Full name: Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year

Author: Anne Lamott Year: 1993 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Memoirs, Non Fiction, Parenting, Humor, Essays Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9781400079094 1400079098

The most honest, wildly enjoyable book written about motherhood is surely Anne Lamott's account of her son Sam's first year. A gifted writer and teacher, Lamott (Crooked Little Heart) is a single mother and ex-alcoholic with a pleasingly warped social circle and a remarkably tolerant religion to lean on. She responds to the changes, exhaustion, and love Sam brings with aplomb or outright insanity. The book rocks from hilarious to unbearably poignant when Sam's burgeoning life is played out against a very close friend's illness. No saccharine paean to becoming a parent, this touches on the rage and befuddlement that dog sweeter emotions during this sea change in one's life. Similar books: This Is Just My Face by Gabourey Sidibe Alternadad by Neal Pollack Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal Waiting for Birdy by Catherine Newman The Big Rumpus by Ayun Halliday Home Is Burning by Dan Marshall Queen of the Oddballs by Hillary Carlip Some Assembly Required by Anne Lamott Spectacles by Sue Perkins Anybody Can Do Anything by Betty MacDonald Shockaholic by Carrie Fisher Fifty Acres and a Poodle by Jeanne Marie Laskas Raising Blaze by Debra Ginsberg Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself by Alan Alda Lust & Wonder by Augusten Burroughs Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott Plan B by Anne Lamott Grace by Anne Lamott Small Victories by Anne Lamott At Wit's End by Erma Bombeck