The Best Most Awful Job: Twenty Writers Talk Honestly About Motherhood

“The true, dirty business of motherhood is a constellation of experiences,” writes memoirist May (Wintering) in this intimate and revelatory collection, in which 20 contributors explore “the strange places that love takes us.” In “What Your Mother Didn’t Tell You,” midwife Leah Hazard sheds light on postpartum pain from wounds during labor and makes a case for more widespread knowledge of women’s anatomy. Sharmila Chauhan reveals in “The Dishes” her feelings of isolation after finding that her experience of pregnancy and motherhood was untranslatable to her husband, and Emily Morris expresses the mixed grief and joy of single parenthood in “The Absence.” Other pieces address cultural issues, such as Holly McNish’s “Can I Touch Myself, Though?” which grapples with the fact that cities aren’t designed with mothers in mind, and Huma Qureshi’s worries about what of her Pakistani culture to pass on in “By Instinct.” Plenty of light is shed on less oft-discussed aspects of motherhood, such as adoption, mothering with disabilities, and stepparenthood. The thoughtful, incisive writing creates an emotional resonance that gets to the heart of motherhood as a complex and profoundly human experience. This will stick with mothers­­—and those thinking about becoming parents— long after the last page is turned. (Aug.)