Reviewed by Heather Laird

Ok ladies. I’ll admit it. I am a huge fan of TLC’s John and Kate Plus 8. The idea of navigating a word with twins, let alone sextuplets, hold great mystery and intrigue for me. Diapers. Feedings. Cleaning the toilet. Laundry. I am barely able to manage my tiny brood of two girls who are four years apart in age. How do these courageous families adapt? Do they sleep? Do they shower? Do they ever have a moment to grab a latte and read a book? Ugh. And so, with great anticipation I read Cheryl Lage’s new book, Twinspiration.

Cheryl draws on her own experience with her set of twins to provide a very real worldview of raising twins. Bonus, she also gives great advice on everything from breastfeeding to involving Daddy in the routine. Cheryl found that when she looked to the Barnes and Noble family/children rack that there were virtually no books on twins that really gave the nitty-gritty.

This book is concise and well written. The chapters are setup in the same way that your college textbook outlined the complete history of Europe. Information is easy to find. It is like have the super encyclopedia of twins at your fingertips but with more humor and pizazz. Finances. Swing sets. Pediatricians. Air travel. Persona Hygiene (yours, not the babies). All covered. And what a relief, you will find that Cheryl is abhorrent to the “mommy police”. All the information is present with compassion and understand. She’s been there, done that, and has made the same mistakes that all leave us wondering, “What was I thinking?”.

This is a must have gift for a parents who have just found out that they are having multiples. And really, don’t you thing that the ultrasound technician should give this book to families who have just “seen” their twins for the first time? Sounds like a good idea to me.

Grace. Often used, rarely understood, ‘grace’ is the intimate stepping stone in Donna VanLiere’s new book about journeying through sadness and joy to a place of peace. “Finding Grace, a Memoir” is indeed a message of losing in order to find; a prodigal daughter story with modern characters.

VanLiere, who penned the famous Christmas Hope series of books that began with a slightly cheesy but heartening song about Christmas Shoes, is a beautifully descriptive writer. Her opening paragraphs provide vivid images of her childhood home and its supporting cast of characters, who, we discover, lead her to the place of lost childhood innocence and eventual grace.

God factors highly in VanLiere’s memoir; the Big Guy is, after all, the supreme giver of grace and offers it to us whether we deserve it or not. As with most people who struggle with the concept of something for nothing, this is unsettling for VanLiere. We feel her struggle to confront guilt in the backlash of sexual abuse by a neighbor boy when she was five and watch as forgiveness and grace torment her (though she knows not why) well into adulthood, and openly mock her desire to become a wife and mother.

A witty and gifted writer, VanLiere matures into a young adult with sharpness, zeroing in on other people’s un-grace. Finding it easier to point out where other people’s shortcomings in the grace department lie rather recognizing her own, VanLiere quickly discovers that grace and Christianity are not necessarily a package deal. In an astounding observation of a boyfriend’s parents, uber-conservative Christians, she states they were “so supersized in their spirituality they had no need for grace. They had forgotten that it was the lop-sided souls….who followed Christ while he was on earth.” Ouch.

Central to “Finding Grace” is VanLiere’s struggle to have children. Through honest storytelling and vivid descriptions of fertility treatments, we are witness to her walk down the ambiguous road of injections, sickness, and ultimate disappointment as she and her husband fail to conceive. Initially rejecting adoption, our author refuses to give in to the quiet, grace-filled whispers floating through her head, choosing instead to kick and scream her way through a daily regime of hormones. But, as grace often does when infiltrating our souls, VanLiere allows the whisper to become a voice, and the voice leads her to peace about her body, her emotions, and her spirituality as she begins to complete adoption forms.

Grace the child (and subsequent sister and brother) joins their family in a beautiful progression of chapters in which I became enamored with VanLiere and her lifelong quest to be herself, not just somebody she thought she should be. It’s about time, I thought, too late realizing that I, like VanLiere, might just be searching for my own level of understanding of grace.

The best part of “Finding Grace” is not what VanLiere actually says. While a distinctly Christian-based book offering the Almighty as grace-giver, the point is that grace is not something we should be fighting to seek as if on a quest. It is simple, quiet, and always there. We just have to wade through the crap to see it.

“Didn’t you get the memo, God? The one I sent when I was five? Yeah, I got that memo, but I thought I’d give you something better than you think you deserve.”

That, Van Liere says, is the language of grace.

Read the book, mamas. You might know more about grace than you think.

Erin Kirkland is a freelance writer and blogger from Anchorage, Alaska.

Review by Mary Bordner Tanck

Soft Landing is a really great read! Hermanson takes a serious subject manner and shows an unusual knack for wit while still being sensitive to the subject matter.

