Books

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Susanne Antonetta Though the Mommy Lit-and even the Adoption Mommy Lit-category is a crowded one, Antonetta’s new memoir, Make Me a Mother (Norton, $18.90), manages to stake a solid place on the shelves. The Bellingham writer’s account of adopting a Korean baby boy is filled with the anxieties, setbacks, and joys common to this kind of story, yet is remarkable in its erudite examination of the word “adoption” itself. She also explores the rich history-from the Romans to the early American West-behind the practice of caring for a child not biologically your own. Also unique to the book: her bucking of the assumption that parents who adopt do so largely because of the inability to conceive. As Antonetta and her husband go from loving Jin to being in love with him, she gets immersed in her own eccentric family history-and finds herself becoming a mother to not just her adopted child, but to the aging parents with whom she’s

had a deeply conflicted relationship. Make Me a Mother is an unflinching, deeply honest, and impeccably researched read that should appeal to all parents. University Book Store, 4326 University Way N.E., 634-3400, . Free. 7 p.m. NICOLE SPRINKLE University Book Store Free Wednesday, February 26, 2014, 7pm