Praise for Mothers Who Think
“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. …Wistful, tender, hilarious…will move you the way only good writing can.”
–Chicago Tribune
“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.”
–Los Angeles Times
“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.”
–Ms.
“This book is a lot like motherhood itself — full of joy, trauma, insanity, hard work, exhaustion, and more than a few good laughs.”
–Miami Herald
“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.”
–Austin Chronicle (TX)
“Most popular press articles on the joys and tribulations of mothering are mildly insulting. Good friends may share their true feelings with you, but not the press. Mothers Who Think is where you go when you realized you’ve been duped. …Heartfelt, exuberant essays.
–The Bellingham Herald (WA)
“Full of dames both besotted and fed up. …Essays by these mothers who deal with the sweet, the sour, and the unthinkable.”
–Mirabella
“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.”
–Minnesota Parent
“Motherhood, apple pie. angst. This book offers proof that good parenting exists on many levels. …Reflective and crisply written.”
–New York Newsday
“Irreverent, passionate, and wonderfully readable.”
–The Charlotte Observer (NC)
“Provocative and entertaining …moving and enlightening…powerful.”
–Kirkus Reviews
“Amusing, inspirational, sad, wonderful.”
–The Desert News (Salt Lake City)
“Mothers Who Think has become one of the best outlets online–or in print–for ruminations on the trials, tribulations, and treasures of motherhood, or in some cases step-motherhood, adoptive motherhood or non-motherhood.”
–Reuters
“Direct from the heart of mothers unafraid to tell the truth of their experiences. …Intelligent, piercing, painfully honest.”
–Tampa Tribune
“Fine writing that reveals the ambiguities and contradictions of nature’s most powerful love.”
–The Baltimore Sun
“These tales…have the immediacy of email missives and the ring of beautifully worded truth.”
–San Francisco Magazine
“Deeply moving.”
--Ottawa Citizen
“Reading these kinds of stories can really shore a woman up. Better yet, this kind of thing can get you going.”
–Hartford Courant (CT)
“Provocative essays about the gritty truths and unmatched pleasures of contemporary motherhood.”
--The Birmingham News
“Exploring dimensions of motherhood that are far more provocative than discussions of weaning and potty training, [Mothers Who Think] includes a remarkably wide variety of contributors, from biological to adoptive and lesbian moms and beyond. Anne Lamott dares to reveal that she sometimes takes out her frustations with motherhood on her son because she can, and because he will still love her. Beth Kephart finds inspiration in her disabled son’s insistence on playing soccer and struggles to allow him to do it on his own. Susan Straight shares the frayed edges of her life as a single mother of three, while Celeste Fremon finds that former gang members make suitable male role models for her fatherless son. Karen Grigsby Bates combats her son’s isolation in a mostly white school by enrolling him in a black social organization. Kim Van Meter recounts the long weekend when she and her partner chose not to adopt a troubled girl….Even the most ordinary of [the essays] will resonate with the thinking mom.”
–Publishers Weekly