Another Mother

Anxious to get her son to sleep, Mrs. Mouse goes off to find what she thinks he wants.

The author describes her experiences being a foster parent, discussing home visits, intervention evaluation, parenting training sessions, transracial placement, and other related topics.

Another Mother gives voice to women who become mothers through the routes of adoption, surrogacy and egg donation, and their silent partners – the birth mothers, surrogate mothers and egg donors – who make motherhood possible for them. Exploring experiences of motherhood beyond the biological mother raising her child, Everington draws on interviews and a range of interdisciplinary approaches to produce illuminating personal testimonies which expand our understanding of what it means to be a mother. The life writing narratives also examine the unique and hidden relationships that exist between adopters and birth mothers, egg donors and women who become mothers through egg donation, and surrogates and women who become mothers through surrogacy. Offering a fresh approach to life writing, using hybrid form encompassing edited interview, re-imagined scenes, poetry, personal essay and quotation collage, this topical book is recommended for anyone interested in motherhood studies, gender and women’s studies, life writing studies, the sociology of reproduction, creative non-fiction writing approaches, oral history and ethnography studies.

Can you ever mend a shattered friendship? From Rowan Coleman, author of the acclaimed bestseller The Accidental Mother, comes a deeply moving novel for every woman who was ever a teenager in love, a mother, or made a heartbreaking decision. For wealthy Alison James, moving with her family to her hometown of Farmington presents more than a case of relocation jitters. Fifteen years ago, she fled town, eloping with her best friend's boyfriend. Now, blessed with three children, but uneasy in her marriage, she wonders if that decision led her away from the life she was meant to lead. Catherine Ashley, broke, the mother of two and almost divorced, can't help but wonder the same thing. Although she's content with her children, she finds herself returning again and again to those few weeks fifteen years ago when she fell deeply in love, only to be betrayed by her most trusted friend. Now, once more living in the same town, Alison and Catherine are about to find out just how different their lives could still be. But this time around they are adults, and while their own happiness is at stake, so is their children's. Wise and warmhearted, Another Mother's Life will make you laugh and cry -- and think about what you would do when confronted by some of life's most difficult choices.

‘We’re lucky to have such an intelligent chronicler of our present' Tessa Hadley on Janet Davey Lorna Parry lives with her three sons, each one lurching into adulthood. Lorna struggles in the claustrophobic loneliness of her home; she’s still angry at her ex-husband, uncomfortable around her father’s new girlfriend and finds it difficult to talk to her sons. Life seems precariously balanced. Then a shocking event occurs at the boys’ school and her world threatens to implode.

A moving story of one family's attempt to make a difference. In 2011 Karen Scott and Mark Finlay and their six children opened their home and hearts to a sad, skinny five-year-old boy who was placed with them by New Zealand's Child, Youth and Family services. James arrived with nothing other than the clothes he was wearing, supposedly for just a short-term stay. But what followed were two turbulent years as Karen and Mark attempted to parent a very troubled young boy. Another Mother's Love is a heart-wrenching account of a mother's attempt to nurture her foster child with unconditional love and kindness. However, is love enough? Karen and Mark faced a harrowing decision – to give up James or risk their family's future. Also available as an eBook

Every mother runner has a tale to tell. A story about how she realized, fifteen years after being told that she’s best being a bookworm, that there is an athlete inside her. Or the one about how she, fifty pounds overweight and depressed, finally found the courage—and time—to lace up her running shoes. Or maybe it’s about setting a seemingly impossible goal—going under two hours in the half-marathon—and then methodically running that goal down and tearing up across the finish line. Or it might be an account of friendship: she was new to town, was having a hard time making friends, was asked to join a group run, and now she's got four BRFs (best running friends) who are her allies, her cheerleaders, her reality checks. Maybe it's just a simple story of the beauty of starting the day off with an endorphin rush. Or, sadly, it could be about how, through the guidance of a thoughtful running friend, she found the space and rhythm to process being raped—and regained her strength and sense of self through every footstep. In Mother Runners, elite runners Dimity McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea share not only their own stories of personal triumph on the pavement but also the inspiring stories of many members of the vibrant mother runner community they've built on their popular site, Run Like a Mother. While the common theme is running, the variations that happen through the miles are as endless as the miles themselves: losing weight, gaining confidence, finding yourself, connecting with friends, expecting more, setting goals, dealing with disappointment, figuring out how to train efficiently, clearing your head, reconnecting with your memories, building a better you. Whether you've run more marathons than you can remember, or you're just getting started, you'll find the inspiration you need to get out there, keep pushing, and run like a mother.