I received an Advanced Readers Copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher. Laura Jean Bakers memoir is unexpected and interesting. The book is well written and very informative. This story is very depressing. It covers generations of messed up lives, Laura’s by her parents and generations before her, and Laura’s family by her. The author’s role as mother is very disturbing. It was a tough read.

I had difficulty connecting with the author in this book. The lack of clear focus meant that I gave up on this memoir about 25% of the way in. I enjoyed the insights into marriage and parenthood, but became lost and adrift in a sea of courtrooms that didn't engage me in the way I had hoped when I picked this book up.

I couldn't connect to this memoir as the author didn't seem to have a straight line of focus herself. I appreciated the transparency and the struggles of motherhood but it just wasn't for me.

A philosophical book written by someone who is addicted to being pregnant because oxytocin, the hormone released in large quantities into pregnant women's bodies, makes her happy and gives her relief from her life-long struggle with depression. This addiction is a stress to her husband who struggles to pay the bills on his salary as a court appointed defense lawyer. Ms. Baker recounts some of her husband's clients and court cases, many of them drug addicts. She questions whether she is any different than these drug-addicted clients when her own addiction is causing chaos in her own life. The cases she describes are interesting as is the correlation between herself and her husband's clients. Ms. Baker's honesty concerning her home life is amazing. There are things she says that I just wouldn't put in writing for all the world to see. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who contemplates class differences.

I found this book had many themes and I asked myself , Was the book about motherhood,depression or the Justice / legal system? The themes seem to be interwoven but are lost in the subjects as the author jumps from one to another without a smooth transition. The author described her ongoing struggles of balancing marriage, motherhood, and career. She weaves her husband’s law career and clientele with her struggles her thoughts on motherhood and her husband's criminal cases and I found that she got overwhelmed with all the issues and it is hard to tell what point she is trying to get across.

I had a hard time following this book! Is it really about motherhood or is it more about the criminal justice system? The author bounces back and forth so much between her thoughts on motherhood and her husbands criminal cases, sometimes in the same breath, that's it's hard to tell what point she is trying to get across.

A great read about the power of hope. I loved it and I would recommend it.

I received an ARC of The Motherhood Affidavits by Laura Jean Baker in exchange for a honest review. Baker’s memoir is a raw and truthful portrayal of the ongoing struggles of balancing marriage, motherhood, and career. She paints a vivid picture of the emotional highs and lows women face between having more children versus the financial reality and sacrifices that every parent faces with these difficult decisions. She expertly weaves the details of her husband’s law career and clientele with the struggles she faces with her career, motherhood, and depression. I highly recommend Baker’s memoir!

This story is over an 8-year period from 2008 to 2016.
On page 3, I became interested when I read about "motherhood pumped me up with such joy: the intimacy, the purposefulness...", I could relate to those same feelings. The descriptions make you feel a part of this family. It shows raising children and the life of a lawyer dealing with the changing laws and repeat criminals. The spotlight on being uninsured and being a deadbeat as synonymous- going bankrupt with raising children. How we give everything when you have children. Breastfeeding is a version of self-medicating, there is no felling like it. We come from a container-within-a-container or egg to egg or mom to mom to mom...
I loved the decisions of naming a child and the weight of that decision should carry. Being baffled by people who compare dogs and cats to children- it is not equal. I loved all of the motherhood speak!!

That being said - it also has too much criminal talk.
I do not know why that had to a part of this book. It is titled The Motherhood Affidavits- I thought it all be about motherhood. There was details bout crimes and criminals, but it was also broken up in pieces that has to pieced together to even understand the criminal's entire story. I would have enjoyed this book more with more flow and smoothness.

I just could not finish this title. I find the author to be self serving and not very self aware, while coming across as pompous about her husband's clients and even her husbands efforts to keep their family afloat. I wanted to like the book, and the author, but just couldn't.

The publisher kindly sent me a paper copy. Thank you. Oh, my goodness, it was such a difficult book to read---depressing and also amazing that the author was able to recreate her family's life in such detail. She is very brave.
She highlights important aspects of today's criminal society, mental illness, sense of self and family relationships.
In writing this, she seems now to be happy with her life.

