"Don’t tell me that you never listened in to your neighbors on the baby monitor. I don’t believe you..."

Jersey Writers at NJ.com Features The Other Mother: Maureen Berzok of Jersey Writers ( NJ.com) says:"Well, has this one [The Other Mother] caught your interest yet? The predicament of the working mom who sacrifices time with her kid to provide for her kid. Top that with putting another woman in the house! Fires, dead animals, 'his arm,' Lyndhurst. Now there's New Jersey for you."

"The Other Mother: A Novel" Now Available on Amazon's New Portable Reader Called "Kindle"

Just announced today, Amazon is introducing the new portable wireless reader called Kindle. And, The Other Mother: A Novel by Gwendolen Gross is available as a Kindle Book (E-book) that can be downloaded in under one minute and is priced at $9.99.

According to Amazon, "Three years ago, we set out to design and build an entirely new class of device—a convenient, portable reading device with the ability to wirelessly download books, blogs, magazines, and newspapers. The result is Amazon Kindle."

There are more than 88,000 Kindle books available. In addition, there are Kindle versions major U.S. and international newpapers and magazines such as Time and Forbes. You can read reviews of Kindle here.

"Motherhood seems to trigger a biological urge to judge other females." - USA Today reviews The Other Mother

USA Today - in the Mommy Lit Book Roundup - reviews The Other Mother saying “The Other Mother belongs in a new fiction genre: mommy-war lit. Mothers of infants through the kindergarten set will find it compelling — be they stay-at-home mothers or working.”

“Author Gwendolen Gross' best insights are into how the two women's own childhoods and moms have shaped their choices. And how motherhood seems to trigger a biological urge to judge other females.”

"This Mama’s Trip" Reviews The Other Mother

Here is an excerpt from the "This Mama's Trip" review of The Other Mother.

"I LOVED this book [The Other Mother]. For me, the best part of this book was the look inside the stay at home mom's house. Since I work full time and always have, I have no idea what it would be like to be a stay at home mom. This book gave me a glimpse into this life."

New Novel – The Other Mother – Is Generating Intense Discussion Among Moms

Inspired by the release of the new motherhood novel "The Other Mother," contributors to the Silicon Valley, Chicago, Washington DC Metro, and New York City Moms Blogs are currently engaging in an intense discussion about balancing work and family.

In many of the comments on the Chicago Moms Blog, moms relate their own lives to the main characters in the novel: Thea (the stay-at-home mom) and Amanda (the working mom). Moms are exploring the question of how we allow and trust other people to care for our children.

Jill Asher writes on the Chicago Moms Blog, “I could totally relate to both Thea and Amanda. At some points in the book, I kept yelling (to myself)... just talk to each other! Get your issues out on the table and you will both feel a lot better. At other parts, I wanted to give them each a big hug and tell them that they were doing a great job as a mom.”

Gwendolen Gross, the author of The Other Mother, comments, “I wrote this novel with one narrator who is a stay-at-home mom and the other a working mom to accomplish something I thought non-fiction couldn't. What I wanted was to be able to stand in shoes of both moms, in hopes of illustrating how we judge each other unnecessarily, and understanding, myself, how important it is to respect other people's methods and choices even if they don't match my own.”

The discussion continues and all blog readers are invited to participate on the Chicago Moms Blog.


The four Moms Blogs are the brainchild of Jill Asher and Pamela Miller Hornik, and they have received national media attention for their coverage of parenting issues in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Sun Times and on ABC News.

New Novel -- The Other Mother -- Explores Meaning of Motherhood

Newly released by Crown Books, The Other Mother by Gwendolen Gross is a compelling novel about conflicts between working moms and stay at home moms as well as the constant push and pull of contemporary motherhood. This new novel is a selection of four national book clubs. The Other Mother “paints an electrifyingly complex and explosively gripping portrait of contemporary, have-it-all motherhood” says Booklist. This new novel takes both sides of the mommy wars, asking working moms and stay at home moms to look closely at why they identify with one side or the other. Dame Magazine writes “The Other Mother is a dark look into everything that tears us apart and brings us closest together.”

There is a sharp divide between working moms and stay at home moms according to recent research. A Pew survey finds that 44% of stay at home moms say an increase in working moms is bad for society. In a national iVillage survey, 50% of women said that stay at home moms and working moms have a difficult time relating to one another. A recent poll by Parenting magazine finds that the number one topic that makes moms feel most judgmental is working versus staying at home.

Book reviews of The Other Mother describe how the novel speaks to this tension between stay at home and working moms. Publisher's Weekly says that The Other Mother “documents the front lines of the Mommy Wars, but its real strength lies is exposing the complex inner battlefields motherhood can open up.” National Public Radio calls The Other Mother “a thoughtful, multi-faceted look at what divides and unites mothers.”

Gross’ novel leads mothers to explore their own choices about balancing work and family, the joy of motherhood, and feelings of guilt, resentment, and regret. The Mom Blog 5MinutesForMom writes, “Because of the neutral tone and the way this book addresses the issues that all moms face, this would be a great book club selection.” The Other Mother is a featured selection of the Redbook Book Club, and a featured alternate selection of the Book of the Month Club, the Literary Guild Book Club, and the Doubleday Book Club.

More information about the iVillage poll “What Moms are Thinking Now” and the Parenting Magazine survey “Mom Confessions: Mom vs. Mom.”