Customer Reviews

I'm Taking My Eggs and Going Home: How One Woman Dared to Say No to Motherhood

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like many other difficult subjects, infertility is often taboo even between close friends. Lisa's memoir creates a platform from which these issues can be discussed. Her story is endearing with moments of gentle humor and humbling honesty. It really presses the reader to think about the way our culture defines womanhood, and what happens to a woman's identity when she finds she cannot reproduce. This is a definite discussion starter for your next women's reading group pick.

This book literally took me into the lives of Lisa and her husband. She weaves a wonderful story that has stayed with me, even a week after finishing the book.

The account of her struggle to become a mother, and her resulting decision not to have a child is gripping as it is understandable, and is as powerful as it is understated. She details the very personal emotions of going through this process, beautifully crafting story that many of us can relate to. It was so exquisitley written, but raw and honest. There are very few books that deal with this topic and she has done a beautiful job describing her journey - and she is very brave to do so.

She is an important voice for those of us who are infertile and do not have children by choice.

This book is a great read. I finished reading "I'm Taking My Eggs and Going Home" three days after I received it, staying up late and almost missing train stops because I was so caught up. I laughed out loud, cried, hoped, and shared Lisa's journey from mama-wannabe to sane childfree woman.

What I think you need to know is this isn't just some woe-is-me tale about infertility with a happy miracle-baby ending. It's a well-written, universal story about a woman trying to find her place in our world. Any woman can relate to her struggles. And if you have a friend, sister, or coworker who has been or is going through infertility, Lisa's story will teach you how to better support her and inspire you to listen with more compassion.

Such excellent writing that I found myself dog-earing every other page. Whether you're struggling with fertility or not, or are a parent or not, you will love this book.

Wonderful book for the infertile community as well as for those trying to console friends or family.

I found her writing to be funny, insightful and a joy to read.

Lisa Manterfield has used a singular approach to write about involuntarily childlessness, a tricky subject. And it works! Her memoirs are sincere from start to finish and very enjoyable.

It takes a skilled writer to get the right balance between research and experience on such a tough subject. This author is spot on, taking us into her emotional world and expounding on hardcore facts when and where appropriate.

I'm Taking My Eggs and Going Home is a good read indeed and a wonderful opportunity to reflect on any deeply emotional subject, not just infertility. I highly recommend it!

This book is smartly written and a terrific read. Lisa Manterfield takes on an important topic that affects so many women and men. Bravo, Lisa!

This is so much more than an infertility story (in a good way), it's about being a woman in today's day and age. Navigating challenges from leaving your family a country away, to the role you fill in your own family, to the ups and downs of being in & around relationships that work and others than don't. I also love how Lisa really lets you inside her head at each point and the clever dance always going on between emotion & logic including how she struggles to reach her own conclusions in the midst of the two.

Lisa doesn't hold back from delving into feelings about her husband, his grown children, her family, his family, friends and co-workers. You get a sense of her world - the world as we actually experience it in our own heads anyway. I wasn't left with that, "I wonder about this person or that person?" She goes there even if it makes her look less than perfect. It made me feel an even deeper kinship to her.

And yes, oh yes, does she delve into her infertility story. She takes you on it step by step and you feel like you're in the room with each passing moment, whether it's at the latest appointment of the person whose going to "make it happen" or in private conversations with her husband in the car. She gives a beautiful and heart wrenching account of just how all-consuming, exhausting and truly never ending infertility can be.

I really loved the book and read it all in one day because I couldn't put it down. It was an account of real life and the barrage of situations women face in adulthood. I hope many women will read this and feel comforted, whether they have faced infertility or not. (I hope for those who haven't faced it, this will be one of those books that opens their eyes & hearts to when infertility does enter their life in some way.) In Lisa's telling her story she reminds us how little we know what's truly going on in a person's life and that we should all be more accepting & loving of what's truly going on in our own, too. Great book and I highly recommend it!

I got this book along with about 6 others, so that I would have something to read while my husband and I are starting our infertility process I was really looking for something that would make me feel better, and less alone. This book did just that. I would highly recommend this book to anyone dealing with infertility, or knows anyone dealing with infertility. It really helps you understand what women go through. Lisa is an excellent writer, so the book is a quick read (I finished it in one afternoon). I also loaned it to my mom, so that she could read it! You can see the rest of my review at my blog: [...]

This was a really excellently written, intelligent and heart-felt book. It was so good I couldn't put it down -- I stayed up late and finished it in one day.

We haven't yet traveled as far down the IF path as the author (we're going to start testing in the next couple months), but all of the content leading up to the author's IF testing rang true and familiar to me (I'm pretty sure I recognized the website she talks about joining, having used it myself for a year and a half), and I found myself welcoming this wonderful lady into my heart as she lets us into hers.

It was also refreshing and validating to discover there are women like myself out there -- women who are opposed to the drugs of IVF. I've never responded well to artificial hormones (ie all the many types of hormonal BC I've tried have made me a crazy-woman or made me very ill), and ever since I started thinking about what we would do if we had trouble conceiving naturally, I've been resistant to the idea of IVF and putting myself through all of that. It was good to see that I'm not alone in having reservations about this type of medical treatment.

For my own well-being, I've been working on embracing a future without children in it, because I know how uncertain the IF and adoption/fostering journeys are. Reading this book was, again, refreshing and validating. It was also helpful and informative -- I've been dreading the pain and intrusiveness of IF testing, and reading about Lisa's experiences was informative and helped me prepare myself for what is to come. It also reaffirms my desire to always put my relationship with my husband first, to not lose touch with each other through this difficult journey, and waste years of our precious time on this Earth together.

I think I'll suggest that my husband read this too. Although he doesn't talk about it much, I know it's been hard on him too.

The cherry on top, is the website/support group the author has started and tells us about at the very end of the book.