Therese Johnson Borchard

Never mind the missed school buses, the nasty cases of chicken pox and the miserable teenage years. The contributors to this perky volume find happiness in motherhood, and they relate their stories of watching their children lose their teeth and go off to college with gusto. Writer Anne Lamott remarks of her three-month-old son: "He's becoming so grown-up before my very eyes. It's so painful. I want him to stay this age forever." Ida Eisenhower explains why she likes being a mother to a boy: "Boys are the best investments in the world. They pay the biggest dividends." Although uneven, there are some nuggets here, especially the pieces by Anna Quindlen (on catching lightning bugs), Louise Erdrich (on "rocking, breathing, groaning, mouthing circles of distress, laughing, whistling, pounding, wavering, digging, pulling, pushing" through labor) and Jana Riess (on the "ten best books about motherhood that have spoken to me in a deep and memorable way")… (mere)