Mothers Who Think

This book should come as manna to mums: a multitude of small, wry voices reminding us we're not alone. Mothers Who Think is a collection of pieces from the Salon magazine column of the same name. The column (and the book) has no fixed perspective, no set goal, no political agenda--just a bunch of women writers mouthing off about changing nappies. Okay, more than just nappies. There's Rahna Reiko Rizzuto on her gruesome labour (the mucus plug ... fell out of my underwear and onto my husband's shoe); HipMama editor Ariel Gore on family court (I learned that two professionals on a case are usually worse than none. That three can be dangerous.); Susan Straight on being a single mum and taking care of everything yourself (I just wish I didn't look so bad doing it.); and Elizabeth Rapoport on being a married mum and taking care of everything yourself (I must confess I'm a little jaded by these sociological pissing contests. Just wake me when the dads are doing 50 percent. Period.) A couple of dozen others chime in as well, notably novelist Anne Lamott, New York Times reporter Alex Witchel and sexpert Susie Bright.

Editors Camille Peri and Kate Moses have created a chorus with range: This is not a stream of white, privileged voices interrupted only occasionally by news from the underclass, news from women of colour, news from sexual minorities. If anything, the book is too focused on a wide variety of very personal stories--one often wishes for the gesture of expansion, the linking of the personal to the cultural. Still, that's a small gripe with a book that takes us into the brainier, funnier kitchens of motherhood all over America. --Amazon.com