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Expecting Adam: A True Story Of Birth, Rebirth, And Everyday Magic

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“A wonderful book, funny unbelievably tender, and smart. It shimmers.”--Anne LamottIncludes an all-new afterword about Adam.    John and Martha Beck had two Harvard degrees apiece when they conceived their second child. Further graduate studies, budding careers, and a growing family meant major stress--not that they'd have admitted it to anyone (or themselves). As the pregnancy progressed, Martha battled constant nausea and dehydration. And when she learned her unborn son had Down syndrome, she battled nearly everyone over her decision to continue the pregnancy. She still cannot explain many of the things that happened to her while she was expecting Adam, but by the time he was born, Martha, as she puts it, "had to unlearn virtually everything Harvard taught [her] about what is precious and what is garbage."

Paperback: 368 pages

Publisher: Harmony; Reprint edition (August 2, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0307719642

ISBN-13: 978-0307719645

Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches

Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (325 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #149,432 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #151 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Specific Groups > Special Needs #329 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Women's Health > Pregnancy & Childbirth #438 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Special Needs

Let me begin with the good news: Expecting Adam is beautifully written, compelling, insightful, witty, and clever. In short, it's a good book. A really good one. I laughed, I cried, I highlighted certain memorable phrases, I read the first few pages aloud to my husband (an unwilling listener if ever there was one), and I passed the book along to my mother with a high recommendation. I don't regret buying it. It will stay on my shelf, and I might even read it again someday.Now for the bad news: the author of Expecting Adam, Martha Beck, is a highly questionable source of "non-fiction."Just as Martha has those weird Japanese puppets whispering sweet nothings in her ear, I also have a keen sense of intuition that speaks to me. Somewhere around the scene of the apartment fire, it began tapping me on the shoulder and blurting out uncomfortable adjectives like paranoid, negligent, self-important, histrionic, and exaggerated. I was enjoying the book too much to be bothered with my pesky intuition. By the time I reached the last page, my intuition had become downright rude, tossing around unkind observations such as opportunistic and delusional. The words "ulterior motive" seemed to flash before my eyes.It wasn't until I did some research on Martha Beck (the real and true Martha Beck of shared reality) that my intuition really started name calling.Maybe my intuition is a bit harsh. Martha may not be a liar and she may not be crazy (two words that I will admit crossed my mind), but she certainly misrepresented herself and her marriage in this book.

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