After Maxine rescues a child she believes is being molested, she faces fears that she may have made a mistake. The next few days take her on a journey where she must examine the mistakes of her past and the future she is uncertain about. A trip to her old hometown opens Maxine’s eyes to what she must do.

While Soft Landing is mostly Maxine’s story, Hermanson gives us an intimate look into the other people who are in Maxine’s life - her fiance’, the little girl she saved, the parents of the child she saved, and her own sister.

Even though she faces charges of felony assault and kidnapping, the incident gives Maxine the chance to examine her life and right her wrongs - both past and future.

Hermanson’s characters are very human and very believable. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a nice down-home story.

As soon as your children are able to crawl, you child-proof your home. You child-proof your car. You child-proof your yard. But child-proofing a marriage?

Like the latches, gates and locks designed to keep tots out of harm’s way, every marriage needs its own rituals and techniques to keep offspring from sabotaging intimacy and romance.

What Happy Parents Do: The Loving Little Rituals of a Child-Proof Marriage offers bite-sized anecdotes from married couples who’ve preserved the passion and intimacy of marriage despite the strains of raising children.

Authors Carol J. Bruess, Ph.D. & Anna D.H. Kudak, M.A., have obviously done their homework. Happily married themselves, the college professors drew on interviews with hundreds of parents and more than 15 years of research.

Everyone knows that the demands of parenting are enough to dampen marital bliss in the child-centric family culture of 21st-century America. What not enough couples know is how to keep the original “two-pack” intact.

But rather than coming off as a laundry list of chores to add to an already booked life, Bruess and Hudak take 50 real-life examples and then explain why they work.

Nothing in the book offers a last-ditch solution to save a dying marriage. Instead, readers may notice rituals throughout the book similar to special things they do in their everyday lives. “What Happy Parents Do” keeps married couples from taking those special routines for granted and encourages husband and wife to nurture what led them to fall in love in the first place.

For me, this quick, bedside-table book made me take a closer look at the rituals my husband and I had established in our still somewhat-new marriage. Some of the book’s examples seemed goofy at first read. Then I realized that the corny, private stuff sometimes too embarrassing to share is what keeps couples connected – and children out – through the course of a healthy, happy marriage.

Hey, mamas! I recently had a conversation with an old friend who lamented that her friends never really really really told her how difficult the transition from one child to two would be for her family. So often in life, we search and yearn for the a little extra guidance to help us deal with the challenges that face us. None of those challenges are unique, so why aren’t more people sharing ways to conquer them?

Well, stay-at-home mommas now have an excellent new book to help guide and educate them on their path. “The Stay-At-Home Survival Guide” by Melissa Stanton is here to help. No surprises here. The day of stay-at-home mom is not glamorized (thank god), politicized, or judged. I’d recommend this book to Moms new to the stay-at-home routine, as well as to those mommies who have been at it for years. There’s something in here for everyone.

Stanton is a former magazine editor and it shows in her book. This book reads like the best of a woman’s magazine article. The information is dense and well written. There is expert advice and a few self scoring tests. And best for busy mommies; it is a quick and enjoyable read.

Stanton covers all the basics; the inability to actually do housework with small children underfoot, a change in self-image when transitioning out of the work force and how to renew the zing (aka sex) in your marriage. Plus, she has some really heavy hitters. She spends a good amount of time reviewing finances and getting down to the nitty gritty with Social Security. (Ladies, there are some very important Suzy Orman moments in this book.) Depression and coping techniques are also covered.

So, here’s the only caveat about this book. This book mostly discusses almost entirely only the experiences of college educated career women who become stay-at-home moms in their 30’s and 40’s. That’s me, so I felt INCREDIBLE validation and connectedness to this book. If this describes you, then this book is a more than perfect fit!

Loved it. Loved it. Loved it.

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review by Marlynn Jayme Schotland

When it comes to love, I find it hard to believe that there is a single person out there who never questions the decisions he/she has made. Like most matters, if we never questioned our decisions, how are we to know for sure we have made the right ones?

Questioning love and logic is at the heart of Fiona Neill’s novel, Slummy Mummy. Perpetually late 30-something Lucy Sweeney is lovable, quick on her feet, and an adoring mother to her three young boys. She hasn’t had sex with her “life’s all about creating systems to stay organized” anal-retentive architect hubby Tom in who knows how long, and while I find her character far from having a “tendency toward domestic disaster” as the back book cover describes, she does have little care for keeping up with laundry, has a knack for losing important things credit cards and house keys, and keeps a stash of revolving credit card debt hidden from her husband.

