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No Biking in the House Without a Helmet

4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 · rating details · 1,084 ratings · 294 reviews

Dispatches from the new front lines of parenthood

When the two-time National Book Award finalist Melissa Fay Greene confided to friends that she and her husband planned to adopt a four-year-old boy from Bulgaria to add to their four children at home, the news threatened to place her, she writes, “among the greats: the Kennedys, the McCaughey septuplets, the von Trapp family...more Dispatches from the new front lines of parenthood

When the two-time National Book Award finalist Melissa Fay Greene confided to friends that she and her husband planned to adopt a four-year-old boy from Bulgaria to add to their four children at home, the news threatened to place her, she writes, “among the greats: the Kennedys, the McCaughey septuplets, the von Trapp family singers, and perhaps even Mrs. Feodor Vassilyev, who, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, gave birth to sixty-nine children in eighteenth-century Russia.”

Greene is best known for her books on the civil rights movement and the African HIV/AIDS pandemic. She’s been praised for her “historian’s urge for accuracy,” her “sociologist’s sense of social nuance,” and her “writerly passion for the beauty of language.”

But Melissa and her husband have also pursued a more private vocation: parenthood. “We so loved raising our four children by birth, we didn’t want to stop. When the clock started to run down on the home team, we brought in ringers.”

When the number of children hit nine, Greene took a break from reporting. She trained her journalist’s eye upon events at home. Fisseha was riding a bike down the basement stairs; out on the porch, a squirrel was sitting on Jesse’s head; vulgar posters had erupted on bedroom walls; the insult niftam (the Amharic word for “snot”) had led to fistfights; and four non-native-English-speaking teenage boys were researching, on Mom’s computer, the subject of “saxing.”

“At first I thought one of our trombone players was considering a change of instrument,” writes Greene. “Then I remembered: they can’t spell.”

Using the tools of her trade, she uncovered the true subject of the “saxing” investigation, inspiring the chapter “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, but Couldn’t Spell.”

A celebration of parenthood; an ingathering of children, through birth and out of loss and bereavement; a relishing of moments hilarious and enlightening—No Biking in the House Without a Helmet is a loving portrait of a unique twenty first-century family as it wobbles between disaster and joy.(less)

Hardcover, 368 pages

Published April 12th 2011 by Sarah Crichton Books (first published March 31st 2011)

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Aug 02, 2012 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars

At some point parents are faced with the prospect of the "empty nest syndrome". Some parents deal with it by moving to a big city (like my husband and I did- don't worry though, we told the kids and gave them our new address), some take up new hobbies, and Melissa Fay Greene and her husband met the challenge by adopting children from Bulgaria and Ethiopia, as told in No Biking in the House Without a Helmet.

The Samuels (Don is a criminal defense attorney, Melissa a writer) had four children, and...more At some point parents are faced with the prospect of the "empty nest syndrome". Some parents deal with it by moving to a big city (like my husband and I did- don't worry though, we told the kids and gave them our new address), some take up new hobbies, and Melissa Fay Greene and her husband met the challenge by adopting children from Bulgaria and Ethiopia, as told in No Biking in the House Without a Helmet.

The Samuels (Don is a criminal defense attorney, Melissa a writer) had four children, and their oldest of four Molly was heading off to college, when Melissa began to think what life would be like when they weren't bringing cupcakes, providing emergency phone numbers, or giving standing ovations at the school play.

The introduction to the book is hilarious, with Greene recounting her son answering the telephone and yelling "Daddy, it's for you! I think it's a criminal!" Another funny anecdote concerns Greene "helping too much with homework", and groaning "when the teacher's memo (for the science fair project) comes home, glancing at my calendar to see when I'll have time to get it done." When her sixth-grade son's friend calls late at night, she tells him "Lee's asleep. But what did you get for "How does Montesquieu show that self-interest can overawe justice in human affairs?" Lee came home a few days later and informed his mother that she got a 74 on that homework.

After having a miscarriage, adoption is discussed. Greene gets on her computer and finds several adoption websites where you can see photos of children available for adoption.
"Some adoption agencies offered "delivery." You could adopt without leaving your desk! "I'd better be careful not to hit accidentally hit Send," I told Donny. "We could open the door one day and find some little kid standing there with a suitcase."
While Greene writes with warm humor, she also writes movingly of her travels first to Bulgaria and later to Ethiopia to bring home two children. She is honest about the challenges faced bringing into their family children who didn't speak English.

