Book Reviews

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Book Review: Before Their Time by Daniel Taylor and Ronald Hoekstra

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Viability. Such a cold term for such a sad reality – that there is a point in a baby’s development before which he cannot survive outside the womb.

Medical advances have pushed the age of viability back further than ever imagined – but it still exists. Babies of a certain age can’t live outside their mothers.

The difficulty is, age of Viability isn’t a magic number. It’s a spectrum. Two babies born at just under 22 weeks have survived (according to Wikipedia) – but 0 out of a hundred babies born under 22 weeks will survive. At 23 weeks, about a quarter of the babies will survive – but most of these survivors will experience some level of disability due to their prematurity. Not until 24 weeks is the chance of living greater than the chance of dying.

For this reason, debate goes back and forth as to how much work to do, how much machinery to use , how much money to spend to try to save a child whose likelihood of living is miniscule.

Daniel Taylor and Ronald Hoekstra’s Before Their Time doesn’t try to debate age of viability or to argue for a standardized approach to caring for a preemie – but it does tell the story of six preemies born within the tenuous period of questionable viability. Four of the six were born at 23 weeks, while two – twins – were born at 25 weeks. In addition to being born with low viability, each of these children was cared for by Dr. Hoekstra, a neonatalogist, at Minneapolis’s Children’s Hospital and Clinic.

When I first started reading Before Their Time, I was impressed to learn that Dr. Hoekstra was a believer. I know what a comfort it is to have a believing doctor in a time of crisis.

When I was on bedrest, preparing to deliver a premature baby (although nowhere near as premature as the babies in this book), I asked to have a neonatalogist visit me in my hospital room to discuss what would happen after I delivered. One of the neonatalogists came by to answer my questions – many of which were about what to expect if my baby were born at a particular point in my pregnancy or another. The doctor explained the many variables that influence outcomes in a preemie, and then, nodding to the Bible sitting on my bedside table, said, “I see that you are a person of the Book. Pray. God is the one who ultimately determines what will happen.”

I had only minimal interactions with that doctor – another doctor cared for Tirzah Mae and we mostly got updates through one of the neonatal nurse practitioners. But just knowing that one of the doctors in the practice was a believer was a great encouragement.

As I read further, reading story after story of people of faith (some more in line with my own theological bent, some less), I realized that this was a Christian book. I finally got around to reading the back cover of the book (Yes, I selected it to read based solely on the title and the reality that it was a book my library owned about preemies) and discovered that the book was published by InterVarsity Press. That made so much sense.

Yet this isn’t a theological treatise, it isn’t even a book of “testimonies”. It’s stories. Honest stories about moms and dads making tough decisions. Doubting. Believing. Fearing. Rejoicing. Grieving. It’s about how tiny babies, with dozens of difficulties, affected their families, their communities. It’s about how families and communities affected tiny babies.

It’s beautiful.

I am so very glad that I read it.

Rating: 4 stars
Category: Stories of premature babies
Synopsis: The stories of six children born on the edge of viability – and the stories of their families, caregivers, and communities.
Recommendation: If the subject matter interests you at all, it’s definitely worth reading.

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Book Review: Your Child at Play: Birth to One Year by Marilyn Segal

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Your Child at Play gives the basics of what to expect from your child developmentally as well as a variety of activites you can do with your child for each month of the first year. It includes hundreds of photos of babies and parents engaging in the suggested activities. It’s simply packed with ideas.

Published in 1998, it’s also super-outdated. The author recommends not a few activities and toys that are no longer recommended because of safety concerns.

I thought it was great. I collected dozens of activities from among the hundreds included and have used them with Tirzah Mae.

That said, I’m not sure whether other moms would find this helpful. My observation has been that many moms feel insecure in their ability to wade through the waters of “developmental appropriateness” and “child safety” and choose one of two ways of dealing with that. Either they choose an expert that they trust implicitly and follow everything that expert says to the T (Babywise or Dr. Sears devotees, anyone?) or they are just simply terrified of everything and parent by taboos (I can’t let my child out of my sight, my child should never encounter a string or ribbon, I can’t let my baby roll onto her tummy in her sleep, etc.)

