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Summary: Brutally honest...
Review: You'll need to keep a box of Kleenex handy for this book because you'll either be laughing so hard tears stream down your face or you'll be sobbing over the tragically sad and tenderly touching passages. Anne Lamott writes about her first year of single motherhood and her magnificent yet extremely trying baby boy, Sam. She's brutally honest about the good and the bad. If you have fluffy powder blue and pastel pink images of parenthood, brace yourself for some shattered illusions. Her nutty family, endearingly loyal friends, eccentric church congregation, and Marin County community of slightly off center characters create a real pageturner. Anne Lamott takes us on a privileged journey into her very peculiar mind. Despite what she claims in one paragraph, it really is a fun place to visit. Also woven through the story is the sorrowful tale of the failing health of her best friend. Be prepared to gobble this book up in one sitting. _Operating Instructions_ is an uncompromising story from the true trenches of parenthood. There's no idealized "What to Expect..." nonsense here. Also, Anne is a Christian but is a radical, liberal, defiant one. For those of you who have somewhat narrow ideas about what it means to be a Christian, take a look at Annie...she'll twist your mind around like a pretzel. Some people may find Lamott's leftwing politics and theology offensive. Also, parents should be warned that this book contains very coarse language. I first read this book when I was still single and had no children. I was hooked! Years later when I was pregnant with my son, I pulled it back off the shelf and used it almost like a reference book...a glimpse of things to come! During my son's first year, my husband and I often referred to passages from this book in our struggling efforts to maintain a sense of humor in the midst of newborn madness. I have reread _Operating Instructions_ many times over the years and have also recommended it to others and given it as a gift. I now recommend it to you...
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Summary: This book saved a new mother's life!
Review: When I gave birth to a son in 1997 I, quite honestly, didn't know what hit me. I felt joy and wonder but I wasn't "blissed out" the way the people around me expected me to be. I was too frightened by my changing life to be able to live in the moment, laugh at the mishaps, and enjoy the "new guy." The "life-line" I found was literally this book. I read it over and over, as if it was some tonic that assuaged my fears about "doing everything right" and being a perfect mother. I can't tell you the number of times I quoted Lamott's writings to others. She helped me get through a difficult period and adjust. This book changed me. Read it. Lamott is a gifted writer who tells it like it (REALLY) is.
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Summary: The truth in words
Review: Anne Lamott never ceases to capture my exclusive attention. This book is not only a page turner, it's a laugh until it hurts wonder!!! Whether you have children or not, this is a must read for any person looking for an honest account of life on life's terms.
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Summary: Borrowed it twice, then bought it
Review: This was the first of many enjoyable Anne Lamott books which I have read, and it is still my favorite. As far as I am concerned,it gets to the heart of what it means to be a sleep-deprived mother who nonetheless must move forward through each day, finding humor, meaning, and maintaining sanity. With each page I laugh, I cry, and I sigh, and find something with which I can relate. I, too, have entertained evil thoughts in the middle of the night when I have to get up to nurse for the umpteenth time, or wondered why my child is so angelic when people come over to admire her, yet give no indication that she is the very reason why I can barely put one foot front of the other because of fatigue. Anne's network of caring friends reminded me that it is indeed friends who brought her through all of her rough times of single-mom, post-addiction motherhood, and that friendship has many purposes, meanings and depths. She randomly (with divine guidance?) stumbled into her fine caring church one day and saved her life, or perhaps I should say that God and those fine people helped her save it. Whenever I wish to read a book for pure enjoyment, never want it to end, and want to risk waking up my husband with my laughter, I reach for Lamott. For those of you easily offended by swearing, please don't take offense at what you may find here. Anne is a deeply religious woman who loves God with all of her heart, but has taken a different, more difficult path from most to get where I wish that I was. How can one fault someone who was on the cover of "Today's Christian Woman" this past year? A white middle-aged woman? In dredlocks? Please run, don't walk, to get this book. Stongly consider grabbing her other favorite of mine, "Travelling Mercies", if you wish to find out more of what happened earlier in her life, what happened to Anne and Sam after "Operating Instructions", or if you are on your own faith walk (aren't we all in one way or another).
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Summary: Funny, complex, and sometimes dark....
Review: I'm glad my son was 9 when I read this book. While I loved Annie Lamott as the person she presented herself as(she was so HONEST!),the book took me back to those dark times of new motherhood. The book was hilarious but the undercurrent of self-doubts and mixed feelings towards your baby- while real- I think I'd rather forget. I thought this was a simple book about a very complex REAL person. I loved her emotions, her honesty, her very humorous writing style, and her ability to be "every woman". It may be realistic but I'm not sure it's a must read for new or expecting parents! I loved it but at the same time found it to be disturbing. (Maybe that's the point!) Great job, Annie.
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Summary: Truth Be Told
Review: This book is fantastic! Anne Lamott bravely shares the pantheon of emotions that new mothers and veteran mothers alike endure but rarely allow themselves to explore. She does so with gut-wrenching honesty and side-splitting hilarity. She is quite honest and, therefore, can seem offensive, however, if truth be told, she reaches into the places we mothers can be fearful to go and reaches out with an unpretentious, humorous hand of reality.
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Summary: Hilarious and Comforting
Review: Forget "What to Expect When You're Expecting"...this book tells what it's REALLY like to have an infant in the house (Lamott hits it on the head when she says it's like having a "really, really bad roommate, like Janis Joplin with PMS"). This gem of a book lets parents everywhere know that they are not alone, that feelings of frustration and desperation mixed with incomparable love and wonder are normal, which is especially comforting to new parents, who may believe there is something wrong with them. This is the side of parenting that not a lot of people talk about, but the one that nearly every new parent experiences. Lamott gives us stories to identify with and laugh at as we make our way.
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Summary: enlightening
Review: Anne Lamott's account of motherhood was enlightening. I am a single woman over 35 who dreams of marriage and motherhood and found this book sobering. With sometime thoughts of just having a baby on my own, this gave me some more food for thought. Thanks for making the experience live for me.
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Summary: fantastic, didn't want it to end
Review: I had the benefit of a very caring husband by my side during the first year and delivery of our son, but I found myself relating and cheering on annie's first year as a mother. the only caveat I would add is, it gets easier. my son is now almost two and every day with him a gift from God. the way she wove in other events and details from her life made this book electric. I've read it 3 times and it fully deserves to be the continual bestseller that it is. a soul-enriching journey and also very, very funny and extremely moving, as all her work is......
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Summary: A Must Even for Non-Moms
Review: Those of us who have yet to be mothers may be turned off by the subject of Operating Instructions, but I can assure you that Lamott can delight Moms and non-Moms alike. She writes with brutal honesty about the times she hated her son. She shares thoughts that most of us have about friends, ourselves, etc. but don't dare admit to. Plus, the book is laugh out loud funny. The short entires make for quick reading because there's always a good stopping point, although if you're like me, you'll find you want to read just one more.
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