She inspired her oldest son Lee, and he spent one summer volunteering in the same orphanage from where they got Helen. That chapter of the book was so lovely, this bright, caring young man sharing his talents and time with these kids who adored him. Greene was a little too inspiring though, and Lee called home and asked his parents to take in two older boys who had no one else, and whose chances for adoption were small.

The Samuels are a normal family; they love, they laugh, the fight. They went through a particularly bumpy time for awhile when two of the teenage boys were literally fighting and it affected the entire family.

Greene is a wonderful writer: honest, empathetic and funny. I fell in love with the Samuel family, no more so than when one of their biological children bemoaned the fact that if they adopted two more Ethiopians he would move farther down the list as fastest runner in the family.

This is a beautiful book, a testament to the strength of a loving family, with all the laughs and frustrations that being part of that family entails.
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Jun 04, 2012 Mary Etta rated it 4 of 5 stars

June book group selection.

There were many reasons to like the book. The first several chapters were laugh-out-loud funny. Then the mood changed greatly as the author and her husband began searching for a child to adopt, and then another and more from various third-world countries. Melissa Greene also introduces other families who have also adopted as they have. She writes well and with sensitivity and honesty of her family's experiences in their expansion.

Page 131, she gives a very interesting...more

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Mar 05, 2012 Danielle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, danielle-recommends

I picked this one up from the Reader's Choice shelf at my library, and I was pretty much expecting a lot of laugh-track needy quips, like the title would suggest. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was an honest and fascinating memoir of adoptive parenting, with genuine (not forced) humor.
Greene is a great non-fiction writer. Her style is easy to read and enjoyable. I liked the way in which she mixed family anecdotes with her personal journey of international adoption and larger i...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Marjorie Ingall rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

Melissa Fay Greene is so freaking FUNNY -- and when she's writing about her family, rather than about Southern racism/a synagogue bombing/the Ethiopian orphan crisis, she can really let her comedy flag fly. (To be fair, there was humor in her "serious" books, and there's a lot of seriousness in this hilarious book.) She mocks herself constantly and she isn't sentimental -- two traits you need when you're writing about adopting five kids after having four bio ones. To nitpick, I did think the boo...more

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Nov 29, 2011 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

I liked this, it's light without being fluffy, sweet without the saccharine after-taste and humourous.

Melissa Fay Greene is a non-fiction journalist of repute, but this is more of a personal story of how and she and her family adopted 5 children from overseas. The beginning of the book is slower and more sombre, as she researches intercountry adoption and discusses the terrible effects of post-institutionalism on children. Anyone my age (40s) must surely remember the opening of those wicked wic...more

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Jun 20, 2011 Beckbunch rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have loved Melissa Fay Greene ever since "There is no Me Without You" and have followed her blog and have been impatiently waiting for her to write about her own family. I had to read and then re-read aloud to my husband and kids the chapters on the adoption of their four-year old son from Bulgaria. We had just come home from China with our newly adopted four year-old boy and although the names and countries are different, so many stories were exactly what we're dealing with right now. Exactly...more

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May 27, 2011 Joanne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, ignite-ames-2012-talk-5

This book is just plain joyful, and I loved it. I was only mildly interested in its topic of large families with international adoptees, and kind of expected it to be a different twist on what I think of as the typical parenting memoir: I had kids, they say funny things, I learned something about myself, I wouldn't trade my life for anything. It is that, but Greene is very very funny and a very very good writer. I could barely put the book down.

Greene had four biological children, and then got i...more This book is just plain joyful, and I loved it. I was only mildly interested in its topic of large families with international adoptees, and kind of expected it to be a different twist on what I think of as the typical parenting memoir: I had kids, they say funny things, I learned something about myself, I wouldn't trade my life for anything. It is that, but Greene is very very funny and a very very good writer. I could barely put the book down.

Greene had four biological children, and then got interested in international adoptions. She pitched story ideas to The New Yorker and used her fact-finding missions as opportunities to research adoptions for herself. She - and I as her reader - learned a lot. For example, many orphanages make short videos of the children who are up for adoption, which U.S. doctors then evaluate to determine if the child might have physical or psychological or developmental issues. Greene is candid about feeling as if she is shopping for a child, and also about her own abilities to handle specific ailments. She describes filling out the adoption questionnaire: "You scanned the list of what special needs you would accept, with the dawning impression - as you skipped over children with spina bifida, Down syndrome, and dwarfism without checking their boxes - that you weren't such a nice person after all" (p. 220). She describes the heartbreaking poverty of orphanages in the developing world, and of the children who follow her around there, hoping she will be their mama, and of being devastated by the severe economic and social issues that have led to those orphanages.

