Mother Talk book review: Choosing You

I heard about this book and thought it sounded interesting. Then I got the book in the mail and it probably wasn't the best day for me to get a this particular book in the mail.

Cause, see the book here? Good Lord. That's the cutest baby ever. And I was having a bad day and feeling exceptionally infertile and so forth.

So I flipped the book over and on the back it said:

She googles for sperm.


You can't top that. For real. I had to read it.


The book is about Alexandra Soiseth. All she ever wanted was a husband and children. She found herself at age 39 with no husband and no children. She was proactive. Found a donor and had a baby.

Happily ever after right?

Except no so much. Not everyone understood, including her own parents and some of her friends. People think she's nuts. People think she's selfish.

I? Thought she was gutsy. I thought she was brave. I thought she was amazing.

Soiseth's writing was, at times, almost painful to read. Her journey was not only a story of becoming a mom, it was one of finding herself. I found myself crying silently when she spoke of the struggles with her weight and weeping openly when I came to the chapter, "The Long Hollow nights". As a former single mom (not by choice), I remember those long, hollow nights so well. As someone who didn't get the support she needed from her family, reading Soiseth's story evoked so many powerful and painful feelings inside of me.

Yet, when I was finished? I was longing for more. The last line of the book reads, "Because of her, I understand what it means to live and to love and to be afraid but love anyway."

And, does that not sum up exactly how I feel about my children? How most mothers feel about their children? And how eloquent and beautifully she writes it. So beautifully.

I really enjoyed this book. Sometimes, when a book is hard to read? It turns out to be the best thing for you. I think that was the case with Choosing You.

See what other mom's are saying at MotherTalk.