Celebrating Mothers and Motherhood
This list celebrates motherhood in all its complexity; messy, powerful, joyful, and real. Featuring books by and about mothers, it’s a space for mothers to see themselves reflected and for anyone else to discover the many ways this role shapes a life.
When writer and blogger Ayana Lage became pregnant, she prepared as any parent would: voraciously researching, Redditing, preparing for anything. And having experienced a previous miscarriage, she braced herself for the worst. But days after giving birth, Ayana’s sense of control began to break when God started speaking to her. After growing up Pentecostal and longing to hear from God, she heard him audibly for the first time—and often. God told her that she had been chosen. He told her that her daughter was the second coming of Jesus Christ. She carried around notebooks to ensure she didn’t miss any divine words. Eventually, she was diagnosed with post-partum psychosis and sent to a psychiatric ward, unable to see loved ones or her baby and sometimes unsure whether she’d actually had a baby at all.
Her once-rational thought process was consumed with delusions, and overnight, the self-professing people-pleaser turned into a fearless charismatic, obeying what she believed to be God’s orders—including pulling the fire alarm to force an evacuation in the hospital—and shouting at anyone who disagreed with her. Slowly, the medication and treatment began to work, and when she was well enough to be released, the hard road to recovery began.
Ayana struggled to adjust to normal life after the breaks she endured—both the psychosis itself and the experience of feeling betrayed by her mind. Once a fierce mental health advocate, she still remained hesitant to share about psychosis, because of the stigma associated with this mental health disorder.
Drawing from Ayana’s notebooks and medical records, Missing Me is a gorgeously-written exploration of the revelations Ayana received during her psychotic episode, the surprising lessons about her life and faith revealed in the aftermath, and the long road to trusting her mind once again.
—Richard Schwartz, PhD, creator of Internal Family Systems and author of No Bad Parts
In a first-of-its-kind practical guide rooted in the groundbreaking IFS therapeutic model, two maternal mental health experts help moms untangle complicated feelings like anger, guilt, shame, and failure, offering empathy and support.
Moms have it hard; whether due to ingrained beliefs, the pressures of everything from social expectations to social media, or our own childhood wounds, even the best moms can feel like they are failing. With empathy, compassion, and deep wisdom, maternal health experts Jessica Tomich Sorci and Rebecca Geshuri address difficult and often suppressed feelings such as anxiety, anger, shame and guilt, as well as disappointment, ambivalence about being a mom, and yearning for your “old” life.
Tomich Sorci and Geshuri help any mom anywhere to identify these pain points, make sense of her distress, and begin to find relief. Their revelatory approach validates the unique suffering moms experience and offers reinterpretations that bring hope and empowerment. Filled with exercises, strategies, and step-by-step guidance, When Good Moms Feel Bad shows you empowering ways to access your abundant inner resources begin building self-trust. You’re already a good mom. Start discovering how your harshest internal voices are trying to help you—and befriend the parts of yourself that you’ve been fighting.
Stepford Wives meets Big Little Lies in this twisty thriller that uncovers the untruths, petty grievances, and local school politics underneath a seemingly quaint small town.
Hamilton, Massachusetts is one of those suburban towns that appears untouched by the outside world where stay-at-home moms wear 2ct diamond studs to the playground, where a million-dollar property is “affordable,” and where the Parent Teacher Organization is a hotbed of controversy. Sure, some people struggle to make ends meet, but residents would say discussing such ugly matters is impolite. Hamilton has been like this forever, and everyone likes it that way. Or: almost everyone.
It’s not that Anna Plummer doesn’t like Hamilton, but she never thought she’d be married with two young kids, comfortable, complacent…and growing more bored by the minute. So, when she realizes her second grader won’t be able to attend the “Ziti with Your Sweetie” school dance because she didn’t pay for a “Premium” membership, she snaps. She sends an email to the terrifying president of the PTO—and all hell breaks loose.
