"Rockabye" baby!

I've been lucky enough to get an early copy of Rebecca Woolf's, otherwise known in the blog world as Girl's Gone Child, new book "Rockabye - From Wild to Child".

Hot damn. I haven't been this excited about a book in a long time.



And, hot damn again, she did not disappoint. I have a stack of "momoirs" and other assorted compilations of parenting stories on my bookshelf all half read, partially read or barely glanced through. But I read Rockabye from beginning to end in just a couple of days, that's how enthralled I was by Rebecca's very personal story of going from a party girl to a young mom.

I'm not surprised by how much I enjoyed "Rockabye". I've been a faithful reader of Rebecca's blog since I started my own over two years ago. If you're a fan of her blog you'll love her book even more. Rebecca has a way with a sentence that at first glance seems simple. But the word "simple" doesn't do her work justice. She has an ease with a sentence just as she seems to be at ease with herself. She says what she means and she doesn't mince words. So if you are squeamish about the nasty bits of parenting then stay away from this book. If, however, you've been in the trenches or about to enlist, I recommend you pick up "Rockabye" immediately.

The basic gist of the book is this: Woolf, a young twenty-something living in L.A. and enjoying the party scene, suddenly finds herself pregnant. She's only been with her boyfriend for a short time and has to make the decision whether or not to keep the baby. Not to give the plot away, but you can guess what choice she made. What happens next is the account of a non-traditional, non-baby book reading woman's pregnancy and her first few years as a new mom and a new wife. She cuts right to the bone with her stories of her sexuality, transforming from a Southern California girl to a young mother living in the shadow of the Hollywood sign and all the way to dealing with her son Archer's developmental delay, all the while maintaining that part of herself that we mothers seem to misplace while we're busy changing diapers and boiling baby bottles.

Last summer I had the pleasure of meeting Rebecca at Blogher. I was as taken with her at that first meeting as I was when I first read her blog and now even more so after reading "Rockabye". I respect her decisions as a woman and a mother as much as I do her writing. As a matter of fact, I don't feel like I'm doing her book any justice in this review since I don't write even a fraction as well as she does, so I'm just going to stop here. Trust me, just read the book. It's really good.