Mother Wit

The Mommy Brain: How Motherhood Makes Us Smarter, by Katherine Ellison (Basic, 279 pp., $25)

WITH the arrival of our latest baby, I became the mother of four and have gotten perhaps seven hours of sleep in the past several months (not per night; total). I would like to think that the incredible amount of effort and brain cells that go into mothering would make one smarter, but I’m too tired to tell.