The Six Books You Read Postpartum
Or rather, the six books I read postpartum
At the end of September, I gave birth to my scrumptious baby girl, Daisy. She is my first child.
I have no idea what I’m doing.
I do know that I am tired and I am scattered and that reading has shifted for me, yet again. I read in snippets, in naps. In between burp cloths and renditions of “The Wheels on the Bus.”
I don’t have the energy to battle through books that can’t hold my interest right now, and so the ones that have captured my attention, those stories that made it beyond the haze and THE WIPERS ON THE BUS, will forever hold a special place in my heart.
And my bookshelf.
1. The book you bought as a special treat to read during labor but never even touched because labor was the plot of a Stephen King novel
The Switch by Beth O’Leary
I spent one glorious summer afternoon texting friends, reading articles, and browsing through books online deciding what the perfect labor read would be.
People warned me I might not be reading in labor, which I knew was fair. Everyone has a different experience. But I read every day and reading is a true comfort to me!
I wanted to bring a book.
I landed on three titles. The Switch. The Break. To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. (The last one included in the event that the first two titles didn’t hold my interest and I would have to lean on Peter and Lara Jean.)
The Switch would have been a great labor read.
It tells the story of Leena and Eileen, a granddaughter/grandmother duo whose lives are in disarray and so they decide to...yes. Switch. Eileen moves to London and Leena takes on the English countryside. Romance ensues!
It’s like this book was made for me. A GRANDMOTHER? In England? Two different love stories?
It was breezy and fun and you should also read Beth O’Leary’s other novel, The Flatshare, if you haven’t already.
2. The book you listen to on your two-hour journey to the closest Coldstone when you want, no NEED, some alone time and also cake batter ice cream doesn’t sound so bad
Nothing Like I Imagined by Mindy Kaling
As you can imagine, the day I was 10 towns away, a “Gotta Have It” sized ice cream dripping down my forearm, was not my best day. I do remember it fondly, though.
Perhaps it was the emotional breakdown, perhaps it was her writing, but as I listened to Mindy’s latest essay collection I kept thinking, “Mindy and I have really grown up together.”
When she talked about being pregnant in the summer I pulled over to the side of the road so I could underline a passage and cackle out loud.
Honestly, if someone had explained climate change to me in the context of how it would affect the comfort of my pregnancy, I would have been Greta Thunberg.
I found myself furiously nodding along at seemingly innocuous sentences about motherhood, vindicated and validated!
I had to feed Katherine every three hours, all day and night. Sure, that’s famously the whole deal with newborns but it doesn't make it right.
Mindy is a comfort, always, and a special comfort now.
Right up there with the sweet smells of suburban ice cream shops.
3. The book you recklessly pick up while your baby naps (even though you know you should be sleeping yourself) and end up finishing in one blissful sitting
Keep It Together, Keiko Carter by Debbi Michiko Florence
I read and love a lot of middle grade books. I am a middle school librarian, after all.
Very occasionally, though, a book comes out that I know with complete certainty that I would have just gone crazy for as a 12-year-old.
This was one of those books.
First crushes and changing friendships. Identity and middle school woes. This book was sweet and charming and deep and real in a Jenny Han sort of way, celebrating the goodness of regular life. I finished it with a big smile on my face, feeling all cotton candy, bubble gum and everything fun.
4. The book your husband surprises you with because it’s pitched as Crazy Rich Asians meets Bridget Jones, and while you are caring for a newborn, yes, you are also celebrating a birthday month, are you not?
Last Tang Standing by Lauren Ho
This book is absolutely hysterical.
And absurd.
And wonderful.
I ended up highlighting random, delightful passages such as:
It’s one thing to have no life, another to spend it playing board games with no intention or ambition of going pro one day.
Last Tang Standing has everything. Dates with billionaires. A love triangle. Meddling mothers. It is truly Bridget Jones meets Crazy Rich Asians and I hope it becomes a series where I can follow Andrea’s adventures for the next 25 years, but never veers so far off course as to produce a Mad About The Boy.
5. The book you placed on hold so long ago you forgot it ever existed
True Story by Kate Reed Petty
My conclusion upon finishing this book and now, a few weeks later, is that the author must be some sort of a genius. (Except for the title. Surely we can do better than this?)
True Story doesn’t have a regular format, it is composed of script pages and emails and phone conversations. It doesn’t adhere to any sort of rules when it comes to narration either.
The book follows a high school rumor about a sexual assault and the aftermath of this event on the lives of those involved and those around them for the next 10+ years. It is compulsively readable, has all sorts of twists, but mostly, and why I think the author is so brilliant, it made me think about a difficult topic in new and unexpected ways.
I’m still thinking about it.
6. The book that’s based on The Bachelor and feels a whole lot like like watching the show does—a beautiful escape from reality along with a heavy dose of drama
One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London
If you love The Bachelor, you’ll love this book. It’s as simple as that.
“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"
"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"
"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It's the same thing," he said.”
Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, The Flesh and L.A. by Eve Babitz
What I’m reading now: The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s by Andy Greene
What Daisy (my one-month old) is reading now: Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
