Sep. 22, 2007 - This weeks reading
I did not get a whole lot done this week. I can browse the internet while holding a baby, but my thoughts don't run coherantly and I can't type effectively with a sweet, drooling infant leaning over the keyboard with me.
I did, however, read a few books, randomly selected from the library's "motherhood" category. The first book is by Linda J. Eyre, called A Joyful Mother of Children: The Magic and Mayhem of Motherhood. It's a really sweet, really practical guide to joyful motherhood, with lots of personal stories (and personal confessions) about raising children and figuring out how to be a good mother. Mrs. Eyre raised nine children with her husband, so I do believe she knows what she's talking about. There were some hints that the family is Mormon, but it wasn't blatant and the book wasn't proseletyzing, so I personally had not problem reading it, and the chapters on spiritual refreshment and growth were perfectly orthodox in my opinion.
As Good As I Could Be is a memoir by Susan Cheever which was quite an interesting read. It was one of those books where I found myself "hurrah"-ing on one page and "boo"-ing on the next. Some things she wrote were right on, and others left me wondering what on earth she was thinking. For instance, I cheered when Ms Cheever wrote that in spite of her preparations in hiring a nanny, baby nurse, and picking out daycares, when her daughter was actually born, she felt an overwhelming attachment and couldn't dream of giving her over to anyone else. However, a few pages later, she describes her daughter taking an entrance exam for "real school" at the age of two! And the rest of the book mentions and awful lot of hired help used for someone so dedicated to raising her child all by herself. She also talks about how divorces really hurt her children, but doesn't seem at all remorseful about going through with them. I truly don't quite know what to think of the book, even after having had more than a week to digest it.
A Better Woman is another memoir, this one by Susan Johnson. She is a fabulous, intense writer, and the book is her story about motherhood and the severe physical difficulties she faced in the beginning (due to a very rare complication resulting in a fistula). There is so much pain and so much joy in motherhood, and this book puts it all together beautifully. I really liked that Ms. Johnson took a risk to have her second child, and did not regret it even though she suffered much more than she had to due to medical mismanagement of her fistula. She also writes about having a high-needs child (which I could relate to) and a more mellow child (which I can also relate to, finally), as well as trying to write while mothering small children and finding it pretty much impossible, even when someone else is watching the children for you (boy, can I ever relate to that!).
Whew! One entire post written without the baby crying or Gebre hitting Asrat upside the head and the two of them running to me whining and crying. I consider this my great acheivement for the day. 
