We first introduced you to writer Hannah Howard back in 2018, when we interviewed her for the release of her debut book, Feast, a page-turner about working in the restaurant industry as a woman living with an eating disorder. Now Hannah is back with her new memoir, Plenty, which takes us on her far-ranging journeys in search of other women in the food world, and brings her back to her own life, where she reckons with pregnancy, first-time motherhood, and what it means to be a family.

Natasha Scripture, author of Man Fast: A Memoir, writes:

“Plenty is an important book—a long overdue tribute to the inspiring tribes of women in the food world. It’s also a deeply personal book. For Hannah, food is not only an obsession but a darker compulsion. In Plenty, Hannah writes with vulnerability, generosity and unhindered emotion as readers bear witness to the ups and downs of her journey towards motherhood—from recovering from an eating disorder to the anticipation of finding a partner in New York, from the harrowing experience of miscarriage to the birth of her daughter in the middle of a global pandemic...”

Hannah has generously provided us with a reading list of four motherhood memoirs that are close to her heart. We hope you enjoy Hannah’s list and get a chance to read Plenty. Thank you, Hannah, and congratulations on Plenty!

Hannah will be reading from and discussing Plenty at Left Bank Books in Hanover, New Hampshire, on September 29 at 7:00 pm.

Motherhood Memoirs

It’s a very pregnant time in my life right now. I’m about to give birth to my second book baby, Plenty: A Memoir of Food and Family, and my second human baby is due on Thanksgiving. It’s no surprise that I’ve been reading and thinking a lot about motherhood.

So far, being a mom has been a wild ride for me—relentless, joyful, exhausting, consuming, and heart-opening all at once. I became a mom right at the start of the COVID pandemic—my first daughter was born in April 2020—so it’s also been unusually lonely time in my life. Reading and writing memoir has been a powerful anecdote to that loneliness in terms of connecting, in taking individual experiences and turning them into something relatable, something bigger. When a memoir is good, it’s something like alchemy.

When someone tells me that my writing made them feel less alone, well, that is one of the most meaningful possible compliments. These are four memoirs that made me feel a whole lot less alone this past year and a half.

Like A Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy, by Angela Garbes

I read a lot of informational books about pregnancy, which in general felt sort of patronizing and bland (ok, I get it, I won’t eat deli meat!). In happy contrast, I inhaled Garbes’s book, which is half memoir and a half scientific and cultural look at the wild ride of pregnancy—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It was a refreshing departure from all that sort of fluffy, standard pregnancy book advice; Garbes goes into the nitty gritty of the physiology of pregnancy and birth with honesty and awe. I learned so much about the placenta from Like A Mother! I also found myself quietly sobbing as Garbes shared the experience of her own miscarriage, and told her birth story in candid, messy, beautiful detail.

Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year, by Anne Lamott

Parts of this memoir made me intensely jealous. I had my daughter Simone during deepest, darkest COVID times. I read Lamott’s musings on the many visitors and outings with her new son while my family and I were stuck in our little bubble of social isolation, wishing I could spend a night chatting with a friend next to me in flesh, rather than on a screen. Still, I loved this book. Lamott captures the alternate universe that is life with a baby, the true torture that is sleep deprivation, the monotony of milky days, and the glee of first everythings and snuggly love.

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

I cry a lot these days, like when reading British novelist Cusk’s poignant description of motherhood: “the anarchy of nights, the fog of days . . . friendlessness and exile from the past.” After scrolling through so much rah-rah, inspirational mommy content, it felt wonderfully refreshing to read from a mom (mum) who found parent groups insufferable, breastfeeding more painful and unbearable than pure bonding bliss, and her child's neediness smothering. I also loved reading that Cusk’s partner quit his job to stay home with their kids so that she could write this memoir about motherhood. I’m glad he did.

And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready, by Meaghan O'Connell

I felt so seen when O’Connell wrote about enduring “the car crash of childbirth then, without sleeping, use your broken body to keep your tiny, fragile, precious, heartbreaking, mortal child alive. Rock, sway, bounce, pace, sing, hum — [my husband] Dustin did anything to keep him from crying but it always came back to me, my swollen breasts, nipples scabbed over, milk dripping everywhere and the baby flailing.” O’Connell writes about the mom feelings I felt afraid to say out loud, therefore urging me to be more honest in my own writing, momming, and living.

Hannah Howard is the author of the memoirs Feast: True Love in and out of the Kitchen and Plenty: A Memoir of Food and Family. She writes for New York Magazine, Salon, and SELF. She lives in New York City and loves stinky cheese. Follow her on Instagram at @hannahmhoward or @hannahhoward on Twitter.