Motherhood Memoir

Women today feel pressure to be the best wife, mom, and professional possible - often at the expense of their own identity. But what if you could experience deep peace - knowing you are loved right now, just as you are? In Brave Love, the founder of the multi-million-dollar company Lisa Leonard Designs inspires women to find themselves again amidst the noise and competing demands of real life.

Dustin Lance Black wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Milk and helped overturn California's anti-gay marriage Proposition 8, but he grew up in a conservative Mormon household outside San Antonio, Texas. His mother, Anne, was raised in rural Louisiana and contracted polio when she was two years old. She endured brutal surgeries as well as braces and crutches for life and was told that she would never have children or a family.

When a doctor pronounced Dara-Lynn Weiss's daughter Bea obese at age seven, the mother of two knew she had to take action. But how could a woman with her own food and body issues - not to mention spotty eating habits - successfully parent a little girl around the issue of obesity?

On the surface, Victoria Jackson is the American Dream personified: from a troubled childhood and unfinished high school education, she overcame immeasurable odds to create a cosmetics empire valued at more than half a billion dollars. Married to Bill Guthy - self-made principal of infomercial marketing giant Guthy-Renker - Victoria’s most treasured role is mother to three beautiful, beloved children, Evan, Ali, and Jackson. Suddenly, Victoria’s dream life is broken....

In a letter to her six-year-old daughter, Julietta Singh ventures toward a tender vision of the future, lifting up children’s radical embrace of possibility as a model for how we might live. If we wish to survive the looming political and ecological crises of our day, Singh contends, we must break from the conventions we have inherited, and orient ourselves toward revolutionary paths that might yet set us free. The Breaks celebrates queer family-making, communal living, and Brown girlhood, complicating the US’ stark binaries.

A fascinating new volume of messages about motherhood, from the author of the best-selling Letters of Note collections. In Letters of Note: Mothers, Shaun Usher gathers together exceptional missives by and about mothers, celebrating the joy and grief, humor and frustration, wisdom and sacrifice the role brings to both parent and child.

Because I'm Not Myself, You See is a candid, often humorous memoir of motherhood and madness, interwoven with research and expert commentary. It's the story of the impossible pressures placed on new mothers and how quickly things can go wrong during 'the happiest time of your life'. It's also about life on the other side of serious illness, trying to make sense of what doesn't make sense, and finding humour, beauty and joy when things don't go according to plan.

Until the 1960s infants were plucked from orphanages and maternity wards and used as "practice babies" in college home economics department across the country. Award-winning writer Jill Christman was determined to find out what happened to them. Along the way, five months pregnant herself, with her hormones (and anxiety) raging, she also hoped to discover what it means to be a mother.

Time Lived, Without Its Flow is an astonishing, unflinching essay on the nature of grief from critically acclaimed poet Denise Riley. From the horrific experience of maternal grief Riley wrote her lauded collection Say Something Back, a modern classic of British poetry. This essay is a companion piece to that work, looking at the way time stops when we lose someone suddenly from our lives.

Sarah Ferguson's homage to her mother and a reflection on mothers and daughters. A mother's love over decades and across continents. The sudden death of Sarah's mother reveals their relationship with poignant clarity and shows her the individual who existed beyond motherhood.

Lene Fogelberg is dying - she is sure of it - but no doctor in Sweden, her home country, believes her. Love stories enfold her, with her husband, her two precious daughters, her enchanting surroundings, but the question she has carried in her heart since childhood - will I die young? - is threatening all she holds dear, even her sanity. When her young family moves to the US, an answer, a diagnosis, is finally found: She is in the last stages of a fatal congenital heart disease. But is it too late?

Acclaimed author Lauren Slater ruminates on what it means to be family. Lauren Slater's rocky childhood left her cold to the idea of ever creating a family of her own, but a husband, two dogs, two children, and three houses later, she came around to the challenges, trials, and unexpected rewards of playing house. In these autobiographical pieces, Slater presents snapshots of domestic life, populating them with the gritty details and jarring realities of sharing home, life, and body in the curious institution called "family."