This book would not be helpful to either type of parents. The terrified-of-everything parents will become terrified quickly and have nightmares of all the terrible things that could happen to parents who try stuff from this book. And the expert-trusting parents will have to endure the censure of terrified parents – and may put their child at risk if they leave him unsupervised to play with the toys made on the books recommendation (or to engage in the activities the book suggests.) On the other hand, it’s highly unlikely that a child could be hurt while engaging in these activities under supervision.

So, should you read this book?

Judge for yourself. Are you looking for ideas for activities to do with your infant? Do you have the time and energy to be discerning about which activities to try? Do you have easy access to this book via a library or can you find it cheaply at a used store? Then go for it.

If not, may I recommend Retro Baby by Anne Zachry? It’s got a lot of similar activity ideas, but is more up-to-date as far as safety recommendations go.

Rating: 3 stars
Category: Infant Play activities
Synopsis: A month-by-month listing of activities you can do with your baby in his first year of life
Recommendation: Lots of nice suggestions, but safety recommendations have changed since this is written, so parents will have to be discerning.

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Book Review: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery

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Is The Little Prince a children’s book? It’s the question I’ve been asking myself since reading it for the first time a couple weeks ago. It’s the question I’m still asking myself.

It definitely appears to be a children’s book. It’s short in length, it includes integral illustrations. The main character is a “little” prince, apparently a child, who has a hard time understanding adults. The narrator is an adult, but even he considers other adults to be unperceptive and out of touch with what’s important.

But the book seems deep, way too deep to be a children’s book. It is full of deep thoughts, potential symbols, possible layers of meaning.

So is it a children’s book?

I don’t know, but I’m going to treat it as though it is.

Because The Little Prince seems determined to contradict the idea that big ideas and deep thoughts are the purview of adults. In fact, The Little Prince almost certainly proclaims that adults have got the world all wrong.

The story opens with the narrator telling of, when he was a boy, drawing a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. He showed his drawing to adults but they never understood it, since they saw only a dark outline, not comprehending the elephant within. The narrator explains that “Grownups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.” The narrator started using this drawing as a test of sorts, to see whether people were perceptive or not. Of course, the grownups never were, and so he would bring himself down to the adult’s level, speaking of bridge and golf and politics and neckties.

But after the narrator crashes his plane in the Sahara, he meets a little prince who has the perception to recognize a sheep inside a sketched box. Slowly, the narrator learns the little prince’s story – how he hails from a tiny planet which he carefully tends, how he has traveled through the universe, how he has tamed a fox and been tamed by a rose.

And as we read the little prince’s tale, we learn with him the foolishness of kings pretending to be absolute, of conceited men in their self-admiration, of drunkards drinking to forget their shame, of businessmen so occupied with money that they cannot enjoy life, of workers so busy with work that they never rest, of scholars whose self-importance prevents them from ever actually learning. We learn that everyone and everything is limited in perspective, seeing only what he will and what he can. We learn that relationships are what make life meaningful, that relationships require work. We learn that relationships can cause deep pain, but are also a source of great joy.

We learn, along with the little prince and his new friend, that life does not consist in its outer trappings, in power or position or prestige. Life consists of inner quality, of care for others, of loving and being loved.

And this is why I love this simple and complex little book with its simple and complex little prince.

It is a children’s book, yet not a children’s book – reminding us what really matters.

Rating: 5 stars
Category: Children’s (?) fantasy
Synopsis: A pilot meets a little prince after a crash in the Sahara – and learns great lessons from the little prince’s intergalactic travels.
Recommendation: Absolutely worth reading.

This was Amy’s pick for the Reading to Know Classics Bookclub this month – Check out what others are saying about this book.

