A House for Happy Mothers by Amulya Malladi

Priya has almost everything she could ever want. The perfect job, a loving husband, and a home in California's Silicon Valley. The one thing she can't do? Have a child of her own after several failed miscarriages and IVF attempts. Asha is the exact opposite. She lives in a small hut, in a rundown neighborhood in India, with a two children that she and her husband can barely keep a roof over. These two women may have completely different lives, but they'll be forever linked.

Desperate to do almost anything to secure a better future for her extremely gifted son, Asha decides to become a surrogate, essentially renting out her womb for a little bit of money, to wealthy couples who are unable to have children. Priya desperate in her own way, takes a chance when she relies on Asha, her surrogate, to make her dreams of becoming a mother happen.

A House for Happy Mothers is an interesting look at surrogacy and surrogate mothers, particularly in India, where surrogacy has more or less become an industry, with a fascinating, vibrant look at Indian culture, feminism, and family.

The Evening Spider by Emily Arsenault

Emily Arsenault's The Evening Spider is the perfect blend of psychological thriller inspired by a true crime story from the 1880s. Told in alternating viewpoints and historical time periods, the story focuses on two young mothers.

It's 1885 and Frances Barnett has been sent to Northhampton Lunatic Hospital shortly after the birth of her daughter. Distrusting everyone around her, Frances begins to recount the early days of her pregnancy, as she shares her reluctance towards the possibility of becoming a mother. During the early stages of her pregnancy, Frances can't help but explain how she became enamored with the disturbing, yet captivating murder trial of a young woman at the hands of a local clergy member who was guilty of poisoning the young woman with arsenic. Frances, fascinated with the science behind the trial, admits in her journal that maybe her interest in the trial lead her to have horrible thoughts.

Fast forward to 2014, when young mother Abby Bernacki is slowly transitioning to motherhood. Taking a year sabbatical after giving birth to her daughter, Abby can't help but have odd dreams and hear suspicious sounds across the baby monitor in her daughter's room.Worried she's beginning to lose her mind, Abby begins researching their home. After finding out that the house belonged to the Barnetts, Abby cannot stop thinking about what might have happened in the house 150 years ago.

With a mix of humor, thriller, true crime, and history, Arsenault's book is sure to keep you turning the page.

God Help the Child by Toni Morrison

Lula Ann Bridewell’s problems began at birth when her blue-black skin shocked and horrified her light-skinned parents. Ultimately her father deserted the family and her mother, while providing basic care, could hardly bear to touch or even look at her. Lula Ann survived her tough childhood and grew into a strikingly beautiful woman whose black skin and eyes were her most admired features. Renaming herself Bride, she became a successful business woman. However, personal happiness still eluded her. She remained estranged from her mother. Her efforts to make amends for a childhood offense ended in pain and violence. Her closest friend was after her job. And most painfully, her true love, Booker, disappeared from her life, giving her only the mysterious explanation of, “You not the woman I want.” However, Bride does not give up so easily. Using the slightest of clues, she traces the whereabouts of someone, Q. Olive, who might know where Booker is. On a road trip to find Q. Olive (and perhaps Booker), Bride runs into some trouble and, consequently, meets some salt-of-the-earth people who assist her on her journey. God Help the Child by Nobel Prize winning author, Toni Morrison, pits violence and the wide-spread damage of child abuse against the resilience and decency of human beings.

Nora Webster by Colm Toibin

Nora Webster by Colm Toibin is an unusual novel of development. The protagonist is not a young woman who changes by venturing into the wider world but rather grows emotionally while remaining in her small Irish community. In the late 1960s, Nora Webster, a woman in her forties, is widowed when her husband dies of heart disease. She is the mother of four children; two adult daughters and two adolescent sons. Her reaction to her husband’s death is to withdraw from society, annoyed by the seemingly endless condolences offered by friends and neighbors. The book is a slow-moving but beautifully written description of a domestic life. The defining event of the book, a husband’s death, occurs before the story begins. The rest of the book is comprised of small events and decisions that contribute to the changes in Nora’s life.  She reluctantly accepts a job someone has arranged for her and grows in that position. She joins a music society, takes singing lessons and redecorates her home. She stands apart from her sisters and in-laws and confidently cultivates her own tastes and opinions. Toibin has based Nora on his own mother and describes her difficulties with great understanding. If you are looking for a book with action, or even a defined plot, this is not the book for you. Nora Webster is a study in the quiet courage required to live an ordinary life.

Check out Nora Webster @ the library today!

Mommy Dressing: A Love Story, After a Fashion by Lois Gould

Bad mothers are the most interesting mothers, particularly when they are someone else’s.  In this light, Jo Copeland, mother of author Lois Gould, was a particularly interesting mother. She was a perfectionist who could not express any kind of warmth or kindness to her two children. Copeland was a fashion designer for over fifty years, beginning in the 1920’s.  Professionally successful and glamorous, she helped create the American fashion industry (as opposed to the French.) Her designs were worn by such diverse personalities as Gypsy Rose Lee and The Duchess of Windsor. Both Copeland and her husband were shallowly obsessed with appearances and their marriage did not last, leaving Gould and her brother in the care of nannies and housekeepers. They were isolated in their bedrooms, subjected to long periods of enforced silence and strict senseless rules. In general, they were left out of their mother’s life. A father who bragged that he could “handsome up a room” and a mother who would criticize a daughter for perspiring or getting a pimple were not best suited for raising children. However, Mommy Dressing: A Love Story, After a Fashion is not the emotional, self-pitying memoir it could have been. Gould delves into the story of her mother’s own emotionally deprived childhood, a childhood that left her unable to mother her own children. Good writers always have a talent for empathy and sensitivity that helps them explain the incomprehensible behavior of others. Lois Gould’s purpose in writing this book was not revenge but understanding and her success is the reader’s gain.   

Check out Mommy Dressing: A Love Story, After a Fashion @ the library!

Mother by Judy Olausen

Judy Olausen’s mother, Vivien, is definitely a good-natured good sport. In her daughter’s book of photographs, Mother, she is the only model and she proves to be willing to pose in all manner of ridiculous situations and costumes in this send-up of the 1950’s ideal housewife and mother. In pictures filled with 1950’s memorabilia, she washes, dries and irons laundry. She scrubs, vacuums, shops, cooks and waits for the man of the house to arrive. Mother goes to church. Mother serves drinks. Mother gets her hair done. Mother goes camping. Mother IS a coffee table. Mother IS driftwood. Mother IS roadkill. Mother IS a doormat. Mother is an excellent model and MOTHER is just plain funny.

Check out Mother @ the library! Also check out other books featuring moms with our May book display!