Amani Haydar suffered the unimaginable when she lost her mother in a brutal act of domestic violence perpetrated by her father. Five months pregnant at the time, her own perception of how she wanted to mother (and how she had been mothered) was shaped by this devastating murder. After her mother's death, Amani began reassessing everything she knew of her parents' relationship. They had been unhappy for so long - should she have known that it would end like this?

When eight-year-old Leah's parents get divorced, her mother, Cessie, flees her conventional life as a suburban housewife in search of a glamorous big city career in journalism. In the chaotic years that follow, Cessie lurches from one apartment, job and toxic romance to the next, with her adoring daughter in tow. Cessie describes her parenting style as 'benign neglect', and their family motto, 'Commitment sucks the life right out of you', is tacked up on every rental fridge. In the aftermath of a disturbing sexual experience at a pool party, Leah finds herself crippled with anxiety.

Three years ago, Stacey Duguid's happily ever after imploded messily, snottily, disastrously, and she is still clearing up the debris. The dream marriage she'd spent an entire lifetime pursuing shattered, leaving her half a person and angry. Who suggested 'happily ever after' was even a given thing? In this collection of essays, Stacey draws upon her own life to touch upon everything taboo today: divorce, dating and sex in mid-life, affairs, miscarriage, drugs, and challenges the societal expectations and ideologies of needing a partner to live a full life.

Since bursting into the spotlight aged nine, Coleen Nolan has experienced more highs and lows than most people have had hot dinners. Now she's ready to share the lessons she's learned along the way. From the good, the bad and the ugly (otherwise known as love and marriage) to career tips, lifestyle hacks and motherhood, Coleen covers everything you need to know. With her trademark down-to-earth wisdom, Coleen shares her best advice for navigating divorce and embracing single life, including her top Tinder tips.

Anerkennung, Freiheit, Karriere: Dafür kämpfte Clara Schumann ihr Leben lang – und stand vor den gleichen Herausforderungen wie Frauen im 21. Jahrhundert. Sie haderte mit ihrer Rolle als Mutter von sieben Kindern und mit der nahezu unmöglichen Aufgabe, Beruf und Familie zu vereinbaren. Gestützt auf bisher unbeachtete Quellen, erzählt Bestsellerautorin Christine Eichel das Leben der gefeierten Pianistin und Komponistin radikal neu und räumt dabei mit einigen Klischees auf. Clara Schumann war keine sanfte Muse im Schatten ihres genialischen Mannes Robert.

After being diagnosed in her early 30s with terminal breast cancer, Heather McManamy felt like her life was crumbling. Her "normal" vanished and was replaced with multiple surgeries and dozens of chemo treatments that could briefly extend her life but would not prevent her inevitable death. With an effervescent spirit and a new perspective, Heather started to live each day as if it were her last. She learned to soak in the moment, appreciate the beauty around her, and celebrate her blessings.

How does a mother cope when she is forced to walk away from her three children and never see them again? That is what happened to JB's mother, Myrtle. Eventually, rescued from her despair by tall, dark, and handsome George Rowley, who fell in love with her, Myrtle started a new life and had seven more children. She buried the grief of losing her first children deep within and kept her pain secret. JB and her siblings were unaware of the existence of Myrtle's first three children until after she died.

This gripping memoir details a California woman's quest to adopt a baby girl from Guatemala in the face of overwhelming adversity. At only 32 years old, Jessica O'Dwyer experiences early menopause, seemingly ending her chances of becoming a mother. Years later, married but childless, she comes across a photo of a two-month-old girl on a Guatemalan adoption website and feels an instant connection. When the process drags on for more than a year, Jessica quits her job at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and moves to Antigua, Guatemala, to finish the adoption herself.