Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year
by Anne Lamott
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Read in June, 2008
Hold your hats, folks. I’m about to get all “over-the-top” in this review.
I needed this book right now, with all it’s one-lines that make me laugh out loud. You should have seen me last evening, lying in the grass outside my church (it was only in the 70s yesterday, and today, with a light breeze - perfect grass lying weather) and laughing like a maniac. I’m sure all the Amish people who came by in their buggies must have thought I was nuts.
So this book is the journal that Lamo...more
I needed this book right now, with all it’s one-lines that make me laugh out loud. You should have seen me last evening, lying in the grass outside my church (it was only in the 70s yesterday, and today, with a light breeze - perfect grass lying weather) and laughing like a maniac. I’m sure all the Amish people who came by in their buggies must have thought I was nuts.
So this book is the journal that Lamo...more
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Read in August, 2002
I have long been a fan of Anne Lamott's work and I have been a mom even longer than that... and so I opened the cover of this book pregnant with expectations. Lamott came through again. My own brood has flown the nest by now, that first incredible year is but a memory... but oh, forever a vivid and undiminished one. I found mirror pieces throughout her account as I recalled those nights of unutterable exhaustion, those days smeared with baby food spatterings, charged with squeals and squalls, an...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
those recently with or soon-to-be with child
OK, so maybe I am a little bit of a hater. I recently put down "Inheritance of Loss" and complained about similes galore, but this book has the same thing (in many ways much worse) and it drove me a little crazy. Anne Lamott was writing similes like she was getting a nickel for each one. When I was reading the book it was like I was traveling with someone who felt that every building or sight was a reminder of somewhere else---and I was being told about it without being able to enjo...more
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Read in August, 2008
anne lamott certainly has a way with words. describing her son peeing in the bath, she brought together a series of words to form a most perfect present-tense image. her emotional appeal is strong. her imagery is lush and vivid. she reiterates a few phrases multiple times, like the affirmations of someone in recovery, and ultimately they are part of your landscape, too.
it was difficult to remember that this book was written nearly 20 years ago. her son, born in 89, should be old enough to v...more
it was difficult to remember that this book was written nearly 20 years ago. her son, born in 89, should be old enough to v...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
new moms, especially those with PPD
This, so far, remains my favorite of the mom-moirs. It's wonderful to read because it bears the distinction of being the only book mommy memoir I've read that offers no advice in any way. It's just a memoir, not a manifesto. And while I appreciate the manifesto books and their mama-positivity, I appreciated Operating Instructions more for it's brutal honesty. Anne Lamott is sometimes happy, sometimes depressed, confused, in love, angry, and sometimes utterly lacking in self-confidence.
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Read in May, 2008
recommended to Danine by:
Clare & Kate
I wanted to make sure I read this book during the first year of my own child's life. Anne Lamott is a writer and kept a journal of her child's first year and I am a writer doing the same.
Anne is raising her son without a father. In the beginning of the book I thought it was going to be a man bashing fest and to some tiny degree there is some bitterness. The truth is though I might be the same if the father totally denied ever copulating risking bringing a child into the world. So yeah I ...more
Anne is raising her son without a father. In the beginning of the book I thought it was going to be a man bashing fest and to some tiny degree there is some bitterness. The truth is though I might be the same if the father totally denied ever copulating risking bringing a child into the world. So yeah I ...more
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Read in January, 1997
recommends it for:
parents, pregnant couples
A friend of mine gave me a copy of this book while I was pregnant, and he never knew what a favor he truly did for me.
Anne Lamott writes all the gritty details of the thoughts that go through any sleep deprived parent's mind, but we aren't ever brave enough to admit them, sometimes not even to ourselves.
Having already read about some crazy lady (Anne Lamott) wondering if she could leave her baby out in the cold and see if that whole "survival of the fittest" thing would work ou...more
Anne Lamott writes all the gritty details of the thoughts that go through any sleep deprived parent's mind, but we aren't ever brave enough to admit them, sometimes not even to ourselves.
Having already read about some crazy lady (Anne Lamott) wondering if she could leave her baby out in the cold and see if that whole "survival of the fittest" thing would work ou...more
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I teach at Creighton University, and so (like most instructors) was appalled when Lamott was "disinvited," but never more than after I read this book. It's been a long time since I've laughed out loud while reading a book, and longer since a book has provoked guffaws (seriously, hearty laughter) AND reflection, revelation, and grief. "Honest" is a perfect word to describe this book, which bravely (I think) puts out there the concept that being a mother isn't always being 10...more
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As I began reading I found myself becoming more critical of this boozy, drugie, narcissistic woman. Who does she think she is, whining and bellyaching to anybody in her area.? But the more I read the stronger and more honest her voice became. By the end I realized that I had been reading about an honest-to-God miracle -- a woman who quit drinking, stopped smoking pot and gulping pills in order to become a real mother for Sam. Poor kid, she tells us, look at what he drew in the mommie lottery....more
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Read in March, 2008
recommended to Andrew by:
Teresa Longrecommends it for: new parents, expecting parents
Like many readers, I found author Lamott's self-obsession offputting until it clicked: this is a journal. People don't write journals to talk about the state of the world, they do it to talk to themselves about themselves. The fact that Anne Lamott is an excellent writer makes her journal good reading for the rest of us.
