Maternal Instinct

For Augusten Burroughs, the idea of a mom is probably different from what we're used to. Burroughs' mother is shown as emotionally drained, excessive, self-centered, and ultimately incapable of being a parent. And best - his mother gave him away to be raised by her psychiatrist, a dead ringer for Santa Claus and a certifiable lunatic into the bargain.

Running With Scissors is not your usual, warm stories of motherhood and childhood - it's fraught with pain and desolation, but Burroughs manages to write with such wit and humour, you'll end up laughing and crying along.

From one of America’s greatest and most iconic writers: an honest and courageous portrait of age and motherhood.
Several days before Christmas 2003, Joan Didion’s only daughter, Quintana, fell seriously ill. In 2010, Didion marked the sixth anniversary of her daughter’s death. ‘Blue Nights’ is a shatteringly honest examination of Joan Didion’s life as a mother, a woman and a writer.

It's a book full of stories: about a girl locked out of her home, sitting on the doorstep all night; about a religious zealot disguised as a mother who has two sets of false teeth and a revolver in the dresser, waiting for Armageddon; about growing up in an north England industrial town now changed beyond recognition; about the Universe as Cosmic Dustbin.It is the story of how a painful past that Jeanette thought she'd written over and repainted rose to haunt her, sending her on a journey into madness and out again, in search of her biological mother.

What does it mean to be a good mother?
How far would you go in the name of love -- and justice?

In the course of her everyday work, career-driven assistant district attorney Nina Frost prosecutes child molesters and works determinedly to ensure that a legal system with too many loopholes keeps these criminals behind bars. But when her own five-year-old son, Nathaniel, is traumatized by a sexual assault, Nina and her husband, Caleb, a quiet and methodical stone mason, are shattered, ripped apart by an enraging sense of helplessness in the face of a futile justice system that Nina knows all too well. In a heartbeat, Nina's absolute truths and convictions are turned upside down, and she hurtles toward a plan to exact her own justice for her son -- no matter the consequence, whatever the sacrifice.

The Teenage Brain sheds new light on the brains—and behaviors—of adolescents and young adults, and analyzes this knowledge to share specific ways in which parents, educators, and even the legal system can help them navigate their way more smoothly into adulthood.

But think of this book as a mom's proof of deep love for her sons. Neurologist Frances E. Jensen wanted to understand her sons better. What made them do what they did? And in the contexts of learning and multitasking, stress and memory, sleep, addiction, and decision-making, how can adults better handle teenagers? This book reads not just like a mere how-to, but because of Jensen's personal examples, comes across as an intimate account from a very concerned mother.

When it first appeared in Erma Bombeck's Mother's Day column in 1974, When God Created Mothers was an instant success, clipped from newspapers, tucked into purses, and tacked onto refrigerators all over America. Now in this beautiful keepsake edition, Bombeck's moving words are paired with original art that bring to life the warm portrait of motherhood contained within.

Barbara Kingsolver’s bestselling Pigs in Heaven continues the tale of Turtle and Taylor Greer, a Native American girl and her adoptive mother who have settled in Tucson, Arizona, as they both try to overcome their difficult pasts.
Taking place three years after The Bean Trees, Taylor is now dating a musician named Jax and has officially adopted Turtle. But when a lawyer for the Cherokee Nation begins to investigate the adoption—their new life together begins to crumble.

Babygate includes a road map for confronting family-responsibilities discrimination, and a concrete plan for creating a more family-friendly nation.In Babygate, three legal experts share practical tips, real-life stories from moms and dads, and key legal information to spotlight the protections expecting and new parents have (and don't have) in the workplace.