I had a hard time getting into this book at first and wasn't sure that I would finish it. As the story started to flow better it got more interesting. The author tried to weave stories of the clients her criminal defense lawyer husband represented with her own story. Often she seemed to be comparing her family, choices, and parenting skills with some of the women defendants. Sometimes it felt like a "there but for the grace of God go I " comparison and at other times I felt like she was using the examples to show that she was doing okay as a mother. I think she was trying to paint an overall picture of the degrees of motherhood, but since there were only the criminal clients versus her family it didn't work the way it seemed to be intended.
I also often had a hard time relating to the author/narrator. I too suffer from depression so I do understand trying to do whatever helps, but it almost seems like a form of insanity to keep having children (which the family did love and care for) to help stave off depression when they so clearly created more stress and financial worry. Her husband was more understanding and patient than I would be. I did see the connection between chemical addiction and her need to keep getting pregnant that the author was trying to draw, but it was hard to make that leap. I know addiction throws common sense out of the window. Perhaps the connection would have been easier if the science behind the endorphins created in pregnancy had been more solidly presented earlier in the book. As a society we have become accustomed to thinking about the effects of chemical addiction in the form of drugs and alcohol. This idea of being addicted to pregnancy is too new to relate to, I think. Lastly, the ending of the book was really disappointing! She tells us of the result of her last pregnancy (or at least the last one she writes about) but doesn't tell us how she copes without any more pregnancies, or how she managed her day to day life giving up this addiction. It seems that would be an important part of a book about any kind of addiction. The end was just depressing an didn't offer any kind of plan, follow-up or anything. Even just an Afterward included would have felt more complete. Overall, I kept reading because the concept was interesting and I did hope to find out if the author would be okay. I guess I just didn't get the satisfaction of knowing that.

I thought this was a pretty good read, but it never really got me into it so much that I couldn't put it down. I will try to read more of it later, but it was just okay for me.

I cannot read this in PDF format. My e reader kindle will not accept this form. I would like to read however when available in epub form. Thank you.

Yes, this is a book about motherhood, but it’s more a book about the author’s husband, Ryan’s, criminal defense cases along with deviant and criminal happenings in her world. Part of me wants to judge you – I’ll try not to.

It was well written but disjointed, jumping from subject matter to subject matter from one paragraph to the next. It was, however, very descriptive; I enjoyed ‘seeing’ in my mind’s eye, “Longhaired Tom cleans the building, his mop of twisted yarn sloshing murk across the floors.” There was excessive use of metaphors and similes—some good, some not so much.

This attorney-husband and professor-wife team was definitely not the sharpest set of knives in the drawer when it came to finances, to buying a house they couldn’t afford, to ignoring health insurance red flags only to end up owing for their son’s birth, as well as in disciplining their kids. Troubling was the acceptance Ryan had in defending criminals he knew were guilty. Troubling also was the author’s apparent bragging about their own law-breaking escapades as youths. Even more troubling was the author craving child after child after child (five, in all) only to have an abortion with number six.

It became a confessional after a while. Whether you did or didn’t steal baby wipes, cheat at poker, or had all the promiscuous public sex you say you did does not matter to me. I only wonder: you’re supposed to be a professional? What kind of professional? There is no professional bearing in this book. The book broadly covers the underbelly of the law.

The writing is much like that of Sylvia Plath. The book is very poetic and very depressing. It’s the story of generations of messed up lives, Laura’s by her parents and generations before her, and Laura’s family by her. Disturbing is the author’s role as mother. I pity her for her ongoing battle with depression, and I sympathize. I ask, however: do you really want everyone to be exposed to the raw you? Do you really want to claim your parental ignorance in such a public forum? Do you really think this will benefit your mental state? Is this negative attention what you seek/need?

I send my very best wishes to you, Ms Baker, to uncover peace and true happiness. I can’t imagine living your unhinged life. This family is a train wreck, a four-car pileup, a powder keg. This book gave me agita (the best Italian-American word there ever was).

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.