She is also candid about raising brown-skinned children in an upper-middle-class white and Jewish family, and of trying to keep her children connected with their original families and culture. She has to learn, for example, to provide extraordinarily spicy food for one of her Ethiopian children. She describes the history of international adoptions in the U.S., commenting that most of the early adoptions in the 1960s were Korean adoptions, so that those grown-up children are now running the international adoption agencies and helping improve practices.

But mostly the book is about the interactions among her family members, which are largely sweet (though not always - there are arguments and bursts of profanity). The overall tone, though, is exuberant. Chapter titles give a hint: "Why This is Not a Cookbook," "Squirrels We Have Known, Also Insects," and "The Jewish Guide to Raising Star Athletes."

My only complaints are that I had to keep flipping back to page 4, which lists all the children by name and birth year, because I couldn't keep them straight, and that some of the chapters seem to have been shorter stand-alone pieces that were inserted randomly into the book so that it doesn't go in chronological order and I lose track of who is where in the story. But otherwise this is one of my new favorite funny books.
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Feb 09, 2012 Holly rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book for the joy it gave me. It wasn't the first time I picked it up. I had read bits of it in magazines, and started it at least once without finishing. I think the difference was that this time I got as far as the Ethiopian adoptions and then I was truly captivated. Living in Ethiopia for 4 1/2 years, our family met and hosted several American and Canadian families who had come to adopt. I always had mixed feelings about it, worrying about the suffering of the families who gave up...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Dolly rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of nonfiction

Shelves: 2012, biography, nonfiction, africa, bulgaria, jewish-israel, other-usa, fitness-sports, education-school, religion-philosophy, halloween

This is a wonderful book that details the experiences of a mom of nine. Her reminiscences of the children she gave birth to, along with those she and her husband adopted are humorous, touching and poignant.

I have the weirdest coincidences in my reading selections. Sometimes it's themes or events within different books, and sometimes it's something I experience at the same time I am reading about it. As I sat on our couch, reading in the post-rush of present opening on Christmas Day, our girls w...more This is a wonderful book that details the experiences of a mom of nine. Her reminiscences of the children she gave birth to, along with those she and her husband adopted are humorous, touching and poignant.

I have the weirdest coincidences in my reading selections. Sometimes it's themes or events within different books, and sometimes it's something I experience at the same time I am reading about it. As I sat on our couch, reading in the post-rush of present opening on Christmas Day, our girls were busy constructing a figurine out of Legos with their dad. I chuckled when I started reading about Melissa watching her soon-to-be adopted son play with Legos in Bulgaria. How funny.

I loved her candid style of writing and her family's willingness to share their experiences, even the sad and frustrating ones. I was inspired by her world travels and her desire to adopt children from foreign countries. I appreciated that she told of her post-adoption depression and I am sure that more than one adoptive parent will be helped by her words.

As I write these words, Russia's President Vladimir Putin signed a controversial measure banning the adoption of Russian children by U.S. families. It really makes me sad that such a spiteful measure was taken and I feel so ad for the 46 families who were still in the process of finalizing their adoptions, adoptions that are no longer legally allowed to occur. Had my husband and I been unable to have children, we would have considered adopting a child from Russia. That never came to pass and we have two lovely girls, but a part of me wonders what might have been. But I digress...

Overall, this is a very entertaining and readable story and I am so glad I found it. I am sure I picked it out due in no small part to the humorous title and it was certainly a worthwhile and uplifting read.

interesting quotes:

"In retrospect, I see that Donny and I have steered by the light of what brings us joy, what makes us laugh, and what feels right and true. Those instincts have served us well." (p. 7)

"The little boy flew around the room like a bat smacking into the walls of an attic." (p. 63)

"Like Peter Pan, Babar, and Curious George, Balboa and Magellan belong to the world of childhood." (p. 341)

new words: phylogeny, catawampus(less)

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Mar 06, 2011 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

To begin with a disclaimer, the author of this book is my first cousin, 1x removed. That said, I recall meeting her once when I was a child but haven't had much contact with them and have never met her children at all. I'd like to meet them and get to know them and that is one of the reasons I jumped on the opportunity to read this book through Amazon Vine.

No Biking in the House concerns the path one family took, pursuing multiple international adoptions as their children grew up and moved out...more To begin with a disclaimer, the author of this book is my first cousin, 1x removed. That said, I recall meeting her once when I was a child but haven't had much contact with them and have never met her children at all. I'd like to meet them and get to know them and that is one of the reasons I jumped on the opportunity to read this book through Amazon Vine.

