Wrangler Dani

Writer, editor, wife, adoptive mama and cowgirl living in beautiful Central Oregon.

Book Review and Giveaway: MOMumental

parenting book review I got a couple of copies of MOMumental from Worthy Publishing and immediately thought, “they got the wrong blogger for this”.

I’m not a mom, I’m not really even a kid-person, and the very sight of the spilled Cheerios on the cover makes me want to go scrub my kitchen floor. But as they say, you should never judge a book by it’s cover, and MOMumental is much more than spilled milk and barf stories.

It’s the memoir of a young woman who is successful, professional, beautiful and yet seeks fulfillment in family. She wants a different life for her kids than the childhood she experienced, and she tells a candid, heartfelt version of how she is different yet similar to her own mom. It’s a story about when to hang on and when to let go, why the “experts” are probably wrong and why all the reasons that a panicked young mom buys a parenting book probably are too.

It’s about loving the life you build, with the family you create and tiny, silly, wonderful inconsistencies that make a family a family.

In short, it’s the perfect book for my generation of moms. Those of us petrified by our own imperfection and the stalwart assertion on the nightly news that everything we’ve ever eaten will give us cancer and turn our kids into serial killers. I’m not a mom yet, but I already feel too educated to be one – as though the knowledge of how terribly I’ll screw up my kids has already damned me to a grey destiny of therapist’s couches and unknown traumas.

Jennifer Grant’s telling of her family life makes me want to risk it, though, to jump in the deep end and hope against hope that maybe kids aren’t as breakable as I’ve been led to believe. This leads me to my only gripe with the book: the title and the cover. For such a nuanced, hopeful, modern, casual and redemptive look at parenting and family, the cover and the title would make anyone who’s not currently hormone-crazed and not thinking clearly run the other way. It’s not the kind of cover that draws in my style of thinking or makes me want to read – even though the prose inside had my “I’m not a kid-person” narrative running scared within 10 minutes.

So don’t be scared off by the cover. If you are thinking about motherhood, or you know someone who is, this is an encouraging primer that gives humor and hope to an admittedly terrifying junction. And if you’re already a mom, you might read this and get encouragement to drop the Baby Genius stuff and pre-pre-pre-cognitive-speech-child-prodigy-DVD and just love your kids for the amazing creations they are.

SO! If you are in either of these camps or know someone who is, you have until Friday, July 13 at 11:59 pm to enter a comment below and potentially win your very own, brand-spanking-new copy of MOMumental.

So! Comment away! What’s the best life-stage (singleness, wedding, parenting) book you’ve ever read?

I was given two copies of MOMumental by Worthy Publishing in exchange for this review, but opinions are my own.

UPDATE: Congratulations to Paula, our book winner! Thanks to everyone who entered!

8 comments found

  1. I am not in that stage of life yet, either, but I did read a lot of marriage books before I was married, so it’d be helpful to read something like this before heading into motherhood.

  2. My favorite life stage book was probably When God Writes Your Love Story for single/dating days. Now that I’m a new mom, my go-to book is Dr. Sears’ The Baby Book; all of the others in the Sears library are good too! It’s more about following your instincts and trusting the intuition God gave you. This one sounds like my kind of book; it’s always nice to have a reminder to slow down and actually enjoy your kid(s).

  3. I’m always up for reading a fresh perspective on motherhood. Would love to read it.

  4. I have two kids and appreciate reminders that there is no perfect way to parent and that I’m not alone in this. I also sometimes take things too seriously and love a book that makes me laugh and reminds me to do so with my kids!

  5. My favorite parenting book so far is Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth. It helped us to get our little guy to sleep through the night and save my sanity!!

  6. Well, my obvious first answer would be the Bible. It significantly changed my life, to say the least. I could Better Days and give it a fabulous review. But, since you mentioned motherhood… I’m going with “Your Pregnancy Week by Week.” It helped me know that what I was going through was normal, and what I could expect next.

  8. I’m a big fan of Jennifer Grant’s work, which is how I discovered your blog–a treat because I really like your writing. I know I’ve missed the giveaway–but I already have the book–which I loved. I think Jen speaks to a generation who is way too hard on themselves and bring a certain neuroses to parenting. Reading her book was like talking with a good friend. Again, so glad to have discovered your blog.

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