"An intergenerational collection of personal narratives by women in the 21st century who mother from the margins of our society. It features 20 stories of caretakers who have both overcome their own personal challenges and are now making a difference in the public sphere today. This coffee table book offers readers an opportunity to experience the lives of "detestable" or "reprehensible" moms from the perspective of the women we love to judge. Filled with stunning photography and provocative stories, it challenges popular perceptions of teen moms, survivors of domestic violence, and baby mamas. It adds complexity to stereotypical stories about mamas who abuse drugs or engage in sex work. And it demonstrates both the humanity and value of the very mothers our society often dismisses. This book is an excellent choice for scholars of motherhood studies, black women's autobiographies, sociology, gender and women's studies, and rhetoric. It is a must-read book for social workers. Every woman who has ever been called "infamous" should own a copy; it will inspire, inform, and make you laugh. But above all, it will remind you of your power"--Back cover

A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. They wonder what Chinese parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it's like inside the family, and whether they could do it too. Well, I can tell them, because I've done it... Amy Chua's daughters, Sophia and Louisa (Lulu) were polite, interesting and helpful, they had perfect school marks and exceptional musical abilities. The Chinese-parenting model certainly seemed to produce results. But what happens when you do not tolerate disobedience and are confronted by a screaming child who would sooner freeze outside in the cold than be forced to play the piano? Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is a story about a mother, two daughters, and two dogs. It was supposed to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones. But instead, it's about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how you can be humbled by a thirteen-year-old. Witty, entertaining and provocative, this is a unique and important book that will transform your perspective of parenting forever.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Inheritance and host of the hit podcast Family Secrets—”a cool depiction of a mother and daughter's fraught and fiery relationship” (USA Today). Clara Brodeur has spent her entire adult life pulling herself away from her famous mother, the renowned and controversial photographer Ruth Dunne, whose towering reputation rests on the unsettling nude portraits she took of her young daughter. At age eighteen, sick of her notoriety as “the girl in the pictures,” Clara fled New York City, settling and making her own family in small-town Maine. But years later, when Ruth reaches out from her deathbed, Clara suddenly finds herself drawn back to the past she thought she had escaped. From the beloved author of Family History and Slow Motion, a spellbinding novel that asks: How do we forgive those who failed to protect us?

'A fascinating exploration into the lives of three women ignored by history ... Eye-opening, engrossing' Brit Bennett, bestselling author of The Vanishing Half In her groundbreaking debut, Anna Malaika Tubbs tells the incredible, moving story of three women who raised three world-changing men.

After adjusting to five different mothers-in-law, Lulu Penfield has a unique perspective to bring to her relationship with her son's new wife

This book is a potpourri of the best, most usable, fun advice on how to be the kind of mother a daughter will want to be when she grows up and has a little girl of her own.

Breaking Mum and Dad is a helpful, often humorous, and always honest guide to help all new mums and dads cope with and conquer anxiety, stress and low mood in those overwhelming fledgling parent days. With more than 1 in 10 new parents experiencing post-natal depression and anxiety, and after suffering the traumatic birth of her son, and herself being diagnosed with post-natal anxiety and birth trauma, Anna Williamson uncovers the real thoughts, feelings and behaviours that many of us experience in those first few weeks and months after becoming a parent. From 'I'm struggling to love my baby' to 'I miss my old life' and 'Will I ever feel like “me” again?' to 'I'm anxious about having sex' this book will help new parents cope with the often taboo topics that we ALL encounter. A therapist in your pocket, meaning you don't have to face one of life's most momentous experiences alone, or fear being judged of the weird and often worrying irrational thoughts that plague our frazzled minds. Mental health for new mums (and dads) is a thing - a big thing - and it's time we all stopped suffering in silence. It takes time to adjust to this new identity and role - whether it's making new friends, coping with changing relationships, breast and bottle feeding anxiety, going back to work worries, or the whole shift being a new parent poses mentally. Breaking Mum and Dad is a little pocket guide of empathy, sympathy and above all, hope.

A simple argument guides this book: motherhood is the place in our culture where we lodge, or rather bury, the reality of our own conflicts. By making mothers the objects of both licensed idealization and cruelty, we blind ourselves to the world’s iniquities and shut down the portals of the heart. Mothers are the ultimate scapegoat for our personal and political failings, for everything that is wrong with the world, which becomes their task (unrealizable, of course) to repair. Moving commandingly between pop cultural references such as Roald Dahl’s Matilda to insights on motherhood in the ancient world and the contemporary stigmatization of single mothers, Jacqueline Rose delivers a groundbreaking report into something so prevalent we hardly notice. Mothers is an incisive, rousing call to action from one of our most important contemporary thinkers.

Cokie Roberts's number one New York Times bestseller, We Are Our Mothers' Daughters, examined the nature of women's roles throughout history and led USA Today to praise her as a "custodian of time-honored values." Her second bestseller, From This Day Forward, written with her husband, Steve Roberts, described American marriages throughout history, including the romance of John and Abigail Adams. Now Roberts returns with Founding Mothers, an intimate and illuminating look at the fervently patriotic and passionate women whose tireless pursuits on behalf of their families -- and their country -- proved just as crucial to the forging of a new nation as the rebellion that established it. While much has been written about the men who signed the Declaration of Independence, battled the British, and framed the Constitution, the wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters they left behind have been little noticed by history. Roberts brings us the women who fought the Revolution as valiantly as the men, often defending their very doorsteps. While the men went off to war or to Congress, the women managed their businesses, raised their children, provided them with political advice, and made it possible for the men to do what they did. The behind-the-scenes influence of these women -- and their sometimes very public activities -- was intelligent and pervasive. Drawing upon personal correspondence, private journals, and even favored recipes, Roberts reveals the often surprising stories of these fascinating women, bringing to life the everyday trials and extraordinary triumphs of individuals like Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Deborah Read Franklin, Eliza Pinckney, Catherine Littlefield Green, Esther DeBerdt Reed, and Martha Washington -- proving that without our exemplary women, the new country might never have survived. Social history at its best, Founding Mothers unveils the drive, determination, creative insight, and passion of the other patriots, the women who raised our nation. Roberts proves beyond a doubt that like every generation of American women that has followed, the founding mothers used the unique gifts of their gender -- courage, pluck, sadness, joy, energy, grace, sensitivity, and humor -- to do what women do best, put one foot in front of the other in remarkable circumstances and carry on.

Set against the sparkling backdrop of the theater world, this propulsive debut follows the relationship between an actress who refuses to abandon her career and the daughter she chooses to abandon instead. Sadie Jones, a larger-than-life actress and controversial feminist, never wanted to be a mother. No one feels this more deeply than Jude, the daughter Sadie left behind. While Jude spent her childhood touring with her father’s Shakespearian theater company, desperate for validation from the mother she barely knew, Sadie catapulted to fame on the wings of The Mother Act—a scathing one-woman show about motherhood. Two decades later, Jude is a talented actress in her own right, and her fraught relationship with Sadie has come to a scandalous head. On a December evening in New York City, at the packed premiere of Sadie’s latest play, the two come face-to-face and the intertwined stories of their lives unfold—colorfully and dramatically. What emerges is a picture of two very different women navigating the complicated worlds of career, love, and family, all while grappling with the essential question: can they ever really understand each other? Compelling, insightful, and cleverly conveyed as a play in six acts, The Mother Act is a stylish page-turner that looks at what it means to be a devoted mother and a devoted artist—and whether it is possible to be both.