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Mother Teresa
by Maya GoldFor most people, the words rich and famous are joined at the hip. It's hard to imagine a celebrity who left home at 18 to pursue a religious life, gave up all her worldly possessions except three identical outfits, a pair of sandals, and a tin washing pail, and chose to live and work among the poorest of the poor. Yet Mother Teresa of Calcutta did just that, founding orphanages and shelters in her adopted home of India and around the globe. By the time of her death in 1997, she had gained thousands of followers working with needy, ill, and homeless people all over the world. She had met with many world leaders and won many honors, including the Nobel Peace Prize
Mother Teresa (Readers Bios)
by Barbara KramerFollow the young Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu as she grows up, travels far from home, and becomes one of the most beloved figures of our time: Mother Teresa. This new leveled reader from National Geographic Kids journeys from Ireland to India, portraying the charity and hard work of Mother Teresa and the nuns who followed in her footsteps.National Geographic Readers' expert-vetted text, along with brilliant images and a fun approach to reading, has proved to be a winning formula with kids, parents, and educators. Level 1 text is carefully leveled for an early independent reading or read aloud experience, perfect to inspire the humanitarians of tomorrow!
Mother Teresa's Lessons of Love and Secrets of Sanctity
by Susan ConroyMother Teresa, a symbol of love and holiness, someone who truly cared. A beautiful book.
Mother Teresa: An Authorized Biography (The\lion Wisdom Ser.)
by Kathryn SpinkMother Teresa of Calcutta was the founder of the Missionaries ofCharity and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, but her story is so much moreremarkable. From her childhood in the Balkans to her work in India, from attendingthe victims of war-torn Beirut to pleading with George Bush and Saddam Husseinto choose peace over war, Mother Teresa was driven by a mighty faith.Newly revised and updated, this edition includes a personal insight into thebeatification and continuing process of canonization for Mother Teresa, theongoing work of the Missionaries of Charity, and her “dark night of the soul.”Mother Teresa consistently claimed that she was simply responding to Christ’sboundless love for her and for all of humanity, bringing to the world a great lessonin joyful and selfless love. This book is a glimpse into her extraordinary faith,work, and life.
Mother Teresa: Friend to the Poor
by Kathleen V. KudlinskiBorn Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910, Mother Teresa grew up in a small war-torn town in Macedonia. The youngest of three children, Mother Teresa was called Gonxha, which means "flower bud," by her family because of her cheerful disposition. Mother Teresa's family were devoted Catholics who prayed every evening and went to church almost every day. By the time she was twelve years old, Mother Teresa knew she wanted to devote her life to helping the sick and poor. Mother Teresa is considered one of the world's greatest humanitarians. She was the recipient of the United States Medal of Honor and the Nobel Peace Prize, and was beatified by Pope John Paul II. This fascinating biography details Mother Teresa's childhood and proves that one person can make a difference in the world with love and faith.
Mother Teresa: Her Essential Wisdom
by Carol Kelly-GangiI see God in every human being. When I wash the Leper's wound, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience! -- Mother Teresa *** Mother Teresa was beloved the world over for her tireless efforts and service to millions ol the poor, the outcast, the ill, and the dying. On the path to sainthood, she was beatified by the Catholic Church in 2003, just six years after her death. Her Essential Wisdom is a collection of hundreds of inspiring quotations from Mother Teresa. In the half-century of her public life, she visited and spoke in more than one hundred countries about the subjects closest to her heart. The selections gathered here, drawn largely from her spoken words, are both simple and profound in their wisdom and truth. In these excerpts, Mother Teresa reflects upon the meaning of love, the importance of charity and service to the poor, the need for prayer, the value of family, the role of suffering, and the absolute dignity of every human being. There are also quotations in which Mother Teresa recollects her own calling to the religious life, and later, her calling to devote her life to living among and serving the poorest of the poor. Here, too, is a selection of quotations from world leaders, dignitaries, and religious figures describing Mother Teresa's powerful legacy of faith, compassion, and hope for all humanity.
Mother Teresa: Religious Humanitarian
by Anne Marie SullivanDriven by a love of God and a desire to help make life better for the poor and the sick, Mother Teresa worked for her entire life to change the world for the better. She founded a Catholic charity that works to help children and the poor in more than 130 countries. In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work to help and care for others. Today, Mother Teresa is remembered for the change she brought to the lives of people around the world. Learn the story of one of the world's most important religious and charity activists in Mother Teresa: Religious Humanitarian.
