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

by Anne Lamott

book data

3,131 ratings, 4.19 average rating, 597 reviews (more data...)

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5		42%
4		38%
3		14%
2		3%
1		0%

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published

March 8th 2005 by Anchor

binding

Paperback, 272 pages

isbn

1400079098 (isbn13: 9781400079094)

description

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 teach...more

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09/16/07

Keri rated it:

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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08/14/08

Bonnie rated it:

bookshelves: recommended, reviewed-books

Even if you have never been a parent, your kids have grown up, read this for the sheer pleasure of it.

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04/27/08

Andi rated it:

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 j...more 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 Lamott kept during her son’s first year of life. It’s a story of love and fear - all that stuff that comes with a kid, I assume - and is so honest, so so honest. And funny, really funny.

Take this, for example:

November 22 - I wish he could take longer naps in the afternoon. He falls asleep and I feel I could die of love when I watch him, and I think to myself that he is what angels look like. Then I doze off, too, and it’s like heaven, but sometimes only twenty minutes later he wakes up and begins to make his gritchy rodent noises, scanning the room wildly. I look blearily over at him in the bassinet, and think, with great hostility, Oh, God, he’s raising his loathsome reptilian head again.
When I go over to the bassinet to pick him up, though, he looks up at me like I’m Coco the clown - he beams, and makes raspberries, and does frantic bicycle kicks like he’s doing his baby aerobics. Then I feel I can go on.
I’ve never been so up and down in my life, so erratic and wild. My body is slow getting back to normal, except for my butt and thighs. I have to keep remembering the line about the little earth suits and that I am a feminist, because the thighs are just not doing all that well. I lay in the bathtub yesterday looking at them, thinking of entering the annual Hemingway write-alike contest with a piece called, “Thighs like White Elephants.”
And then part of me thinks, Hey, who fucking cares.

That voice, that sarcastic, bitter but ultimately beautiful voice is what I love about Anne Lamott. I’m going to give this book to every friend of mine who has a kid - which is most of them - so that they don’t feel so alone when they think their baby has a reptilian head. And I’m going to remember this book when I hold their babies and wonder what goes on in those little brains.

The only sad part about having finished this book is that now I’m out of Lamott books to read. Annie, get writing would ya? (less)

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03/12/08

Rachel Bash rated it:

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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02/07/08

Joanne rated it:

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" thi...more

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02/06/08

Emily rated it:

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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12/04/08

Ann rated it:

bookshelves: nonfiction

Read in January, 1999

Oh how I wish I had read this book when my children were babies! Then perhaps I would have realized I was not alone in finding new motherhood so hard while loving my children so unbearably much. Annie Lamott just nails it.

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02/24/08

Kimberly rated it:

Read in February, 2008

I really enjoyed this book- written from the prospective of someone who finds themselves shocked and amazed to be performing the role of "mother" Lammott grinds her way through her son's first year with humor and brutal honesty. While I hope I don't think about leaving my son on the porch overnight so that I might gain a few more hours of sleep, I appreciate the author's honesty about her wishes to do so, and am sure that I will sympathize even more once the little guy is finally on t...more

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02/15/09

Kirsten rated it:

bookshelves: world-of-baby

Read in February, 2009

I loved this book. I had never read anything by Anne Lamott before, but after this small memoir/journal, I feel as though I know her well and anything else I read of hers will be like returning to a familiar friend. Operating Instructions made me realize that babies, mothers and the experience of mothering are not unique. I've tried for 5 minutes to get that sentence to say what I mean and I can't quite do it. It may be because I am a mother. But the point is that I spent most of the book t...more

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11/20/08

Tricia rated it:

(review of isbn 0747516715)

bookshelves: 08-11-nov

Read in November, 2008

After stopping reading because I'd started when I first got pregnant and stopped when I had my first miscarriage (who needs someone exuding pure love and delight about their baby when you've just lost yours), I finally picked this up today almost two years later to decide about getting rid of it. My place was still marked, so I polished it off this afternoon. It was a good read, but is so very baby-centric that you should only read it if you are a new mother yourself, pregnant at a safe late sta...more

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04/26/09

Connie Kuntz rated it:

Read in April, 2009

recommends it for: Those who are interested in different parenting perspectives

This is a truthful, dark, insightful and funny book about the first year of single motherhood for Anne Lamott. Up until this book, I was unfamiliar with Anne Lamott and this was a great book to help me get to know a little bit about her.

