Mother's Helpers

Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile feel your pain

By Samantha Berry

Authors Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile

(page 2 of 2)

With excerpts from interviews, step-by-step charts, quizzes and tales from the trenches, the book acknowledges common (but sometimes shameful) frustrations and sheds light on the ways that having so many choices causes mothers to constantly second-guess themselves.
Despite its chatty tone and funny tidbits, the book has a more serious goal: to help moms rid themselves of some self-inflicted pressures and start enjoying motherhood. As the introduction says, “The goal of this book became very clear: to learn to love motherhood as much as we love our kids.”

Book Signing

Authors Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile will be present for a book reading and signing at Borders in San Rafael, Saturday, may 12 at 2 p.m.

Local Type

Rightsizing Your Life: Simplifying Your Surroundings While Keeping What Matters Most by Ciji Ware (Springboard Press, $16)
A practical, down-to-earth guide to rightsizing—the buzzword for streamlining your possessions and making time for the things that matter most in middle age. This simplification of surroundings and stuff aims to liberate people in midlife to pursue their passions and hobbies without the responsibilities of a big house weighing them down. Sausalito writer Ciji Ware presents a practical guide to this winnowing process, with a six-step plan for getting started.

Women Who Win: Women Athletes on Being the Best by Lisa Taggart (Seal Press, $15)
Through in-depth, revealing profiles of top female athletes—from surfer Jamilah Star to Olympic marathoner Deena Kastor to top-ranked climber Lynn Hill—Marin native Lisa Taggart takes us behind the scenes, deep into the training regimens and the ultimate victories, to see what makes these women tick. Whether their sport is soccer, cycling, mountain biking or volleyball, their stories will inspire you to pursue your dreams, athletic and otherwise.

Booksellers Recommend: Their Favorite Escape Reads

The Places in Between by Rory Stewart
“It’s nonfiction. Here is this Westerner who is literally on foot by himself, walking through Afghanistan, where ‘in many houses the only piece of foreign technology was a Kalashnikov and the only global brand was Islam.’ There is something about walking across a landscape that offers a depth of experience. I found it fascinating. I thought his writing was beautiful as well.”
—Dorothy Vandersteel,
Book Passage, Corte Madera

An American Childhood by Annie Dillard
“It’s a warm, funny family memoir from simpler times. It’s been a long time since I read it, but it still holds a special place on my bookshelf even now. Nobody writes memoirs about happy childhoods anymore; this is about a happy childhood and it’s funny.”
—Pete Mulvihill,
Green Apple Books, San Francisco

Shibumi: A Novel by Trevanian
“It’s a suspense thriller with a lot more class than most of them. It’s a World War I spy genre book that lets you escape your everyday reality. This one in particular is well written and has some deeper intellectual themes and more conscious characters. Often it’s so good guy/bad guy, but these characters have a lot
more depth.”
—Gary Kleiman,
Book Beat, Fairfax