false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172206491m/149915.jpg 149915 1 The voices of mothers--the real in-the-trenches voices of mothers--always threaten the status quo. Tell the truth about your ambivalence, rage, and passion--whether about miscarriage, breast pumps, or (as profiled here) your welfare-avoidance job as a stripper--and watch the general public recoil. But as every mother knows, there is nothing more comforting than finding another woman who is willing to sit in your kitchen and share the honest-to-God truth about mothering. So it takes a lot of best-girlfriend loyalty to write the gut-wrenching motherhood stories that you'll find in <I>Breeder</I>. And fortunately, coeditors Bee Lavender and Ariel Gore (<I>The Hip Mama Survival Guide</I>, <I>The Mother Trip</I>) had enough grit and pluck to get them published. (Both women are also the editors of the online and print magazine <I>Hip Mama</I>.)<p> This collection of Gen-X essays is especially courageous because of all the taboos it shatters. Writer Julie Jameson confesses that she was talking on the phone with her mom when she looked up and discovered that her teething son had found her newly purchased vibrator and was gnawing on the tip. Gayle Brandeis boasts about the heroic treks she's taken through the hidden folds of her children's bottoms, searching for pinworms like a cave explorer. Sara Manns writes about the desire to have a child with her lesbian wife, which leads her through the terrain of sperm donors, then miscarriage, and finally international adoption. And we can all be grateful to Peri Escarda for helping us find the "Perfect Name" to offer a daughter when she points between her legs and asks, "What's dat?"<p> Not all the stories are masterfully rendered. Some rely on raw urgency, such as Alex McCall's "Bomb Threat," in which she anxiously retrieves her daughter from a federal-building childcare facility on the same day as the Oklahoma City bombing. Yet many offer mature crafting as well as tender narration. When Min Jin Lee became pregnant, she thought about her own Korean immigrant upbringing and her downtrodden mother's enormous sacrifices. She writes, "These were my fears: One day my child would feel the need to make my life whole through her accomplishments, or worse, as an adult, she would be unable to ever remember me smiling at her as a little girl." Jessica Rigney writes a chillingly exquisite story about altering her family's legacy of suicide and silence through the conscious mothering of her son. These are the rough-and-ready voices of the next wave of motherhood, and like the generation of feminists before them, they continue to break new, fertile ground. One can hardly wait to hear the voices of their daughters. <I>--Gail Hudson</I> 144697 1 5 2001 Breeder: Real-Life Stories from the New Generation of Mothers total:173|5:43|4:75|3:46|2:8|1:1| 173 670 300 23 2 2 false false Mon Jun 16 14:57:24 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 16 15:31:25 -0700 2008 disliked the stories in the book, but rather that I didn't see how they are representative of a "new generation of mothers." I think I'm supposed to be part of the demographic at which this collection is aimed, but all it did was make me feel as though I...more...]]> 4 2 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Jan 11 06:39:51 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 11 06:42:38 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Sep 07 10:43:36 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 07 10:44:03 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Apr 25 11:40:05 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 25 12:02:45 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 10 07:19:50 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 25 16:19:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Thu Oct 18 17:09:25 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 18 17:10:34 -0700 2007 3 0 false false Sat Apr 25 19:06:58 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 25 20:28:49 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jan 17 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Dec 29 09:22:24 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 18 07:31:10 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 16 18:52:52 -0700 2007 Thu May 28 14:37:33 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Nov 15 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 28 09:14:39 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 28 09:14:39 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2011 Fri Jan 02 04:34:41 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 02 04:39:15 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Mon Feb 11 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 15 07:13:56 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 11 19:24:56 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Aug 25 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 05 05:55:52 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 25 19:50:15 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 12 20:28:54 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 12 20:30:45 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Aug 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 03 17:14:55 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 30 11:50:36 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Oct 04 05:48:59 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 04 09:11:02 -0700 2007 2 0 false false Tue Jun 10 15:02:38 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 02 14:27:49 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Wed Apr 11 20:14:54 -0700 2007 Wed May 09 10:31:20 -0700 2007 3 0 false false Tue Jun 17 16:58:59 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 17 16:58:59 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Mon May 05 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 31 13:34:31 -0700 2008 Mon May 05 06:06:43 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=149915