I’ve been reading parenting books since I was only about six weeks pregnant and continue to do so now. Some of them have been informative, while others have just been good for a laugh and to help me feel less alone. I know that parents have very limited time, so here are some mini-reviews of the ones I’ve read so far. Also, I know I don’t really review a lot of books on here anymore, but I do post short reviews of everything I’m reading on Goodreads, so friend me if you want!
.jpg)
What to Expect When You’re Expecting by Heidi Murkoff: This one is often thought of as the classic “pregnancy bible” and I can certainly see why. I was gifted a copy of this book when I was about a month and a half pregnant and started reading it immediately. I read it through my whole pregnancy from start to finish, following along with each week. I always looked forward to hitting a new week and reading up about it in the book throughout my pregnancy. I really enjoyed it and felt that it covered pretty much everything you could ever want to know about pregnancy. Not only did I read it from cover to cover (which probably isn’t recommended… information overload!), I often found myself using the index in the back to also look up and read up on certain topics or questions I had at any given time as well. I liked the layout of the book, with each week of pregnancy being covered, and the extensive information. I often found it comforting and found myself referencing it in some of my scarier moments early on in my pregnancy. While it isn’t perfect, and some of the information can be a bit overwhelming, in your face, scary, or seemingly judgmental, all in all I thought it was a very handy and thorough guide and one that I would recommend highly. My rating: 4.5/5 stars
Parenting: Illustrated with Crappy Pictures by Amber Dusick: this is a pretty hilarious illustrated book about Dusick’s adventures in parenting two boys. She shares a lot of hilarious stories on a variety of parenting topics, all accompanied by even funnier ilustrations. She’s blunt and straight forward, and never sugarcoats parenting. All in all, I appreciated her honesty in what parenting really entails and found myself laughing out loud on more than one occasion. You can see my full review here. My rating: 4/5 stars
Full of Life: Mom-to-Mom Tips I Wish Someone Had Told Me When I Was Pregnant by Nancy O’Dell: This book, though nothing spectacular, was at least worth the quick read that it was. It’s a short, concise book full of tips and information about pregnancy and early motherhood. The tips were seemingly random and in no particular order that I could ascertain, though the book is broken down into sections by trimester. I didn’t find all of the information to be relevant to your typical first time mom-to-be such as myself; the author is a Hollywood woman who hired a nurse to come to her house and help her with her baby, which I could never afford to do nor would I really choose to. However, a lot of the information was in fact something I could relate to. There were a few tips that I hadn’t considered and found to be useful, though a good deal of it was stuff I already knew. All in all though, I’d say this book was worth the little bit of time that it took to read it because it did have some interesting tips and some cute “mom moments" and would be a good choice for someone early on in their pregnancy. My rating: 3/5 stars
The Sh!t No One Tells You by Dawn Dais: Coming from a brand new mom, this is, HANDS DOWN, the best parenting book I’ve read so far. It is so completely honest, relatable, and even funny. I seriously felt like I could have written much of this book myself because I was nodding my head and thinking “me too!” throughout most of it. My favorite thing about this book is the author’s total honesty and fearless nature in that she touches on subjects that are often left out of parenting books such as baby blues / postpartum depression and a host of other difficulties new parents experience. A lot of things she discusses are things that I was afraid to admit as a new mom, so I really felt better after realizing I wasn’t the only one experiencing these things. This book seriously made me feel so much less alone and so much more normal. If I could recommend only one book to new mothers or expectant mothers, this would be it. For new moms, you will definitely relate and feel less alone, and for expectant moms, you’ll get an honest idea of what things will really be like after your baby arrives! My rating: 5/5 stars
.jpg)
Confessions of a Scary Mommy by Jill Smokler: This was a really enjoyable, fun, and quick read. It contains essays on a variety of topics pertaining to parenthood by Jill Smokler, a mother of three young children. It was a very humorous and honest look at motherhood, although some of it did scare me a bit while I was still pregnant! But I digress. Motherhood isn’t always perfect, and I appreciate Smokler’s approach of looking at motherhood through a humorous lens and taking the good with the bad. This is not a warm and fuzzy book by any means, nor is it inspiring – it is meant for entertainment purposes only, and I did find it highly entertaining. I also really enjoyed all the “mom confessions” at the beginning of each chapter. These were anonymous confessions submitted to Smokler’s website from moms all over. Some were funny, some were sad, but all were very, very honest. I’d highly recommend this one for moms and moms-to-be who are NOT looking for parenting advice, but rather are looking to find the humor in motherhood. I’m already reading her second book and hope she writes more in the future! My rating: 4.5/5 stars
Motherhood Comes Naturally by Jill Smokler: This was a very funny read that was easy to relate to. I think I may have liked the first one, Confessions of a Scary Mommy, just a tad bit better, but I really enjoyed both of them because of their humor and honesty. Highly recommended! I’m hoping for another book from Jill Smokler! My rating: 4/5 stars
Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy: I liked this one a lot and found McCarthy’s take on pregnancy to be humorous, honest, and even crude, but in a very good way! Unlike some celebrity memoirs, I found this one to be incredibly easy to relate to. In fact, I took pictures of several different passages while reading and sent them to my husband because I could relate to them SO much, and he found them to be funny and relatable as well. This is definitely one of my favorite pregnancy books I’ve read and I would highly recommend it if you’re looking for some laughs – and total honesty – in your own pregnancy. I am definitely planning on reading more of her books because I enjoyed the tone and fast pace of this one. My rating: 5/5 stars
Baby Laughs by Jenny McCarthy: This book about the first year of motherhood was a lot of fun, just like her first one, Belly Laughs (which was about pregnancy). It was funny, honest, and down to earth. I think I liked Belly Laughs just a smidge better, but they were both excellent, humorous, and worth the read. I’d definitely like to read Jenny’s other books now, and recommend both of these ones to pregnant women and mothers. My rating: 4.5/5 stars
No comments