Ramshackle Glam

Ramshackle Glam creator Jordan Reid was a little nervous about becoming a mother. "In my experience," she writes, "you know what happens when you hold babies? They cry. And it immediately becomes clear to all present that you have terrible parental instincts and should never be allowed to come into contact with children -- ever."

But in October 2011 Reid became a mother herself, and over the first year of her sons life the writer and media personality not only figured out a thing or two about parenting, but also learned how to navigate an entirely new lifestyle while still maintaining a sense of self.

Part memoir, part commiseration, and part how-to guide on fashion, beauty, home dér and entertaining for the new mom, Ramshackle Glam offers something fresh for the "mommy" bookshelf: concrete advice on how to care for yourself in the post-partum days, weeks, and months. A deeply personal exploration of the realities of modern-day parenthood (Reid covers topics ranging from post-partum depression and marital struggles to pets who immediately transform from your beloved best friends into Those Things That Wake Up Your Child), Ramshackle Glamis also filled with straightforward, fun, and easy lifestyle tips, including how to dress for your post-partum shape, tricks for rearranging your home so it works with an infant as well as your tastes, and strategies for getting your makeup done in five minutes flat with one hand while keeping that bouncy chair going with the other.

Reids spot-on advice combined with her trademark intimacy, wit, and (often aching) honesty make Ramshackle Glam a must-read for any woman in search of a candid account of how to handle enormous life changes with humor, grace . . . and a little bit of glam.