This seminal, all-encompassing pregnancy guide just got a lot more authoritative and informative.
A comprehensive manual focuses on pregnancy and childbirth.
This standard, extensive work by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists gets a seventh edition featuring new material on the latest developments in genetic testing and noncompromising pain medication during labor. The updated guide offers the newest thinking about how to incorporate lifestyle choices like exercise regimens into pregnancy. This edition is also the first one written during the pandemic, making frequent references to Covid-19 as it affects various aspects of pregnancy. The book takes readers through the whole experience, from the decision to have a baby to the possible complications presented by previous pregnancies. The work looks at the various considerations involved in choosing parenthood like mental health and a family history that may signal potential genetic problems. The manual moves through every week of pregnancy, letting readers know what changes are normal and which may be causes for concern. The text is accompanied by many useful charts, graphs, and photographs. But the most illuminating supplement is a series of illustrations showing the exact size, location, and development of the fetus at every stage—not only where it is situated, but also what it can do. The images depict when the fetus’s fingernails first develop, when it can first bend its elbows, when it can first hear sounds from the outside world, and so on (week 26, for instance, is when loud sounds may begin causing the baby to respond physically). All of the specifics in these pages are presented calmly and firmly. The various editors and writers do a superb job of distilling a huge amount of information into easily digestible bits and segments, conveniently arranged at exactly the moments in a pregnancy when they’ll be needed. In clearly phrased and precisely detailed chapters, readers are given all the medical, nutritional, procedural, and psychological knowledge they’ll require, with no jargon, no omissions, and plenty of confident encouragement.
This seminal, all-encompassing pregnancy guide just got a lot more authoritative and informative.Pub Date: Jan. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-934984-90-1
Page Count: 762
Publisher: ACOG
Review Posted Online: Jan. 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.
The former iCarly star reflects on her difficult childhood.
In her debut memoir, titled after her 2020 one-woman show, singer and actor McCurdy (b. 1992) reveals the raw details of what she describes as years of emotional abuse at the hands of her demanding, emotionally unstable stage mom, Debra. Born in Los Angeles, the author, along with three older brothers, grew up in a home controlled by her mother. When McCurdy was 3, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she initially survived, the disease’s recurrence would ultimately take her life when the author was 21. McCurdy candidly reconstructs those in-between years, showing how “my mom emotionally, mentally, and physically abused me in ways that will forever impact me.” Insistent on molding her only daughter into “Mommy’s little actress,” Debra shuffled her to auditions beginning at age 6. As she matured and starting booking acting gigs, McCurdy remained “desperate to impress Mom,” while Debra became increasingly obsessive about her daughter’s physical appearance. She tinted her daughter’s eyelashes, whitened her teeth, enforced a tightly monitored regimen of “calorie restriction,” and performed regular genital exams on her as a teenager. Eventually, the author grew understandably resentful and tried to distance herself from her mother. As a young celebrity, however, McCurdy became vulnerable to eating disorders, alcohol addiction, self-loathing, and unstable relationships. Throughout the book, she honestly portrays Debra’s cruel perfectionist personality and abusive behavior patterns, showing a woman who could get enraged by everything from crooked eyeliner to spilled milk. At the same time, McCurdy exhibits compassion for her deeply flawed mother. Late in the book, she shares a crushing secret her father revealed to her as an adult. While McCurdy didn’t emerge from her childhood unscathed, she’s managed to spin her harrowing experience into a sold-out stage act and achieve a form of catharsis that puts her mind, body, and acting career at peace.
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982185-82-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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