Novel recommendations about motherhood/parenting children

[Gilbertie]

I have really struggled with reading since having my second child 2 years ago. I am so in the thick of parenting I am finding the kinds of books I used to read quite hard to relate to.

I really enjoyed reading the Cazelet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard after my first which is a family saga with lots of children in it. I also quite enjoyed After the Party by Lisa Jewell sequel to Ralph’s Party the characters have children. Are we having fun yet? Lucy Mangan, the later Bridget Jones books…

I’d love any recommendations of more books like these, or memoirs on parenting that read like novels - I find memoirs about motherhood tend to be quite negative!

Don't read "We Need to Talk About Kevin"

I liked The Four Winds - it's about a mother trying to do the best for her children in the Great Depression and the kids growing up along the way and helping out. It's sad circumstances but a positive read about the relationships (especially as the mother in question struggled with her own parents).

www.goodreads.com/book/show/53138081-the-four-winds

Night Waking by Sarah Moss

Anything by Gill Sims!!!

Anne Enright’s Making Babies, Claire Kilroy’s Soldier Sailor.

Since having my children I feel like every book I pick up is in some way about parenting!! I seem to see it as a theme in everything I read. Recent ones I've liked that feature motherhood as a theme.
The Satisfaction Cafe
Consider Yourself Kissed
Ordinary Time
Three Days in June
What Alice Forgot
Our Missing Hearts
Wellness
Same As It Ever Was
Tom Lake
Amazing Grace Adams

Thank you so much, lots of interesting looking recommendations!

Hostages to Fortune by Elizabeth Cambridge, published by Persephone. It’s just a wonderful novel about a family growing up from the birth of the first baby through to adulthood. It’s set in the 1920s and has the most wonderful descriptions of the different characters of the children.

I second Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy

Third for Soldier Sailor, it's fantastic

I really enjoyed Anne Enright's Making Babies ImaginaryAilments

I thought The Two Week Wait by Sarah Rayner was quite good.

One memoir I loved - probably even before I read it, from the moment I saw the glorious title - was My Wild and Sleepless Nights by Clover Stroud. Absolute wower of a book about the best and hardest of raising children of all ages.

Dream Babies by Christina Hardyment, non-fiction but a fascinating account of "child care from John Locke to Gina Ford".

A Ghost in the Throat by Dorieann Ni Ghriofa

Another vote for Sarah Moss's Night Waking.