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brice_mo's review against another edition
5.0
All hail Queen Rivka.
I am incapable of being a mother, but this book on motherhood is one of the most formative pieces of writing I have encountered.
Galchen offers something alternately mysterious, hilarious, and impenetrable—but it always remains intensely readable and celebratory. Even more so than her other work, "Little Labors" highlights Galchen's propensity for inverting well-worn language and turning it into something wholly unexpected and fresh. It complements the theme of birth well— Galchen writes with the zeal of a child experimenting with the limits of language, but she maintains the gentle authority and precision of a mother watching over every word.
I believe I've purchased this book six times because I keep giving it away, and I fully believe I will do it again and again.
I am incapable of being a mother, but this book on motherhood is one of the most formative pieces of writing I have encountered.
Galchen offers something alternately mysterious, hilarious, and impenetrable—but it always remains intensely readable and celebratory. Even more so than her other work, "Little Labors" highlights Galchen's propensity for inverting well-worn language and turning it into something wholly unexpected and fresh. It complements the theme of birth well— Galchen writes with the zeal of a child experimenting with the limits of language, but she maintains the gentle authority and precision of a mother watching over every word.
I believe I've purchased this book six times because I keep giving it away, and I fully believe I will do it again and again.
keerit's review against another edition
4.0
Sweet and joyful and uh I want a baby. Super easy to digest with only a handful of “longer” essays (only a few pages apiece).
book_me's review against another edition
5.0
‘Little Labors’ is a collection of tiny snippets and bite-size musings on babies, birth, mothering, etc. The genre-bending collection is as funny as it is heartening.
I don’t plan to have a baby. I’m rarely around babies. I certainly think someone who were planning on having a baby, had already had a baby, or happens to spend a lot of time in the company of babies would enjoy this book more than I did. Even so, I enjoyed it enough to give it five stars.
I don’t plan to have a baby. I’m rarely around babies. I certainly think someone who were planning on having a baby, had already had a baby, or happens to spend a lot of time in the company of babies would enjoy this book more than I did. Even so, I enjoyed it enough to give it five stars.
boygenius_'s review against another edition
3.0
Un libro interesante que nos da otra perspectiva de la maternidad y le da lugar a las guaguas en la literatura.
sujuv's review against another edition
4.0
Tiny and terrific, Galchen's thoughts and observations on babies, motherhood, writing mothers and the rest are sharp, entertaining, and well worth the short amount of time it takes to read.
booksaremyfavorite's review against another edition
5.0
Excellent. Weird, funny, insightful. I loved this.
caroline_ds's review against another edition
4.0
This book is certainly stylistically different but I enjoyed the tone and cadence of the author’s voice. I wish it had existed in 2014 when I had an infant daughter. Her thoughts and tangents and insights are so indicative of that early parenthood, being consumed in this new thing while also trying to cling to the cerebral, academic past self. Two of my favorites are 1) when she lists female writers, whether or not they had children, and the age they were when first published and 2) her realization of newly being jealous of men...for that ability to somewhat anonymously be a parent instead of feeling like they’ve grown and appendage from which they can never be separated as a mother often feels.
soy_sputnik's review against another edition
4.0
Entiendo por qué no podría gustarles a muchos este libro, pero a mí me pareció una enternecedora manera de ir conociendo el mundo después del nacimiento de tu hija, la puma. Los textos a veces parecen aforismos, otras un juicio moral sobre quienes aún no llegamos a esa parte de la maternidad, pero eso no implica que no te absorba para que a través del asombro de Rivka Galchen puedas ver un mundo al que pocos tienen acceso, el mundo desde los ojos de un bebé que llega con una madre primeriza y le enseña del color naranja, del amor a las mujeres, el descubrimiento de cómo se va formando otra vida y también las dificultades de no poder esconder un embarazo. Personalmente me pareció gracioso cómo, entre la erudición, la autora va plasmando cotidianidades que se vuelven diferentes y curiosas. Me hizo reír, me dio ternura, me dio desesperación. Pero a mí me gustan mucho los bebés así que no sé si sea mi opinión la más objetiva. Qué bonito libro.