Match BookRegretting Motherhood
Orna Donath
2016 · 243 pages · Narrative nonfiction
How it reads
Regretting Motherhood is narrative nonfiction (feminist sociology, specifically), and its dominant mood is melancholy. It's quietly sad, wistful and reflective. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in an international setting, in the present day, told in the third person, staying close to one character. Its central concerns are identity, family and class and society. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is left open, for you to argue about. At 243 pages it's a quick read. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something melancholy
- you want something to chew on
- you want a complete story in one book
Maybe not if…
- you need something funny or hopeful
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- narrative nonfiction
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- established
- Setting: place
- international
- Setting: time
- contemporary
- Mood / feeling
- melancholy
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- short
- Narrative style
- third person, one viewpoint
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- well known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Ending style
- ambiguous
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for MenCaroline Criado PérezShares: narrative nonfiction, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace, ambiguous ending
- The Birth DearthBen J. WattenbergShares: narrative nonfiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, ambiguous ending
- Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in AmericaLaila LalamiShares: narrative nonfiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, ambiguous ending
- Dear Madam President: An Open Letter to the Women Who Will Run the WorldJennifer PalmieriShares: narrative nonfiction, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace, ambiguous ending
- Skin in the Game: The Hidden Asymmetries in Daily LifeNassim Nicholas TalebShares: narrative nonfiction, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace, ambiguous ending
- Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male AmericaIjeoma OluoShares: narrative nonfiction, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace, set in international
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