Mother Teresa: Sister to the Poor (Women of Our Time)
by Patricia Reilly GiffA biography emphasizing the early years of the nun who is world renowned for her work with the poor, sick, and uneducated in India and in other parts of the world.
Mother Teresa: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta
by Mother Teresa Brian KolodiejchukThis historic work reveals the inner spiritual life of one of the most beloved and important religious figures in history. During her lifelong service to the poorest of the poor, Mother Teresa became an icon of compassion to people of all religions; her extraordinary contributions to the care of the sick, the dying, and thousands of others nobody else was prepared to look after has been recognized and acclaimed throughout the world.
Mother Teresa: The Story of the Saint of Calcutta
by Marlyn Evangelina Monge FSPThis beautifully illustrated book tells the story of Mother Teresa in an engaging narrative for children ages 8 to 10. Starting with her early life in Albania, the book then follows her journey through religious life, founding the Missionaries of Charity, and her dedication to the poor. The story of the saint of Calcutta is more than a biography of Mother Teresa; it stirs a sense of social justice and encourages children to live a life like this humble saint.
Mother Tongue: An American Life in Italy
by Wallis Wilde-MenozziA probing and poetic examination of language, food, faith, and family attachment in Italian life through the eyes of an American who moved to Parma with her husband and family. In the 1980s, the American writer Wallis Wilde-Menozzi moved permanently with her Italian husband and her daughter to Parma, a sophisticated city in northern Italy, where he became a professor of biology. Her search for rootedness in the city that was to be her home introduced her to complexities in her identity as she migrated into another language and looked for links beyond the joys of Verdi, Correggio, and Parmesan cheese, which visitors have rightly extolled for centuries. The local resistance to change perceived as individualistic led Wilde-Menozzi to explore the pull and challenge of difference and discover the backbone she needed for artistic freedom. In Mother Tongue, Wilde-Menozzi offers stories of far-sighted lives, remarkable Parma men and remarkable women, including the Renaissance abbess Giovanna Piacenza, the fighting Donella Rossi Sanvitale, and her own indefatigable mother-in-law. Framed with a new introduction by the author, and a new foreword by Patricia Hampl, this classic on diversity and tolerance, family, faith, and food in Italy and the United States is at once timeless and timely, a “large, beautiful window into the intelligent, literate, reflective life of Italy” (Shirley Hazzard).
Mother Tongue: My Family's Globe-Trotting Quest to Dream in Mandarin, Laugh in Arabic, and Sing in Spanish
by Christine GilbertOne woman's quest to learn Mandarin in Beijing, Arabic in Beirut, and Spanish in Mexico, with her young family along for the ride. Imagine negotiating for a replacement carburetor in rural Mexico with words you're secretly pulling from a pocket dictionary. Imagine your two-year-old asking for more niunai at dinner--a Mandarin word for milk that even you don't know yet. Imagine finding out that you're unexpectedly pregnant while living in war-torn Beirut. With vivid and evocative language, Christine Gilbert takes us along with her into foreign lands, showing us what it's like to make a life in an unfamiliar world--and in an unfamiliar tongue. Gilbert was a young mother when she boldly uprooted her family to move around the world, studying Mandarin in China, Arabic in Lebanon, and Spanish in Mexico, with her toddler son and all-American husband along for the ride.Their story takes us from Beijing to Beirut, from Cyprus to Chiang Mai--and also explores recent breakthroughs in bilingual brain mapping and the controversial debates happening in linguistics right now. Gilbert's adventures abroad prove just how much language influences culture (and vice versa), and lead her to results she never expected. Mother Tongue is a fascinating and uplifting story about taking big risks for bigger rewards and trying to find meaning and happiness through tireless pursuit--no matter what hurdles may arise. It's a treat for language enthusiasts and armchair travelers alike.From the Hardcover edition.
