The Book Blawg

Belly Laughs: The Naked Truth About Pregnancy and Childbirth by Jenny McCarthy

The attraction, however slight, of this book seems to be that it was written by a celebrity who describes her intimate bodily functions using language that others are, quite wisely, too polite to put into print. While amusing, it is not what I would consider funny. As an aspiring childbirth educator, I found some of her story irritating. She tells us that she eats a whole pan of homemade brownies every night, then complains of her swollen ankles. She spends a lot of time lounging on the couch while pregnant, begs the doctor not to turn down her epidural for 2nd stage labor, then has a c-section after 2 1/2 hours of (largely ineffective, one assumes) pushing. She does not breastfeed (no explanation given), but complains about engorgement. Not a book I would recommend to pregnant women. Or anyone, for that matter. Let's hope she doesn't write a sequel.

A New York Times Bestseller? Glad I didn't pay for my copy, or I'd be asking for a refund.

I'm about to have a baby. So what better time to give birth to a new blog? Three kids, three blogs, right?

I read. A lot. I am one of those people who doesn't mind waiting in doctors' offices as long as there are good magazines. If stuck in the bathroom for any length of time without reading material, I will grab a shampoo bottle and read the side of it. When visting the home of a friend or relative, if there are magazines on the coffee table, I feel an overwhelming desire to pick them up and read them, and actually have to remind myself that it is probably rude to do so in most circumstances. At least until after dinner or until someone turns the game on.

Sometimes I think about blogging about what I'm reading, but I'm not sure where to put it. I read a lot of books about childbirth and parenting, so those could go in The Baby Blawg. I also read a lot of general interest non-fiction, politics, history, etc. That could go on The Mommy Blawg, but it's not really related to the law, and I would like to keep the subject matter of that blog pretty focused. So a couple weeks ago, I had the idea of starting a new blog, just to keep up with what I'm reading. The idea is, sometimes I will do an actual book review, sometimes just an interesting quote or two, and sometimes just a listing of what I've finished reading. If you've read The Mommy Blawg for a while, you know that I used to journal what we checked out of the library each week. Sort of a continuation of that.

I don't really expect this blog to have much of an audience. I'm not going to promote it. It's mostly just for me. Feel free to comment or discuss, though! Also, due to the impending arrival of the aforementioned blessing, there probably won't be much going on here for a while. But I wanted to get the blog set up while I had a spare minute or two.