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Summary: A book every young expectant mother should read
Review: I was very touched by the innocence and humor expressed by this young mother after going through such a traumatic event. The book made me laugh and cry and it is a real tribute to Ms. Leary that she was able to come out of the situation with her humor intact. It is a lesson to every expectant mother that although things don't always go the way we imagine, blessings come even after seeming disasters.
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Summary: A delight!
Review: Loved the book - her sense of humor is amazing, the whole experience remarkable. Even the choice of title is a clever indication of the pleasure to come. I recommend it whole-heartedly.
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Summary: A poignant story with lots of humor
Review: Loved this book by new author Leary. She kept my attention from beginning to end. A book anyone would love, especially a parent. I wonder what it's like living in the Leary household with two hilarious parents! What's next?
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Summary: Should be mandatory reading for any NICU parents
Review: My wife and I were, in many ways, in the same boat as the Learys - our child was born at 28 weeks, with a variety of health problems, and had to spend 10 weeks in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (the American version of the British SCBU). We were astounded by the parallels between her thought process and ours. Over and over, we read of the exact same thoughts, worries and conversations that we had.This is a great book for the parents of premature or otherwise complicated babies. Reading this, you'll see that what you're feeling is normal; that your thoughts and your worries are shared by others. As such, it makes good 'therapy,' without being heavy-handed.
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Summary: Better than the Egg & I
Review: One of my favorite books was "The Egg & I" written in the 40's. This book riminds me of that book. Ann Leary puts you right there in London with all the fears of being in a foreign city with a premature birth. Her observations are funny and touching at the same time. A great read! Can't wait for her next book
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Summary: What a Find!
Review: Please write more! There are many books out there about being a mom, but few as filled with love, reality and passion as Ann Leary's new book. I found it genuine, tender and funny! It will be the book I give to all my friends for Mother's Day this year. Great job, I could not put it down.
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Summary: Finally
Review: The men have been getting a lot of coverage lately with their witty, sometimes pathos-filled memoirs (See David Sedaris [the best of the bunch], Augusten Burroughs, Dave Eggers, et al.) but where have all the women been hiding? Ann Leary is breaking out of the pack with a short, unsentimental, funny and affecting first novel, a look at her months- long incarceration in England when her first child, Jack is born premature. Although fans of Denis Leary might be eager to see him in print, he plays a minimal role since this is really Ann and Jack's story. I applaud her clean and swift moving prose, admire her willingness to avoid glamorizing herself, and thoroughly enjoyed her unfortunate circumstances. She manages to render a story that could have too emotional both funny and poignant. Perhaps the best part is her realization that for all she felt as if she was trapped in a barbarian country and subjected to weird, foreign medical technologies, the care she received in England was more skilled and advanced than what she would have received in the United States. Oh the irony! While there are no great revelations or life-changing affirmations, Leary manages to write well about a small drama in her life that can be enjoyed by many. Perhaps too restricted in scope to really break into the big time, I imagine given the subject matter that this will still attract a large female audience, but it should by no means limit it to the feminine gender. Three and half stars.
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Summary: A Learning Experience
Review: This is a thoroughly delightful book. The tale of a young American woman hospitalized alone in London and delivering a very premature baby boy wouldn't seem to be the stuff of diversion. But Ann Leary's take on her situation, her family, and most of all herself make the book a treat. Her tenderness toward her baby, born three months early and weighing in at two pounds six ounces is also clearly apparent and touchingly rendered. Baby Jack came as alive for me as any of the other characters--though it is fun to have some information on Leary's good-looking, funny husband, actor Denis Leary, as well. Leary is funny, and she's funniest of all when she offers up insights about herself in a manner reminiscent of Bridget in Bridget Jones's Diary--the contrast between the image of herself she creates in her mind and her behavior in fact are terrific, and even better when you realize she is growing as the story progresses. In the painful process of having Jack and enduring her fears of everything from his dying to offending the English and managing the ghastly breast pump, she gains in confidence and sense of self. She engages us, and we're with her every step of the way. I was also enchanted by Leary's prose itself, which is clear and scrupulously correct, making her book a rarity and a joy to read in this day and age. I'm actually not much for memoirs, but I loved this one. If Leary were to write a novel, I bet it would be wonderful. Let's hope she does: I'll buy it for sure.
Rating:
Summary: A Learning Experience
Review: This is a thoroughly delightful book. The tale of a young American woman hospitalized alone in London and delivering a very premature baby boy wouldn't seem to be the stuff of diversion. But Ann Leary's take on her situation, her family, and most of all herself make the book a treat. Her tenderness toward her baby, born three months early and weighing in at two pounds six ounces is also clearly apparent and touchingly rendered. Baby Jack came as alive for me as any of the other characters--though it is fun to have some information on Leary's good-looking, funny husband, actor Denis Leary, as well. Leary is funny, and she's funniest of all when she offers up insights about herself in a manner reminiscent of Bridget in Bridget Jones's Diary--the contrast between the image of herself she creates in her mind and her behavior in fact are terrific, and even better when you realize she is growing as the story progresses. In the painful process of having Jack and enduring her fears of everything from his dying to offending the English and managing the ghastly breast pump, she gains in confidence and sense of self. She engages us, and we're with her every step of the way. I was also enchanted by Leary's prose itself, which is clear and scrupulously correct, making her book a rarity and a joy to read in this day and age. I'm actually not much for memoirs, but I loved this one. If Leary were to write a novel, I bet it would be wonderful. Let's hope she does: I'll buy it for sure.
Rating:
Summary: I laughed till I cried
Review: This is not just a memoir for mothers to be. It is Ann Leary's unique, self- deprecating, caustic and hilarious account of what it feels like to be trapped in a foreign country and at the mercy of strangers. Her fears are our fears, her insights become the reader's. You laugh along with her as you would laugh at yourself. She has a way of saying exactly what you would be thinking and nodding your head in agreement and talking back to the book as if it were a very close friend. I felt a need to read aloud passages (and did) to whoever I was near at the time, so that they too, could join me in my delight. I laughed out loud many times, in public places, while reading it on my trip to Ireland (it only lasted the plane flight and one day, as I couldn't put it down) and I wept openly at one point, sniffling into my pot of tea. If you are traveling abroad, it should be at the top of your list and if you are not, read it anyway and you will feel like you are. It's Postcards From The Edge, but without the drugs and rehab. Her own personal kind of hell that must have been brutal while going through it and filled with humor and wit upon reflection. What else can one say, except that as a personal memoir, this one not only delivers exactly why these books should be written, it makes you want more of them. Hoping she doesn't make us wait too long for her next book, to see how she further tackles life, in her own inimitable style.
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