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Book Review: Didn’t I Feed You Yesterday? by Laura Bennett

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Laura Bennett is (apparently) best known as a contestant on “Project Runway” – I wouldn’t know since I’ve never seen that show and had never heard of Bennett until I started reading her book. But while Didn’t I Feed You Yesterday? does spend a chapter detailing Bennett’s “Project Runway” experience, the book is really about the adventures of raising six kids in New York City.

Now, if you started to think that this was a book of parenting tips from an experienced parent, you’d be absolutely wrong. Even if she had tried to give advice (which she thankfully doesn’t), you wouldn’t want to take it. Laura Bennett isn’t a professional mommy like New York is rumored to be teaming with (which is a mark in her favor). But neither is she a free-range mom or some other sensible variant. No, Laura’s parenting could be best described as… Well, come to think of it, I have no idea how to describe her parenting – except to maybe say that she doesn’t parent. At least, not in the way you or I think of parenting.

She doesn’t watch her kids, feed her kids, or clean up after her kids. Those tasks are relegated to the two nannies (a morning and an afternoon nanny), the (weekend) “manny”, and her husband’s housekeeper. She doesn’t intentionally teach or discipline her children. She apparently makes no rules for her children, exercises little decision making over their activities (apart from making sure that each child has an activity that they’re into and helping pay the bills for the accompanying classes, camps, etc.), and otherwise does little that I think of as motherly oversight. Well, she does attend their class plays and helps out with homework assignments that involve hot glue guns.

Maybe I’m too harsh on Bennett. Probably I’m too harsh on Bennett. The reality is that raising six kids in the city is very different than raising six kids in the suburbs. As Bennett points out, simply ferrying the kids to and from school and to activities (which are necessary because there’s no yard to send them into) is practically a full time job. And raising six kids in a loft appartment is very different than raising six kids in a suburban ranch. And raising six kids when you have a career is different than raising six kids as a full-time homemaker. This is true. Bennett’s reality is very different than the environment in which I was raised or the environment in which I am raising my own daughter.

But Bennett doesn’t try too hard to get me to identify with her, mentioning her Manolos again and again, complaining about cold or wet weather, or talking of the torture of three weeks with her children at home AND her M/nannies gone.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed this recital of crazy anecdotes about her family, reading with the same fascination I’d feel towards monkeys gamboling about in the zoo. She thought she’d just burn the Christmas tree after Christmas! In their living room! Still in the stand! She taught her child that “bitch” was a feminine term and “bastard” a male – so he could correct the troublemaker who called him a “bitch”! She went with her (now) husband on a safari to Kenya as their second date!

She’s insane.

She’s also funny, if you can get past the crudeness.

Rating: 1 star
Category: Parenting memoir/humor
Synopsis: Bennett tells about her crazy life, raising six kids in New York City.
Recommendation: Probably not worth seeking out.

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Book Review: Bouncing Back after Your Pregnancy by Glade B. Curtis and Judith Schuler

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Of all the books on postpartum issues that I have read so far, Bouncing Back After Your Pregnancy is the most comprehensive and well-organized. Topics flow from immediate issues to infant feeding to maternal nutrition and exercise to marriage and family topics to returning to work and planning your next pregnancy. I’d love to be able to recommend this book.

Unfortunately, the content is simply ridiculous and filled with misinformation. Episiotomies are assumed and, to read the chapters on immediate postpartum care, you’d think the episiotomy is really the most important part of childbirth (before and after). The exercises in the exercise chapter are laughable – some aren’t really much by way of exercise and several list the wrong muscle groups as the ones being exercised. No distinctions are made between strength exercises and stretching and no attention is given to grouping exercises into any logical pattern. And the breastfeeding advice…

Let’s just say the authors probably couldn’t be more anti-breastfeeding if they tried.