Lucy left her high powered career while her star was on the rise after finding the hours incompatable with motherhood. Her best friends include Emma, a single career woman with a knack of falling in love with unattainable (read: married) men, and Cathy, who is going through a nasty divorce and learning to balance her life by being party girl and then devoted single mom on alternate weekends. Now, as Lucy’s youngest son starts nursery school, she finds herself suddenly involved more in the oh-so-political world of parental school participation, and befriends Yummy Mummy No. 1, Celebrity Dad… and Sexy Domesticated Dad. It is Sexy Domesticated Dad’s dangerous flirtatious presence that starts a series of complications in Lucy’s life. What ensues are countless embarrassing and awkward situations all stemming from characters questioning love, and Lucy learning to work through her own conflicting emotions while also loyally supporting the emotional drama occurring in her friends’ lives.

What I truly admired about Neill’s portrayal of Lucy is that as unorganized as she may appear, she is the only character in Slummy Mummy to have held her confidence throughout the entire novel. She is a woman who is completely comfortable in her own skin. Her mother-in-law and husband try to convince her to prescribe to systems to be more organized, her mother still attempts to make her question her decision to leave her job in order to raise her children full-time, Sexy Domesticated Dad attempts to make her indulge his own loss of control and his mounting self-insecurities, and through it all, Lucy remains true to herself. This is something so rarely seen in modern mama lit: allowing the main mother figure to hold steadfast to her ground, to remain unwavering in her decisions, values and personality traits even in the midst of conflict and controversy. For this, I applaud Neill. Personally, I am tired of mothers being depicted in a constant state of insecurity, of having no control, of settling for one life or another. Lucy Sweeney’s character -while surely going through some emotional upheaval - always knows who she is and won’t change for anyone else. Even when she questions her marriage, she never questions herself.

The book is funny and light, a great quick read if you’re looking to escape to the world of a grown-up Bridget Jones. At times, Neill’s flashback scenes are awkwardly timed and often ramble on for much longer than necessary - so much so that I would often forget I was reading a flashback scene and be jolted in surprise when suddenly after many lengthy paragraphs or even pages, I am back to the present. Her writing otherwise, however, is at ease with the subject and characters, and I found myself devouring the book without wanting to put it down. I think most mothers will be able to relate in some fashion to Lucy Sweeney’s character, her friendships, and even her conflicts on some level.

review by Kalynne Pudner

Janet Evanovich calls Jenna McCarthy’s The Parent Trip: From High Heels and Parties to High Chairs and Potties “clever and irreverent.” Evanovich speaks truly.

McCarthy is one funny, edgy gal; I spent some time perusing her website (www.jennamccarthy.com) to see if the clever irreverence of The Parent Trip is endemic to the author or just the product of pregnancy/first-year sleep deprivation. It’s her, alright. Check out the bio on the website, and see if you can’t imagine this 20-something Floridian showing up to a big-time NYC magazine editorial office wearing all white…then trading it in for bikinis and pajamas, in succession, on the California coast. Go on: tell me she doesn’t sound like the first person you’d call for one of those crazy girls’ nights out. If I’m ever in Santa Barbara, I might just do it.

That being said, and said sincerely, I’m not convinced such edginess translates smoothly to a book for new or expectant moms. In no way am I denying that edgy humor is appropriate to motherhood — I’d never have survived almost 20 years and nine incarnations of the state without it, believe me! But not until Chapter 6 does The Parent Trip arrive at motherhood. Before this, it’s about — not “high heels and parties,” as the subtitle might suggest — Jenna’s sex life. (See? I told you she’d be good on a girls’ night out.)

Once I got my 40-ish sensibilities past the “unvarnished” (in the words of one reviewer) descriptions of teenaged Jenna’s desperate machinations for avoiding pregnancy and later just-as-desperate machinations for achieving it — and what I personally found to be an extremely off-putting remark, “unless you are one of the three virgin brides to tie the knot every year” — I was not only entertained, but instructed. Specifically, I was instructed as to how little the business of new motherhood has changed in 20 years.

The new mom’s hospital status still shifts precipitously downward once the baby arrives; there are still a gazillion more baby items available for sale than you could ever figure out how to use, much less need; breast pumps still hurt; moms still vie for one-upmanship; maternity pants still resist being packed away postpartum. (Even though I didn’t particularly care for the, er, unvarnished prose in the section entitled, “‘Take Me Now, Big Guy’ and Other Things You Won’t Be Saying Anytime Soon,” the point still stands. I remember the topic coming up in a postpartum exercise class with my first, and a veteran mom of two saying, “Sex or sleep? Sleep or sex? Hmm, let me think about that a minute. Zzzzzzzz [feigned snoring].”)

