All hail to mothers and mothering in this the month of Mother’s Day! In honor of mothers, Book Buzz this week highlights stories of and by mothers and informational materials about mothering that are available at your neighborhood library. You
All hail to mothers and mothering in this the month of Mother’s Day! In honor of mothers, Book Buzz this week highlights stories of and by mothers and informational materials about mothering that are available at your neighborhood library. You will find a broad array of books about pre-pregnancy, fertility, pregnancy, birth, baby’s first year and scores of general or specialized child care books. You will find handbooks, guides, studies, music, movies, memoirs and novels about mothers. Don’t forget books about caring for elderly mothers. Use the online catalog, browse the shelves or ask a librarian to discover the rich collections available to you with your library card.
Happy reading!
Baby Laughs: The Naked Truth about the First Year of Mommyhood
By Jenny McCarthy
306.874 Mc
Following up her successful Belly Laughs: The Naked Truth about Pregnancy and Childbirth, McCarthy offers a sometimes irreverent and crass, but always funny and honest, book for new moms broken up in quick to read sections. See also The Second Nine Months: One Woman Tells the Truth about Becoming a Mom, Finally by Vicki Glemboki or Green Babies, Sage Moms: The Ultimate Guide to Raising your Organic Baby by Lynda Fassa.
Planning Parenthood: Strategies for Success in Fertility Assistance, Adoption and Surrogacy
By Rebecca A. Clark
618.178 Cl
In this informative, practical and encouraging guide, five authors-two physicians, a psychologist, an epidemiologist and a lawyer-combine their expertise to explore and explain the various pathways to parenthood. The handbook gives a panoramic view of the many routes to parenthood. You may also want to try Your Best Birth: Know All Your Options, Discover the Natural Choices, and Take Back the Birth Experience by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein, Budgeting for Infertility: How to Bring Home a Baby Without Breaking the Bank by Evelina Weidman Sterling and Angie Best-Boss or Maybe Baby: 28 Writers tell the Truth about Skepticism, Infertility, Baby Lust, Childlessness, Ambivalence, and How They Made the Biggest Decision of their Lives edited by Lori Leibovich.
Your Pregnancy
Week by Week
By Glade B. Curtis
618.2 Cu
Like the classic What to Expect When You’re Expecting by Heidi Murkoff, this pregnancy companion gives information and insights on pregnancy and birth and is filled with facts and figures, answers, tips, and suggestions. See also The Pregnancy Bible edited by Joanne Stone, The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin, Pregnancy and Parenting after Thirty-Five by Michele C. Moore and Yoga for Pregnancy by Rosalind Widdowson.
Mama Rock’s Rules:
Ten Lessons for Raising a Houseful of Successful Children
By Rose Rock
649.1 Ro
Much more than comedian Chris Rock’s mom, first-time author and radio show host (The Mom Show) Rock has been a special needs school teacher, a preschool administrator, a mother of 10 and a foster mother of 17. Rock begins simply, and significantly, with her own mother’s advice: “Being a parent is not about being right, it’s about doing right.” Rose’s rules are sensible and well illustrated, embracing traditional values like discipline, everyday spirituality and togetherness. She gives a smart, relatable and empowering approach to parenting that’s been proven effective many times over. See also Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier and More Secure Kids by Kim John Payne, Taking Care of Your Child by Robert H. Pantell or I Wanna Be Sedated: 30 Writers on Parenting Teenagers edited by Faith Conlon.
Stepmonster: A New Look at Why Real Stepmothers Think, Feel and Act the Way We Do
By Wednesday Martin, PhD.
306.8747 Ma
Here you will find a groundbreaking and stepmother-centered way of understanding the relations between women and their stepchildren. The author draws upon her own experience as a stepmother, interviews with other stepmothers and stepchildren, and insights from literature, anthropology, psychology, and evolutionary biology to reveal the little-understood realities of this most demanding role. See also The Mommy Brain: How Motherhood Makes Us Smarter by Katherine Ellison who through interviewing scientists and mothers discovers that the tasks of motherhood can literally reshape the brain resulting in mental advantages of perception, efficiency, resilience, motivation, and emotional intelligence. Or look for Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety in which Judith Warner looks at the desperate lives of modern mothers and the culture of parenthood.
West of Then: A Mother, a Daughter, and a Journey Beyond Paradise
By Tara Bray Smith
H 362.2934 Sm
East-coast author Smith is a descendant of an upper-class, white family in Hawaii whose fortunes rose and fell parallel to Hawaii’s sugarcane plantations. Growing up in Honolulu, Smith’s drug-addicted mother would disappear for days or months at a time, abandoning her children. Although geographically separated from her wandering mother, Smith maintains a fierce attachment to her, often taking on the mothering role herself. With a strong sense of history and place this honest book plumbs the guilt, rage, love, and pity that Smith feels toward her mother.
For other mother memoirs try Rex: A Mother, Her Autistic Child, and the Music that Transformed their Lives by Cathleen Lewis or Blue Sky July: A Mother’s Story of Hope and Healing by best-selling Welsh memoirist Nia Wyn.
The Birth of Love:
By Joanna Kavenna
Adult Fiction Ka
Kavenna’s latest novel is a narrative about childbirth, encompassing that singular event’s mysteries, dramas, attendant sciences, and politics. The author links the stories of three women whose lives span four centuries, each a symbol and victim of the prevailing pregnancy and delivery trends of her era. In Ten Year Nap, novelist Meg Wolitzer takes a look at the opt-out generation: her primary characters have all abandoned promising careers (in art, law and academia) in favor of full-time motherhood. But at what price? The Invisible Mountain by Carolina DeRobertis, fiction set in Uruguay, explores the search for love and authenticity in the lives of three women and the fierce, fortifying connection between mother and daughter. Also look in adult fiction for Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg, The Diary by Eileen Goudge, and The Deep Blue Sea for Beginners by Anne Rice.
• Carolyn Larson, head librarian at Lihu‘e Public Library, brings you the buzz on new, popular and good books available at your neighborhood library. Book annotations are culled from online publishers’ descriptions and published reviews.
