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"  Making Babies by Anne Enright (Norton)  The raucous humor and mordant honesty of these essays about motherhood by lauded Irish novelist Enright (The Gathering, The Forgotten Waltz) shocked some readers and bewitched others. Enright &amp;quot;humanizes us all,&amp;quot; wrote one reader, &amp;quot;by saying the things that make us feel like horrible people.&amp;quot; Making Babies is presented in a series of vignettes about the joys, surprises, and horrors of first-time motherhood. Enright, a well-known Irish novelist, delves into motherhood in her late 30s. This book describes the ups and downs of the author&amp;#039;s pregnancy, birth, and rearing of her first child, and then her decision to do it all again with a second child. The humor and the realism of this book will ring true with mothers everywhere.\u2014Beth Brezinski, Scottsdale, AZ Making Babies showcases Enright&amp;#039;s dry Irish humor as she puts to paper the words and thoughts mothers dare never speak. Her testimony offers freedom and relief for any mother struggling to live a balanced life. Hers is a recollection of everyday encounters revealing a woman learning how to mother and recognizing that this is one of her roles, not her sole identity. I found myself laughing out loud and reliving the peaks and pangs of motherhood.\u2014Lindsey Norman, Cypress, CA Enright&amp;#039;s memoir examines the blessing\u2014and curse\u2014of motherhood in funny and startlingly raw ways. Enright makes us all feel more human by saying aloud the truths about various downsides of pregnancy compared to its endless joy. Making Babies is fast-paced and hilarious, enlightening those who haven&amp;#039;t given birth and amusing those who have.\u2014Rose Phillips, Cincinnati, OH Though I felt like this book took a while to gain steam, I started to find myself laughing outloud about halfway through. Enright&amp;#039;s take on motherhood is unique, honest, and very tender beneath the sarcasm.\u2014Julia Rogers, Santa Cruz, CA The book is somewhat difficult to read, as it&amp;#039;s written in a disjointed manner, with chapters broken into segments that don&amp;#039;t quite flow together. Perhaps the subject matter would have been better served as a book of essays, rather than a continuous narrative.\u2014Amanda Hevener, Cuyahoga Falls, OH While this text didn&amp;#039;t bowl me over with its brilliance, Enright did make me laugh and nod my head knowingly. (It&amp;#039;s true\u2014infants really do have lots in common with cult leaders!) Her memoir offers a rather random assortment of insights into parenting, and while not all of them made sense to me, I enjoyed this comical, upbeat look inside the hidden lives of those lovesick zombies commonly known as new parents.\u2014Susan Jensen, Mesa, AZ  By the Iowa Sea by Joe Blair (Scribner)  The dark horse in this trio carried the day, no doubt due to the gravity and pathos of what one reader calls &amp;quot;a stark, unfettered portrait of a family falling apart at the seams,&amp;quot; headed by two former free spirits now bound by four children (one autistic), house payments, an exhausting blue-collar workaday reality, and a faltering vision of togetherness. Blair&amp;#039;s By the Iowa Sea is a stark, unfettered portrait of a family falling apart at the seams. At first, Joe and Deb led a life of adventure, traveling across the U.S. by motorcycle. Eventually, however, they set down roots in Iowa, have four children (including one with autism) and buy a large, rambling old house. This lifestyle starts to suffocate Joe, and he seeks the refuge of another woman just as natural disaster looms\u2014a flood threatening the future of their town. The Blairs must decide if their marriage, family, and life in Iowa are worth saving.\u2014Beth Brezinski, Scottsdale, AZ By the Iowa Sea captures the raw emotions of a man lost on the journey of fatherhood. Blair&amp;#039;s memoir reveals his struggle to recapture his dreams and reignite passion with his wife amidst the monotony of everyday married life. The revelation unfolds via a barrage of uncharacteristic actions and encounters, shaking the foundation of his family to its core. Blair&amp;#039;s memoir captures a man&amp;#039;s journey to the edge of despair and discovery of a path leading to hope and balance.\u2014Lindsey Norman, Cypress, CA Blair&amp;#039;s memoir is so enthralling and cinematic that one forgets it is a memoir. He cross-cuts dialogue, memories, and mundane details together against the toxic backdrop of the rising waters of the Iowa flood plain, expertly portraying his relationships with his wife, his needy children, and his trapped feelings. As Blair&amp;#039;s marriage and the dams reach their breaking points, he must decide what to do about his unhappiness. The pace is fast, the details startlingly intimate, and the conclusion so satisfying that we feel that we, too, have undergone a transformation.