Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Choosing Naia

I got this book from the lovely Chrystal, who had reviewed it on her other blog. If you want to know about the book, you'll have to read her review, because it is wordy and overly drawn out and I just can not get into it.

First of all, I thought I'd be really intrigued by reading the story of someone with a prenatal diagnosis and how they adapted and learned about DS and then their feelings when the baby finally arrived. But instead I find I'm really annoyed by the prose. It read (to me) like a man (the author) was doing a dramatic voice-over for every detail of these people's lives. Voice of a book is important to me, and this was just dragging me down.

So. I didn't finish this book, I am ashamed to say. I didn't even make it to the birth of Naia. That's hard for me to admit - I used to finish a book regardless of whether or not I liked it, but now I have better things to do with my time, I guess.

Did I sell you on it? Anyone want to take a stab at a book that I was too lazy to power through?

8 comments:

  1. I read this book when I was pregnant with Evan and we were in exactly the same situation as those people, right down to the same heart defect. I liked it the first time I read it, but then I went back and reread some of it much later, and I had the same reaction as you, Michelle. Blech. Once I removed myself from the emotion of it all and just looked at it as something to read, I thought it was kind of crummy. And my husband hated it. He thought they were sanctimonious and generally full of crap. But he's judgy that way. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. sanctimonious is an awesome word!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm pretty sure I read your first paragraph the complete opposite way than you meant it...and then I cracked up.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I read this book a while back and found the couple mostly unlikeable. Sanctimonius is a good word. I did finish the book and found that it had a lot of interesting information as far as how people with Ds have been treated historically, a lot of statistical stuff, etc., but the story itself was a little tough.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Chrystal! LMAO! Did you think I was calling your review wordy and dull and so on? OH MY GOSH!! You know I would never!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Just for a second. I admired your honesty. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I read it, and liked it. I learned a lot about DS from it. (I read it long before I had Abby.) I didn't know about the nutrition stuff, or the facial surgeries some people do, etc.

    It did start out as a magazine article, so that explains the tone a little.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Cate, that explains a lot about the tone! I didn't know that it was an article first.

    So.... no one wants this book? I have to try to be a better sell next time.

    ReplyDelete