Lying To Our Mothers

A second collection of deeply personal poems examining and bearing witness to every stage of the complex emotional landscape that is a woman's life. Katherine Lawrence lies to her mother, and others, justifying her mendacity by quoting Clare Booth Luce -"lying increases the creative faculties, expands the ego and lessens the friction of social contact." A small muddy daughter battles her protective mother for her right to experience the fascinating world. As a girl, a young woman, the struggle with the social world continues. When she has a daughter of her own, things are a little different. She's not above a few familiar tricks to try and protect her own from the dangers she can remember so well. Then comes the times when life brings some really hard truths - a spouse with lies of his own, a husband with cancer, the death of loved ones. Are those helpful lies now more dangerous than they are comforting? In a mature, confident voice, Katherine Lawrence examines the tricky emotional terrain of a woman's darkness as well as lightness, providing valuable hints as to what may be lying in wait.

The Mother/Daughter Relationship gets a Makeover from the Feminine Divine. You love your mother, but she can drive you crazy. No matter what you do, it isn't quite good enough. When you speak up, mom says, "Well then, I guess I'm just a horrible mother." The mixed messages and guilt weighs you down and leaves you wondering if you can ever get it right. How can you turn this around, free yourself from self-doubt, and break the cycle for your own daughter? You can meditate, chant affirmations, and dutifully practice feeling grateful all you want, but you can't create the life you desire without addressing the issues around the person who first gave you life. Do you apologize chronically, saying, "I'm sorry" and "it's ok," when it isn't? Second-guess yourself with every decision? Look to others for your sense of self worth? Feel that you have to choose between looking good and feeling good? Come with me, as I show you how the problems you have with your mother mirror the problems you have in life. By understanding what has gone wrong in the mother/daughter relationship and turning it around, you activate the Feminine energy that is the key to having the life you've always wanted. Are you ready to rise up, come alive, and live beyond your mother's limiting messages? Rise up and claim your full true Feminine power! In psychotherapist's Katherine Fabrizio's ground breaking book, DAUGHTERS RISING, she tells you how your relationship with your mother is affecting your life in ways you have not yet imagined. Your struggle with mom mirrors the internal struggle you have with yourself. The impossible standards your mother tried to live up to has caused you to be filled with shame, guilt and self-doubt. It doesn't have to be this way. Buried in each disempowering message is a message of strength and hope when you get back online with your Feminine power. You can't get there with the masculine energy that held your mother down and is so prevalent in the western culture today. This book will break the spells that are holding you back from the life you've always wanted and show you the way home to claim your true Feminine power. Get clear on the mixed messages that were passed down to you and learn how to rise above those messages. What are you waiting for? Your life is waiting. See how you have had the power in you all along. This, my pretty, changes everything."

Suzy K. Quinn reveals the truth behind the lies we tell mothers, one sleepless night at a time. Suzy and Demi were carefree twenty-somethings. They had fun! They didn't have responsibilities! And then they decided to have a baby. Goodbye lazy weekends, hello sleepless nights, arguments and an addiction to industrial-strength hot chocolate. In the midst of this major life change, Suzy discovered that most parenting advice should be taken with a pinch of salt-- or ten. For example: #1 Lie: Just go with your mothers' instinct. But what if your instinct is telling you to hide under the stairs? #10 Lie: Your new baby will tell you what it needs. Not if it can't talk. #23 Lie: You should never bribe your children. You will ALWAYS bribe your children. Follow Suzy on the ultimate make-over from nervous-wreck new mother to happy family. In this hilarious and refreshingly honest account for parents who prefer the realistic to the utopian, Suzy debunks the myths and takes us all along for the (bumpy) ride.

‘Hooked from the first page right until the last... I didn’t see the bombshell coming until it was on the page… Skilfully plotted and sizzling with suspense.’ Emma’s Biblio Treasures ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ What if the person you trust most in the world has been lying to you for your whole life? Martha would do anything for her devoted mother, Fran. Now in her mid-twenties, Martha still lives with her in their remote, pretty cottage in the Cornish countryside. Fran paints illustrations, while Martha trains to be an animal nurse. But then Martha sees a strange message on her mother’s phone – apparently from her estranged father. He had been there for her first steps. He’d helped with her homework, and taken her for ice cream at weekends. And then, two days before her ninth birthday, he walked out. She never knew what went wrong, and she and Fran never heard from him again. Desperate for answers, she tracks him down. But when they come face to face, she isn’t ready for the brutal truth. Closing his eyes he says, ‘She hasn’t told you, has she? I’m not your father.’ Her mother has been telling lies. And not just about who her real father is… As the lies start to unravel, someone will do whatever it takes to keep Martha from finding the truth. A page-turning, gripping psychological thriller for fans of The Girl on the Train, Shalini Boland, and C. L. Taylor. Readers are loving Her Mother’s Lies: ‘This had an amazing storyline!... My top read of the year!! I’m finding it hard to put into words how good it was.’ The Fiction Café Book Club, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Top book of 2019 ‘WOW!!! Amazing, phenomenal, unputdownable… It doesn't get any better than this.’ NetGalley Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Wow wow wow!!... I was hooked from the first page!... Instantly grips you… So many twists... Kept me guessing right until the very end.’ Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘It's been a long time since I have read a book that has made me feel utterly gobsmacked. If life hadn't been in the way, I could easily have read Her Mother's Lies in one sitting, it was unputdownable.’ Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ What a page turner this is!!!... Lies, deceit it has it all… My jaw dropped on a few occasions and never expected the twists and turns, I love when that happens. Amazingly brilliant book.’ Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I was in shock. This author sure knows how to pack a punch. A jaw dropping, heart stopping page turner of a read. It should come with a warning as I could feel my heart racing... I can still feel the adrenaline.’ By the Letter Book Reviews ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Absolutely stunning… doesn't let you go until that very last page… READ IT and read it as soon as you can! ’ Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Gripping, intriguing, and mind blowing!... The story starts off with a bang. The entire time I was reading, I was guessing what would happen, only to be proven wrong.’ NetGalley Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Wow, what a book!!!!!... I never saw all the twists and turns coming that this book had in store. It was like I was on a rollercoaster ride that I never wanted to get off from.’ Blue Moon Blogger ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Just Brilliant!!!!... A fantastic book and I was hooked within the first few pages… Blimey what a cracking read!... a brilliant psychological thriller that will keep you hooked… Wow!’ Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘A fast paced rollercoaster ride that is packed full of so many twists and turns that by the time you reach the final twist, you are left feeling so dizzy that all you want to do is lie down in a dark room… One hell of unexpected jaw dropping twist… Well worth far more than five stars and very very highly recommended.’ Nicki’s Life of Crime ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