Bottle-feeding is listed first in the infant feeding chapter and great pains are taken to list every possible advantage of bottlefeeding and to minimize any possible disadvantage you might have heard. Once the authors get around to discussing breastfeeding, a bold section heading offers “disadvantages to breastfeeding”. Almost every bit of breastfeeding advice is given as a blanket statement that assumes breastfeeding is uncomfortable, messy, and inconvenient. Mothers are educated on “warning signs” in a breastfed baby – but not told what signs suggest that breastfeeding is going well. The authors only recommed breastfeeding for six months and reassure moms that the majority of mothers don’t go that long.

Bad breastfeeding advice and attitudes aren’t limited to the breastfeeding chapter. In the chapter on nutrition, mothers are given lists of foods not to eat while breastfeeding (actually, most breastfeeding babies will grow and thrive even if their mothers make NO changes at all to their diet – even if the mother is eating unhealthfully in the first place.) The chapter on returning to work mentions the possibility of pumping and gives a little advice, but the advice is incomplete and doesn’t offer any middle ground. Yes, I’d rather a baby get only breastmilk, even while his mom’s at work – but feeding formula while you’re away and breastfeeding at the breast when you’re with baby is better than weaning completely, and is TOTALLY doable (I’ve seen dozens of women, mostly Hispanic, who have very good success with this.)

So no, I can’t recommend this book. I’ve focused on the breastfeeding issues mostly because that is an area in which I have expertise, but the problems with the breastfeeding advice are just an example of the poor research and rampant misinformation found within this book.

I do NOT recommend Bouncing Back after Your Pregnancy.

Rating: 0 stars
Category: Postpartum health
Synopsis: A look at issues facing postpartum moms.
Recommendation: Full of misinformation. Not recommended.

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Book Review: Horrible Histories: France by Terry Deary

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Daniel heard Mike Duncan (a history podcaster who we both enjoy) mention this book as a child’s introduction to the French Revolution – so he requested it via interlibrary loan to review as a potential homeschool resource. Of course, that meant that I would review it as a potential homeschool resource – both since I would likely be the one using it and because I’m the one with more time for reading.

Horrible Histories: France delights in retelling all the, well, horrible things in France’s history through the nineteenth century. As such, it details not a few novel means of torturing and executing enemies, ridiculous and disgusting ways to cure diseases, and as many “potty” kings as possible. Yes, “potty” aka “mad” aka “crazy”. This is a British book, and includes not a few British colloquialisms.

Horrible Histories intersperses time-based chapters “Murky Middle Ages” and “Savage Seventeenth Century” with categorical chapters like “Kurious kings” and “Awful for Animals”. The majority of the chapters, up until the “Savage Seventeenth Century” are made up of anecdotes and trivia, such that I had a hard time placing the anecdotes within any historical context or meta-narrative. This, I think is the primary weakness of this book as a homeschool resource.

On the other hand, as Daniel pointed out when I discussed the book with him, many youngsters enter the world of history as lovers of trivia – and later go on to develop a thirst for the greater narrative (as he himself did.) This is very true. I can see a preteen boy loving the grotesque trivia, as well as the many little quizzes (not over the material, as if to test knowledge, but in order to impart information through a guessing game) and cartoons found throughout.

I don’t think I would deliberately put this book into a preteens hands, in part because its format isn’t my own favorite way of receiving information and in part because of the rather snotty attitude it has towards parents and teachers. That said, if I had a child who got interested in history and picked this up at the library, I doubt I would dissuade him from reading it. (Of course, if he started copping that sort of attitude toward me? We’d be having a little talk about the divine right of mothers.)

Rating: 2 stars
Category: Middle Grade History
Synopsis: A catalog of every gross or awful anecdote you can think of from France’s history through the eighteenth century.
Recommendation: I wouldn’t seek it out, but I also wouldn’t keep my child from reading it if he found it on his own.

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Book Review: Cut, Stapled, and Mended by Roanna Rosewood

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The first chapter includes a sex scene, bodily possession, and a token reference to “a woman’s right to choose”. So I think it’s safe to say that Roanna Rosewood and I have very different philosophies of life.

