- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Villard; 1 edition (April 6 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0375502696
- ISBN-13: 978-0375502699
- Product Dimensions: 18.8 x 14.5 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 408 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,431,914 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
This book should come as manna to moms: a multitude of small, wry voices reminding them they'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 diapers. Okay, more than just diapers. There's Rahna Reiko Rizzuto on her gruesome labor ("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 mom and taking care of everything yourself ("I just wish I didn't look so bad doing it"); and Elizabeth Rapoport on being a married mom 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 color, or 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 to have with a book that takes us into the brainier, funnier kitchens of motherhood all over America.
From Publishers Weekly
Exploring dimensions of motherhood that are far more provocative than discussions of weaning and potty training, these 40 essays strive to offer "an articulate, heartfelt, and sometimes mystified acknowledgment that being a mother is a lifelong lesson in embracing contradiction," according to editors Peri and Moss. Featuring original pieces as well as some that previously appeared in the column by the same name in the online magazine Salon, the collection 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. While the essays are not all of the same caliber, even the most ordinary of them will resonate with the thinking mom. Agent, Ellen Levine. Author tour.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must Read,
By A Customer
This review is from: Mothers Who Think (Paperback)
This book is one that I give to any pregnant women that I know. I read the hardcover edition of this book in one sitting and felt like someone was articulating truths of motherhood. This book offers articles previously published on Salon in the MWT category. However, the site changed the name and focus of the articles. Buy this book and suggest it to expecting mamas.
5.0 out of 5 stars
I'm hard put to think of a better book for any mother,
By A Customer
This review is from: Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood (Hardcover)
This anthology is simply exquisite. The array of gifted authors each offer a gem of a story; I found the variety of mothers and their POVs fascinating and oh so informative and comforting. The myth of the perfect mother is dead, which happily resurrects the truth- which is that women are the gates of the soul and the gates of the body. I can also recommend Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott and The Zygote Chronicles by Suzanne Finnamore and Love Works Like This by Lauren Slater -- all intelligent and witty works, for mothers who think.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Some interesting perspectives,
By Babaylan (Florida, United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Mothers Who Think (Paperback)
I enjoyed many of the essays in this anthology, but then again, I love the Salon column anyway. As a mommy-to-be, the book emphasized the point that motherhood is something you learn by doing, and I liked hearing the experiences of other mothers - their trials and successes and the lessons learned.
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