It is a truth universally acknowledged that once you become a mother, you will only want to read about motherhood. Or maybe that’s just me?

Over the past year and a bit, I’ve read some amazing works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry about motherhood, and even been inspired to start the early beginnings of my own novel about the postpartum experience and breastfeeding. But, I’ve also thought about many of the works that I’ve previously read and realised that the first-hand experience of motherhood will undoubtedly alter my understanding and reaction to them.

So, in that vein, I’ve popped together a list of recommended reading categorised into things I’ve read, things I want to read, and things I read before I was a mother and would like to return to. Some of these have kindly been recommended by friends and fellow new mothers.

Read and loved

The Republic of Motherhood, Liz Berry: The collection that started it all in the Me, Mother, Other writing groups, Berry is a big name in the poetry world and I can’t wait to read more of her work.

Hark, Alice Vincent: I recently finished this thoughtful reflection on the importance of listening and how this changes when you have a baby. It’s not a topic I would have immediately been drawn to, but I found Hark’s journey to connecting more deeply to the world around us to be surprisingly moving.

Cry When The Baby Cries, Becky Barnicoat: A super accessible, self aware and hilarious look at early parenthood in all its rawness and pressures. I absolutely flew through this graphic memoir while laughing out loud and running to show various sections to my husband.

A Different Kind of Power, Jacinda Ardern: Hear me out – this autobiography from New Zealand’s former Prime Minister is just as much about motherhood as it is about her political career. After all, the two are entirely entwined as Arden discovered she was pregnant just six days before finding out she would become leader of the country.

“Before the baby was born my sister advised me that having a child was not unlike going to Glastonbury. In the weeks after, I understood deeply what she meant. Both involves sleepless nights and body fluids. Both require a certain physical stamina, often on poor nutrition and some dehydration. There are moments, during both, when it is tiring, and the adrenaline and endorphins wear off and you wonder why you’re doing it, so low is the mood and the energy. Both endure because they offer moments of dizzying, freewheeling euphoria. I have never felt the edges of my humanity quite so keenly during those first aching, bloodied and raw weeks of my matrescence. I have never felt so brutally, beautifully alive than at Glastonbury Festival. The difference is that one lasts for less than a week, and the other changes a person for ever.” – Hark, Alice Vincent

Ready for re-reading

Salt on Your Tongue, Charlotte Runcie: I did a full review of Salt on Your Tongue when I first read it in 2020, but even now I distinctly remember Runcie’s experience of having a newborn baby in Edinburgh, which seems somewhat serendipitous seeing as I was neither pregnant nor living in Edinburgh at the time! There was a lot I enjoyed about this dive into women and the sea – and I know there’ll be a lot to return to.

Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell: Of course Hamnet is on my mind after the Oscar-winning run of its film adaptation, complete with Jessie Buckley’s soul-stirring line in her acceptance speech: “I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart.”

Little Women, Louisa May Alcott: I know that my Little Women agenda is always strong but I’d be keen to revisit this classic, and especially the sequels, including Little Men and Jo’s Boys, which follows the next generation of children turning into adults, with the little women now older mothers and matriarchs.

“Women and coasts are constantly changing and physically redrawing themselves in cycles. Boundaries are blurred and washed away, and anything is possible at the line between this life and another…Already I am starting to be aware of motherhood making itself known as a brink” – Salt on Your Tongue, Charlotte Runcie

To read

A non-exhaustive list of recommendations and TBRs:

Matrescence, Lucy Jones

Nobody Told Me, Holly McNish

The Wren, The Wren, Anne Enright

Nightbitch, Rachel Yoder

Letter to My Daughter, Maya Angelou

A Life’s Work: On Becoming a Mother, Rachel Cusk

Soldier Sailor, Claire Kilroy

The Lost Daughter, Elena Ferrante

Please let me know which classics and must-reads I’ve missed! I hope to share more book reviews and motherhood-related writing/reading content on here soon.