It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita

Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression

Brooke Shields · 226 pages

When Brooke Shields welcomed her newborn daughter, Rowan Francis, into the world, a crippling depression followed. In DOWN CAME THE RAIN, Brooke writes about the tribulations, depression, and, ultimately, the triumphs that happened before and after the birth. With a knowledgeable voice and a self-deprecating sense of humor, Brooke discusses her battle with postpartum depression, a disorder that ha

Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within

Elif Shafak · 267 pages

The author recounts her effort to balance her writing career and her parenting responsibilities, describing her battle with postpartum depression, her views on prominent women authors, and the many roles she embraced throughout her journey.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir

Jenny Lawson · 318 pages

When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father and a morbidly eccentric childhood. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame-spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it. In the irreverent Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson’s long-suffering husban

So Sad Today: Personal Essays

Melissa Broder · 210 pages

"A darkly funny and brutally honest collection of essays from Melissa Broder who has always struggled with anxiety. In the fall of 2012, she went through a harrowing cycle of panic attacks and dread that wouldn't abate for months. So she began @sosadtoday, an anonymous Twitter feed that allowed her to express her darkest feelings, and which quickly gained a dedicated following. In this collection,

Super Chill: A Year of Living Anxiously

Adam Ellis · 120 pages

Cheer Up, Love: Adventures in Depression with the Crab of Hate

Susan Calman · 272 pages

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened

Allie Brosh · 384 pages

Every time Allie Brosh posts something new on her hugely popular blog Hyperbole and a Half the internet rejoices. Touching, absurd, and darkly comic, Allie Brosh’s highly anticipated book Hyperbole and a Half showcases her unique voice, leaping wit, and her ability to capture complex emotions with deceptively simple illustrations. This full-color, beautifully illustrated edition features mor

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Dave Eggers · 426 pages

From Wikipedia: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (ISBN 0-330-48455-9) is a memoir by Dave Eggers released in 2000. It chronicles his stewardship of younger brother Christopher "Toph" Eggers following the cancer-related deaths of his parents. The book was an enormous commercial and critical success, reaching number one on The New York Times bestseller list and being nominated as a final

Sparkly Green Earrings

Melanie Shankle

Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year

Anne Lamott · 251 pages

It seems no mother of a newborn has ever been more hilarious, more honest, or more touching than Anne Lamott is in Operating Instructions. A single parent whose baby's father is out of the picture, Lamott struggles not only to support her little family by her wits and her writing but to stay sober at the same time. Faith in God helps; so does her loyal band of helpers, from her childless best frie

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's

John Elder Robison · 304 pages

Ever since he was small, John Robison had longed to connect with other people, but by the time he was a teenager, his odd habits--an inclination to blurt out non sequiturs, avoid eye contact, dismantle radios, and dig five-foot holes (and stick his younger brother in them)--had earned him the label "social deviant." No guidance came from his mother, who conversed with light fixtures, or his father

Prozac Nation

Elizabeth Wurtzel · 336 pages

Full of promise is how anyone would have described Elizabeth Wurtzel at age ten, a bright-eyed little girl who painted, wrote stories, and excelled in every way. By twelve she was cutting her legs in the girls' bathroom and listening to scratchy recordings of the Velvet Underground. College was marked by a series of breakdowns, suicide attempts, and hospitalizations before she was finally given P

Carry On, Warrior: Thoughts on Life Unarmed

Glennon Doyle Melton · 269 pages

A New York Times essayist shares her journey from a self-destructive college student to a devoted family woman and teacher while illuminating the importance of trusting in a higher power and being truthful about life's challenges. "For years Glennon Doyle Melton built a wall between herself and others, hiding inside a bunker of secrets and shame. But one day everything changed: Glennon woke up to

Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace

Ayelet Waldman · 213 pages

In the tradition of recent hits like The Bitch in the House and Perfect Madness comes a hilarious and controversial book that every woman will have an opinion about, written by America's most outrageous writer. In our mothers' day there were good mothers, neglectful mothers, and occasionally great mothers.Today we have only Bad Mothers.If you work, you're neglectful; if you stay home, you're smoth

This Little Piggy Went to the Liquor Store

A.K. Turner · 190 pages

"Chronicles what happens when a little girl who scorns the idea of marriage and children (in favor of becoming a stiletto-wearing, attache-carrying Secret Agent), majors in Russian, minors in Vodka, and then one day finds herself with child ... and in-laws"--Page 4 of cover.

Someone Could Get Hurt: A Memoir of Twenty-First-Century Parenthood

Drew Magary · 243 pages

In brutally honest and funny stories, Drew Magary reveals how American mothers and fathers cope with being in over their heads (getting drunk while trick-or-treating, watching helplessly as a child defiantly pees in a hotel pool, engaging in role-play with a princess-crazed daughter), and how stepping back can sometimes make all the difference (talking a toddler down from the third story of a nett

This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare

Gabourey Sidibe · 256 pages

"Sidibe's memoir hits hard with self-knowing dispatches on friendship, depression, celebrity, haters, fashion, race, and weight"--

Please Don't Eat the Daisies

Jean Kerr · 167 pages

Don't Lick the Minivan: And Other Things I Never Thought I'd Say to My Kids

Leanne Shirtliffe · 282 pages

Running with Scissors

Augusten Burroughs · 320 pages

"Running with Scissors is the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her psychiatrist, a dead ringer for Santa and a lunatic in the bargain. Suddenly, at age twelve, Augusten Burroughs found himself living in a dilapidated Victorian in perfect squalor. The doctor's bizarre family, a few patients, and a pedophile living in the backyard

Belly Laughs: The Naked Truth About Pregnancy and Childbirth

Jenny McCarthy · 178 pages

Confessions of a Scary Mommy: An Honest and Irreverent Look at Motherhood: The Good, The Bad, and the Scary

Jill Smokler

Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World's Worst Dog

John Grogan · 368 pages

The heartwarming and unforgettablestory of a family in the making and thewondrously neurotic dog who taughtthem what really matters in lifeJohn and Jenny were just beginning their life together. They were young and in love, with a perfect little house and not a care in the world. Then they brought home Marley, a wiggly yellow furball of a puppy. Life would never be the same.Marley quickly grew int

Little Earthquakes

Jennifer Weiner · 417 pages

A chef, an event planner, and a basketball player's wife find their marriages and careers in Philadelphia challenged by new motherhood, difficult schedules, and infidelity.