\u2014Rose Phillips, Cincinnati, OH Blair&amp;#039;s unsparing look at his own misconduct puts this story of a family&amp;#039;s destruction and resurrection a cut above the norm. That the story unfolds against a devastating flood in Iowa City gives Biblical heft to the smaller stories that arise when a husband and wife look up from their daily tasks and wonder who the other is. Blair is an artful chronicler of his blue-collar work and the challenges posed by his autistic son. If the writing occasionally skews in his favor and against his wife, there seems to be a balance struck by the end. By the Iowa Sea reminds readers that our shared humanity can rebuild and renew us as well as tear us apart.\u2014Heather Seggel, Ukiah, CA This book reads as a matter-of-fact telling of a man cheating on his wife because he feels trapped. The language and tough circumstances of his son&amp;#039;s condition don&amp;#039;t hide the raw facts or the pain that his wife feels. In the end I found this memoir to be unfulfilling.\u2014Alyssa Stewart, Missoula, MT Try as I might, I could not be drawn into this memoir. Often, I felt like Blair was trying too hard to sound profound. Though there were some entertaining moments, it felt forced and unfocused a great deal of the time.\u2014Julia Rogers, Santa Cruz, CA  Some Assembly Required by Anne Lamott, with Sam Lamott (Riverhead)  Plenty of reader love was left over for Lamott&amp;#039;s signature sharp-eyed and down-to-earth Christian humanism\u2014here deployed in describing how she went from single mother to supportive grandmother when her son fathered a child while still an undergraduate. Some Assembly Required follows a year in Lamott&amp;#039;s life, beginning when her 19-year-old son and his girlfriend inform her they are expecting a baby. Lamott, herself a single parent, perseveres in supporting the young couple through the birth of the their son and their difficult transition into parenthood. All three learn how much a baby can change the course of their lives while connecting them for a lifetime.\u2014Beth Brezinski, Scottsdale, AZ Lamott chronicles her son&amp;#039;s journey into fatherhood with her trademark humor and spiritual insight. Delight in her grandchild butts up against anxiety over Sam&amp;#039;s relationship with the baby&amp;#039;s mother. Fans of Lamott&amp;#039;s nonfiction works will discover great new stories told in a familiar voice, and new readers may just meet their next favorite author on the page here. A fun and heart-expanding read.\u2014Heather Seggel, Ukiah, CA Lamott has the unique ability to transform ordinary, everyday tasks into opportunities for spiritual growth and insight. She and her son expose the challenges, changes, and lack of control that accompany the birth of a child. When a child is born, so is a mother, a father, and a grandparent. This book candidly exposes these journeys.\u2014Lindsey Norman, Cypress, CA I enjoyed Some Assembly Required chiefly due to the fact that Lamott accepts great personal responsibility for how she chooses to behave, an inspirational trait for any circumstance, and tries to be understanding of others&amp;#039; motivations. Her thoughts on parenting her grown son are also very wise: she believes that good parenting allows the parent to become dispensable, allowing the child to discover his or her own autonomy.\u2014Edaureen MuhamadNor, Washington DC Some Assembly Required is sweet, neurotic and hilarious; I thoroughly enjoyed Lamott&amp;#039;s take on becoming a grandmother earlier than anticipated.\u2014Julia Rogers, Santa Cruz, CA Though at times joyful and humorous this book falls flat in terms of pacing and plot. I found my attention wavering as Lamott meanders through the year after her grandson&amp;#039;s birth, and I think the subject matter would perhaps have been better treated in a blog format, rather than a book.\u2014Alyssa Stewart, Missoula, MT Some Assembly Required describes the birth of the author&amp;#039;s grandson as an early but not unwelcome gift. Lamott conveys the wrenching feeling that accompanies ceding control over the baby&amp;#039;s future and having faith in young, inexperienced parents. Her struggle to reach a happy medium between mother and grandmother comes to the forefront as she wrestles with her impulse to be overbearing. Though some of Lamott&amp;#039;s long descriptions of family gatherings were difficult to get through, her book highlights parts of grandmothering that are rarely talked about.\u2014Rose Phillips, Cincinnati, OH "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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