What Lamott did was courageously and honestly document the first year of her son's life with his milestones from her perspective. Lamott is not only a single mother, but is also a recovering addict. Because of those two factors and her lack of inco...more

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05/21/09

Laura rated it:

Read in May, 2009

So I've enjoyed everything I've read by this author and have always laughed out loud, had tears come to my eyes, and folded corners to remember certain quotations. This one is even better! I was crying while laughing out loud. She tells the truth about motherhood in all its glorious mess, pain, and delight. It's not just relevant for parents of newborns (although most will feel incredibly understood and relieved) because the glimpses of grace she shares apply to life in general.

"...more

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05/21/09

Andria rated it:

Read in May, 2009

I don't re-read any author's books like I re-read Anne Lamott's books. When I read her books, I really enjoy being a part of her life through her writing. I've read this book three times now--once when I first bought it, once during my first daughter's first year, and once during my second daughter's first year. Lamott's journal of raising her son Sam during his first year reveals the difficulty of a mother's task. She survives even though she has no husband, battles to stay sober, fights an...more

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12/18/07

Books Ring My Bell rated it:

bookshelves: favorites, mom-stuff

Read in December, 2007

wish I would have read this just before having my son... I would not have felt like mutant mom (after you have the kid and the remains of your gut simply lay along side you like a puppy) and/or horomonal freak mom (SHIT! He's crying AGAIN! OH! Thank Heavens, though, it means he's still breathing).
Did not much care for her novels, but as a memoir, this is truthful, humorous and oddly comforting.

Thanks Marleah, great Christmas present!

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06/23/08

Karen rated it:

Read in June, 2008

a few things were laugh-outloud-funny, a lot of things were kind of ridiculous. Having a new little dude ourselves, certainly there were moments and events I could relate to, but the self-absorbed self-deprecating thing got really tiresome for me. Also, yes, I get it, you belong to a predominately black church; move on.

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03/19/09

Deja rated it:

Read in March, 2009

Anne Lamott also wrote Bird by Bird, which has got to be my favorite book on writing. And I love this book for the same reasons I love that one: witty, laugh-out-loud funny, sentences to die for, self-deprecating, and wise.

It reads like a journal (or a blog?) that follows Lamott through the first year of her son's life--its challenges as well as its beautiful, simple joys. Ultimatly though, it's a book about faith. She says some incredibly lovely and insightful and REAL things ab...more

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04/25/09

Jennifer rated it:

bookshelves: motherhood

Anne Lamott is one of my favorite writers. She writes with an unflinching honesty and a self-depreciating sense of humor that makes her an incredibly accessible writer. She is probably best known for her books on writing (Bird by Bird) and faith (Traveling Mercies, Grace Eventually), but it is only natural that she penned this book describing her first year of motherhood. A single mother who is woefully unprepared both financially, spiritually and physically (she has some addiction problems), La...more

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02/21/09

Robin rated it:

Read in February, 2009

I really enjoyed this book. It is written like a journal, which I enjoy (I love reading blogs!). The book starts right before she gives birth, to after her son is one year old. It is very interesting to read about all the struggles that a first time single mom goes through. I also enjoyed reading about how one day she loves her son to pieces, and the next day she hates him, and understand why some people abuse their children. It was really very interesting to read her inner thoughts on a da...more

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06/03/09

Jensownzoo rated it:

bookshelves: 2009-reads, biographies, owned, thriftstore

Read in June, 2009

This book is what it says it is, a journal of the pregnancy and first year of the author's first baby. Simple right? Ho-hum even. Not so! What is lacking in the subtitle is the sheer brutal honesty that the author gives the reader...a TRUE glimpse into the back-breaking WORK it takes to raise a child without a mate in that first year. But in addition to all the cons, the author also gives us the pros...and there are more and more of them as the baby ages.

I would recommend this t...more

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01/08/09

Julie rated it:

This was a Christmas gift, and I found it really interesting because the author is as far away from my own personality and life as you can possibly get, therefore she offers a completely unique perspective on motherhood and life in general. Although she is a Christian and frequently refers to and relies on her faith to get her through the low points, she is an extreme liberal. A little too crude for my taste at times, and nothing earth-shattering, but interesting enough. Would I really recomm...more

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