What a Bitch

Around the time our second son was born, I came across an amazing book, The Bitch in the House: 26 Women Tell the Truth About Sex, Solitude, Work, Motherhood, and Marriage, a collection of essays edited by Cathi Hanauer. Pieces by Hope Edelman, Elissa Schappell, and numerous others are organized by life stages – the best of which is the section entitled Mommy Maddest. The revelation that I was not alone in my anger was astonishing.
Discovering how other women have felt these same feelings is, in itself, quite heartening, but reading the incredibly honest and articulate voices of the women Hanauer assembled is immensely reassuring and entertaining. As a wife and mother, I found so much of myself in these women‚Äôs essays that at times I have shoved the book in front of my husband and said, ‚ÄúRead this, and then you will understand…‚Äù
While you’re at it, you might also want to grab The Bastard on the Couch: 27 Men Try Really Hard to Explain their Feelings About Love, Loss, Fatherhood and Freedom, the male response to The Bitch in the House, edited by none other than Hanauer‚Äôs husband, Daniel Jones. –Amy