A compulsive family drama about a mother's desperate search to reclaim her daughter from the horrors of her own past, perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell's Then She Was Gone. Beth Fraser finally has her life together. She's built a successful career in the tech sector, has a bright fifteen-year-old daughter, and she's completely erased all evidence of her troubled past. At least that's what she thought. Dana Fraser always wondered why she's the only kid with two backup phones, emergency drills, and a non-negotiable check-in time every single day. When a stranger approaches her on the street claiming to be her grandmother, Dana starts to question what else her mother has been hiding. Soon Beth's worst nightmare is coming true: Dana is in grave danger, and unless Beth is willing to pull one last con job for her parents, she may never see her daughter again.

Every year, millions of women have their lives turned inside out by the experience of pregnancy. A contemporary woman find herself caught in an absurd paradox: while in the grip of one of the most primal, lonely, sensual and, in some ways, psychologically debilitating and physically dangerous experiences, she is overwhelmed by invasive, trivialising and infantilising cultural messages about what is happening to her - and who really owns the experience.

If you think Joan Rivers said funny, outrageous, and ridiculous things ONSTAGE, wait ’til you read the funny, outrageous, and ridiculous things she said OFFSTAGE…things that will make you laugh out loud…and keep Melissa in therapy for the foreseeable future. The only thing my mother loved more than making people laugh was lying…or as she’d say, “embellishing.” Her motto was: “Why let the truth ruin a good story?” This book contains some of those stories. ***************** “When Joan told a story, the truth disappeared faster than I did.” — Jimmy Hoffa “If you thought Dante’s Inferno was hot, read Lies My Mother Told Me; it’s a five-alarmer.” — Dante’s second wife, Allie “Twelve of my twenty-six personalities loved this book.” — Sybil “The words on the page absolutely crackle and spark; I burned my fingers reading it!” — Annie Sullivan “The Bible may be the good book, but Lies My Mother Told Me is way funnier.” — Matthew 2:14 The Jets. 7 “Lies My Mother Told Me is the feel-good book of 2022.” — Torquemada “All’s not well that ends well. I’ve had massages with happier endings.” — Wm. Shakespeare “Melissa, I don’t care what your mother said in this book, I LOVE your bangs.” — Mamie Eisenhower “Lies My Mother Told Me is so funny even those ‘woke’ m***********s will laugh.” — Lenny Bruce

An exploration of social media–imposed pressure on new mothers: How the supposed safe havens of online mommy groups have become rife with aggression and groupthink. Many mothers today turn to social media for parenting advice, joining online mothers’ groups on Facebook and elsewhere. But the communities they find in these supposed safe havens can be rife with aggression, peer pressure, and groupthink—insisting that only certain practices are “best,” “healthiest,” “safest” (and mandatory). In this book, Jessica Clements and Kari Nixon debunk the myth of “optimal motherhood”—the idea that there is only one right answer to parenting dilemmas, and that optimal mothers must pursue perfection. In fact, Clements and Nixon write, parenting choices are not binaries, and the scientific findings touted by mommy groups are neither clear-cut nor prescriptive. Clements and Nixon trace contemporary ideas of optimal motherhood to the nineteenth-century “Cult of True Womanhood,” which viewed women in terms of purity and dignity. Both mothers themselves, they joined a variety of Facebook mothers’ groups to explore what goes on in online mommy wars. They examine debates within these groups over CDC recommendations about alcohol during pregnancy, birth plans that don’t go according to plan, breastfeeding vs. formula, co-sleeping and “crying it out,” and “tweaking” pregnancy test kits to discern pregnancy as early as possible. Clements and Nixon argue for an empowered motherhood, freed from the impossible standards of the optimal.