And although McCarthy makes full disclaimer that the book is meant to entertain, and not educate, many of her “Trip Tips” are actually quite good. For example, she strongly suggests new parents avail themselves of gift registries to avoid having to dedicate an entire closet to receiving blankets; to choose which of the aforementioned gazillion items are most useful, compare the online registries of several random other expectant couples. My first reaction to this tip was, “Good Lord! Who has the time to google a dozen baby gift registries?” Then it occurred to me: when I was pregnant the first time around, I did. I had all the time in the world! This would have been an excellent use of it (had we known Google in 1989, that is). Another well-advised tip is to figure how many diapers you think you’ll need for a road trip, then triple it. And then distribute them among all the carriers and bags and pockets available.

So do I recommend The Parent Trip? With reservations. It’s funny, it’s clever and it is most certainly irreverent. But for the average new mom, or new hopeful mom, I suspect its bite would be worse than its bark, so to speak: the content is a good bit edgier than the cover copy portends. This may be because some things really aren’t good candidates for humor until you’ve “been there, done that’ — the humor is in the recognition that, as McCarthy proclaims, “you are not alone.” I found myself thinking through all the young women I know who are expecting, or plan to be in the foreseeable future, and not one struck me as someone to whom I’d feel comfortable giving this book.

But that may be just me, and my milieu. Undoubtedly there are readers who don’t flinch at, and are in fact entertained by, “unvarnished” discussion of premarital and marital sex. And I have to admit that among all the grins I gained from previewing The Parent Trip, the biggest one was inspired by discovering in the acknowledgment section (yes, I go back and re-read the beginning after I’ve finished a book; doesn’t everyone?) that McCarthy’s husband’s last name is Coito.

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Reviewed by Kristin Benson

If you are a new mom, like me, and find yourself skimming the table of contents of Sloan Barnett’s new book, Green Goes with Everything, you wouldn’t casually move on to the introduction. You wouldn’t even start with chapter one. You’d promptly turn to chapter five. Page 106. You, too, would make a beeline for the baby chapter.

As in all of her chapters, Clean Baby begins with “the plain green truth,” where Barnett uses semi-alarmist statements to remind us why so many moms are “going green”: toxins and harmful chemicals are everywhere! Most of these statements do reference studies that are cited in notes at the end of the book, which is good for a research nerd like me. And, she is pretty thorough in her fight to track down any and all toxic chemicals that may be lurking in our homes (a thoroughness that betrays her background as a consumer reporter). She balances out the how-can-I-afford-to-ensure-that-only-organic-materials-ever-touch-my-child’s-skin anxiety (and, some would say, elitism) with some good, old-fashioned homemade cleaning solutions in the Safe Clean chapter. Finally, just when you think you’ll be committed for obsessing about detoxifying the world in one fell swoop, she offers “Five Green-Hot Tips” at the end of each chapter, a short list of the easiest and most important areas to clean up your act.

But, be warned, dear reader: Ms. Barnett is a shameless promoter of a line of cleaning products for which her husband sits on the board of directors. To her credit, she offers this information readily and references an independent study that ranks these products quite well. As someone who’s been called “testimonial girl” in the past, I understand being in love with a good product and wanting to share it with others. Still, I was disappointed that, unlike the chapters about personal products and baby products, where a short list of available eco-friendly options is offered, the chapter on household cleaners comes with two suggestions: buy her recommended line or make your own.

Shameless promotion aside, Green Goes with Everything is a handy reference guide for moms and dads who are sick of compiling internet research on the best ways to keep our homes, families, and the planet healthy. It is well written, well organized, and – here’s the important part – convincing. It does have the capacity to make your head spin, unleash any latent OCD tendencies, and resent those who could actually afford to implement all of the author’s suggestions. But, you just might find yourself making some lifestyle changes nonetheless …

I must now go unpack my baby’s new organic mattress and, then, prepare the only dinner I can now afford because of said mattress: ramen noodles.

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Do you ever have one of those days when the cat poops in your car, you run over the lawn mower, and your four year old starts cussing? Lucy Adams understands and she writes about it with love and wit in her new book of short stories If Mama Don’t Laugh, It Ain’t Funny.

The title is a little misleading; I expected to open a book chock full of comedy. Don’t get me wrong, most of the stories had me laughing out loud (and left my husband staring at me quizzically), but others left a little tear in my eye. Some, a tear of sentimentality; others, a bittersweet tear. Adams takes the every day occurrences in life and finds the humor in all of it. She takes the reader on a journey through the mundane, but turns it into either excitement or profundity at every turn. I like mothers who are easy going and Adams is definitely one of those moms. She has a talent for touching her readers in the heart, right where they feel it. She makes it feel as if you are on the phone with your funny friend talking about your day.

So pour yourself a nice tall beer, draw a warm bath, and dig in to If Mama Don’t Laugh, It Ain’t Funny. You won’t regret one minute of the time you spend with Lucy Adams.