nomadreader

The backstory: When I read the essay collection  Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York last year, Elisa Albert's essay was among my favorites. When I heard her new novel, After Birth , was a feminist, foul-mouthed novel about childbirth and early motherhood, I knew I had to read it. The basics: Ari, mom to 1-year-old Walker with her older, professorial husband, is still coming to terms with her traumatic c-section. She's unhappily living in fictional Utrecht, New York, a town near Albany, where Albert actually lives with her professorial husband and young son. My thoughts: Ari describes herself as "a little obsessed with [Mina Morris], by which I mean a lot, which I guess is what obsessed means." After reading After Birth,  I feel the same way about Ari. And perhaps about Albert herself. This books speaks  to me in both expected and surprising ways. I have a six-month old son, and as an intelligent, feminist, academic realist, I have some c...

The basics:  Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born  is a historical and anthropological look at childbirth. My thoughts:  Since I got pregnant (the nomadbaby is due August 9th), I've become more interested in books about pregnancy and birthing. As with many things in life, part of me is drawn to the natural way of doing things, while part of me is drawn to modern convenience. For example, I eat as much local and organic produce, meat, eggs and cheese as possible. But I have no desire to actually have my own garden, grow my own food, or kill the animals I eat. So I rely on local farmers and belong to a two CSAs, one for meat.With pregnancy and birth, these choices between natural and modern seem to have impossibly high stakes. For the first time in my life, my biology dictates many of my choices. As the one carrying this baby, I have responsibilities Mr. Nomadreader doesn't. How far those extend after birth is something I think about often, particularly as we...

The basics: The subtitle of Expecting Better  really says it all: why the conventional pregnancy wisdom is wrong--and what you really need to know. Emily Oster is a health economist, and in this book she offers up her analysis of what the data behind the pregnancy rules (the good, bad and unnecessary). While she offers her decisions, she also leaves room for the reader to make her own informed decisions about her pregnancy. My thoughts: Expecting Better  made headlines when it came out last August. I vividly recall the NPR headline "Pregnant? It's okay to have a glass of wine*" with the asterisk indicating "according to an economist." Which is true, but also according to doctors across Western Europe and Australia, but I'm getting ahead of myself. In August, we were still in that very frustrating stage of trying to get pregnant, so I purchased the book for my Kindle and impatiently waited until I was actually pregnant, which blessedly finally happened i...

The backstory: The Birth of Love  is longlisted for the 2011 Orange Prize . The basics: "The year is 1865. In Vienna, Dr. Ignasz Semmelweiss has been hounded into an asylum by his medical peers, ridiculed for his claim that doctor's unwashed hands are the root cause of childbed fever. In present-day London, Bridget Hughes juggles her young son, husband, and mother as she plans her home birth. Somewhere in 2153, in a world where humans are birthed and raise in breeding farms, Prisoner 730004 is on trial for concealing a pregnancy." (from the publisher) My thoughts: Jackie warned me this novel had no plot, but I also knew both she and Andi loved it, so I was intrigued, as my taste tends to be somewhat similar to both of theirs. They are both mothers, so I was curious how I would react as a non-mother. The short of it: I loved it. I find it fascinating Kavenna chose to have two of her four narrators be men. For me, it was the perfect bridge to allow men and non-mothe...