our age, and create a lasting positive legacy for the next generation … (w)ritten with warmth, enthusiasm, and rare intelligence, Mother-Daughter Wisdom is an indispensable book destined to change lives and become essential reading for all women.

Motherhood Realized: an Inspired Anthology for the Hardest Job You'll Ever Love. Power of Moms, $17.95

We believe that family life is beautiful and that motherhood is a privilege.  But we also believe it is often really hard to see all that beauty when we’re in the midst of mothering. So often, we feel like we’re spread too thin. We feel like we don’t match up. Our hearts want to do more than our hands can manage.  And every day, as we cycle through household duties, discipline, errands, conversations, teaching, and hundreds of “unexpecteds,” we’re often left tired, worried, and in need of some extra inspiration and encouragement.

Power of Moms is an online community of deliberate mothers. Since 2007, millions of mothers from all backgrounds who are striving to be the best they can be have gathered to our website to learn and grow together. Time and again, our posts receive comments that say something like, “I am going to print this out and put it on my nightstand so I can read it again and again.” We’ve been concerned about those nightstands... getting all cluttered up with paper. So we’ve selected dozens of our most popular posts and compiled them neatly into this book — just for you. This book isn’t just a book. It’s a tangible representation of a living, breathing community of mothers. Motherhood is the hardest job we’ll ever love, and it’s so much better when we’re doing it together.

Mothering in Marginalized Contexts: Narratives of Women Who Mother In and Through Domestic Violence. Caroline McDonald-Harker, $34.95

Mothering in Marginalized Contexts provides a rare and in-depth examination of the narratives, experiences, and lived realities of abused mothers.  Based on a qualitative research study conducted with 29 abused mothers residing in abused women’s shelters in Calgary, Alberta, the author highlights the ways that these mothers experience the dominant ideology of intensive mothering, negotiate the resulting discourses of the “good” and the “bad” mother, and ultimately find ways to exercise agency, resistance, and empowerment in and through their mothering.

These mothers are not passive victims, but rather are active agents who resist and question the idealized standards of intensive mothering as being restrictive and unachievable; who view their mothering in a positive light even though they have lived and mothered in social milieus deemed outside the boundaries of acceptable mothering. Particular attention is given to the ways that intersections of gender, race, and social class shape and influence abused mothers constructions of their mothering identities. Mothering in Marginalized Contexts is a movement towards the empowerment of all mothers, regardless of differences in their lives and social circumstances.

Written by moms, for moms, this book will help you create a happier, healthier, more fulfilling life for you and your family. The authors reveal their own unvarnished turning points, share stories they've gathered from the trenches, and present eye-opening research to show how a little selfishness can bring a whole new sense of purpose and energy to stressed-out modern mothers.

Mothers of the Nations: Indigenous Mothering as Global Resistance. Edited by Kim Anderson, D. Memee Lavell-Harvard, $39.95

The voices of Indigenous women world-wide have long been silenced by colonial oppression and institutions of patriarchal dominance. Recent generations of powerful Indigenous women have begun speaking out so that their positions of respect within their families and communities might be reclaimed.

This volume explores issues surrounding and impacting Indigenous mothering, family and community in a variety of contexts inter­nationally. It addresses diverse subjects, including child welfare, employing Indigenous mothering curriculum for healing, mothers and traditional foods, intergenerational mothering in the wake of residential schooling, mothering and HIV, urban Indigenous mothering, mothering adopted children, two spirited mothering, Indigenous midwifery, and more.

Mothers of the Village: Why All Mothers Need the Support of a Motherhood Community and How to Find It for Yourself. C. J. Schneider, $23.95

C. J. Schneider found herself in the middle of a perfect storm after giving birth to her third child and moving to a new neighborhood. Conditions for misery and postpartum depression were ideal: she was isolated, lonely, and exhausted with three young children at home. As she started talking with other mothers, she realized that she was not alone in her experience of feeling alone.

In her unique voice, Schneider intelligently and compassionately offers practical advice on how to create the essential community that mothers need. Given the many examples of communal mothering from the past and around the world, as well as modern examples of communities in which mothers are thriving, the research is clear: since the beginning of womankind, mothering has been a communal effort. Mothers of the Village affirms that as mothers connect with each other and learn to work with each other, despite the challenges, they may find a piece of themselves that they have felt missing all along.

