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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
Hilarity. Chaotic streams of consciousness. Painful glimpses of cold hard reality. Beauty too.
I’m definitely the target audience for this book. And related to SO much of it.
DNF; made it 60% through. Initially, I could relate to the author due to her age and the identity crisis that motherhood brings on. Beyond that, I found it difficult to sympathize with her ineptness, like not being able to cook and hating her weight but doing absolutely nothing about it. Also, her baby had daytime and night nannies from birth. The author tries to acknowledge her privilege but then says "oh but we don't have a village so we HAVE to have 24-7 care."
Funny, relatable, touching, encouraging. She captures well the joys, challenges and absurdities of motherhood and aging.
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
"When you have a child the ordinary has a way of feeling both insane and banal at the same time." In this collection, Jessi Klein describes ordinary moments as a mother with hilarious and relatable detail to show how these trials leave women irrevocably changed. If that sounds familiar, it's because she aptly frames her stories using Campbell's hero's journey. This gives her essays about postpartum padsicles, picky eating, potty training, night nurses, car seats, and Halloween costumes a lot more weight and significance. While I enjoyed and related to so many of these stories, I found there was something slightly off about certain essays that's never really addressed. Although she's the first to acknowledge her many privileges, her nannies and night nurses, and her husband's role in co-parenting and regulating her neuroses, there's a sense that motherhood has left her traumatized. She mentions several times that she feels inadequate, like she's badly performing the role of a mother, and turns to elaborate fantasies and alcohol to escape feeling trapped, bored, and lonely. I wanted her to unpack these feelings more instead of making light of them with self-deprecating jokes and observational humor. I felt like she buried her discomfort and vulnerability under layers of stand-up comedy material that she's workshopping. While it was mildly entertaining to read her thoughts on Harry Styles, Billie Eilish, and cracked feet, I felt like these detours ultimately took away from the payoff of her hero's journey.
emotional
funny
As far as mom memoirs go, this one is a short and fun read. Made me smile/giggle a few times out loud.
Had funny parts but overall not for me. Excessive use of parentheses and question marks.
Wow, this book. Wowowowowow.
I am so grateful to Klein for this honest, funny, sometimes heart-wrenching book on her experience with motherhood. It brought tears to my eyes more than once, reminded me of all of the fears and uncertainties that motherhood has (and still has yet) to bring, and also how beautiful and amazing it is. Her frankness and willingness to share the most bare and sometimes shameful truths made me feel seen and less alone.
She uses Joseph Campbell's idea of the "hero's journey," reframing mothers as the heroes on the journey. Because it is a journey and we are all heroes. She uses this framing to share her experiences, from bringing home a helpless newborn to finding ways to help her son manage the transition and stresses of life, to realizing that she is a different person now than she once was - both physically and mentally.
Motherhood is scary, and rewarding, and confusing. And the world we live in is scary and full of danger and uncertainty and disappointment. Klein does an incredible job of discussing what it looks like to navigate raising a child - the way it amplifies your imperfections and shortcoming, the ways you try to protect them from what the world can hold, the things you learn from them along the way, and so, so much more.
I both laughed out loud and also found tears springing to my eyes repeatedly as I read this book, and I took pictures of so many of the pages so I wouldn't lose the quotes. This is a book that, as I finished, I realized I would probably need to own, to revisit as Lincoln grows and mark with both a pen and my own tears. The journey of motherhood often feels so inexplicable and like such uncharted territory despite the fact that so many women are on that same journey, and Klein does a remarkable job of sharing her own unique experiences in a way that made me feel less alone and less guilty for my own shortcomings.
I am so grateful to Klein for this honest, funny, sometimes heart-wrenching book on her experience with motherhood. It brought tears to my eyes more than once, reminded me of all of the fears and uncertainties that motherhood has (and still has yet) to bring, and also how beautiful and amazing it is. Her frankness and willingness to share the most bare and sometimes shameful truths made me feel seen and less alone.
She uses Joseph Campbell's idea of the "hero's journey," reframing mothers as the heroes on the journey. Because it is a journey and we are all heroes. She uses this framing to share her experiences, from bringing home a helpless newborn to finding ways to help her son manage the transition and stresses of life, to realizing that she is a different person now than she once was - both physically and mentally.
Motherhood is scary, and rewarding, and confusing. And the world we live in is scary and full of danger and uncertainty and disappointment. Klein does an incredible job of discussing what it looks like to navigate raising a child - the way it amplifies your imperfections and shortcoming, the ways you try to protect them from what the world can hold, the things you learn from them along the way, and so, so much more.
I both laughed out loud and also found tears springing to my eyes repeatedly as I read this book, and I took pictures of so many of the pages so I wouldn't lose the quotes. This is a book that, as I finished, I realized I would probably need to own, to revisit as Lincoln grows and mark with both a pen and my own tears. The journey of motherhood often feels so inexplicable and like such uncharted territory despite the fact that so many women are on that same journey, and Klein does a remarkable job of sharing her own unique experiences in a way that made me feel less alone and less guilty for my own shortcomings.