Mother Tongue: The Surprising History of Women's Words
by Jenni Nuttall&“A fascinating look at how we talk about women. . . . Dense with information and anecdotes, Mother Tongue touches on the hilarious and the devastating, with ample dashes of an ingredient so painfully absent from most discussions of sex and gender: humor.&” ―Lisa Selin Davis, The Washington Post &“[Nuttall] examines the origins of words used over many centuries to describe women&’s bodies, desires, pregnancies, work lives, sexual victimhood, and stages of life. . . . Her research is comprehensive enough that even longtime word enthusiasts will find plenty of new trivia.&” ―The New YorkerAn enlightening linguistic journey through a thousand years of feminist language—and what we can learn from the vivid vocabulary that English once had for women&’s bodies, experiences, and sexualitySo many of the words that we use to chronicle women&’s lives feel awkward or alien. Medical terms are scrupulously accurate but antiseptic. Slang and obscenities have shock value, yet they perpetuate taboos. Where are the plain, honest words for women&’s daily lives?Mother Tongue is a historical investigation of feminist language and thought, from the dawn of Old English to the present day. Dr. Jenni Nuttall guides readers through the evolution of words that we have used to describe female bodies, menstruation, women&’s sexuality, the consequences of male violence, childbirth, women&’s paid and unpaid work, and gender. Along the way, she challenges our modern language&’s ability to insightfully articulate women&’s shared experiences by examining the long-forgotten words once used in English for female sexual and reproductive organs. Nuttall also tells the story of words like womb and breast, whose meanings have changed over time, as well as how anatomical words such as hysteria and hysterical came to have such loaded legacies.Inspired by today&’s heated debates about words like womxn and menstruators—and by more personal conversations with her teenage daughter—Nuttall describes the profound transformations of the English language. In the process, she unearths some surprisingly progressive thinking that challenges our assumptions about the past—and, in some cases, puts our twenty-first-century society to shame. Mother Tongue is a rich, provocative book for anyone who loves language—and for feminists who want to look to the past in order to move forward.
Mother Warriors: A Nation of Parents Healing Autism Against All Odds
by Jenny MccarthyMother Warriors shares the heartfelt and deeply personal stories of families navigating through the many autism therapies to heal their children, as well as Jenny's own journey as an autism advocate and a mother.
Mother Winter: A Memoir
by Sophia Shalmiyev“Vividly awesome and truly great.” —Eileen Myles “I love this gorgeous, gutting, unforgettable book.”—Leni Zumas “A rich tapestry of autobiography and meditations on feminism, motherhood, art, and culture, this book is as intellectually satisfying as it is artistically profound. A sharply intelligent, lyrically provocative memoir.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) An arresting memoir equal parts refugee-coming-of-age story, feminist manifesto, and meditation on motherhood, displacement, gender politics, and art that follows award-winning writer Sophia Shalmiyev’s flight from the Soviet Union, where she was forced to abandon her estranged mother, and her subsequent quest to find her.Russian sentences begin backward, Sophia Shalmiyev tells us on the first page of her striking, lyrical memoir, Mother Winter. To understand the end of her story we must go back to her beginning. Born to a Russian mother and an Azerbaijani father, Shalmiyev was raised in the stark oppressiveness of 1980s Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). An imbalance of power and the prevalence of antisemitism in her homeland led her father to steal Shalmiyev away, emigrating to America, abandoning her estranged mother, Elena. At age eleven, Shalmiyev found herself on a plane headed west, motherless and terrified of the new world unfolding before her. Now a mother herself, in Mother Winter Shalmiyev depicts in urgent vignettes her emotional journeys as an immigrant, an artist, and a woman raised without her mother. She tells of her early days in St. Petersburg, a land unkind to women, wayward or otherwise; her tumultuous pit-stop in Italy as a refugee on her way to America; the life she built for herself in the Pacific Northwest, raising two children of her own; and ultimately, her cathartic voyage back to Russia as an adult, where she searched endlessly for the alcoholic mother she never knew. Braided into her physical journey is a metaphorical exploration of the many surrogate mothers Shalmiyev sought out in place of her own—whether in books, art, lovers, or other lost souls banded together by their misfortunes. Mother Winter is the story of Shalmiyev’s years of travel, searching, and forging meaningful connection with the worlds she occupies—the result is a searing observation of the human heart and psyche’s many shades across time and culture. As critically acclaimed author Michelle Tea says, “with sparse, poetic language Shalmiyev builds a personal history that is fractured and raw; a brilliant, lovely ache.”
