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Summary: Hilariously funny and deeply touching
Review: In "Operating Instructions," Anne Lamott gives a day-by-day, hysterically funny, portrait of her son's first year. Her difficulties with sleep deprivation, colic, struggles to stay free from her various addictions, grief at her own father's death and her son's father's disappearance are conveyed with self-deprecating humor and wit. Especially poignant are the entries in which she mentions the enormous love and support she receives from her friends, her discussion of her faith, and her close friend's illness.As a veteran nanny, all I can say is that this book ought to be required reading for any teenager, male or female, or anyone else who might think that raising a baby is all sweetness and light and moonbeams. Ms. Lamott offers a wonderful, funny, and realistic look at the challenges, difficulties and rewards of parenting. A very good, well-written, and interesting book.
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Summary: A must-read for anyone having (or who has ever been) a child
Review: Operating Instructions is a wise, funny, sad, and above all, heartbreakingly human book. Anne Lamott has captured the joys and anxieties of new motherhood in down-to-earth, fluid prose. I give this book to all of my new-mother friends. Don't head for the Maternity Ward without it!
Rating: 
Summary: Essential reading for parents to be
Review: As a soon-to-be dad, I found this book eye-opening. A refreshing change from all those sweet, bubbly memoirs on parenting. I've always felt equipped to nurture a child, but until I read this book, I had no idea just how much that child might nurture me.
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Summary: Even for non-mothers!
Review: This is one of the most important books I've read (and re-read) because Lamott is so truthful about what every single day, good and bad, is like. Though I am not raising children, I find her patience with her own imperfections very comforting. The book is a quick read--her informal, chatty diary entries zip by. She introduces us to a wonderful cast of characters and offers enough "mundane" details to make us feel a part of her life. This book is much better than some of her early, barely-disguised autobiography that she passed off as fiction. Once she has dropped the mask of fiction and is sharing everything, she is much more powerful.
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Summary: It's nice to know I'm not the only one who felt this way!
Review: I think the people that gave this book a negative review missed the point that it's a journal...it was what Anne Lamott was thinking as she was going through her son's first year. God forbid any of those people read my diary! I thought this book was extraordinary in how well she captured how much you can love and then hate this little human being you produced within the space of a few seconds. I will be buying this book for all my pregnant friends.
Rating:
Summary: Wow -- thanks.
Review: As I write this, I am around 33 weeks pregnant with my first child -- a child who is also an "accident" and also a boy. Especially because I didn't plan to have kids at this particular moment in my life, as soon as I found out I was pregnant I raced to the bookstore (typical response for me) and started buying books -- on pregnancy, childbirth, parenting, anything I could get my hands on that would make up for what I didn't know. A friend recommended this book along with a pile of others, and eventually I picked it up on one of my innumerable trips to the pregnancy/parenting section of a local bookstore. By then I knew a lot of the basics on all that pregnancy and childbirth stuff, but this was the first and remains the only book that really helped me imagine what it will be like to have a child. A lot of men and women I know have a hard time imagining interesting, intelligent, dynamic people like themselves and those they know as parents. It was wonderful and emotional to hear from an interesting, intelligent, dynamic woman about her own experiences with parenting as a surprise life choice. The woman has GUTS. Particularly in terms of admitting her own struggles and failures in parenting and it is a tremendous relief to feel like you can screw up and move beyond it as a parent. She had a lot of hard times, but her story of Sam's first year made me connect to my soon to be born child in a way that nothing else did -- finally, I could really imagine what I, with all my failings and closet skeletons, could be like as a parent, and how much I might love it. I can't wait to find out now, and her book (which I have read and reread during the course of my pregnancy) has helped that feeling along immensely.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and Honest!
Review: This book is incredibly funny at times. Lamott is very honest about herself and how she feels. I don't believe she unjustly tramples on other people. She's telling her experience. I just went through those first few months of motherhood - with a partner - and we both felt like we were going crazy with sleep deprivation. It was wonderful to read about it by someone who was in the same boat - and who tells it in such hilarious way.
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Summary: This should be mandatory reading for EVERY teenager!
Review: When I say EVERY I mean men and women. They might think once or a thousand times before deciding not to use birth control.... What I admired about Anne Lamott's journal was her complete honesty. Giving birth and raising a child is no walk in the park, despite what all those baby shampoo commercials would have us believe. Anne was lucky in the fact that she had loving friends and family, which helped compensate for the fact that the man who helped create Sam skipped out on her. (All you studly teen-age men out there, can you say "CHILD SUPPORT? " I knew that you could.) I hope A. Lamott never stops writing. She's a brave woman in this increasingly chaotic world.
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Summary: Real life
Review: Anne Lamott is truly one of the most gifted writers of our time. She is funny, true blue, strong, and opinionated, poignant, and totally, disarmingly honest. In Operating Instructions, she chronicles the first year of her son, Sam's life. This is much, much more than a journal. It's the unfolding of real, true life. Three years after giving up her addictions to drugs and alcohol, Lamott found herself pregnant-and single-at 35. The struggles she encountered with her new baby are so real and honest. She describes her love for him one day as being a feeling larger than anything she can describe-then the next day, being overwhelmed with the urge to leave him on the porch all night where his colicky cries won't reach her ears. All the while, she struggles to keep on top of her addictions, struggles with her spirituality, with the fact that Sam has no father in his life, with the loss of her own father to brain cancer, with money, and with her strong and conflicting emotions about motherhood. Finally, her best friend of over 20 years falls gravely ill, something that nearly shatters Lamott's faith. But through it all, she stays true, beyond all else. She is an amazing writer and person. If you are a mother or want to be a mother, this is a must-read.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and True Adventures of First Time Mother
Review: Anne Lamott is a gifted writer. This book combines humor and gritty reality to tell the spiritual experience of the first year in her son's life. It is a must read for anyone interested in affirmation of the unity of the human condition. Blunt and courageous, Lamott balances her journal with sharp wit and deep emotions. The love she feels for Sam is obvious, as is her love for life. Wonderfully skilled writer. I recommend it highly!
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