Very funny and very frank. Tea speaks truthfully about a difficult topic, with humor that is both funny and enjoyable, as well as being a boon for people who are going through or may soon go through this process.

This book clearly has a lot of heart. I don't feel completely comfortable reviewing and recommending it because I think Michelle Tea plays a little fast and loose with descriptions of people of different sexualities, races, ethnicities, and religions, using some terms that I don't think are appropriate for her to use. But if I know of a reader specifically looking for a book with themes like this one, I will recommend it to them.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this title. I've been a huge fan of Michelle Tea since the early 200os, and I loved loved loved this intimate look at her experience getting pregnant. And being in relationship with a beautiful chosen family. Even though this book is delightfully queer, I think any person considering pregnancy, in whatever circumstance, could benefit from reading this book. I also think people who never want to be pregnant or have kids would love it too because Tea is such a funny and engaging writer.

I love Michelle Tea, and as a person who also writes about experiences with (in)fertility, I am always grateful and greedy for another memoir telling the story of this intense experience. Tea does it with the absolute charm I found in Valencia, the first book I read by her so long ago in my LGBT Lit class (I think that's where I read it--I know it was assigned to me as an undergrad).

Tea's voice is unique: it is strong and funny and self-deprecating and loving and honest.

I'm hoping one day my oldest will love Tea's books as much as I do, or will have a Michelle Tea in their life when they need it, just as I did before.

I wish this book came out when we were TTC because it would have brought me so much more comfort, but now that my 11-year-old, who was a Clomid-baby, is all big and becoming themself, it didn't have the same urgency it would have if I were in that time of my life. I nodded along to so much of it. Becoming a medical object is rotten, but all that stripped down love that comes with having a baby is such magic.


Advance copy review courtesy of NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Michelle Tea is such a talented writer, and this new memoir does not disappoint. It is witty, heartwarming, and informative all at once. I read it over a couple days and I snuck time even when I did not have it to read a chapter or two, I was obsessed.

I am fascinated by all stories of artificial insemination, so I knew I would love this one. I loved all the anecdotes that created this tale, and all the fascinating people that Tea has in her life. A drag queen doing at home inseminations with her? Check. Superstitions over the baby's zodiac sign? Check. This memoir is absolutely hilarious. It does have it's dark moments, life always does, but Tea writes them in a way that does not drag down the whole book or take away from the overwhelmingly hopeful vibe of the story.

This book does not disappoint, anyone who picks it up and is intrigued by the title will love it.

Michelle Tea has written of her passionate mistakes and intricate corruptions, involving and educating the reader at the same time, for 15 years. I've watched as she's been influenced by her mentor Eileen Myles to becoming a mentor to others herself, and look forward to each installment of her growing up without a net (see what I did there?).

In this latest work, she describes her attempts to get pregnant and birth a healthy child. As usual, she takes us along for the ride with her wit and wry humor, and passion and the pain of despair. Although the seed of her yearning to be a mom begins as a single woman, she shortly meets a partner named Orson who is eager to co-parent. The details of their relationship and decision to conceive this child, along with a colorful, joyful gay man named Quentin are offered conversationally. It's in the nuances and asides that the soul of the book resides.

Highly recommended for any people (queer or not) who are interested in the fertility journey of an over-40 person, as I was led to Google several times to become educated on the procedures and meds involved.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the eARC.

I love all of the writing of Michelle Tea+ was delighted to find out she'd written a new memoir about her experience of infertility.

Tea decided she wanted to become a mother, as a 40-year-old single queer woman. This led her to decide to pursue artificial insemination, although always one to buck tradition, found a willing participant on her own, rather than using a sperm bank.

As she was starting to embark on this journey, she met someone. They fell in love. And she became pregnant, thanks to her black market fertility project.

Tea's humor, raw honesty, and insightful commentary on capitalism + gender politics always leave me wanting more.