Mother and Daughter: The Story of Daisy and Gladys Corunna
by Sally MorganSally Morgan’s My Place is an Australian classic. Since first publication in 1987, My Place has sold more than half a million copies in Australia, been translated and read all over the world, and been reprinted dozens of times. Sally’s rich, zesty and moving work is perhaps the best-loved biography of Aboriginal Australia ever written. My Place for Young Readers is an abridged edition, especially adapted for younger readers, that retains all the charm and power of the original. Mother and Daughter follows the lives of Daisy and Gladys Corunna, Sally’s grandmother and mother.
Mother and Me: Escape from Warsaw 1939
by Julian Padowicz"In 1939," Julian Padowicz says, "I was a Polish Jew-hater. Under different circumstances my story might have been one of denouncing Jews to the Gestapo. As it happened, I was a Jew myself, and I was seven years old." Julian's mother was a Warsaw socialite who had no interest in child-rearing. She turned her son over completely to his governess, a good Catholic, named Kiki, whom he loved with all his heart. Kiki was deeply worried about Julian's immortal soul, explaining that he could go to Heaven only if he became a Catholic. When bombs began to fall on Warsaw, Julian's world crumbled. His beloved Kiki returned to her family in Lodz; Julian's stepfather joined the Polish army, and the grief-stricken boy was left with the mother whom he hardly knew. Resourceful and determinded, his mother did whatever was necessary to provide for herself and her son: she brazenly cut into food lines and befriended Russian officers to get extra rations of food and fuel. But brought up by Kiki to distrust all things Jewish, Julian considered his mother's behavior un-Christian. In the winter of 1940, as conditions worsened, Julian and his mother made a dramatic escape to Hungary on foot through the Carpathian mountains and Julian came to believe that even Jews could go to Heaven.
Mother in the Middle
by Sybil LockhartSybil Lockhart, a Berkeley neurobiologist, became a "mother in the middle" when she was pregnant with her second daughter and her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. What makes Sybil's story different, and so powerful, is that she understood the neurological processes, by turns exciting and devastating, that were taking place in the brains of those she loved. Interweaving her scientific expertise with her own complicated emotions, she writes with elegant simplicity and breathtaking honesty about biology's inevitable, powerful effects on the people around her. When her mother begins to show the first subtle signs of the disease that is slowly ravaging her brain, Sybil refuses to consider the possibility of dementia, insisting that all her mother needs is a daughter nearby. She relocates her young family to her beloved San Francisco Bay Area, where her memories of her mother and her childhood are deeply anchored. As Sybil sets about creating new memories against the backdrop of her pst, the emerging undeniable truth about her mother's condition threatens to overwhelm her ability to maintain her career, nurture her marriage, raise her young daughter, and care for herself during her second pregnancy. Even though she appreciates the beauty of the dramatic biological processes at work inside the brains of her family members, she also understands their inevitable power, and she bravely describes the complicated emotions -- denial, rage, ambivalence, exhaustion -- that so many caregivers experience. With a unique combination of science and intimate experience, Mother in the Middle is a story of mothers and daughters, science and creativity, and life's exquisite intertwining of love and loss.
