I couldn’t possibly pick one book as my favorite book. Some books that had affected me in my youth, don’t stand up to the woman I am now. At the time, those books captured how I felt, what I was going through, or dreams I had.
The last book that I read that touched me was Between Here And April by Deborah Copaken Kogan. The story dealt with a woman who discovered in therapy she never really understood what had happened to a childhood friend. What I related to most in the book was a mother who felt overwhelmed by motherhood. A woman who would hide from her children because she just couldn’t deal with them, and who struggled with post-partum depression in a time when the solution was to medicate it.
I am not sure I ever suffered from PPD, but I felt like if I didn’t have a supportive husband, I could have ended up like that woman. Feeling overwhelmed and having nowhere to turn. The writer made me feel for that poor woman.
A book to recommend to anyone? No I would reserve recommending it to other mothers. There are times I am afraid to let people know how overwhelmed by motherhood I get. And too often I think women are afraid to share that with other people, for fear of judgement.
As you can see, the book left an impression me. It left me thinking about it for days after I read it. Was is the best book I ever read? No, but it was the best book for me to read at a time when I needed it.