If you're a go-getter sewing type who hasn't quite go-gotten around to making all of your Christmas presents yet, you need to check out two adorable sewing books by Choly Knight. Sew Kawaii ! and Sew Your Own Pet Pillows will have you pr…
My first two children were so easy to feed, I assumed it was due to my superior parenting (and cooking) skills that they would gobble down whatever I put in front of them without too much nose wrinkling. And then I had my son who humbled…
More than 10 years ago, author/illustrator Sara Midda first published a lovely baby book as an alternative to those structured, rigid baby books with all those intimidating lines. (You know the ones.) Only for some reason, I just discove…
When I was assigned to check out a pregnancy journal for Cool Mom Picks, I jokingly responded that I'd do it as long as I didn't have to get pregnant. Well, here I am (no, not pregnant!) flipping through Embrace: A Pregnancy Journal and …
As a child of the 80's, Soliel Moon Frye and I go way back. I have a glorious memory of dressing up as Punky Brewster for Halloween one year, which involved mainly pig tails and lots of bandanas. Her character was so bold and confident a…
My interest in politics has ebbed and flowed over the years, but since I've become a mother, public policy has taken on a whole new personal relevance for me. I've got three kiddos whose futures will be affected by the decisions of polit…
Going to the big BlogHer conference in San Diego in August? So are we! And what's better, we're hosting an awesome discussion with two of our favorite ever bloggers, Alice Bradley of Finslippy , and Eden Kennedy of Fussy --also the autho…
I'll just say it: I'm not a self-help book kind of person. Spousonomics arrived in the mail and languished on my desk for months; because, really, a book about using economics to master love and marriage? Ooooookay. But then one day I st…
After reading the encyclopedia of bedtime stories, singing four rounds of Twinkle Twinkle, and then providing my kids with snuggles, kisses, and several glasses of water, I go from sweetly shushing to sleep to bribing and begging them th…
It's that time for me again. Time to stop being baby's sole source of nourishment and start making some food for him the other old-fashioned way. (Aside: I'm so lazy. One reason I cherish the first six months of my kids' lives is because…
I've read enough expert-y books about how to deal with toddlers to know that the only way to really remain sane through those challenging years is to laugh it off. And that's exactly what this new hilarious book had me doing. The World A…
I say we all need more poetry in our lives, but poetry so often seems to be one of those tricky things, like an exotic fruit. You enjoy it when you come across it, but it's not part of your regular consumption, especially when you are a …
Pam Allyn knows books, and she knows boys; she also knows, as a literacy expert, that for a variety of reasons, our boys are more vulnerable to being left behind academically and succumbing to undesirable behaviors if they're not profici…
If you have daughters, if you know daughters, if you have ever bought a single Disney Princess gift for someone else's daughters, you simply must read Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Cul…
Here in Atlanta where I live, the weather has been nice since the beginning of March, which means my kids have already exhausted Hide n' Seek, Freeze Tag, and two entire boxes of sidewalk chalk. So when I saw this book when I was at the …
Just in time for Earth Day on April 22, a new book weaves together all the intricate threads --biology, climate, culture, economics, evolution, food, history, and politic -- that combined, makes up the rich tapestry of our world. And it …
I've been a long time reader of Meagan Francis' blog The Happiest Mom , not only because any mom of five who can string together coherent sentences has my utter respect, but because her straightforward, friendly, and non-judgmental appro…
I first got to know Gretchen Rubin when she was kind enough to include me in one of her Happiness Project interviews on her popular blog. At the time, I had no idea that she was about to come out with the #1 New York Times best-selling b…
Kyran Pittman's subtitle for her memoir Planting Dandelions is "Field Notes from a Semi-Domesticated Life." I hope she'll forgive me for repurposing it here to tell you why this is the mothering memoir you would be foolish to skip becaus…
Even if I had known about One Year to an Organized Life with Baby when I was first pregnant, I probably would have been too disorganized to read it. We had recently moved to a new house and to say we were unprepared is an understatement.…
Yesterday, Cool Mom Picks editor-in-chief and publisher Liz Gumbinner joined NurtureShock co-author Ashley Merryman to talk with Katie Couric about some of today's hot parenting topics on Katie's excellent CBS News webshow, @katiecouric.…
My dad died when I was 22 -- long before I met my husband, or had my son -- and my mom is very much alive. So you wouldn't necessarily think that the book Parentless Parents , by my friend Allison Gilbert , would resonate with someone li…
We have eagerly been awaiting the Let's Panic About Babies book every since we first became pregnant with our own babies. And that's saying something. Because back then, we didn't even know anything about authors Alice Bradley and Eden M…
On any given day, I might have to drop off a neighbor's kid at his piano teacher's house although he doesn't know her last name or the name of the street on which she lives, clip a finch's toenails, and negotiate with an international cr…