Mothers Who Can't Love: a Healing Guide for Daughters. Susan Forward, $19.99

Susan Forward offers a powerful look at the devastating impact unloving mothers have on their daughters — and provides clear, effective techniques for overcoming that painful legacy. In more than 35 years as a therapist, Forward has worked with large numbers of women struggling to escape the emotional damage inflicted by the women who raised them. Subjected to years of criticism, competition, role-reversal, smothering control, emotional neglect and abuse, these women are plagued by anxiety and depression, relationship problems, lack of confidence and difficulties with trust. They doubt their worth, and even their ability to love. Forward examines the Narcissistic Mother, the Competitive Mother, the Overly Enmeshed mother, the Control Freak, Mothers who need Mothering, and mothers who abuse or fail to protect their daughters from abuse. 

Filled with compelling case histories, the book outlines the self-help techniques Forward has developed to transform the lives of her clients, showing women how to overcome the pain of childhood and how to act in their own best interests. Warm and compassionate, Mothers Who Can’t Love offers daughters the emotional support and tools they need to heal themselves and rebuild their confidence and self-respect.

My Mom. Debbie Bailey, $5.95

My Mom explores a young child’s world using photographs of a variety of children in natural settings, interacting with their mothers.

My Mommy Hung the Moon: a Love Story. Jamie Lee Curtis, illustrated by Laura Cornell, $19.99 (ages 4-8)

A bright and cheerful look at what moms do best — EVERYTHING!

Natal Signs: Cultural Representations of Pregnancy, Birth and Parenting. Edited by Nadya Burton, $34.95

Representations of pregnancy, birth and early parenting are simultaneously diverse (grounded in different  social, religious and cultural contexts), and normative (they tend to reflect the status quo and romanticized notions of these profound life events). This collection explores diverse cultural representations of childbirth and related life events with a focus on exploring and unsettling normative and stereotypical representations. The work included seeks to engage representations that challenge, transgress and resist cultural norms.

Navigating Life: Things I Wish My Mother Had Told Me. Margaux Bergen, $35.00

You learn a few useful things at school — the three Rs come in handy, and it’s good to know how to perform under pressure and wait your turn — but most of what matters, what makes you into a functioning human being, able to hold your own in conversation, find your path, know what to avoid in relationships and secure a meaningful job, no teacher will ever tell you. This diamond-sharp, gut-punchingly honest book of hard-earned wisdom is one mother’s effort to equip her daughter for survival in the real world.

“I am not writing this to groom or guide you to professional or academic success,” she writes. “My goal is rather to give you tools that might help you engage with the world and flourish... Think of this as a kind of developing bath-time wisdom.”

Wise, heartbreakingly funny, and resonantly true, Navigating Life has invaluable lessons for students of life of all ages. It will challenge you to lead a more meaningful life and to tackle the bumps along the way with grace, grit, style, and ingenuity.

Placenta Wit: Mother Stories, Rituals, and Research. Edited by Nané Jordan, $34.95

Placenta Wit is an interdisciplinary anthology of stories, rituals, and research that explores mothers’ contemporary and traditional uses of the human afterbirth. Authors inspire, provoke and highlight diverse understandings of the placenta and its role in mothers’ creative life-giving. Through medicalization of childbirth, many North American mothers do not have access to their babies’ placentas, nor would many think to. Placentas are often considered to be medical property, and/ or viewed as the refuse of birth. Yet there is now greater understanding of motherand baby-centred birth care, in which careful treatment of the placenta and cord can play an integral role. In reclaiming birth at home and in clinical settings, mothers are choosing to keep their placentas. There is a revival, and survival, of family and community rituals with the placenta and umbilical cord, including burying, art making, and consuming for therapeutic use. Claiming and honouring the placenta may play a vital role in understanding the sacredness of birth and the gift of life that mothers bring. Placenta Wit gathers narrative accounts, scholarly essays, creative pieces and artwork from this emergence of placental interests and uses. This collection includes understandings from birth cultures and communities such as home-birth, hospital-birth, midwifery, doula, Indigenous, and feminist perspectives. Once lost, now found, Placenta Wit authors capably handle and care for this wise organ at the roots of motherhood, and life itself.

Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses. Claire Dederer, $17.00

Ten years ago, Claire Dederer put her back out while breastfeeding her baby daughter. Told to try yoga by everyone from the woman behind the counter at the co-op to the homeless guy on the corner, she signed up for her first class. She fell madly in love.

Over the next decade, she would tackle triangle, wheel, and the dreaded crow, becoming fast friends with some poses and developing long-standing feuds with others. At the same time, she found herself confronting the forces that shaped her generation. To her surprise, Dederer found that the deeper she went into the poses, the more they tested her most basic ideas of what makes a good mother, daughter, friend, wife — and the more they made her want something a little less tidy, a little more improvisational. Less goodness, more joy.

