The weather’s warming up and it’s time to start thinking about beach reading! Why not check out the latest recommendations by The Baby Project Book Club?

Pregnancy: The Beginner’s Guide by Dorling Kindersley (DK Publishing, $25.25)

If you are tired of lugging around encyclopedia-sized pregnancy and baby books, in the vain hope that you’ll get through at least once before bubs pops out, you’ll love Pregnancy: the Beginner’s Guide. To begin with, it’s handbag-sized! But that doesn’t mean it falls short on information. Pregnancy: the Beginner’s Guide charts the progress of mother and baby month-by-month and contains all the practical information, helpful advice and insider knowledge that first time parents-to-be will need. Shop the book.

The Wife Drought: Why Women Need Wives and Men Need Lives by Annabel Crabb (Random House, $34.99)

There is not a mother alive who has not at some stage thrown their hands in the air and exclaimed: ‘I need a wife!’ According to Australia’s much-loved ABC Journalist Annabel Crabb, working women are in an advanced, sustained, and chronically under-reported state of wife drought, and there is no sign of rain.
The Wife Drought is about women, men, family and work, and is full of candid and funny stories from Crabb’s work in politics and the media, as well as historical annecdotes about the role of ‘the wife’ in Australia. The Baby Project highly recommends this read for wives and husbands everywhere. Shop the book.

No-Drama Discipline: The Whole-Brain Way to Calm the Chaos and Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind by Daniel J. Siegel, Tina Payne Bryson (Scribe Publications, $29.99)

Do you sometimes seem to spend the whole day yelling at your children? Or separating them? Do you start more sentences that not with the words, “If I have to tell you one more time…”? Disciplining children can sometimes feel like a battle of wits or a never-ending series of threats and punishments with no end in sight. It might be time to get off that train and try something new. No-Drama Discipline teaches a ‘relational’ approach that builds on children’s innate desire to please their parents and get along well with others. The authors show how we can discipline our children in a way that’s high on relationship-building, high on respect, and low on drama and conflict. Sounds good to us. Shop the book.

Stop Reading Baby Books! by J.J. Keith (Penguin, $19.99)

And stop googling! Book stores and the Internet are flooded with advice for mothers-to-be – some of it useful; some of it scary; and some of it simply wrong. Stop Reading Baby Books is an honest and straightforward piece of wisdom that guides readers through the pleasures and perils of ‘mommy blogs’, mothers’ groups, lactivists, sleep fascists, columns on working versus non-working mothers, and other places where free time and self-esteem goes to die. It will make you laugh and most importantly, inject a bit of perspective into pregnancy in the Information Age. Shop the book.