I came to writing later in life – at age forty-two. Writing was something I had always wanted to do. Still, it wasn’t until I experienced something that was in some ways extraordinary and in some ways prevalent–the inadequate treatment of maternal mental health and maternal health in general–that I felt my story had to be told. While maternal mental illnesses are expected, there is a shortage of books on the topic. When I was deep inside my illness, I searched for any story that might mirror my own and had difficulty finding one. With this list, I hope to help anyone who needs a hand to reach out to.
This book will be among the best books about motherhood and madness and the best books I have ever read. A beautiful and heartbreaking memoir of a young mom who suffered from post-partum psychosis, it’s the one book that most closely mirrors my own struggles.
Cho delicately explores not only her devastating experience but also the guilt and shame surrounding a pregnancy that doesn’t look like how it does in the movies and doesn’t turn out the way we had anticipated. I rarely reread books, but I’ve reached for this book many times; the pages are well-worn with love and admiration.
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'A beautifully written account of postpartum psychosis, and the ties, blessings and burdens of family' - NIGELLA LAWSON
SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE
*Observer Book of the Week*
*A Guardian Memoir of the Year 2020*
*Harper's Bazaar 10 Women Who Will Shape What You Watch, See and Read in 2020*
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'Striking and original' - Cathy Rentzenbrink, The Times
'Completely devastating. Completely heartbreaking' - Daisy Johnson
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Catherine Cho's son was three months old when she and her husband left home to introduce him to their families.
Catherine…
I picked this book up at 3 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon and didn’t put it down until I finished the last page at 1 o’clock on a Sunday morning.
This unique thriller explores what happens when you don’t become the mother you expected to be and struggle to connect with your child. It is all at once brilliant, nuanced, and propulsive.
Audrain lays bare the complexities of the nature of maternal love, generational trauma, and skirting the fine line between sanity and madness.
A Good Morning America Book Club Pick | A New York Times bestseller!
"Utterly addictive." -Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train
"Hooks you from the very first page and will have you racing to get to the end."-Good Morning America
A tense, page-turning psychological drama about the making and breaking of a family-and a woman whose experience of motherhood is nothing at all what she hoped for-and everything she feared
Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, comforting mother to her new baby Violet that she herself never had.
Laura Lee Dockrill’s memoir is an honest, warm, and, at times, hilarious account of her battle with postpartum psychosis.
Dockrill is based in London, where maternal and mental healthcare is more accessible and comprehensive than in the States, so it’s refreshing to read a narrative in which the author is actually able to get the support she needs.
Dockrill sensitively breaks down the stigma of suffering from a maternal mental illness and the importance of reaching out for help when you need it.
This book left me with a powerful sense of hope for the future of maternal and mental healthcare.
'Such a raw, honest and important book' Giovanna Fletcher
Like any new mum, Laura Dockrill felt rather overwhelmed after the birth of her son. But a slow recovery, sleep deprivation and anxiety quickly escalated into postpartum psychosis, and she had to spend a fortnight in a psych ward, separated from her family. It was only when Laura began to put her ordeal into words that she began to find herself again, and recovery seemed within reach.
This is Laura's raw, honest and life-affirming story of how she made it through one of the most frightening experiences a mother can face.…
Elizabeth Day’s novel isn’t just a gripping thriller (I didn’t put the book down once from the moment I opened it), but it’s also a rich and thoughtful exploration of women’s reproductive and mental health–topics that are all too frequently minimized or brushed over.
Having suffered from and written about my own personal experience with a maternal mental illness, I deeply appreciated how, in this book, Day deftly yet powerfully brings this often taboo topic into the light. Also, prepare to get whiplash from the intense and completely unexpected plot twist midway through the book.
For fans of The Last Mrs. Parrish comes a twisty psychological suspense about motherhood, obsession, and just how far some will go for the perfect family. “Great, plain and simple” (Stanley Tucci).
Marisa and Jake are a perfect couple. And Kate, their new lodger, is the perfect roommate—and not just because her rent payments will give them the income they need to start trying for the baby of their dreams.
Except—no one is truly perfect. Sure, Kate doesn’t seem to care much about personal boundaries and can occasionally seem overly-familiar with Jake. But Marisa doesn’t let it concern her, knowing…
Melissa Bond’s harrowing memoir is so close to my own experience—a new mother struggling with a descent into a sleepless vortex where she finds herself slowly detaching from reality. It’s difficult and painful but also a necessary story to share, as we find these struggles that new mothers face are so much more common than we think.
This book explores addiction, mental illness, motherhood, and, ultimately, the love that carries us through. It’s a serious page-turner—I devoured it in one sitting.
Brain on Fire meets High Achiever in this "page-turner memoir chronicling a woman's accidental descent into prescription benzodiazepine dependence-and the life-threatening impacts of long-term use-that chills to the bone" (Nylon).
As Melissa Bond raises her infant daughter and a special-needs one-year-old son, she suffers from unbearable insomnia, sleeping an hour or less each night. She loses her job as a journalist (a casualty of the 2008 recession), and her relationship with her husband grows distant. Her doctor casually prescribes benzodiazepines-a family of drugs that includes Xanax, Valium, Klonopin, Ativan-and increases her dosage regularly.
In the summer of 2016, I became pregnant and discontinued my decade-long antidepressant regimen, triggering unforeseen events. By January 2017, I was unrecognizable to myself and others, and the world became unrecognizable to me. Eventually diagnosed with pregnancy-induced depersonalization and derealization disorder, I faced a challenging recovery while raising my daughter, maintaining my teaching career, and preserving my marriage.
My book sheds light on rarely discussed maternal and mental illnesses and exposes flaws in our mental healthcare system, all while illustrating the power of determination when we fight to save the relationships we hold most dear.
To hide a corporation’s failure to properly service a space ship, Captain Jonas Stryker is prosecuted but saved from imprisonment by a dying man, who hires Stryker to collect asteroids for their mineral content. Stryker soon finds he must stop a shadowy corporate group called The Board, who employ space piracy, terrorism, and even weaponised asteroids to overthrow the Federation government.
Set in Lagrange points, space stations, the Moon and outback Australia, it is a fast-moving story with some speculative future technology. If you were interested in the NASA attempt to alter the orbit of the asteroid Dimorphos, you might…
When a trial to cover-up a corporate failure ends Captain Jonas Stryker's career, he wants revenge against The Board, a ruthless, shadowy organization with limitless funds that employs space piracy, terrorism, and even weaponised asteroids. Posing as a space miner, Stryker learns that The Board wants him killed, while a young female SCIB police agent wants retribution against him for having her career spoiled at his trial. As Stryker avoids attempts to kill him, he becomes the only chance to prevent The Board from overturning the Federation Government and imposing a Fascist-style rule. A story of greed, corruption and honour,…
