Rich in research findings, this frank how-it-was-with-me account is perfect for intellectually curious mothers-to-be.
A scientist with an eye for human interest takes the mystery out of pregnancy and first-time motherhood.
LoBue (co-editor: Handbook of Emotional Development, 2019), a professor of psychology and director of the Child Study Center at Rutgers University who writes “The Baby Scientist” column for Psychology Today, brings her expertise in child development and knack for translating scientific research into everyday language to an account that blends personal experience with solid information. Her story, which is especially pertinent for career women aware of the ticking of their biological clocks, begins with an introduction in which she chronicles her experience as a 33-year-old specialist in child psychology contemplating pregnancy. “As an expert in child development,” she writes, “I am intimately aware of the risks of having your first child when you’re well into your 30s, starting with problems conceiving and ending with the frightening possibility of developmental problems for the child.” What follows is written in real time, and while this would seem like a personal journal, it is much more. Surrounding sonograms of the author’s developing fetus are simple charts, diagrams, and pictures explaining heredity, fetal development, and differences in gender preferences. LoBue shares her discomforts, including weight gain and loss of sleep, and she enlightens readers about the sleep habits and learning abilities of the unborn. In her account of the nine months after birth, she includes photographs of her infant son, and she clearly shows stages of development, perception changes, emotional responses, and the beginnings of language. The author does not hide problems with breastfeeding or concerns over bouts of crying, but on the whole, her message is one of reassurance. The scope broadens over the months to include a discussion of separation anxiety and the pros and cons of child care options for working mothers.
Rich in research findings, this frank how-it-was-with-me account is perfect for intellectually curious mothers-to-be.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-19-086338-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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