Rating: 
Summary: Look at us! We're the first humans ever to have babies!
Review: I had difficulty getting through the self-conscious, affected and clumsy Vassar-dropout-style prose. I thought the book was poorly edited, and the politics stank. Here is a collection of entitlement-saturated young women who believe they've discovered the that the One True Path ends right in their own wombs. This might be a fresh perspective, except that there's enough text suggesting that any alternate paths are either (1) uncool, or (2) owe the authors a living, that any liberated intent the book had has fizzled.This is the kind of solipsistic fluff, seen on Salon and other 'zines, where it's obvious the authors are incapable of researching topics outside themselves. As some other reviewers have expressed, I fear for the children these "Breeders" are raising. The authors' gifts to the future sound like they will be anarchistic, self-obsessed little deviants, utterly without taboos, raised to believe that if it doesn't feel good (i.e. school, constructive criticism, work, hygiene, self-control) they don't have to do it. I should probably consider a gun purchase to protect myself from whatever comes out at the other end of their way-cool, hip and reckless childhoods.
Rating:
Summary: Look at us! We're the first humans ever to have babies!
Review: I had difficulty getting through the self-conscious, affected and clumsy Vassar-dropout-style prose. I thought the book was poorly edited, and the politics stank. Here is a collection of entitlement-saturated young women who believe they've discovered the that the One True Path ends right in their own wombs. This might be a fresh perspective, except that there's enough text suggesting that any alternate paths are either (1) uncool, or (2) owe the authors a living, that any liberated intent the book had has fizzled. This is the kind of solipsistic fluff, seen on Salon and other 'zines, where it's obvious the authors are incapable of researching topics outside themselves. As some other reviewers have expressed, I fear for the children these "Breeders" are raising. The authors' gifts to the future sound like they will be anarchistic, self-obsessed little deviants, utterly without taboos, raised to believe that if it doesn't feel good (i.e. school, constructive criticism, work, hygiene, self-control) they don't have to do it. I should probably consider a gun purchase to protect myself from whatever comes out at the other end of their way-cool, hip and reckless childhoods.
Rating: 
Summary: Speaking my language
Review: I just finished reading Breeder. Before I was halfway through I had two copies sent to friends. I laughed, I cried, (a lot!), I want the t-shirt. These essays touched my heart. I've never read anything like these stories, except Ariel Gore's book The Mother Trip, but this is a chorus of voices, singing of love and motherhood, searching for and finding grace and raising the next generation. Their voices touched me, illuminated my path as a mother, helped me see the value of my own experiences. This is a book to share with friends, to talk about and to reread. I think it will send young mothers, single mothers, mothers of all races and experiences to their journals, to write their lives for themselves, for their children, maybe for us to read. I hope so. I want to read it.
Rating:
Summary: LOVE IT!
Review: I just picked up Breeder and I cannot stop reading it! I cried while reading Neo-Natal Sweet Potato. I am telling you, this book is wonderful! Your only regret in picking it up is that you won't be able to put it down!!
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read!
Review: I just received this book from my husband and what a wonderful gift! I read "When I Was Garbage" by Allison Crews and I can't stop thinking about it! You husbands out there, take note! You should buy this book for the hipMama in your life!
Rating:
Summary: not your average parenting book
Review: I never read parenting books because they always tell me what to do, think, believe, and buy. No thanks-- I don't need someone else to think for me. I do need to hear honest accounts of how other people struggle through the messiness of regular life. This book offers thirty-six diverse stories about things we've all experienced, and some that we all hope to avoid. This book is hilarious, heart-breaking, and inspiring all at once. This is the best book I've read all year!
Rating:
Summary: This book makes me feel normal
Review: I read this book in one day, then I flipped to the first page and started it again. It says so much to me and to so many other mamas who feel they are alone, that motherhood is an island to be stranded on. These women's voices make me feel sane, validated, and they are all people I can relate to. These are beautiful, happy, and sometimes heartbreaking stories of the hard truths of motherhood, the things no one talks about but should. I think the title itself says so much. It is so great to be reclaiming a word that people see as negative and making it something positive and affirming. I highly recommend this original take on motherhood, as well as Ariel Gore's previous two books, which got me through some really hard times.
Rating:
Summary: Breeder Gives Mothers a Voice
Review: I think new mothers are some of the loneliest, most isolated people on earth. We can be found sitting in our comfortable rocking chairs, nursing our babes, and wondering why nobody bothered to tell us what motherhood was really like. Why nobody told us about the fear, the mind-jarring joy, the emotional intensity, and why nobody told us about the way that becoming mothers would forever change us. Most of the new mothers I know are searching for voices, looking for someone or something who can articulate what they are going through, trying to find someone to tell them that what they are feeling is not only normal and okay, but also as profound as we suspect it to be. That's why a book like Breeder is so important. It's a collection of essays by a collection of young mothers (and one dad) who have a lot of truth to tell. It covers everything from the ambivalence a newly pregnant woman deals with (""Will" by Min Jin Lee) to the penetrating love and connection a teen mother feels even before her child is born ("When I Was Garbage" by Allison Crews). There is the story of the mother who sat vigil over her baby in the neonatal unit at a New York City hospital ("Neonatal Sweet Potato" by Ayun Halliday) and the story of a mother who discovered the ferocity and power of giving birth in her own home ("Birth" by Angela Morill). There are some very funny stories: "Pinworm Patrol" by Gayle Brandeis covers one of the dirtier, more necessary chores of motherhood, and should be required reading for anyone with romantic visions of sleeping cherub children with flushed cheeks and golden curls, and "Baby Vibe" by Julie Jamison is a hilarious story of the way a mother's sexuality can be compromised by the innocent things her child may do. These are women who are dealing with the high expectations society puts on them today, who are working both toward their dreams and turning their backs on the expected path. In "Progress" Coleen Murphy writes about dropping out of college to become a stay-at-home-mom to her two boys. She writes about a disapproving friend who keeps asking when she will get her life back in order and go back to school: "So," he said brightly, "when these two little guys are a few years older, you'll be thinking of school again, and you can go finish up and head on to law school." I hesitated. What the hell," I thought, might as well be honest. "The thing is, I'm pretty sure I want to have more children." You could have heard a pin drop. These essays are frank, ballsy, and fresh. They are honest, funny and fierce. They are inspiring, complex, and deeply moving. They made this writer (and new mother) breath a sigh of recognition and relief; we mothers are not alone, and we have something very important to say.
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Summary: This is feminism?
Review: I thought feminism was about choosing your destiny, not necessarily succumbing to biology. I didn't know that it was now imperative that women accept that they have pretty much no choice but to "breed" to feel self-worth, AND to be proud of it as "our destiny" and our primary value to society, AND to expect entitlements from un-childed persons because of a choice that BREEDERS make. Making imperative breeding seem like a "cool" thing to do is only a guise. What's really happening is a reversal of everything feminists have worked hard to achieve. The CHOICE of having children, and it being OKAY not to have them. I mean JUST AS okay not to have them. The child-free life is not a lesser calling, yet you would get that impression from reading this book. The fact that these women call themselves "breeders" says it all. To me this book represents nothing more than a slap in the face to any *real* feminist.
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT
Review: I truly enjoyed this book and have passed it on to friends. It is a great read whether you have kids or not.
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