A Little Pregnant: Our Memoir of Fertility, Infertility, and a Marriage

Rating:
Summary: A moving story that brought me to tears
Review: This book, which I finished in a day because it was impossible to put down, was well-written, at times funny, and almost painfully honest. I imagine that most infertile couples (I hate that label!) would find something of their own experiences in this account of Linda and Ed's odyssey. By the time I finished the book, the authors felt like old friends, and without giving away the ending, I couldn't help shedding a few tears over how things eventually worked out. I highly recommend this book, and not just for couples experiencing infertility. As a mother of three, I enjoy this type of first-person account of a couple's journey to parenthood, even though this one was quite different from my own.

Rating:
Summary: A moving story that brought me to tears
Review: This book, which I finished in a day because it was impossible to put down, was well-written, at times funny, and almost painfully honest. I imagine that most infertile couples (I hate that label!) would find something of their own experiences in this account of Linda and Ed's odyssey. By the time I finished the book, the authors felt like old friends, and without giving away the ending, I couldn't help shedding a few tears over how things eventually worked out. I highly recommend this book, and not just for couples experiencing infertility. As a mother of three, I enjoy this type of first-person account of a couple's journey to parenthood, even though this one was quite different from my own.

Rating:
Summary: As honest as a tell-all and as engaging as a suspense novel.
Review: This honest and touching look at one couple's courageous attempts to have a child not only pulled my heartstrings but captivated me like a suspense novel. As hopeful parents-to-be Linda and Ed told their alternating stories about their struggles to overcome infertility, I felt myself silently cheering them on and wondering how it would all turn out. I couldn't put the book down.

Rating:
Summary: A vivid, frank, appealing story of a modern relationship
Review: This husband and wife open their souls to tell a fascinating, at times funny, at times utterly tense story of their quest for a child. The book is bold in its emotion and full of memorable images of two people struggling to maintain their individual integrity and their deep affection for each other while being torn apart by forces within and beyond their control, such as their level of desire for a child and the medical system in this country. Falkneresque in its narrative style, the book challenged me to pay close attention--the authors demand to be seen as individuals. The book reminded me of An Unquiet Mind, by Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., in which she offers readers, in brutally blunt but often amusing detail, the story of her own life with manic-depressive illness to educate others about a universal story.

Rating:
Summary: A helpful step by step depiction of the emotional struggle
Review: This is a touching book of the journey of one couple through the maze of infertility treatment until their dream is finally realized. The value of this book is the poignant honesty with which their tale is told. The chapters are alternately written by Linda and then by Ed. I use their first names because by the end of the book, I felt as if I should be on a first name basis with each of them - their sharing is so personal. This is the first infertility book I have read that has a candid description of the husband's journey as well as the wife. These two are very good writers and very open with the reader. Linda even goes into her sexual fantasies about her physician. And there is a very funny description of Ed's relationship with a bottle of artichoke hearts. The book describes clearly the stresses on a marriage brought about by the time and difficulty of infertility treatment. Any couple involved in the arduous process of infertility treatment will find some of their experience reflected in the process described by Linda and Ed. And thus feel some comfort. I recommend this book to the clients whom I coach.

Rating:
Summary: An heartfelt, genuine look at today's concept of family
Review: This is must reading for people seeking to create a family. But moreso, the authors share the joys, the frustrations, the secrets, the mysteries that shape a relationship. These two sustain their relationship, at a time when so many people shudder at the thought of commitment and then flee during at the first signs of trouble. Painful at times, yet also funny and compelling, A Little Pregnant has a lot to say about struggles within relationships, familiar to couples and innately feared by those who long for relationships and companionship. With television filled with existential angst at the prospects of aloneness, here is a beautifully written, optimistic, practical counterpoint.

Rating:
Summary: A poignant, absorbing, and compelling memoir.
Review: This memoir is not just a valuable account of one couple's struggles to become fertile parents, but an unflinching and honest account of a marriage and relationship. The varying perspectives of wife and husband, told in alternating chapters, provide a compelling flow to the story. From the opening page I was hooked and could not put the book down, marveling at the absorbing writing, and the poignant, wrenching, and sometimes even humorous narrative of their experiences. Beautifully written; highly recommended.