No Biking in the House concerns the path one family took, pursuing multiple international adoptions as their children grew up and moved out of the house. After having four biological children, they adopted a son from Bulgaria, a daughter from Ethiopia, a son from Ethiopia and then two brothers from Ethiopia.

There's humor throughout, an openness where the author isn't afraid to appear silly and plenty of soul searching about whether or not pursuing the adoptions was the right thing to do for her family. I really liked the chapter where developmental disabilities in the international adoption community are discussed as I know more than one family that is dealing with severe and multiple disabilities in their children who were adopted from Russia and other Eastern European countries. This is a huge issue and one that needs to be addressed and not stepped into blindly.

Yet stepping blindly is exactly where I feel this family went when they adopted two older brothers from Ethiopia after one of their sons volunteered in Ethiopia. The son called home and begged his parents to adopt the boys because no one else would take them as they were older and brothers. There didn't appear to be any thought given to the very dramatic effect this adoption would have on their entire family. I'm sure there was plenty but it didn't come across in the writing. While the author does acknowledge that afterward, it felt more like a "group home" than a "family" I came away bewildered as so much attention was paid to this with previous adoptions. I never had the sense that these two boys had been entirely assimilated into the family and I hope that has changed.

Overall, interesting and engaging but the last few chapters lost me. I'd love an update in a couple of years as I feel this story is one that needs a little more time. I look forward to meeting all of them one day! (less)

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Dec 11, 2011 Mara rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: adoption, oberlin, non-fiction, memoir-autobiography, family, humor, orphans, siblings

It may be a cliche to say that you laughed so hard you cried, except that I did while reading this book. Several times. Greene tells the story of how her family created itself with such wonderful humor that you can't help but fall in love with them all.

Of course, a book like this can't be all sunshine and smiles, and Greene doesn't pull her punches when relating stories of family tribulation. Nor does she leave us in any doubt that children around the world face horrifying poverty and hunger eve...more

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Dec 24, 2011 AJ rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bio-memoir, non-fiction, adoption

I read "There is No Me Without You" by this author a few years ago. I thought that was a great book about Ethiopia and adoption there. I figured it would be great to read this biographical book by the same author to see her personal experience with adopting in Ethiopia (and Bulgaria).

I really liked this book. It offered a pretty honest portrayal of what it must be like to adopt. She was honest with all the exasperating and thrilling details of adopting. She made it seem difficult (as it is) but...more I read "There is No Me Without You" by this author a few years ago. I thought that was a great book about Ethiopia and adoption there. I figured it would be great to read this biographical book by the same author to see her personal experience with adopting in Ethiopia (and Bulgaria).

I really liked this book. It offered a pretty honest portrayal of what it must be like to adopt. She was honest with all the exasperating and thrilling details of adopting. She made it seem difficult (as it is) but ultimately worth it. One of the nice things about being very honest, is that it didn't make her seem like a perfect person - in fact, downright unlikable at times. But, that's part of the charm, and realism, of the book.

She also offered a lot of experiences and advice that could be put into practical use for adoptive parents, of which we will be a part some day.

The part that really got on my nerves in this book, though, was that of religion. The author seemed exceedingly open to all cultural and racial differences, but very often seemed closed when it comes to religion. She expected all her children to be Jewish, which is her right and not much different than any other parent indoctrinating his or her children into religion, but I thought it a bit strange coming from such a multi-cultural family. All of the children were expected, and encouraged, to keep their own identity including cultural and racial and national (which is fantastic), but they were all expected to become Jewish. I don't think that there was religious close-mindedness in the family as an overarching theme (afterall, one of the adoptive sons went to a Quaker school) but it came across often enough. When the family was adopting two children (desperate to be adopted) it seemed the second thing out of her mouth other than, "Hey we want to adopt you!" Was, "Oh, by the way, we are Jewish and you will be too." I don't think that telling a desperate child that he will be adopted is the best time to push religious beliefs on him. At another time, she met a child with a crucifix tattooed on her forehead (Ethiopia is a largely Christian country) and all she could think about was if she were to adopt her, how she would explain the tattoo to others, since she was Jewish. Those things, while I admired them in their honest nature, rubbed me entirely the wrong way. In addition, she seemed to really favor and enjoy her biological children more. I can understand that to a point, because she knew them their whole lives and got to mold them from birth - while the adopted children were not that easy. Perhaps, in 10 or 15 years, that disconnect will not still be there in her writing.

