Surrendering to Motherhood: Losing Your Mind, Finding Your Soul

Freelance journalist Krasnow spent her youth cavorting with California hippies and seeking enlightenment through mediocre relationships, and later as a UPI correspondent. Married in her early 30s, she delves into motherhood in a big way--four children in five years, including twins--but is taken by surprise when her ability to juggle the roles of writer, mother and wife begins to wane. She realizes something has to give, and that something is work. For a long time Krasnow resisted the idea that being a full-time mom was as valid a life choice as being a hot-shot journalist. She eventually finds Zen-like tranquillity in overturned plates of scrambled eggs and hair caked with peanut butter. Her journey also leads her back to her Jewish roots with a new-found appreciation for her Holocaust-surviving mother. Krasnow's architect husband remains in the background, and readers are left to marvel at mom's adept handling of her four ""wriggly little boys"" nearly single-handedly during daytime hours. The book, which grew out of an essay published in the Washington Post in 1994, is full of elementary feminism, but the author's message to working mothers--be there for your kids while they're young--seems as sound coming from her as it probably did the first time you heard it. (May)