'Thank you, O golden mother, / For giving me a life,' says Paul Durcan in this brilliant new collection, a poignant tribute to 'the first woman I ever knew'. Sheila MacBride came from a political family – her uncle John MacBride was executed in 1916 for his part in the Easter Uprising – but when Sheila married into the 'black, red-roaring, fighting Durcans of Mayo' she was obliged to give up a promising legal career. These poems commemorate his mother as Paul Durcan remembers her playing golf, reading Tolstoy, and initiating him in the magic of the cinema. He recalls her compassion and loyalty when he was committed to a mental hospital in adolescence and how she endured the ordeal of her old age. Durcan also muses upon the beauty of Greek women and questions our need for newspapers and the new religion of golf. He is beguiled by a beggar woman, enraged by a young man picking his nose on the Dublin–Sligo commuter train, and gets into difficulty at the security gate of Dublin airport.

After his wife Amber had given birth to three boys in three years, Seth Haines saw that she needed encouragement in the day-to-day drama and details of motherhood. Secretly collecting nearly six hundred wise, honest, and sometimes hilarious letters from other mothers across the world, Seth compiled these "mother letters" as a gift for her. Amber and Seth have chosen the best of those letters--including letters from some of the most influential writers and bloggers online today--to include in a beautiful book perfect for the mother in your life. Each mother-to-mother letter offers encouragement, advice, and vulnerable honesty about the struggles and joys of motherhood. These letters show that no matter how many times mothers feel like they've failed, they are still doing their greatest work. So for the mom who thinks she's the only one out there who just can't find time for a shower, Mother Letters shows her that she's part of a grand and diverse group of strong women who are saying to her, "Me too. But we can do this."

"A Mother's Journey: Through Laughter and Tears" is a book that will inspire, encourage, and validate all mothers who have the important job of raising the wonderful children that God has blessed us all with. The author's humorous writings teach us to be able to laugh at life's little tragedies, as we remember that we are not alone in our journey. Motherhood is a shared voyage, the commonalties of which span all ages and all women throughout the world! Kimberly Garrow creatively reminds us that we are together in this beautiful journey called motherhood. The stories in this book will make you laugh and will tug at your heart. The author understands a woman's heart, in relation to preconception, pregnancy, and being a new mom; the whole journey in between and beyond is beautifully captured in the pages of this book. Reading Kimberly's book is like taking a trip through your own life as a mother, whether you are just contemplating becoming a mother, whether you are a mom, or whether you are now enjoying your children's children. Every reader will relate to Kimberly Garrow's cleverly written stories and poems, as well as the underlying emotions and strengths captured throughout this book. This book is a celebration of mothers everywhere! Enjoy the journey!

In the year after giving birth, women experience a vast array of emotions. They may struggle with postpartum depression while simultaneously being enraptured by the new baby. Colman and Bing help identify the blues and depression that are normal during profound life change and consider all the complex forces influencing the modern mother.

When the superannuated biblical Sarah learned that she would give birth to a son, she burst out laughing, and that son's name-Isaac-was forever a testimony to this moment of holy mirth. In The Mother of All Laughter: Sarah & the Genesis of Comedy, Terry Lindvall argues that there is a biblical place for laughter. At times, he lets truth be obscured by a good story (as when he cites the famous Neil Armstrong/"Mr. Gorsky" urban legend as fact), but he raises important points about humor for Christians.

This edition of the inspirational #1 bestseller draws on a new year of Jann's diaries and her mother's final days. When beloved singer and songwriter Jann Arden's parents built a house just across the way from her, she thought they would be her refuge from the demands of her career. And for a time that was how it worked. But then her dad fell ill and died, and just days after his funeral, her mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. In Feeding My Mother, Jann shares what it is like for a daughter to become her mother's caregiver—in her own frank and funny words, and in recipes she invented to tempt her mom. Full of heartbreak, but also full of love and wonder.