The rest of this VBAC memoir confirmed that. From the beginning I was inclined to not like Rosewood very much. I felt somewhat heartened when she told the reader that though she’d been raised in the mystic spirituality of the hippy 60’s, she had considered it useless as an adult – but she quickly found that particular brand of spirituality again. Rosewood also has a antipathy towards doctors that transferred from her hippy heritage – one that I don’t share (I’m squarely in the Western medical establishment – I just believe that for the majority of cases, childbirth is not a medical event.) Furthermore, Rosewood has a complete lack of discernment regarding alternate practitioners.

The short of Rosewood’s story is that she intended to have a homebirth but didn’t prepare her body at all because childbirth is natural and why did she need to learn about it? Her waters broke to start labor, but then labor piddled around for days until her midwife insisted that she did indeed need to go to the hospital. There, she received a c-section. She felt great failure, didn’t bond with her baby, etc. etc. I felt like she set herself up for what she got.

Determined to have a home VBAC, Rosewood threw herself into physical preparation and childbirth education. She learned the stats and became one of those annoying VBAC proponents (yes, I say this with tongue in cheek). She actually learned about the stages of labor and management techniques this time around. She walked like her midwife encouraged her to so she could have some strength and stamina when labor rolled around. And she engaged in every quack therapy you can think of (and some you can’t think of).

Her second labor followed the first’s example, and she ended up with a second c-section. This one was better, because she knew what to expect and had done some things to prepare. She had skin to skin, got started breastfeeding more quickly, etc. But it was still failure.

She didn’t plan to get pregnant the third time, it was an accident born of “goddess sex”. And she didn’t plan on keeping the baby, she just kept putting off taking the Plan B her doctor had prescribed. What she did plan was a home birth, acting expressly against the policy of the OB she was also seeing, in case she needed to deliver in the hospital. This pregnancy actually seemed more medically risky – she bled clots early on and had various other scary signs – but this time she did some inner work in addition to the physical stuff. She discovered that she was a bitter woman who pushed other women away, that she had never learned how to relax and just be, etc. So she went on a voyage of emotional and relational discovery (including a “goddess week” in Hawaii). Then she had a successful home birth when her inner goddess pushed for her.

I don’t recommend this story. Rosewood is a flake. Both her methods and her beliefs are highly suspect.

Which doesn’t mean that I didn’t have a takeaway. The truth is, childbirth isn’t simply a physical thing. A woman’s mind and emotions do impact the progression of labor – and it’s important to not ignore that. Relationship with your labor support is important. Having a goal beyond “not failing again” is important.

That said, there are many differences between Rosewood’s sections and mine. I do not feel my c-section was a failure. It was not forced on me, I chose it. While Rosewood experienced a very difficult labor after premature rupture of membranes, I never went into labor. Rosewood’s initial experience of premature rupture of membranes followed by stop and go labor was repeated in each of her pregnancies. At present, I have never gone through labor and have no reason to expect that my labor should not proceed normally.

I will be preparing for my first labor and delivery, which just happens to be after a c-section. Rosewood was trying to correct what she’d done wrong in her first labor and delivery in order to avoid the undesirable outcome she had. It’s a very different experience – and one that causes us to have very different mindsets from the outset.

Rating: 1 star
Category: Childbirth memoir
Synopsis: Rosewood tries for a home VBAC twice – and learns that childbirth isn’t just physical.
Recommendation: I don’t recommend it.

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Book Review: Vaginal Birth after Cesarean by Elizabeth Kaufmann

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What would you do if you had a cesarean with your first child and just happened to get pregnant with your second child when a national push to lower cesarean rates was forefront in everyone’s mind? Your doctor says you’re a good candidate for vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC), your HMO wants to pay less money (and is therefore rooting for vaginal birth), and societal pressure pushes you toward VBAC.