Mother of Bourbon: The Greatest American Whiskey Story Never Told
by Eric GoodmanThe outrageously inspiring story of the most successful and influential woman distiller of Kentucky Bourbon that nobody&’s heard…until now! Introducing Mary Dowling, Mother of Bourbon.&“Unsung bourbon distiller—and force of nature—Mary Dowling overcame family tragedy, discrimination, and Prohibition, to achieve extraordinary success. Her story comes to life in this page-turning novel.&” —Susan Reigler, author of Kentucky Bourbon: The Essential Guide to the American Spirit Born in 1859 to Irish immigrants who&’d escaped the great potato famine, Mary Dowling arrived at the height of anti-Irish and anti-Catholic fervor in America. The hardscrabble life her family led provided the foundation of grit and determination that would serve her well, along with a natural gift for numbers and planning. She married the enterprising John Dowling when she was just fifteen and he was thirty-three. Despite their age gap, John was a kind and adoring husband who recognized Mary&’s remarkable skills and made her his partner not just in life but in business. He offered her oversight of their burgeoning bourbon company&’s financial books and sought her insight and advice on acquisition and expansion as they steadily grew from distillery investors to sole proprietors of Waterfill and Frazier in Tyrone, Kentucky, just outside Lawrenceburg, in the heart of Bourbon Country. &“Mother of Dragons? Give me the Mother of Bourbon! In this historical fiction, Kaveh Zamanian and Eric Goodman break the boundaries of traditional bourbon books, just like the woman it&’s based on—Mary Dowling. From love to business, this bourbon soap opera is a must read, will keep you entertained, and make you question everything you thought you knew about America&’s Spirit.&” —Fred Minnick, author of Bourbon: the Rise, Fall and Rebirth of an American Whiskey, Bourbon Curious, and Whiskey Women: The Untold Story of How Women Saved Bourbon, Scotch and Irish Whiskey Mary&’s first trials arrive at the turn of the century in a series of tragedies that leave her widowed and with a business no one wants to support. Steering not only the lives of her eight children, she bucks up against a male-dominated bank and distributor that drop her because women don&’t run businesses, to align herself with progressive partners who value the dollar over outdated ideas about gender. She scales to ever higher heights, becoming an influential member of Lawrenceburg society while achieving immense wealth at a time when women still couldn&’t vote. When Prohibition arrives with its attendant animosity toward immigrants and Catholics, Mary is forced into semi-retirement—until the federal government comes after her on trumped-up charges of bootlegging. Only then does she bite back, determining that if she is going to be treated like a criminal, she will behave like one—taking her operation to Juarez, Mexico, to begin another iteration of Waterfill and Frazier that would distill and legally distribute bourbon throughout Mexico and, less legally, north into the US. Mother of Bourbon: The Greatest American Whiskey Story Never Told is the never-before-told story of a pioneering and visionary woman who achieved success in a system designed to suppress her, and against a government that strived to repress her. Mary&’s courage and determination are the hallmarks that live on today in Mary Dowling Whiskey, as extraordinary and distinctive as the woman whose name it bears.
Mother of God
by Paul RosolieIn the Madre de Dios ("Mother of God") region of Peru, where the Amazon River begins, the cloud forests of the Andes converge with the lowland Amazon rainforest to create the most biodiverse place on the planet. In January 2006, Paul Rosolie, a restless eighteen-year-old hungry for adventure, embarked on a journey to the western Amazon that would transform his life.Venturing alone into the most inaccessible reaches of the jungle, he encountered massive snakes, isolated tribes, prowling jaguars, giant anteaters, poachers trafficking in the black market of endangered species, and much more. He even discovered a new kind of ecosystem now known as a "floating forest." Yet today the primordial depths of the Madre de Dios are in grave danger.In Mother of God, this explorer and conservationist relives his amazing odyssey to the heart of the wildest place on earth. As he delved deeper into his search for the secret Eden, spending extended periods in isolation, he found things he never imagined could exist. But as the legendary explorer Percy Fawcett warned, "The few remaining unknown places of the world exact a price for their secrets."
Mother of Modern Evangelicalism: The Life and Legacy of Henrietta Mears (Library of Religious Biography (LRB))
by Arlin C. MigliazzoAlthough she was never as prominent as Billy Graham or many of the other iconic male evangelists of the twentieth century, Henrietta Mears was arguably the single most influential woman in the shaping of modern evangelicalism. Her seminal work What the Bible Is All About sold millions of copies, and key figures in the early modern evangelical movement like Bill Bright, Harold John Ockenga, and Jim Rayburn frequently cited her teachings as a formative part of their ministry. Graham himself stated that Mears was the most important female influence in his life other than his mother or wife. Mother of Modern Evangelicalism is the first comprehensive biography of Henrietta Mears. Arlin Migliazzo uses previously overlooked archival sources and dozens of interviews with Mears associates to assemble a detailed portrait of her life and legacy, including the way she helped steer conservative theology between fundamentalism and liberal modernism with her relentless focus on the Christian life as an act of consecrated service. Readers will find here a religious leader worthy of emulation in today&’s world—one who sought an alternative to the divisive polemics of her own day, staying fiercely committed to the faith while fighting against the anti-intellectualism and cultural parochialism that had characterized the fundamentalist movement of the early twentieth century. While she never technically delivered a Sunday morning message from the pulpit and refused to be called a preacher, Henrietta Mears&’s life stands here as a sermon about graceful leadership and faithful engagement with the world.