One year later, Anna is found dead in the frozen Ipswich River. Left to pick up the pieces, her husband, Denny, is shaken to his core. He’s no expert, but he’s seen enough Dateline to know that the police think he’s the main suspect. If they aren’t going to get justice for Anna, he will. Told through the alternating perspectives of Anna and Denny exactly one year apart, and with a shocking concluding twist, Valley of the Moms is a gripping look at the underpinnings of grief, the social structures of wealth, and the secrets people keep—even among friends and loved ones.
“An entertaining book … As friends talk books, hopes, dreams … and dishy revelations … it’s romantic love—both old and new … that drive[s] the story forward.” —Kirkus Reviews
Between their busy lives and their far-flung residences, the Mother-Daughter Book Club—four longtime college friends and their five daughters—more often discuss the books on their nightstands via 2 a.m. texts than in-person meetings. And maybe it’s just as well, after what happened at their last get-together …
So it’s an emotional reunion when they finally gather again, this time on the spectacular shores of Italy’s Lake Como. Sightseeing excursions, reminiscing fueled by “Como-politans,” and a hint of vacation romance all build toward the book club’s trademark “Night of Secrets.”
These friends, and sometime rivals, are close readers—of novels, memoirs, and of each other. But as the years and the distance cast shadows and doubt, confidences and sympathies turn into surprising revelations.
When Sydney and Mae meet on the playground as toddlers, it seems like kismet. Even their very different mothers—the Type-A Beth Ann and the free-spirited Joni—agree the girls are made for each other, and it’s not long before even the mothers become inseparable.
Then a falling out draws them apart, and decades later, the loneliness still lingers for the newly pregnant Sydney. Adrift in the absence of her closest friend, Sydney has been drawn into a Multi-Level Marketing scheme, exacerbated by the demands of her inflexible mother, Beth Ann, whose constant scrutiny seems reserved only for her daughter.
Across the city, Mae is stunned to find herself single, pregnant, and still haunted by the loss of her mercurial late mother, Joni, whose mysterious death holds as many unanswered questions as Mae does herself. Mae is an artist who has lived under the shadow of the one painting (of two girls) that made her famous years ago, the success of which confines as much as it defines her.
When Sydney and Mae find themselves back in one another’s lives, each with a baby girl on the horizon, it once again seems like destiny. Each begins to pull the other away from the coercive influence of outsiders—mommy groups, marketing schemes, artistic pressures, and ex-boyfriends. But the two women will soon discover that it’s not destiny that has drawn them together this time, but a devastating secret at the center of their orbits—a truth that finally will bind them or shatter them, for good.
An intimate and searing novel about mothers and daughters, and destiny and desire, Mothers and Other Strangers takes a full-hearted look at those relationships in life that are as impossible as they are utterly essential.
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
A Book Riot Best Mystery & Thriller of the Year
A Marie Claire Best Mystery-Thriller of the Year
A Library Journal Stellar Selection
A RUSA 2026 Reading List Selection
Three women in one twisted family race for answers in this striking mystery set in the Mexicali borderlands that “breathes new life into the myth of Persephone and Demeter” (Ana Reyes, author of The House in the Pines).
At the edge of the Salton Sea, in the blistering borderlands, something is out hunting…
Malamar Veracruz has never left the dust-choked town of El Valle. Here, Mal has done her best to build a good life: She’s raised two children, worked hard, and tried to forget the painful, unexplained disappearance of her sister, Elena. When another local girl goes missing, Mal plunges into a fresh yet familiar nightmare. As a desperate Mal hunts for answers, her search becomes increasingly tangled with inscrutable visions of a horse-headed woman, a local legend who Mal feels compelled to follow. Mal’s perspective is joined by the voices of her two daughters, all three of whom must work to uncover the truth about the missing girls in their community before it’s too late.
Combining elements of Latina and Indigenous culture, family drama, mystery, horror, and magical realism in a spellbinding mix, Salt Bones lays bare the realities of environmental catastrophe, family secrets, and the unrelenting bond between mothers and daughters.