Witty and heartfelt, sharp and irreverent, Poser is for anyone who has ever tried to stand on their head while keeping both feet on the ground.

Ready: Why Women are Embracing the New Later Motherhood. Elizabeth Gregory, $21.00

In READY, Elizabeth Gregory tracks the burgeoning trend of new later motherhood and demonstrates that for many women today, waiting for family works best. She provides compelling evidence of the benefits of having children later, by birth or adoption, without ignoring the complexities that older women may face in their quest to have children. Drawing on both the statistical evidence and the voices of the new later mothers themselves, Gregory delivers surprising and welcome news that will revolutionize the way we think about motherhood. 

Regretting Motherhood: a Study. Orna Donath, $20.95

Women who opt not to be mothers are frequently warned that they will regret their decision later in life, yet we rarely talk about the possibility that the opposite might also be true — that a woman who becomes a mother might regret it. Sociologist Orna Donath dispels the silence around this profoundly taboo subject in a powerful work that draws from her years of research interviewing women who wish they had never become mothers.

Donath treats regret as a feminist issue: as regret marks the road not taken, we need to consider whether alternative paths for women may currently be blocked off. Donath asks that we pay attention to what is forbidden by our contemporary rules governing motherhood, time, and emotion, including the cultural assumption that motherhood is a “natural” role for women — for the sake of all women, not just those who regret becoming mothers. If we are disturbed by the idea that a woman might regret becoming a mother, Donath says, our response should not be to silence and shame these women; rather, we need to ask honest and difficult questions about how society pushes women into motherhood and why those who reconsider it are still seen as a danger to the status quo. Groundbreaking, thoughtful, and provocative, this is an especially needed book in our current political climate, as women’s reproductive rights continue to be at the forefront of nationwide debates.

Revolutionary Mothering: Love On the Front Lines. Edited by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, China Martens & Mai'a Williams, $22.95

Inspired by the legacy of radical and queer Black feminists of the 1970s and ’80s, Revolutionary Mothering places marginalized mothers of color at the center of a world of necessary transformation. The challenges we face as movements working for racial, economic, reproductive, gender, and food justice, as well as anti-violence, anti-imperialist, and queer liberation are the same challenges that many mothers face every day. Oppressed mothers create a generous space for life in the face of life-threatening limits, activate a powerful vision of the future while navigating tangible concerns in the present, move beyond individual narratives of choice toward collective solutions, live for more than ourselves, and remain accountable to a future that we cannot always see. Revolutionary Mothering is a movement-shifting anthology committed to birthing new worlds, full of faith and hope for what we can raise up together.

Sacred Motherhood: an Inspirational Guide and Journal for Mindfully Mothering Children of All Ages. Anni Daulter & Niki Dewart , $28.99

Spanning the sacred and the mundane, Sacred Motherhood is both a guide and a journal, enticing you to pause momentarily to reflect and write, and then return to your mothering tasks armed with a fresh perspective, renewed vision, practical tips, and creative ideas for enriching family life. For fifty-two weeks — a year of sacred motherhood — the chapters illuminate subjects that are likely to arise as the mothering journey unfolds, and present thoughtful prompts and helpful reminders relating to you, your soul, and your child.

Sex After Baby... Why There Is None. Kathleen Hamilton, $19.95

After she had a baby at 39, Kathleen Hamilton's sexual desire dove overnight from, ‘Honey, can we please have sex tonight, I've got a headache?’ to nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada.

It was an identity crisis. Plus, it was no fun at all.

None of the books and articles Kathleen could find came close to explaining why she lost her libido, or how or when she might find it again. No one around Kathleen talked openly about her experience balancing sex and motherhood - until Kathleen asked.

Funny, frank, political, and poignant, Sex After Baby: Why There Is None is Kathleen's quest to bring the surprise triple orgasm back into her life. Along the way, the book reveals how Kathleen's questions about sex after baby — among her friends and neighbours and favourite books — brought her new, unexpected understanding of women's sexuality and women's lives.

The Single Mother's Guide to Raising Remarkable Boys. Gina Panettieri with Philip Hall, $17.95

As a single mother to a growing son, you take on many roles: coach, chef, cheerleader, buddy, housekeeper, teacher, disciplinarian, and nurturer. The Single Mother's Guide to Raising Remarkable Boys helps you juggle all these roles with aplomb. You'll also learn how to help your son:

• Succeed at school
• Find an appropriate male role model
• Socialize and combat peer pressure
• Deal with sex, drugs, and video games

Complete with resources and recommended strategies for every stage of a boy's life, The Single Mother's Guide to Raising Remarkable Boys helps you go it alone — and raise a happy, healthy, well-adjusted young man.

