Afterbirth

If you want a book about the joys of parenting, then "Afterbirth" is not the book for you. But if you want a book to tell you the cold, hard truths - that there are other parents who can't fold up their pushchairs either, that their kids won't sleep through the night, that they sometimes want to run away - then you will love "Afterbirth". The stories in "Afterbirth" are all true and all funny, and poignant at the same time. Thirty-seven pieces run the gamut of (sometimes unexpected) emotions that overwhelm people after they become parents and range from: Cindy Chupack on trying to get pregnant ('We're Having a Maybe'); James Braly on fathering a son whose ideas of what it means to be a boy aren't the same as his own ('Oliver's Pink Bicycle'); Caroline Aaron on what it feels like when the kid moves out of the house ('I Want a Do-Over'); and, Neal Pollack on unforeseeable and unreasonable parental rage ('The Tennis Pro').