Mother Reader: Essential Writings on Motherhood

Rating:
Summary: wonderful, yet depressing
Review: I read this during my first month of motherhood. Some of the essays really spoke to me and what I was feeling. Others - well, you can skip them (I did). This is a unique book offering a shoulder to cry on when you really need it!

Rating:
Summary: Good for morale
Review: I read this during my first month of motherhood. Some of the essays really spoke to me and what I was feeling. Others - well, you can skip them (I did). This is a unique book offering a shoulder to cry on when you really need it!

Rating:
Summary: Inspiring, shocking, eye-opening
Review: Motherhood can be isolating, joyful, bewildering, boring, confusing, and exhilarating, often in a single day. This book helps mothers feel connected to other women who felt the same way, and were brave enough to express it in print. Amazing writers, including Sylvia Plath, Margaret Mead, Adrienne Rich, but more importantly, amazing women.

A great comfort to women who are struggling with the transition to motherhood, and good reading for anyone prepared to witness sacred stereotypes dismantled. Most of the contents truly challenge our established images of Mother, and as a result cause plenty of discomfort to read. But although the shiny, happy side of motherhood doesn't appear much here, one can feel the deep love, commitment, and passion these women have for their families, even if they are willing to admit they just want to be alone sometimes.

Rating:
Summary: YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND-RX FOR ANXIOUS MOMS
Review: This book is an absolute gem with excerpts from many ( not some but MANY) of the best writings on maternal emotions ever to see print. Most of the pieces contained here meet the exacting twin standard of being both compellingly written, and unflinchingly honest and real. Moyra Davey has created the ultimate collection, making MOTHER READER my #1 gift for new mothers, especially if they appear to be in any of the following mental states: overwhelmed; exhausted; insecure;ambivilent

If you know a new mother who doesn't meet these criteria, well, - perhaps she won't need this book, but for the rest of us, MOTHER READER demonstrates how great literature can also be great medicine, bringing catharsis, healing, revelation, and comfort., enfolding us, assuring us we are not alone.

PS I don't mean to say that you have to be a mother to treasure this collection. For example, I know of no better model for memoir writing.

Rating:
Summary: Mother Reader Will Nourish Your Soul
Review: This is a book for mothers, for writers, for readers, and for anyone to whom life and books are intertwined. The writing is some of the finest modern literature written; just check out the list of contributors. The essays, journals, and stories are powerful enough to inspire laughter, tears, outrage, and love -- powerful enough even to change the lives of those who read them. Mother Reader IS an absolutely essential collection of writings. If you are a mother, a writer, or a lover of fine writing, you need this book the way you need food and drink.

Rating:
Summary: wonderful, yet depressing
Review: This was the first book I ever purchased on-line as I was quite desperate to read something about motherhood that had some intellectual depth to it. I was not disappointed. The excerpts by Adrienne Rich and Anne Ernaux were especially revealing and mirrored many of my own feelings.
However, I was struck by the recurring theme that motherhood is an essentially depressing experience which renders a woman frustrated, over-burdened, and resentful. There was very little joy in this work and after reading it, I experienced a temporary drop in my own enjoyment of motherhood. Many of these women writers struck me as being pathologically selfish and unable to realize the temporariness of the whole experience; children are little for such a short time. And that any of these women were able to keep up with their writing while raising little ones leads me to conclude that a great deal of their energies were diverted away from their offspring. As an artist myself, I honestly cannot imagine how they do it.
If you're looking to be cheered up, this may not be the book for you. But if you're interested in viewing the darker psychological effects that motherhood presents creative women, I would highly recommend it. It is beautifully and passionately written.