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Rating: 
Summary: not very detailed -- there are better books out there
Review: This book is okay; it provides all of the basic information on pregnancy and would be sufficient if you were interested in a minimal level of information. I found the book to be very easy to read, and very straightforward, but a little superficial. The appropach to many topics (back to work?, your career and your pregnancy, how your body changes) is so superficial, it almost seems like the author stuck in the chapters because she felt she had to, rather than because she had valuable information to present. Each chapter begins with a statement that is true, but so trite ("Pregnancy is an exciting time") that it seems as if the author is pandering to the reader. The book includes a number of short one-paragraph anecdotes about women and their preganncies. Again, I found most of these anecdotes to be very superficial, without enough detail to make them very interesting or useful. One thing I found to be VERY odd -- the author has "Time-Saving, Energy-Saving Tips" in every chapter, set aside & highlighed in the text. These time-saving tips have absolutely NOTHING to do with the text. For example, in the chpater on your baby's growth, sandwiched in the paragraph in which the author is discussing whether a baby can perceive sounds within the womb, the set-aside tip is If you don't have time to wash your hair, try puttling baby powder in it, brush it out, and style as usual (something I learned from Glamour magazine twenty years ago, but didn't expect to read in a pregnancy book). In the chapter on being a single mother, the "Time-Saving, Energy-Saving Tip" is as follows -- "If your kids string beads or have projects that have a lot of small parts, one easy way to keep them neat is to use an ice-cube tray to hold everything in easy to get to compartments." As if what to do with your kid's craf supplies is the most pressing issue facing an unmarried pregnant woman. The author has tips on how to get spilled soda stains out of carpet, how to store plastic bread bags and grocery bags in old paper towel tubes, and things like that -- and these tips are often more detailed than her tips about pregnancy. One of my favorite "Time-Saving, Energy-Saving Tips", that gets equal billing with bead organization & stain removal is "If you have other children at home, make plans for someone to pick them up from day care or school if you go into labor when they are not at home. Update school or day-care permission foirms to include those whom you want to pick up your children." Duh (my reaction to a lot of stuff in the book). Another anoying fact is the tremendous amount of redundance & repetition. Like magazine & newspaper articles, the author often takes sentences out of the text and highlights them in enlarge, italicized font -- so they are in the text AND in the highlighted form. Problem is, the highlights are often right next to the excerpted text, so you end up reading the same thing twice -- without anything else in between. On the positive side -- the book is very easy to read, and it contains a great glossary of terms and list of resources. You won't need a copy of Household Hints from Heloise if you buy this, as the author tries to cover pregnancy and household management in one text. The book contains good illustrations. And (this is pretty important) -- this is a reassuring book about pregnancy, not a scary if-you-don't-eat spinach-and-walk-three-miles-a-day-your-baby-has-no-chance-of-being-normal book. Overall, this is okay, and it might be just the thing for some people, but I found it to be a little pandering & superficial.
Rating:
Summary: not very detailed -- there are better books out there
Review: This book is okay; it provides all of the basic information on pregnancy and would be sufficient if you were interested in a minimal level of information. I found the book to be very easy to read, and very straightforward, but a little superficial. The appropach to many topics (back to work?, your career and your pregnancy, how your body changes) is so superficial, it almost seems like the author stuck in the chapters because she felt she had to, rather than because she had valuable information to present. Each chapter begins with a statement that is true, but so trite ("Pregnancy is an exciting time") that it seems as if the author is pandering to the reader. The book includes a number of short one-paragraph anecdotes about women and their preganncies. Again, I found most of these anecdotes to be very superficial, without enough detail to make them very interesting or useful. One thing I found to be VERY odd -- the author has "Time-Saving, Energy-Saving Tips" in every chapter, set aside & highlighed in the text. These time-saving tips have absolutely NOTHING to do with the text. For example, in the chpater on your baby's growth, sandwiched in the paragraph in which the author is discussing whether a baby can perceive sounds within the womb, the set-aside tip is If you don't have time to wash your hair, try puttling baby powder in it, brush it out, and style as usual (something I learned from Glamour magazine twenty years ago, but didn't expect to read in a pregnancy book). In the chapter on being a single mother, the "Time-Saving, Energy-Saving Tip" is as follows -- "If your kids string beads or have projects that have a lot of small parts, one easy way to keep them neat is to use an ice-cube tray to hold everything in easy to get to compartments." As if what to do with your kid's craf supplies is the most pressing issue facing an unmarried pregnant woman. The author has tips on how to get spilled soda stains out of carpet, how to store plastic bread bags and grocery bags in old paper towel tubes, and things like that -- and these tips are often more detailed than her tips about pregnancy. One of my favorite "Time-Saving, Energy-Saving Tips", that gets equal billing with bead organization & stain removal is "If you have other children at home, make plans for someone to pick them up from day care or school if you go into labor when they are not at home. Update school or day-care permission foirms to include those whom you want to pick up your children." Duh (my reaction to a lot of stuff in the book). Another anoying fact is the tremendous amount of redundance & repetition. Like magazine & newspaper articles, the author often takes sentences out of the text and highlights them in enlarge, italicized font -- so they are in the text AND in the highlighted form. Problem is, the highlights are often right next to the excerpted text, so you end up reading the same thing twice -- without anything else in between. On the positive side -- the book is very easy to read, and it contains a great glossary of terms and list of resources. You won't need a copy of Household Hints from Heloise if you buy this, as the author tries to cover pregnancy and household management in one text. The book contains good illustrations. And (this is pretty important) -- this is a reassuring book about pregnancy, not a scary if-you-don't-eat spinach-and-walk-three-miles-a-day-your-baby-has-no-chance-of-being-normal book. Overall, this is okay, and it might be just the thing for some people, but I found it to be a little pandering & superficial.
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