Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood [Hardcover]

Camille Peri (Author), Kate Moses (Author), Anne Lamott (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 6, 1999

From the editors of the cutting-edge online magazine Salon come provocative essays that take an unflinching look at
the gritty truths and unreserved pleasures of contemporary motherhood.

Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood, which grew out of Salon's popular daily department of the same name, comprises nearly forty essays by writers grappling with the new and compelling ideas that motherhood has dangled before them. Elevating the discussion of motherhood above the level of tantrum control and potty training, this collection covers an unparalleled range of topics, from the impossibility of loving your children equally to raising a son without a father, from worrying that your privileged black child is becoming too "white" to the free-floating anger most mothers feel but wouldn't dare admit--except to other mothers. The intelligent, candid essays in Mothers Who Think are a testament to the notion that motherhood gives women more to think about, not less.
        
Coeditors Camille Peri and Kate Moses have assembled the best writing from the website's first two years, including works by "Mothers Who Think" regulars Anne Lamott, Chitra Divakaruni, Susie Bright, and Stephanie Coontz; eloquent new essays by Jayne Anne Phillips, Sallie Tisdale, Susan Straight, Jane Lazarre, Nora Okja Keller, Beth Kephart, Ariel Gore, and Alex Witchel; and more than a dozen un-forgettable new voices.
        
Irreverent, wistful, hilarious, fierce, tender, these essays offer an unsparing look at the myths and realities, serious and silly sides, and thankless and supremely satisfying aspects of being a mother.

WRITERS

Erin Aubry, Karen Grigsby Bates, Susie Bright, Stephanie Coontz, Chitra Divakaruni, Celeste Fremon, Mona Gable, Leslie Goodman-Malamuth, Ariel Gore, Arlene Green, Nora Okja Keller, Beth Kephart, Anne Lamott, Jane Lazarre, Lori Leibovich, Ceil Malek, Joyce Millman, Kate Moses, Beth Myler, Debra S. Ollivier, Camille Peri, Jayne Anne Phillips, Elizabeth Rapoport, Jennifer Reese, Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, Cynthia Romanov, Catherine A. Salton, Sandi Kahn Shelton, Rose Stoll, Susan Straight, Sallie Tisdale,
Kim Van Meter, Cathy Wilkinson,  Alex Witchel

ON MOTHERHOOD

Adoption, Babysitters, Baths, Birth, Blenders, Bodies, Boys Without Men, Brothers, Car Pools, Cold Coffee, College, Cupcakes, Custody, Daughters, Death, Diapers, Divorce, Dramas, Dreams, Escape, Expectations, Experience, Fantasies, Fathers, Food, Grandmothers, Growing Up, Gumbo, Home, Hunger, Kiddie Pools, Language, Lists, Love, Memories, Mothers, Nursing, Pets, Pregnancy, Pride, Princesses, Rage, School, Separation, Sex, Single Mothers, Sippy Cups, Sisters, Sleep Deprivation, Smells, Soccer Moms, Sons, Stepmothers, Tantrums, Teenagers, Time, Vibrators, Waterbeds, Working Mothers, Writing Mothers

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Villard; 1 edition (April 6, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375502696
• ISBN-13: 978-0375502699
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,853,420 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For readers who think, July 19, 2003

By 

Peggy Vincent "author and reader" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood (Hardcover)

Most of the essays in this slim but powerful book originally appeared in the Mothers Who Think column on Salon.com, including a real winner by Anne Lamott. Although they vary tremendously in tone, subject, angle, and focus, all together they create a powerfully articulate image of what it means to be Mother. And I'm talking Mother in a minute, interior sense, not in the do-goody style of parenting magazines. There's nothing soapy or sappy in any of these essays - so read it.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book!, February 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Mothers Who Think: Tales Of Real-life Parenthood (Paperback)

I picked up this book quite by accident when my son was about four months old and read it on his first plane ride. Honestly, it made me cry. It features a broad spectrum of mother's persepectives, however, I could relate to so many of them. At a time of upheaval in my life, it made me feel like I was not alone. As a first time mom who works full time at a job I love and hate alternatively, who is a staunch republican and married, I still related to so many of the columns. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I do not find the title at all offensive, I think its catchy. I think that we should embrace any book that truly celebrates mothers and recognizes that while some see mothers as one cohesive group of people, we are as varied as any segment of the population. I loved this book and recommend it to any parent who ever feels as if they are fighting to keep their sanity, despite the fact that they love their children so much they could never imagine life without them.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The only thing wrong with this book is its title!, August 1, 2005

By 

Suzanne Amara (MA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Mothers Who Think: Tales Of Real-life Parenthood (Paperback)

I had heard about this book for years before I read it. What held me back was the title---I pictured this being a book about not just mothers who think, but mothers who think MORE THAN REGULAR MOTHERS---you know the kind of book. One with essays by mothers who think they are more devoted, more in tune, more able to work and care for their kids at one time..etc. That wasn't what this was at all. It is a collection of extremely well done essays about all aspects of parenting. In my opinion, the best here is On Not Having a Daughter, by Jayne Anne Phillips---about a child not born--I'll remember this writing always. You'll Get Used to It is another great one, about the tough seperation from your child and how you someday do miss how hard it is for them to leave! The Line is White and It is Narrow tells of a boy on the autistic spectrum with a love for soccer, and how his mother helps him make his dreams come true. I could go on and on...lots of terrific writing here. The weakest pieces in my opinion are the few short humor pieces about everything going wrong during childbirth---they are a little too slapstick for me, but they aren't that bad! Highly recommended collection about a topic that doesn't really get that much good writing---the thoughts and ideas of mothering.