Spilt Milk Yoga: a Guided Self-Inquiry to Finding Your Own Wisdom, Joy, and Purpose Through Motherhood. Cathryn Monro, $20.95

Spilt Milk Yoga is a companion guide for mothers who want to experience the happiness, peace and purpose available in each moment, and who want to be more present and connected to themselves and their children. Author Cathryn Monro combines personal experience, honesty and humour to acknowledge the moments when motherhood stretches us to the edges of our tolerance, patience, anger and exhaustion.

Spilt Milk Yoga approaches motherhood as a path offering life’s richest and most profound lessons on love, acceptance and joy. Through guided self-inquiry the challenges become opportunities to grow, not in spite of motherhood, but because of it.

The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose and Sanity. Meg Meeker, $17.00

Motherhood is a demanding job. Many mothers are increasingly lonely, anxious, depressed, and unhappy with themselves. Here, Dr. Meeker has identified the 10 most positive habits of mothers who are healthy, happy, and fulfilled. The key is to embrace a new perspective and create real joy and purpose by utilizing such core habits as:

• making friends with those who know the meaning of friendship
• finding out what money can buy (and what it cannot)
• lightening the overload — and doing less more often
• discovering faith and learning how to trust it
• taking some alone time and reviving yourself

Best-selling parenting guru Michele Borba, the mother of three, has surveyed 5,000 mothers for their experience and wisdom in raising happier, more confident kids by returning to a more natural, authentic kind of mothering. She shares 12 top secrets of successful moms culled from her research and shows how to apply them to your family.

Until Our Hearts are On the Ground: Aboriginal Mothering, Oppression, Resistance, and Rebirth. D. Memee Lavell-Harvard & Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, Editors, $29.95

In this revolutionary volume, as part of their overall effort to advocate for the rights of Aboriginal women, D. Memee Lavell-Harvard and Jeannette Corbiere Lavell have brought together a multitude of voices to speak on the issues facing Aboriginal mothers in contemporary society. Beginning with an examination of the experience of childbirth the contributing authors illustrate its potential as a source of empowerment and revitalization for our nations.

Through their own unique perspectives, the women bring us to an understanding of the variety of Aboriginal mothering practices, the impacts of colonization and government legislation on Aboriginal mothers, and literary representations of Aboriginal mothering. Together, these women have worked to reveal not only the connection between the longstanding historical oppression experienced by Aboriginal women and the dire contemporary circumstances of many Aboriginal communities, but also the power of Aboriginal mothers to revitalize and transform our communities. They are truly the givers of new life.

Use Your Words: a Writing Guide for Mothers. Kate Hopper, $19.50

Award-winning writer Kate Hopper has spent nearly a decade teaching women to write down the bones of motherhood. Now, In USE YOUR WORDS, her expert guidance will encourage you to write the stories you need to write, whether your goal is to blog, publish magazine articles of pent the next blockbuster memoir.

What Mommies Do Best. Laura Numeroff, $6.99. Boardbook version, $10.99

Mommies can do lots of things, like teach you how to ride a bike, sew a loose button on your teddy bear, and read you a cozy bedtime story. But what do they do best? The answer is made perfectly clear in this irresistible celebration of parents and the everyday things they do.

Who's Your Mama? The Unsung Voices of Women and Mothers. Yvonne Bynoe, Editor, $21.50

While most books about motherhood center on the experiences of affluent, married white women, Who's Your Mama focuses on the voices, perspectives, and complexities that are most often left out of this dialogue. From the adoption process for a gay couple, a feminist juggling the roles of activist and mother, to a mother's celebration of her own vibrant sexuality, the book explores the intersection between motherhood and the facets of the authors' lives, which include race, class, sexuality, politics and personal tragedy. Who's Your Mama offers the perspectives of women from all cross-sections of society who are actively engaged in crafting identities and family structures  that speak practically to their personal beliefs, intimate relationships, and socio-economic realities.

Writing Motherhood: Tapping Into Your Creativity as a Mother and a Writer. Lisa Garrigues, $17.50

Whether you are a new mother or a grandmother, Writing Motherhood will inspire you and help you find your writer’s voice.

You’re Wearing That? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation. Deborah Tannen, $19.95

With inspired observations, pitch-perfect dialogues, and deeply moving memories of her own mother, author Deborah Tannen untangles the knots daughters and mothers can get tied up in. Readers will appreciate Tannen’s humor and come away with real hope for breaking down barriers and opening new lines of communication. Compassionate and insightful, You’re Wearing That illuminates and enriches one of the most important relationships in our lives.