-
Access Our
Best Book Club
Books of 2025!
My Story of Love, Loss, and the Myths That Shape Us
by Ruthie Ackerman
In this propulsive memoir, an award-winning journalist blends history, science, and cultural criticism to uncover whether motherhood outside of society's rigid rules and expectations is possible—and whether she fits the mold for what a mother should be.
Ruthie Ackerman had long believed that the decision to not have children was a radical act. She'd grown up being told that she came from a long line of women who had abandoned their kids and feared she would pass on her half-brother's rare genetic disorder. So when she marries a man who doesn't want children, she hopes she can be happy without any. But a voice in her head keeps returning to the question: What if mothering can be a radical act too? When her marriage veers off course, she goes searching through the twists and turns of her DNA to decide once and for all whether she should become a mother.
By the time Ruthie finally determines that she desperately wants a child, she learns that motherhood won't happen the way she thought it would. Now she must enter the hall of mirrors where biology, genetics, and philosophy collide as she wonders what it means to both create and nurture a life. What does inheritance really entail? What does it mean to be a "good" mother? When it comes down to it, how important is nature versus nurture? And where are the models for what a "good life" can look like for women, both with and without children?
Synthesizing reportage and memoir, The Mother Code unravels how we've come to understand the institution of motherhood. What emerges is a groundbreaking new vision for what it means to parent: a mother code that goes beyond our bloodlines and genetics and instead urges us to embrace inheritance as the legacy we want to leave behind for those we love.
"A vivid memoir of one woman's complex path to nontraditional motherhood." —Kirkus Reviews
"A readable trek that will ring true for many struggling with infertility." —Library Journal
"Ruthie Ackerman offers readers a behind-the-scenes tour of her decision to become a mother despite a troubling legacy. This tender, generous book does the hard work of redefining 'motherhood' and 'family' so that they honor all aspects of a woman's life." —Christie Tate, author of the New York Times bestseller Group
"A warm, candid memoir with a clear-eyed take on the conflicting pressures placed on Gen-X women, and all the ways choosing one path in life means forsaking others." —Ada Calhoun, New York Times bestselling author of Why We Can't Sleep
This information about The Mother Code was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Ruthie Ackerman's writing has been published in Vogue, Glamour, O Magazine, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Salon, Slate, and Newsweek. She launched the Ignite Writers Collective in 2019 and has since worked with hundreds of writers to publish their own stories. Her client wins include a USA Today bestseller, book deals with Big 5 publishers, representation by buzzy book agents, and essays in prestigious outlets. Ruthie Ackerman has a master's degree in journalism from New York University and lives in Brooklyn with her family.
Ginseng Roots
by Craig Thompson
A new graphic memoir from the author of Blankets and Habibi about class, childhood labor, and Wisconsin’s ginseng industry.
Serial Killer Games
by Kate Posey
A morbidly funny and emotionally resonant novel about the ways life—and love—can sneak up on us (no matter how much pepper spray we carry).
The Original Daughter
by Jemimah Wei
A dazzling debut by Jemimah Wei about ambition, sisterhood, and family bonds in turn-of-the-millennium Singapore.
Awake in the Floating City
by Susanna Kwan
A debut novel about an artist and a 130-year-old woman bound by love and memory in a future, flooded San Francisco.
Good as it is to inherit a library, it is better to collect one.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