“Taut with a mother’s fierce love and the corrosive power of secrets…this is storytelling at its most urgent and haunting.” —Morgan Talty, author of Night of the Living Rez
On a bright spring afternoon, Ciara Fay makes a split-second decision that will change everything. Grabbing an armful of clothes off the clothesline, she straps her two young daughters into her car and drives away. Head spinning, all she knows for certain is that home is no longer safe—and that this time, when she leaves, she must stay away.
On the surface, she has a perfect life: her sometimes kind and attentive husband, Ryan, is a good provider from a nice family, and they have another baby on the way. But he also monitors Ciara’s every move, flies into unpredictable rages where he convinces her she can do nothing right, and has isolated her from work, friends, and her beloved family.
Was fleeing the right thing to do? With no job and no support, Ciara struggles to provide a sense of normalcy for her little girls. Facing a broken housing system, they move into a hotel room on a floor reserved for women like her, eating takeout, washing their clothes in the bathroom sink, and building a community with the other residents. Ryan, meanwhile, wages a relentless campaign to win her back, and Ciara wavers. He never hit her, after all, and don’t the girls need a stable home?
Suspenseful and all-consuming, Roisín O’Donnell’s extraordinary debut creates a devastating portrait of gaslighting and emotional abuse. Ultimately, Nesting is a triumphant story about self-determination, family, and resilience.
Longlisted for the Women’s Prize • An Instant Bestseller in Ireland and the UK
Author of Take Back the Magic and co-founder of the beloved non-denominational fellowship The Way of the Rose Perdita Finn offers a profound invitation to remember and recover the power, presence, and wisdom of the Mother Figure.
“This book is a lodestar for anyone seeking to live with reverence, rootedness, and wonder.” —Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit
At a time when so many of us feel unmoored from guidance, care, and belonging, Mothers of Magic is a profound call to return to our deepest sources of knowledge, nourishment, and kinship.
When Perdita Finn found herself at a crossroads with her health, she embarked on a search for healing that led her to confront a heritage of misogyny and violence—and to summon the wisdom of her ancestors to unravel the trauma woven into her story and the story of civilization itself. Braiding memoir with cultural history, Finn introduces readers to a pantheon of maternal figures, from the loving spirit of St. Anne and the defiant courage of Joan of Arc to the very Earth itself, who have long offered refuge, instruction, and love. Through these stories and her own journey of transformation, Finn reveals what becomes possible when we recover an ecological feminism that restores our relationship with our bodies, our mothers, and the body of our world. Alongside the narrative, she shares practical ways to summon all of our mothers—ancestral, spiritual, and earthly—to help us navigate our everyday challenges and deepest wounds.
Radical and restorative, Mothers of Magic is an intervention for our time and a map back to the maternal wisdom that has always been ours—a path toward true connection and the deepest sources of love.
*An Amazon Best Nonfiction Book of 2025*
Tsukasa in Japan grapples with memories of a difficult childhood as she tries to chart a new, healthier path for her own daughter while balancing onerous cultural expectations. Chelsea in Kenya endures a devastating loss just before she gives birth and finds that without the traditional support of previous generations, motherhood can be grueling – but it can also provide emotional healing. Anna in Finland navigates a complicated relationship with her child’s father, but the country’s robust family policies allow her to still pursue the kind of parenthood that she envisioned. Sarah in the US leaves the religious community that raised her in order to create a less traditional family of her own only to find she’s largely confronting motherhood alone.
Utterly moving and propulsively readable from page one, Leonard interweaves these stories with a critically researched exploration of how parental support programs evolved in each country—and why some provide more help than others. As nations around the world debate programs like paid leave, universal daycare, reproductive healthcare, and family tax incentives, Four Mothers offers a uniquely intimate, moving portrait of what those policies mean for parents on the ground—and considers what modern families really want.