Anyway, overall I think it was a great read regarding international adoption and large families. Though, there were a couple things that I did not like. However, I felt I could look past those things enough to get the point that the author was really trying to make - that adoption is incredibly difficult, and incredibly rewarding.

Yes, I recommend it!(less)

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Dec 23, 2011 Jennie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is my first MFG book and it didn't disappoint. I most enjoyed her commentary/stories on raising her family - both hilarious and touching. The passages on the adoption of their four children from Bulgaria and Ethiopia were fascinating (especially poignant were the meetings with birth families), but I do admit to some discomfort over the "collection" of children. MFG does address this in the book and I do admire the lengths that they went to keep links to their children's birth culture. I ima...more

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May 24, 2011 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved "There's No Me Without You", I read it while we were waiting for our Ethiopian daughter's adoption to go through. It was a powerful testament to human love, and the devastation of AIDS in that country.

This book is hilarious. And anyone who is a parent, adopted or otherwise, would love this one! Melissa has a very unique and totally honest way of looking at parenting that had me going, "Yup! OMG, yup!!! LOL!"

The parts where she details her various children meeting birth parents was very...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars

While the book dragged in a few places (some chapters felt unnecessary or redundant), I really enjoyed the extended peek into this blended family. I learned quite a bit about adoption. I also really respected this couple's parenting of all their children. They set high expectations, but didn't hover. They swore, laughed off things like broken lamps or windows, empathized with the loss of a rodent-like pet, etc. They seemed fairly laid back, in general, and their kids turned out to be respectful,...more

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Nov 26, 2011 Kathleen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

This was a really enjoyable - and fast! - read about a really interesting family. I really liked all the details about the adoption process for each of her children, as well as the family dynamics after each additional child was added. The only reason I made it a 4-star review instead of a 5-star is that the book is made up of very short chapters, each of which is made up of a series of very short snippets of stories, and often there isn't much - if any - transition between these parts. While I...more

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Sep 03, 2011 Tamah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoirs

I have a strongly held personal rule that I only read parenting books written by people with five or more children – after an upsetting incident when I threw an insipid book across the room - a book written by a psychologist with two girls. So I was pleased to find this memoir written by a woman with 9 children – 4 biological and five adopted from Ethiopia and Bulgaria. Not that this was a parenting book, but Melissa Fay Greene humorously and without sparing her own inadequacies, tells the story...more

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Jul 24, 2011 Michelle rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was a hilarious romp through the life of this crazy family--Jewish couple who enjoy raising their four biological children so much that when they begin to get older, they end up adopting another five--one from Bulgaria and five from Ethiopia. Each child brings new challenges to the family, but this is really a book about joy--the pure joy of family life. The author is a gifted writer and this book is so funny I had to read many portions to my family so they would know why I was cracking up....more

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Oct 11, 2011 Melissa rated it 5 of 5 stars

I would give this book ten stars if I could! I haven't read a book this inspiring since "Tattoos on the Heart." This author is someone I would love to live down the street from; she kept me laughing the entire time. THe book itself was so intelligent and humorous. At times, it was very somber as it described the conditions of the Bulgarian orphanage and Ethiopian orphanage for HIV-positive children. During those moments, I was gripping the book with white knuckles. It made a huge impression on m...more

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May 22, 2011 Abby rated it 4 of 5 stars

I tore through "There's No Me Without You" and read this one almost as quickly. I love Melissa Fay Greene's writing and after finishing the first book, I found myself wondering more about her family. This book gave me exactly what I wanted. I gave it four stars because it wasn't quite the book that TNMWY was, but I still loved it.

Quite a few things resonated with me:
- As a resident of the same part of Atlanta, I loved reading references to my stomping grounds and it made me love my city more.
-...more

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Nov 25, 2011 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have read all of Melissa Fay Greene's non-fiction books and am a big fan, but I loved this memoir most of all. It is the story of how she and her husband, Atlanta defense attorney Don Samuels, came to adopt five children (four from Ethiopia and one from Bulgaria)over a number of years as their four biological children began to leave the nest. I had known a little about their experience as part of it was chronicled in her book about the HIV epidemic in Ethiopia that had created many many orphan...more

