Welcome to our 2025 book recommendations page, which we update all year with new books in a range of topics related to childfree vs. parenthood decision-making. Our latest fiction and nonfiction picks delve into topics as diverse as parenthood environmental considerations, adoption, parenting, childfree role models, and better communication.
Unless otherwise noted, all recommendations here are by Merle Bombardieri. We do not receive any incentives or commissions for recommending and linking to books; the links below are provided only for your convenience. Happy reading!
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Summer 2025 book picks
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Good Material: a novel
by Dolly Alderton
Penguin Random House, 2024
Reviewed by Vanessa Bombardieri
While not an obvious “Baby Decision” book, I thought it would be fun to highlight this comedic, romantic novel.
The story follows Andy, a 35-year-old struggling comedian, who is blindsided when his girlfriend of nearly four years, Jen, unexpectedly ends their relationship. The most clever—and most relevant to our work—aspect of the novel is the narrative shift that occurs more than halfway through, when Jen’s perspective takes over. It’s a phenomenal demonstration of how two people in the same relationship can experience it so differently.
Both Andy and Jen grapple with how the breakup disrupts the conventional life script: build a career, find a partner, get married, have children. But it’s Jen’s lack of desire for a long-term partner—and her quiet leaning toward a child-free life—that creates the novel’s central tension. Witty, entertaining and enjoyable this book can be savored on multiple levels.
Learn more about and order the book via the publisher.
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The Mother: a Graphic Memoir
by Rachel Deutch
Douglas and McIntyre, 2025
Don’t be fooled by the modest title. Open this book for dazzling depictions of the joys and horrors of pregnancy and new parenthood by New Yorker cartoonist Rachel Deutch. She shares her ambivalence about motherhood and its contradictions. First, she longs for a baby and to find a good partner to parent with. She finds the partner, gets pregnant but is sad, scared, and elated. From the dust jacket, “She lurched into a new identity and then missed her old life. She loved her baby but yearned for her previous connections with her partner….”
Her drawings are unforgettable combinations of the horror and humor of pregnancy and of early breastfeeding. Hint: a fork, a dagger, and a chisel are involved. If your ambivalence about motherhood scares you, if you need a laugh and some perspective while contemplating motherhood, you will enjoy this book.
Regarding the strain in Deutch’s relationship with her partner, if you want some perspective and to anticipate keeping your relationship strong, I also recommend To Have and To Hold, by Molly Millwood; and the illustrated book What About Us? A New Parents’ Guide to Safeguarding Your Over-Anxious, Overextended, Sleep Deprived Relationship, by Karen Kleiman, founder of the Postpartem Stress Center.
Learn more about and order the book via the publisher.
The next two books below are on my want-to-read list.
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Unfit Parent: a Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World
by Jessica Slice
Beacon Press, 2025
Can you imagine not being able to get into an ambulance that is taking your child to the hospital because there is no accommodation for your wheelchair? Author Jessica Slice’s partner accompanies their child in the ambulance, and she arranges to go to the hospital separately.
Drawing on her personal experience with interviews and research-based evidence and disability theory, Slice opens the reader’s eyes to the competence and creativity of disabled parents, the suffering that inaccessibility brings to parents and children. She includes times that parents and children are separated because of lack of accessibility. She emphasizes how our society’s perfectionistic expectations of all parents harm everyone; she challenges us to create a world of accessibility and more kindness towards all parents.
Learn more about and order the book via the publisher.
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The Mother Code: My Story of Love, Loss & the Myths That Shape Us
by Ruthie Ackerman
Penguin Random House, 2025
In this propulsive memoir, an award-winning journalist blends history, science, and cultural criticism to uncover whether motherhood outside of society’s rigid rules and expectations is possible—and whether she fits the mold for what a mother should be. Synthesizing reportage and memoir, the book explores how we’ve come to understand the institution of motherhood. What emerges is a groundbreaking new vision for what it means to parent: a mother code that goes beyond our bloodlines and genetics and instead urges us to embrace inheritance as the legacy we want to leave behind for those we love.
Learn more about and order the book via the publisher.
Spring 2025 book picks
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The Good Mother Myth: Unlearning Our Bad Ideas About How to be a Good Mom
by Nancy Reddy
Macmillan Publishers, 2025
As a new mother, poet and writing teacher, Nancy Reddy rebelled against the stereotype of the perfect mother. But then she went further, researching the origins of the impossible stereotype that mothers were expected to mold themselves into. She discovered that the stereotype was built based on flawed research studies done by white men in the mid-20th century. No wonder it oppresses modern mothers and doesn’t match their lives, strengths or needs.
Of the book, reviewer Sara Peterson wrote: “Generous, raw, and meticulously researched, The Good Mother Myth will validate you and set you free.” I agree—I think this is already a feminist parenting classic before the ink has dried!
Learn more about Nancy Reddy and order the book via her website, or via the publisher.
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Hopeful Pessimism
by Mara van der Lugt
Princeton University Press, 2025
While pairing the words hope and pessimism may seem paradoxical, Mara van der Lugt makes a strong case for linking them together. A professor of philosophy at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, she has penned a gorgeously written, down-to-earth book about climate change that can help us get out of bed in the morning! Her philosophy of pessimism serves as a powerful source of moral and political commitment. She writes:
“Hopeful pessimism [is a tool that] can reassure those experiencing anger, grief, and sadness that this experience is not one to be ashamed of or to be avoided. On the contrary, that it can be a moral source, a spring of ethical activity and motivation.”
False optimism does not feel authentic to many climate activists. Hopeful pessimism, in contrast, acknowledges the darkness and invites courageous action and a more authentic form of hope.
You might remember the author’s name from her previous book that I reviewed last year, Begetting: What Does It Mean to Create a Child? (Princeton University Press, 2024). That book also focuses on climate change, but contemplates the ethics of childbearing.
Learn more about the author, or order either book via the publisher.
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Core Samples: A Climate Scientist’s Experiment in Politics and Motherhood
by Anna Farro Henderson
University of Minnesota Press, 2025
With humor and irony, Henderson shows the exhilaration and chaos of motherhood, and sexism in the worlds of science and politics. Need enticement to open this one? Just look at these two chapter titles: “View from the Lactation Room at the White House,” and “How to Pee Standing Up: Rules for a Woman in Climate Science.”
You can order the book via the author’s website, or via Amazon, or via the publisher.
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I Was Told There’d Be a Village: Transforming Motherhood Through the Power of Connection
by Melissa Wirt
Hachette, 2025
This excerpt from the publisher’s description is an excellent summary of the author’s story:
“Melissa describes how she began making small changes leaving behind a damaging isolation mindset and developing an advantageous village mindset using personal anecdotes and stories for moms across the country.”
This book provides specific actionable steps to transform oppressive solitary parenting into a connected collective (even joyful) endeavor. Despite all of the social connections the author had developed, she ran into a crisis that left her isolated.
You can pre-order the book via the author’s website, or via the publisher.
What new 2025 childfree vs parenthood decision books do you like?
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Have you read any of these new 2025 books on childfree or parenthood decision-making topics? Or is there a new book that you recommend about childfree living, fertility, pregnancy, surrogacy, adoption, parenthood, single parenting, LGBQTI+ parenting, or related topics? Let me know! Email me anytime via my online contact form.
You can also share your recommendations or ideas in our private Facebook group called “The Decision Café“—or on my Instagram page, which often features new article previews and special content.
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Finally, if you missed my 2024 new book picks or want a refresh, you can see 2024’s list here.
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– Merle Bombardieri