In Elizabeth Kaufmann’s case, she reluctantly agreed to a trial of labor with certain stipulations. The VBAC was successful, but the baby was delivered with forceps and Kaufmann experienced significant tearing.

Then, she wrote Vaginal Birth after Cesarean: The Smart Woman’s Guide to VBAC to keep other women from experiencing the horror of vaginal delivery.

Or at least that’s how this book seems. While Kaufmann does share some potentially useful information regarding cesarean sections, VBACs, and repeat cesareans, every page is infused with her experience and subsequent antipathy toward anyone suggesting that a woman who is a good candidate for VBAC should indeed go through a trial of labor.

Who does Congress, who does the HMO, who does the doctor think they are to tell a woman how she should give birth? Since when should medical standards or money be a factor?

But those are political topics that I won’t go into here.

The part that makes Kaufmann’s book most unhelpful to the modern-day mama who wants information about VBAC isn’t her obvious bias, though. It’s that the world Kaufmann is raging against doesn’t exist.

In 1996, when this book was written, VBAC was supported by medical policy and by insurance companies – and doctors were employing the same active management to VBAC as they were (and still are) to other vaginal deliveries. Women were being induced with Cytotec, Cervidil, and pitocin. Labors that weren’t progressing according to Friedman’s curve (an antiquated description of the labor process based on a significantly different population than today’s moms and describing labor under significantly different circumstances than either normal or currently managed labors) were augmented with Pitocin. Surprisingly (can you hear the sarcasm?), these women whose VBAC attempts were managed thus ended up with increased labor and delivery complications.

And, of course, the good people who write policies decided that meant VBAC wasn’t quite as good an idea as they’d originally thought, so they set new policies in place to make it hard to try a VBAC, much less to succeed at it.

And that’s where we’re at now.

Few women are being coerced by doctors or insurance plans into having unwanted vaginal deliveries. Instead, many women who would love to deliver normally and who have a good chance at being able to, were the natural processes allowed to unfold naturally, are being denied the possibility of VBAC.

So Kaufmann’s book is simply unhelpful. It is written to try to give women who were feeling coerced into VBAC an out – but women aren’t being coerced into VBAC these days. The situation is quite the opposite.

For those who are interested in the history of VBAC, the Well-Rounded Mama has an excellent overview

Rating: 1 star
Category: Medical/childbirth
Synopsis: Kaufmann has a chip on her should and rages against VBAC policies that no longer exist.
Recommendation: Singularly unhelpful for the modern woman interested in learning about VBAC.

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Book Review: Isle of Swords by Wayne Thomas Batson

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“It’s an allegory of spiritual warfare,” they told me, when I questioned them about the book on the ledge in front of them.

“Okay,” I nodded. “Is it kinda like Frank Peretti’s stuff? Is there an author I’d recognize that he’s like?”

Their mother interjected, “I don’t know that you kids have read any Frank Peretti.”

I laughed, realizing I was dating myself – I was reading Frank Peretti two decades ago.

They suggested C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia as similar books.

I took their recommendation and checked Isle of Swords out of the church library.

It reminded me of Frank Peretti’s “Cooper Kids Adventure series”, which I read, well, 20 years ago. It did not at all remind me of C.S. Lewis.

Then again, I realized about halfway through that this title wasn’t a part of the trilogy they’d be recommending (Most likely “The Door Within Trilogy”). Reading the descriptions of Batson’s other books, I can see that this is certainly less allegorical than that series, although still a bit supernatural.

Isle of Swords tells the story of Captain Declan Ross, a sailor forced into piracy by a dearth of jobs after his stint in the Irish navy was over. He wants to get out of piracy, especially because his daughter Anne has decided the pirate’s life is the life for her – and he knows his dead wife would not approve. Getting out of piracy might be a hard task though, especially since he managed to raise the ire of Bartholomew Thorne, the most fearsome pirate on the sea. He might be lucky if he gets out with his life.