Yup, Lamott is an alcoholic and cokehead in recovery, a self-proclaimed "sluttina", a bizarre kind of religious freak, has apparently had a few abortions in...more
Yup, Lamott is an alcoholic and cokehead in recovery, a self-proclaimed "sluttina", a bizarre kind of religious freak, has apparently had a few abortions in...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to Emily by:
Melisa, Amy, Noelle, Carrie, etc., etc., etc.
Just finished this one this morning. This was the kind of book that I resisted because everyone else kept telling me to read it. Also, because I'm writing a lot, I was afraid I'd start writing like Lamott and BINGO! I am. Anyhow, that said, I'm glad I've read it. The end is very sad, sadder because it is true. Reading it also fulfilled that promise that you'll think about your own new motherhood and think: "At least I'm not Anne Lamott." I was going to give the book three stars in...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
new moms
It came highly recommended, and it was enjoyable to hear about her experiences as a new mom and relate it to my own experiences. She's 35, single, a recovering addict and a writer. She's also really into religion and talks about God almost everyday. She's also a pretty radical lady, and her faith is her own. But still, I just couldn't relate to the abundance of God talk. She struggles through her sons first months (much like we all do), and she is honest about the frustration and the joy and...more
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Read in November, 2007
One thing that's keeping me from reading this book is a blurb on the cover: "Anyone who has ever had a hard time facing a perfectly ordinary day will identify."
Yeah, I think I've identified the type of book all right. But it was recommended,so I'll give it a chance.
Okay, now I've read it. I like and identify with the parts about her son. It reads very true, but that becomes less and less of the book. I'm sure the parts about what a broken person she is and how she stru...more
Yeah, I think I've identified the type of book all right. But it was recommended,so I'll give it a chance.
Okay, now I've read it. I like and identify with the parts about her son. It reads very true, but that becomes less and less of the book. I'm sure the parts about what a broken person she is and how she stru...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommended to Honey by:
DJrecommends it for: new and expectant moms
This was a suggestion from harlequinade. I read a lot of books on pregnancy, birth, and parenting - at this point it takes a fair amount to surprise me or really impress me in the genre. This book had what it took. Lamott holds nothing back as she describes the incredible journey of deciding to have a baby on her own, giving birth, and the first year of his life. She also flashes back to her experiences as an addict, getting sober, and the long illness of her father. Her faith is a current that ...more
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Read in June, 2008
No, I'm not pregnant. So I consider it a credit to Lamott's talent as a writer that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book even though I can't directly relate to her stories about breastfeeding or her son's colic. I also am not a particularly religious person, either, but again, I wasn't turned off by her Christian references. Having just read Carnet de Voyage, another journal-turned-published-book, I appreciated that this one seemed to have been edited before publication. I read a few reviews o...more
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Read in March, 2008
Lamott's writing is certainly vivid. She took me right back to that twilight time of getting up in the middle of the night, wondering what karma is revisiting you when you've been spit up on for the umpteenth time, etc. Though Lamott focused on being a single mom, all her doubts, fears, irritations and even rages are universal. I thought the most poignant part of the book was the sorrow she wrote about over and over again that her son's father did not want to be a father at all. I very much ...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
Jon/Laura
A really honest account of how difficult having a newborn is. Some entries oscillate from the sunbeams & starshine that one's love for a child can be to the thoughts of a suicidal, baby killer. Though dated at times, it's nearly forgivable since she was kind of radical for 1989. i, personally, would cringe a little each time she would refer to God/faith (nearly every entry) or when she would refer to the "really black" ladies at her "black church".
But all in all,...more
But all in all,...more
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Read in August, 2008
recommended to Nicole by:
Lisa
I think she is an amazing author, but I just couldn't buy into this one. It just felt so narcissistic to me (obviously it's a memoir, but even at that, it just felt so completely over the top that I just couldn't stomach it). She has such amazing thoughts on faith and God, it just makes you want to write them all down and keep her quotes in your pocket. But then she gets started on tangents (and language) and she loses my interest, because I know she can do better (and has: Traveling Mercies and...more
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Read in January, 2002
recommends it for:
new parents who are losing their minds
This is the best parenting book ever! Right when you feel like you have hit the wall, Anne Lammott makes it OK to feel all the frustrations and pain as well as the awe and overwhelming love for your little offspring. When my second child refused to sleep more than 2 hours at a time for 3, count em, 3 months while I was working full time...I bought every book about getting your child to sleep that I could find. I finally called in sick, sent my kid to day care, and read this entire book in one da...more
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Read in May, 1999
I honestly can’t think of another book that has made me laugh so hard I could no longer read the pages. Anne Lamott tells a story as if she is having a conversation with you and you alone and I love that about her.
Maybe I identified with this book so much due to the fact that I read it on the heels of a my own very imperfect pregnancy, child birthing experience, horrific ordeal with post partum depression and then ultimate ending of my relationship with my sons father… not matter the reas...more
Maybe I identified with this book so much due to the fact that I read it on the heels of a my own very imperfect pregnancy, child birthing experience, horrific ordeal with post partum depression and then ultimate ending of my relationship with my sons father… not matter the reas...more
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 4.23 (2035 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 4.23 (1947 ratings) number of reviews: 416popular shelves
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"Part of me loves and respects men so desperately, and part of me thinks they are so embarrassingly incompetent at life and in love. You have to teach them the very basics of emotional literacy. You have to teach them how to be there for you, and part of me feels tender toward them and gentle, and part of me is so afraid of them, afraid of any more violation."
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