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Sep 13, 2012 Ann Fisher rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've loved Melissa Fay Greene ever since Praying for Sheetrock. (You might expect that I would love good creative non-fiction staring a bunch of legal services attorneys--if you haven't read it, you should). This is her story of international adoption, told in her usual combination of wisdom and wit--Erma Bombeck for the contemporary higgeldy-piggledy family. A love story, but not one that glosses over the complexities of life, both in the countries from which her children come and in the family...more

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Oct 04, 2011 Eva Nickelson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I enjoyed the family life that Greene portrayed in this book. Her storytelling grabbed my attention, making me laugh as well as empathize with her growing family. I can understand the motivations behind adoption, especially in the countries that her family is from, so what interested me most was the line between having a family and running a group home, and how at different times in her family history, she felt both. As a person who agonized over adding an adopted dog to my two person family, I...more

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Mar 16, 2013 Peter rated it 3 of 5 stars

I admire the lengths Greene and her husband go to in order to create a better life for these children, and the individual backstories of each new addition are filled with vivid details. It all seemed a little too easy, though, and I stopped having any doubt that each new addition would join the family and make a smooth transition. Maybe I'm too close to the material, having adopted two children myself.

And maybe I was too bothered by what I saw as the glorification of Ray Lewis. Greene's husband...more

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Jul 20, 2011 Mary Jane rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was hoping for more on the challenges of this blended family (like conflicting personalities and discipline) but she didn't really address any of that until the book was almost over. I also thought it was interesting that she discussed how important it was for each child to retain their original culture (Ethiopian, Bulgarian) and they made trips back to Ethiopia and attempted to maintain contact with biological family members. But when it came to religion her adopted children were expected to...more

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Aug 25, 2011 Delight rated it 5 of 5 stars

I LOVED this book about a family's adventures in growing their bio family from 4 kids to 9 through adoption from Bulgaria and Ethiopia. Well written, humorous, and at times very sad (I wept reading about the state of the kids in the orphanages). This family gives me hope about the world. What an amazing bunch of kids with parents that I would like to take some parenting cues from. I so loved this book that I am going to purchase (borrowed from the library) because it will make me feel better jus...more

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Jun 25, 2011 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

laughed and cried while reading this memoir...I love Melissa Fay Greene. Her first book "There's No Me Without You" got me thinking about adopting from Ethiopia and now her latest "No Biking in the House Without a Helmet" is a foreshadow of my new life with 9 kids, 4 being Ethiopians. This book is honest as can be and was a joy to read. I had to email her personally to thank her and she has been instrumental in the making of our family. I recommend this read whole-heartily. I would love some of...more

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Mar 18, 2013 Diana Holquist rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book, but boy oh boy did I not understand the author. SO MANY KIDS. What is that all about? I wish I was nicer and thought, "Oh, she just loves to nurture and help others." And, of course, she did. But I couldn't shake that sense that maybe what she really needed was a good shrink.

Still, totally enjoyed the book. Welll-written, funny...

...and then I got to the part about her boys watching porn in the basement. Again, could not get my head around that. Her response was so jovial....more

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May 26, 2011 Jessica Hayes rated it 4 of 5 stars

As a future adoptive parent, this book is a must-read (the author and her husband had 4 children biologically and then in order to avoid the empty-nest-sydrome, they adopted 5 from various countries, including Ethiopia). As a parent, this book is beyond inspiring. Here is my favorite part, "Each fight, each glitch, each mini-tragedy offered a moment for family introspection, discovery, and repair. Each offered a chance to emerge at a slightly better, closer level. I tried to relay the same news...more

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Jun 08, 2013 Kathy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Too bad there aren't more than five stars for a rating! This book is about an extraordinary family, written by their mother. Melissa & Donny have four biological children and adopt five more; one from Bulgaria and four from Ethiopia. The story is so well-written; Melissa never sugar coats the problems and yet her patience and sense of humor are threaded throughout the various surprises, disasters and typical problems associated with the various children. The fact that the biological children...more

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About Melissa Fay Greene

Melissa Greene has been a contributor to NPR, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, LIFE, Good Housekeeping, Newsweek, The Atlantic, Readers Digest, Ms., The Wilson Quarterly, Redbook, and Salon.com. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, Don Samuel, a criminal defense attorney. They have been married for 28 years and are the parents of nine children: Molly, Seth, Lee, Lily, Jesse (adopted...more

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Books by Melissa Fay Greene

There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Africa's Children

Praying for Sheetrock: A Work of Nonfiction

Last Man Out: The Story of the Springhill Mine Disaster

Orphaned: One woman's mission to save Africa's AIDS children

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No Biking in the House Without a Helmet

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