Nevertheless, he offers shelter to a badly beaten boy and then to a mysterious monk. As it turns out, these two might just hold the key to the treasure Ross needs to break free.

But Bartholomew Thorne wants the treasure – and Ross’s two refugees – too. Will the monk be able to lead Ross to claim the treasure of Constantine before Thorne gets him? Will the boy ever discover his identity? Will Anne be stuck in piracy as well?

I had a difficult time getting into this book at first – the first two chapters are backstory of a sort and served only to confuse me. I would have greatly preferred that the author had started with chapter three, giving the information in the first two chapters as flashbacks if needed (which I rather doubt.) Nevertheless, once I got past those first few chapters, I was pulled into the story and found it to be fun and engaging, even if it isn’t groundbreaking.

Published by Thomas Nelson, this is a clean book although only nominally Christian. Ross is a “noble pirate” who doesn’t kill needlessly or torture or take slaves – but he isn’t a believer (obviously). The story involves the purported treasure of Constantine, stolen from the Catholic church centuries ago, but stolen back by a group of priests who now guard it, using the treasure judiciously to fund mission work. These priests are regarded as holy men and one of them figures prominently in this story – but their Christianity seems merely a backdrop to the adventurous plot.

Nevertheless, parents could feel comfortable letting their early teens read this book, I think. It’s not a bad story and is entertaining.

Now, to find the series my young friends were actually recommending :-)

Rating: 3 stars
Category: Adventure novel
Synopsis: Declan Ross vows to protect a priest, who will give him a share of the legendary treasure of Constantine – but can he escape the dangerous pirate Bartholomew Thorne, who has a grudge against Ross and a hankering for the same treasure?
Recommendation: Clean, engaging, but not particularly groundbreaking. If you’re into adventure stories, it’s a decent one – otherwise, it’s nothing special.

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Book Review: Nesting: It’s a Chick Thing by Ame Mahler Beanland & Emily Miles Terry

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Do you love to decorate, entertain, cook, and garden – all with a half dozen of your best friends in tow? Do you adore coming up with excuses for getting your girlfriends together to paint (nails or walls) and drink (wine or girlie drinks)? Do you like reading about the domestic arts?

Then you might like Nesting: It’s a Chick Thing by Ame Marhler Beanland & Emily Miles Terry.

Apparently, the authors have another book called It’s a Chick Thing: Celebrating the Wild Side of Women’s Friendship, and this is a riff on that.

I didn’t know this when I picked up this book. Didn’t know that a large focus of this book would be girlfriends.

I didn’t particularly enjoy that part.

I’ve had friends over the years, but close friends have been few and far between. I love entertaining “the girls” when I’ve got “the girls” to entertain. I like homemaking – it’s my full-time job just now – but I don’t really do it with anyone else.

Now is a rather solitary season for me, a fact that is melancholy when I think of it – and which is probably why I prefer not to think of it. This book didn’t allow me that luxury.

So, if you’re me, this is probably not the best option for you.

If, on the other hand, you’re eager to hear little anecdotes about a variety of women’s homemaking lives and how they do life along with their friends, or if you’re looking for new party ideas for girlfriend get-togethers, this might be an enjoyable book for you.

It’s an eclectic book in four parts covering four aspects of homemaking: decorating, entertaining, cooking, and gardening. It contains stories from the authors as well as excerpts from dozens of different women on each of the topics. It also contains craft ideas, recipes, suggestions for parties, and little blurbs on finding your gardening style or your man’s entertaining style. Vintage photos with snarky captions are sprinkled throughout.

It’s the sort of thing I generally enjoy, apart from the girlfriend aspect – but, in this case, the girlfriend aspect had it falling flat for me.

Maybe it’ll appeal to you more.

Rating: 2 stars
Category: Women’s Interest: Homemaking
Synopsis: Anecdotes and ideas from homemaking women – all about homemaking with your girlfriends.
Recommendation: Eh. I didn’t particularly care for it, but others might.