I love Alice Walker's writing more than my dog loves eating my rubber earplugs...and my dog is an earplug addict. So I was fascinated by this pregnancy journal written by Alice's daughter Rebecca, who is also a pretty good writer. Rebecca serves up a hot mess of unpleasant family detail - I was not happy to discover that one of my favorite authors is a pretty lousy mother who, at one point, threatens to destroy her daughter's career and reputation. Not very nice - but very, very interesting. It was also sort of creepily fascinating to read all Rebecca's peculiar ideas about childbirth, and how much of her New Age-y nuttiness went flying out the window once serious labor pains began. Hahaha, SPOILER: she LOVED that epidural in the end! Oh, I could certainly relate to that! ( )

I had seen this book while I was at a Powell's books in Portland and had made a mental note that I wanted to eventually read it. The title drew me in because after 20 plus years of saying I did not want children I find myself, now, playing with the idea of eventually becoming a mother.

I decided to pick up the book, now instead of later, after reading a Bitch magazine article about how few women of color are writing many of the new mommy memoirs that are coming out ( Ain't I A Mommy? Issue No. 40).

I had read one other book on the subject of whether or not to have children (an anthology called Maybe Baby) and I have to say that Walker's book might have pushed me more towards the idea of having children. On the other hand, Maybe Baby just left me as ambivalent as ever.

Walker brought up a very interesting point in her book. While talking to a friend who was telling the author of her fears of getting married because she did not want to sell out her feminist roots Walker says "I told her that the only way I've been able to do it has been to choose my persistent, irrational, very human yearnings for closeness with other human beings over admittedly valuable feminist ideology that wasn't born of my own experience. I asked, If the relationship is healthy, is there ever a reason to let ideology keep us from committing more deeply to the person we love?" The fear of selling out my feminist roots resonates inside myself.

I've seen a few reviews on the book and some people have accused her of being narcissistic. Well of course, it is her autobiography of having a child which I am sure is such an intense experience that I am sure you can not even be helped to not be a little self centered.

The author also angered a few people when she said that the love for one's biological children is more intense then love for an adopted child. I'm not well versed in biology but that makes sense. Don't we have this innate thing inside of us that makes us want to spread our genes on to future generations? So I think Walker's point is completely valid. ( )

I loved this book. It truly humbled me as a single woman who never understood why people had the yearing to have kids. I truly have new found respect for modern woman choosing to have a child. ( )

I couldn't wait to read this book but now that I am reading it I am a bit disappointed. Walker comes off sounding arrogant and full of herself. The book is about her fears of childbirth so I can some what forgive her but it still comes off sounding full of herself. She makes a comment about a city hosiptal that I found annoyed at. She obviously comes from a place of privilage and it is shown throughout the book. I wondered if she knew she has so much privilage that many women just don't have. Most women don't have the option to give birth in a private hospital or go to Tibetan doctors, homopathic doctors, and have a midwife.

She writes about some pretty intimate details about her life such as her realtionship with her famous mother. It made me wonder if her mother approved of the book. Rebecca Walker also makes mention, in an indirect manner, about the bitterness she holds about growing up in the shadow of a famous mother.

Lastly, I don't know if this is me but there were a few errors in the book that made me stop long enough to scratch my head and feel confused. She talks about her birthing teacher (who comes to her home) and she introduces the teacher as Sasha but then in later paragraphs calls her Sarah and then Sasha again. I read the section over and over again to see if I missed something.

There were also some tense confusion. But that could just be me. I think the format she chooses to write in could have caused some tense confusion. ( )

I really enjoyed Rebecca Walker's pregnancy memoir. I appreciated her candor and frankness. I am facing a lot of the same issues she considers in her decision to get pregnant, and it was good to hear her opinions and outcomes rather than the resounding conversational circles my partner and i talk through so often. Her birth story was so dry and hilarious that I was forced to read it out loud to my partner. It's nice to hear more "third wave-identified" feminists musing over birthing and kids after our lifetimes of contraception options and abortion access. I'd like to revisit it if I ever actually get pregnant myself. ( )