Reading My Mother Back: A Memoir in Childhood Animal Stories

An innovative memoir connecting ideas of grief, memory, and animals to illustrate the importance of storytelling.

When his mother died, Timothy C. Baker discovered that there was almost no record of her existence, and no stories that were his to tell: the only way to bring her back was through reading. Reading My Mother Back is a genre-bending memoir that explores a life marked by trauma, illness, religion, and abuse through a focus on the books Baker and his mother shared. The book combines...