Mother of My Mother: The Intricate Bond Between Generations
by Hope EdelmanIn her bestselling Motherless Daughters, Hope Edelman articulated the effects of early mother loss with stunning courage and honesty. In doing so, she helped hundreds of thousands of women heal. Now, in her new book--part memoir, part reportage--she brilliantly explores the three-generational triangle from which women develop their female identities: the grandmother-mother-granddaughter relationship. Edelman writes that her grandmother and her mother together "defined the terms 'mother,' 'daughter,' and 'woman' for me. The three of us, in my memory, are separate yet linked, like sequential pearls on a strand." Drawing from her own experience and the recollections of more than seventy other granddaughters, Edelman constructs an eloquent, insightful narrative filled with stories of women who were each other's nurturers, confidantes, nemeses, and day-to-day supporters, among other roles. At the center of all these stories stands the maternal grandmother. In the pages of Mother of My Mother, readers will meet the "Gentle Giant," the matriarch who exercises behind-the-scenes power in her family; the "Autocrat," who rules her extended clan like a despot; and the "Kinkeeper," the grandmother who acts as the family's social, cultural, or religious center. Then, of course, there is Edelman's own maternal grandmother, the "Benevolent Manipulator," whose love for her family is rivaled only by her desire for control. Edelman's complicated, challenging, and dynamic relationship with her "colorful, opinionated, ubiquitous, stubborn, loving, patient ..." grandmother is the consistent thread that runs throughout the book.
Mother of a Suicide: Fighting for the Truth
by Joanna LaneIt's bad enough to lose a child to suicide, but what do you do if you discover that the depression was caused by an underlying medical condition, and that a million others are at risk because vital medical information is being suppressed? Joanna Lane tells the story of her 31-year-old son's death, her grief and her search for the reason behind his suicide. When she finds that a rarely diagnosed but far from rare condition probably lay behind his despair she tries to raise the alarm to save others. However, her unsuspecting attempts are met with obstruction after obstruction. Gradually she confronts the truth that the organisations set up to protect the public are not doing their job, and we are all at risk. A must-read for anyone who has ever had a head injury, or been diagnosed with ME, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Fibromyalgia. And a must-read for anybody who still believes that important health decisions are made with the patient's welfare in mind. In this heartfelt, heartrending, angry and yet uplifting book, Joanna Lane charts her journey through grief and on to a fight that saw her set against the entrenched world of the medical establishment. A world that still in large part turns away from the truth which she uncovered.
Mother of an Army
by Charles LudwigThis book is about Catherine Booth, one of the most remarkable women who ever lived. The crowd that marched by refused to be hurried. Its mood was expressed by a tottering old woman who insisted on taking her time. "No, no! Let others move on," she whispered to the crisply dressed officer as she studied the pale face in the casket before her. "I've a right to stop. I've come sixty miles to see her again. She was the means of saving my two sons." Altogether, fifty thousand streamed by to pay their last respect. And additional thousands attended the funeral. Her death was an occasion the city of London did not wish to forget. Catherine Booth, mother of The Salvation Army, had at last finished her course. Few women of any generation have been as much used by the Lord as Kate--the affectionate name her husband employed. Though tormented by painful disease from childhood, she had learned the secret of making her sickbed a Mount Pisgah and then claiming, and possessing, the land below.
Mother of the Bride: The Dream, the Reality, the Search for a Perfect Dress
by Ilene Beckerman“An account that is sweetly sentimental and brutally honest, touching and witty—in short, a true gem.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “A work that adds great luster to an already golden event.” — The Memphis Commercial Appeal “Her prose is spare, but rich with meaning and always very honest.” — The Cleveland Plain Dealer “Pithy wit and cute drawings sketch the happy tears, bittersweet memories and flares of anxiety that a daughter’s wedding elicits.” — The Dallas Morning News The relationship between a mother and daughter is often fraught— but never so much as during the preparations for that walk down the aisle. Ilene Beckerman has taken that walk with three daughters and tells us—with great wisdom and wit—why childbirth is less painful than planning a wedding.