When I became a parent, I craved stories about the experience of motherhood. I talked to friends about their anxieties, turned to relatives who might have insights, and sought advice from just about anywhere I could find it. After diving headfirst into blogs, social media, and Google — a new parent's best friend and enemy — I returned again and again to books. And not just how-to books, either, but also essays, novels, and memoirs. Motherhood can be quite the roller coaster, so why not learn more about how other people navigate the ride?
Ayelet Waldman offers an honest, witty glimpse into modern motherhood in her memoir, Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace.
The powerful relationship between mothers and daughters is captured through the real-life stories of authors and journalists in What My Mother Gave Me: Thirty-One Women on the Gifts That Mattered Most.
Beloved author Anne Lamott chronicles the sometimes hilarious, oftentimes challenging experience of early motherhood in her popular book Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year.
Novelist Jennifer Weiner brings her signature wit to the world of parenting with Little Earthquakes, which follows three women's journeys through new motherhood.
Bestselling author Jennifer Senior's All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood references history, psychology, and philosophy to dig into the effects of being a parent.
I Don't Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson tells the story of a wife, hedge-fund manager, and mother of two who navigates the everyday balance of the modern working mom.
In Eleven Hours, a novel, Pamel Erens explores the stories of two soon-to-be moms as they experience childbirth and early motherhood.
Blogger Heather Armstrong offers a candid, funny glimpse into pregnancy and parenting in It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita.
In Little Labors, Rivka Galchen shares thoughts, lists, stories, and meditations on children and literature.