A sometimes-difficult but uplifting read about the resilience of parents, even before their child-rearing journey begins.
A debut novel, based on the author’s experiences, about a hopeful young woman’s trials and tribulations with infertility and family planning.
Lauren and Mack Weiss, a young, upwardly mobile couple, agree to start a family but quickly discover numerous obstacles impeding their plans. At the book’s start, narrator Lauren seems to have it all: a doting husband, a high-powered political job, a fancy car. Describing themselves as “dinks”—double income no kids—Lauren and Mack are financially very comfortable. The only thing they need to complete the picture is a baby in the proverbial baby carriage. After several months of fruitless “TTC” (trying to conceive), Lauren begins an endless tour of doctors’ offices. Slowly and painstakingly, she discovers both physiological and psychological issues that may be standing in her way of conceiving. As Lauren researches and addresses potential avenues for getting a baby of her own, she’s confronted with many false starts and devastating losses. Along the way, Weinberg provides copious information about modern medical advances in fertility treatment and prenatal care in a manner that is interesting and accessible, as well as supportive of the narrative. Despite its heavy subject matter, the story is well-paced and witty, sometimes even laugh-out-loud funny. There are moments throughout the story, however, where the author overuses adjectives and superlatives—for example, when the narrator repeatedly declares such truisms as “Mack [is] the world’s most thoughtful husband.” Aside from its overly descriptive tone, the narrative is fast-paced and engaging, often reading like a casual conversation between girlfriends. As the book progresses, readers witness Lauren’s and Mack’s pain and hope, their longing and despair, and their endearing dedication to each other in the face of misfortune. Based on the true story of the author’s own difficulties starting a family, the tale will ring true for many who have endured similar struggles.
A sometimes-difficult but uplifting read about the resilience of parents, even before their child-rearing journey begins.Pub Date: June 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-1626464124
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Booklocker.com, Inc.
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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