The women on aspirational mommy blog, The Glow make it look sickeningly easy, but in reality, balancing babies and business can make you sweat.

In their new book Mom Inc., Meg Mateo Ilasco and Cat Seto offer sound advice to enterprising moms on everything from writing a business plan, to launching a website to staying sane and focused at home.

The writers are serial entrepreneurs–Seto juggles motherhood and a successful custom stationary line while fellow mom, Mateo Ilasco is an artist, crafter and DIY-er par excellence – so the advice comes first hand.

Mom Inc. isn’t the most original title, (it’s one of many) but this is a smart little book, regardless. —Athena Tsavliris

From $15.16 at Chapters Indigo.

The first commandment of responsible food consumption is "know thy source".

Local foodie Dee Hobsbawn-Smith makes that easy with her new book Foodshed: An Edible Alberta Alphabet ($14.40). She profiles local producers and growers and digs into modern farming and all that entails from government policies and animal welfare to slow food movements and sustainability. And, in keeping with the alphabet theme, there are 26 recipes,  for each type of produce explored in the book.

The second commandment of responsible food consumption is never turn down a party with snacks. —Jaelyn Molyneux

Her book launch is tonight at Cookbook Co. Cooks from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Cookbook Co. Cooks, 722 11 Ave. S.W., Calgary, 403-265-6066, www.cookbookcooks.com

What we’ve learned from parenting books so far this year: French kids don’t throw food, and French kids eat everything (presumably because it’s still on their plate).

While American Pamela Druckerman has tackled the contretemps (or lack thereof) of French child rearing in her book Bringing up Bébé, Canadian mom Karen Le Billon concentrates on food-related norms in her helpful treatment of the subject, French Kids Eat Everything, out this week.

“If Pamela explains the why, I explain the how” says Le Billon from her Vancouver home, stressing that she is not a fan of French parenting per se, but has been converted to their rules around food.

Part “momoir” of their family’s year in France, part recipe book, and part self-help book for parents, she distills from her experiences a set of 10 rules, including: try everything, no snacking, have dinner together, eating is joyful….

Sounds simple until you remember your last meal was a salad eaten over the sink.

But working mother Le Billon (a UBC prof) finds a golden mean back home that includes treats (like sushi night) and adapts her kids to the Canadian regime of 15-minute school lunch breaks (versus the two hours allotted in France).

But will the kids get Easter Baskets filled with chocolate or fois gras this year? We suspect the former.
—Sarah Bancroft

French Kids Eat Everything (And Yours Can Too), from $16.60 at www.amazon.ca

There's nothing better than curling up with a good book, our editors share their favourite reads:

Will Ferguson’s Canadian Pie serves up slice-of-life stories the humour writer has collected throughout his career, all of which confirm we live in a delightfully quirky country. $32 at Shelf Life Books, 100, 1302 Fourth St. S.W., Calgary, 403-265-1033, www.shelflifebooks.ca — Jaelyn Molyneux, Calgary editor

Watership Down is one of my favourite books. My husband read it recently and he was enamoured. It is the beautiful story of a group of rabbits running away to start a new life, and a perfect feel-good-make-me-smile novel. $9.98 at www.amazon.ca —Alexandra Suhner Isenberg, Vancouver fashion editor

For some spine-tingling spookiness pick up Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children ($14.43), peppered with vintage photographs for a multi-sensorial reading experience. At www.amazon.ca —Jennifer Nachshen, Montreal editor

If you read one book over the holidays, let it be Téa Obreht’s debut novel, The Tiger’s Wife. What a beautifully written book from a young author with startling talent. $12.27 at www.amazon.ca —Athena Tsavliris, Toronto editor

Of the several books published on Coco Chanel just this year, Intimate Chanel gives us an unprecedented glimpse into her private life, thanks to Chanel’s grandniece and only living relative, who opened the family archives to the author. Through family photographs, correspondence, gifts from her friends and lovers, the book has a voyeuristic feel, like rummaging through someone’s secret drawers. In this case, it’s “Auntie Coco’s.”  $42.64 at www.amazon.ca — Anya Georgijevic, Vancouver beauty editor

I really loved Jeffrey Eugenides’s last book, Middlesex, so I’m going to spend some quality time with my couch this holiday and power through his just-published tome The Marriage Plot. $24.31 at www.amazon.ca —Kelsey Dundon, Vancouver lifestyle editor

For a seriously good cry nothing beats the tragic romance of The Time Traveler's Wife by Audery Niffenegger. Make sure you have ample Kleenex, a cozy blanket and glass (or bottle?) of red wine while you wallow in the delicious sadness of this beautifully written novel. $15.88 at www.amazon.ca —Kelsey Mulyk, Managing editor

In the years between 2006 and 2011, Calgary boomed big and busted badly. For those five years, the population held on and shifted a little closer to discovering itself. It’s five years that resonated with George Webber and Aritha van Herk.

