Anne Enright’s Making Babies (Norton) is at once a memoir, a reference manual and a cautionary tale about the conflicting emotions of parenthood. After 18 years of marriage, Enright, best known for her brilliantly perceptive fiction, decided to start a family. She recounts her experience withdarkly funny commentary, describing impulses that most mothers would prefer to conceal. Enright’s honesty can be brutal, and people without a wicked sense of humorwill certainly cringe. But for those who’ve grown weary of hyped-up superparents andtheir relentless positivity, her candor is welcome.

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Next: 'The Beginner's Goodbye' by Anne Tyler

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