As my faithful readers know, I've been reviewing one book per month throughout this calendar year. The challenge, of course, is to find books about adoption that focus on the birth parent experience or, speaking of a novel, that are written from the birth parent perspective. I've made exceptions for novels that were written from the adoptee perspective as long as they contained enough birth parent involvement. The August-into-September chapter-by-chapter review of Lifegivers leaves me with nothing left on my list.

And so, I implore my readers: suggest a book that has something to do with adoption that is either written from the birth parent perspective or contains enough birth parent involvement to make it relevant. Non-fiction books, such as Lifegivers, are definitely acceptable.

Oh, I apologize. I lied. I do have one book on reserve at our library (B-Mother by Maureen O'Brien). However, without guarantee that it will be available by the end of the month, I do need other suggestions so that I don't skip a month of reviewing!

The most frustrating part in searching for books written from the birth mother perspective (or about birth mothers in general) is the search terms used. For example, the book I mentioned above is about the journey of a first mother. Yet, the subjects listed by the publisher are: Teenage Mothers - Fiction, Single Mothers - Fiction, Child Welfare - Fiction, and New England - Fiction. So, a search in the subject of adoption at your local library does not bring up this particular book! (I only know about it because a blog reader contacted me a few months ago regarding the book and I threw it on my list. Just recently our library system got the book in circulation and I've requested my copy to borrow!)

And so, dear readers, as you just read, if it wasn't for the kindness of another reader (and commenter!), I wouldn't even know about that particular book. So I ask you, again, to please suggest some books that you think would be of interest or benefit to the birth parent reading audience. I try to stay up-to-date with new publications and things that are of interest or importance to first families but my eyes and ears can only gather and hold so much information. Please help be my eyes and ears!

I look forward to your suggestions!

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For more book reviews, read:

1. The Review of the Chapter-by-Chapter Review of Lifegivers (Contains All Chapter Links for Your Ease of Reading and Searching!) - August 2007.

2. Girls in Trouble - July 2007.

3. Second Chance Mom - June 2007.

4. The Bad Mother's Handbook - May 2007.

5. The Mistress's Daughter - April 2007.

6. Somebody's Daughter - March 2007.

7. The Girls - February 2007.

8. Singing Bird - January 2007.

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