Rating: 
Summary: Witty, but oh, so true
Review: I highly recommend this book. It's so refreshing to find a mom who has the guts to tell the truth about what motherhood is really like--and make you laugh and laugh about it. This book never sugar-coats pregnancy or motherhood. Yet, it's so much fun to read, you don't even realize that it's making you think about the meaning of having children and becoming a parent. You don't have to be an older mother--or a mother at all--to enjoy it. It's a witty, poignant and ultimately uplifting story that will stay with you for a long time afterwards.
Rating:
Summary: Henry and Gus claim soul in the lost and found!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: I loved reading this book, finally a woman who has the strength and courage to be so brutally honest about her struggle to become a mother later in life. Ms. Newman displays her amazing character and humor page after page. She reminds all of us no matter how many obstacles we encounter in our lives we must never give up if it is important to us. I find the book inspiring and impressive that Ms. Newman can re-visit her emotional journey to motherhood with her incredible wit.
Rating:
Summary: Honest and very funny
Review: I loved this book. Ms. Newman held back nothing. I did get a little jealous, however, of her finances. She had a baby nurse at $250/day for 3 months (!) which let her sleep all night from day one. Also, the whole New York City nannies-not-mothers scene is sad, but accurate.
Anyway, I laughed out loud many times. For anyone who has suffered severe nausea and vomiting of pregnancy, you'll enjoy the section that begins: "I want you dead, one of you, if not both of you."
Rating:
Summary: An honest take on parenthood
Review: I really enjoyed this book. As other reviewers have written, it is laugh-out-loud funny. And, the humor is that we can recognize ourselves. I'm an older mother who adopted. Another reviewer found Newman's passage on adoption offensive - but it's her opinion and she's entitled. Not only that, later in the book she completely changed her tune, acknowledging she was wrong - that you have to learn to love your kids no matter how they arrive in your home and heart. She lives a lifestyle completely different from my own, and yet there are many things we have in common. She is unflinchingly honest, something most of us are not, especially if it is not politically correct. Motherhood is the toughest job out there, and some days you wish you could quit, no matter how much you begged for the job in the first place. But there's no turning back, which is why this book was so fun to read.
Rating: 
Summary: A Sad Story
Review: I was expecting to laugh--I'm an over-forty mother, too, and I look for books on the topic of older mothers. This one is about a woman who went through the trauma of hormonal treatments, failed in-vitros and one that finally worked. Then the babies were born prematurely, and as her story shows, have many developmental delays. Her mixed feelings about her children and her unhappy relationship with her husband--she thinks of dating other men after forcing this sixty-six year old man to father the children she desperately wants, when he's made it clear he thinks he's too old, and that's not surprising--are the real story. She writes very well, but this is funny only for women who have had similar bad experiences with fertility treatments, who have given up on them and want to convince themselves that motherhood is not so wonderful a thing after all, or who are unsatisfied with their children and partners for other reasons.
Rating:
Summary: A Tale to Treasure
Review: I'm a longtime fan of Judith Newman's magazine writing and fell in love with her twin sons, Henry and Gus, through her columns in Ladies Home Journal, so I knew I'd enjoy this book. What surprised me was how intensely I loved it. I knew it would be funny--very funny--but I didn't expect parts of it to make me teary.
This isn't a good book, it's a superb one. Buy it now so when people are talking about it--and they will be--you'll be able to nod your head and say: "I know JUST what you mean-- and didn't you also love the part where Henry..."
Rating:
Summary: You Make Me Feel Like an Unnatural Woman: Diary of an (Older
Review: If you have a husband and kids you will have a lot to relate to with this book! It is laugh out loud funny. You will be reading excerpts to anyone who will listen. I can't wait for her to write about her kids when they are teenagers. Great summer read.
Rating: 
Summary: Tears shed over answered prayers
Review: Reading this book made me think of a quote I once read, from Saint Teresa: "There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered ones." I loved reading Ms. Newman's articles in Ladies Home Journal each month, especially because her twin sons are almost the exact age of my own twin sons. I ordered this book hot off the press, and I wanted to love it, but... I just can't help but feel sorry for Henry and Gus, should they read this book someday, when they come across the journal entry on page 41, dated April 2, 2001, which begins with, "I want you dead..." I have to say I found this really offensive, and I am speaking only as a Mom, and not because of any particular religious or political concern. The rest of the book was okay, save for the fact that I found her husband to be a completely self-centered jerk, but that's not Ms. Newman's fault. I don't know - if you strongly dislike a character in a book, and the book itself is non-fiction, does that mean you don't like the book itself? No, I guess not. So, I am giving this book 4 stars out of 5, because it was entertaining, and for the most part, I enjoyed reading it, but the 1 star I took away was for page 41.
Rating:
Summary: Tears shed over answered prayers
Review: Reading this book made me think of a quote I once read, from Saint Teresa: "There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered ones." I loved reading Ms. Newman's articles in Ladies Home Journal each month, especially because her twin sons are almost the exact age of my own twin sons. I ordered this book hot off the press, and I wanted to love it, but... I just can't help but feel sorry for Henry and Gus, should they read this book someday, when they come across the journal entry on page 41, dated April 2, 2001, which begins with, "I want you dead..." I have to say I found this really offensive, and I am speaking only as a Mom, and not because of any particular religious or political concern. The rest of the book was okay, save for the fact that I found her husband to be a completely self-centered jerk, but that's not Ms. Newman's fault. I don't know - if you strongly dislike a character in a book, and the book itself is non-fiction, does that mean you don't like the book itself? No, I guess not. So, I am giving this book 4 stars out of 5, because it was entertaining, and for the most part, I enjoyed reading it, but the 1 star I took away was for page 41.
Rating:
Summary: Sad, yes, but sweet and funny and real
Review: This book really resonated with me - even though I am childless by choice. Newman doesn't pull any punches when it comes to the problems and difficulties that have happened in her life since having her boys, but what really comes through is how you never once doubt how much she not just loves but enjoys them. I had an absolute sense of who they are as individuals as opposed to her "precious children", which is how some true-life fertility tales are presented. Her life may be complicated, but since I'm a New Yorker, it didn't seem all that unusual to me! I look forward to finding out how these boys grow up.
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