The photographer and author teamed-up to create book In this Place. Words from van Herk introduce photos from Webber that together share a story of Calgary showcasing both the overlooked and the obvious. Signs with peeling paint, the flash of the Stampede, the unrealized promise of shiny new condos downtown and the personalities of restaurants in the northeast are all represented with nary a Calgary Tower in sight.

The book represents history that we all just lived through. It’s a great gift for visitors or diehard Calgarians. —Jaelyn Molyneux

$40 at www.amazon.ca

It’s never good form to laugh at another’s disaster, but when we are elbow deep in sugar cookie batter sometimes a chuckle is in order.

From the hilarious website Cake Wrecks comes the book Wreck the Halls: Cake Wrecks Gets "Festive". Flip through the 232-page picture book of holly jolly professional baking disasters iced with misspelled words and questionable artistic execution.

It’s a baker’s delight, unless you were the one who footed the bill. —Jaelyn Molyneux

$12.26 at www.amazon.ca

WordFest welcomes more than 70 authors to talk all things word related at events in Calgary and Banff. Herewith, a sample of books with authors coming to the five-day literary feast.

The Measure of A Man
by JJ Lee
The fashion-writer and tailor, JJ Lee’s memoir begins when he alters his late father’s suit and continues with Lee weaving his personal history and that of his father’s with the social history of men’s suits.

We had it So Good
by Linda Grant
This novel is a coming-of-age story that baby boomers from their hippie days in the 1960s through four decades of living until the hope of youth fades when the generation who never wanted to get old realizes with melancholy that they are.

The Return
by Dany Laferrière
The French version of this novel won the Prix Medicis. Lucky for us the novel that follows Laferrière back to his homeland of Haiti 33 years after he left has been translated to English.

This Will Be Difficult to Explain
by Johanna Skibsrub
The author follows her 2010 Giller Prize-winning book, The Sentimentalists, with a collection of short stories that have characters encounter life-defining moments in the middle of mostly unremarkable days.

Persuasion
by Arlene Dickinson
From poverty, to powerful entrepreneur and co-star on CBC’s Dragons’ Den, Dickinson shares her take on the power of persuasion including her tactics on how to use it in a positive way. —Jaelyn Molyneux

WordFest is October 11 to 16, www.wordfest.com

Sometimes a book is a paperback you buy at the grocery store, devour at the beach and donate when you are done. And, sometimes it is a souvenir to prop up on your shelf and flip through when you want to revisit an old friend.

Dottie Angel is the latter. The second volume of The Suitcase Series from Uppercase is Tif Fussell’s pictorial ode to her crafty alter-ego Dottie Angel, a mother of eight who favours pompoms, custom aprons, crocheting and all things DIY.

Each book is personalized with a scallop-edged card machine stitched and glued to the cover. And it comes with an envelope filled with a swatch of vintage fabric and buttons, Dottie Angel thread and a lucky bunny postcard.

See, one can be both bookish and beautiful. —Jaelyn Molyneux

$35 at Uppercase Gallery, Art Central, 100 7 Ave. S.W., Calgary, 403-283-5318, www.uppercasegallery.ca

Our Father who art in fashion heaven, thanks for giving us this opportunity to combine curse words and church in a way that makes sense.

This Sunday, Church, my Style ($125) starts your morning with a mimosa-soaked brunch and a runway show followed by a sassy sermon by the Skinny Bitch herself Kim Barnouin. The straight-talking model-turned-author and holistic nutritionist has already spread her tough love thoughts on food, health and fitness. Now she goes sartorial with her latest book Skinny Bitch: Home, Beauty and Style. Barnouin talks all-natural lipstick, eco-friendly furniture and various other tricks to looking good while doing no harm. Advance copies of the book will be available at Church, my Style or at bookstores starting September 27.

Can we get an Amen? —Jaelyn Molyneux

Hotel Arts, 119 12 Ave. S.W., Calgary, www.churchmystyle.com

Harper’s Bazaar: Greatest Hits collects a decade of fashion dos in one beautiful book.

Bold Brit Glenda Bailey took over the helm of Harper’s Bazaar as editor-in-chief ten years ago. In that decade she has orchestrated photo shoots that had Linda Evangelista dancing with Karl Lagerfeld, Donna Karan dipped in gold and Naomi Campbell outpacing a cheetah. Sesame Street and The Simpson’s have been captured for Bailey’s take on haute couture. Marc Jacobs posed nude and Kate Winslet dangled from a New York skyscraper. All of those images and more are included in this 320-page collection of the best of Bazaar under Bailey’s watch.

It’s fashion meets fantasy at its finest. —Jaelyn Molyneux

$49.50 at Chapters, www.chapters.ca