"Fine writers, fine writing, and a vital theme make this an essential book." –Lynne Sharon Schwartz

"The classics are here—and wonderful new voices. The mother speaks!" –Anne Snitow

"Moyra Davey has assembled in Mother Reader a chorus of modern voices that explore with brutal honesty what childbearing does to women who are accustomed to a creative life. Thus Adrienne Rich describes 'the murderous alternation between bitter resentment and raw-edged nerves, and blissful gratification and tenderness' that having children provoked in her. And Mona Simpson writes of becoming a mother at age thirty-six, 'It is hard to sign up for the complete annihilation of life as you know it.' The book is a master class in the out-of-body, all too frequently out-of-your-mind experience that falls under the prosaic, and thus ludicrously misleading, heading of parenting." –Ben Dickinson, Elle