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Bring on the sci-fi!


Here we go girls. This month we're reading Octavia Butler's Lilith's Brood. It's actually 3 books in one. But we can handle it. It's part of our reach out and touch some sci-fi venture.

Last month's title, My Miserable Lonely Lesbian Pregnancy by Andrea Askowitz, was great. I loved it. A few were lukewarm. One person got a little scared since she's thinking about getting pregnant. The biggest part of the discussion was the great humour in her honesty about how she was feeling - how she didn't buy into the whole "i'm glowing and doing nature's work" myth that is out there for women; and then how there was this complete reversal when the baby came - the whole "i fell in love with the baby the second i saw her and knew just what to do and it made me feel like a natural woman" thing. I think some felt a tiny bit betrayed by that sudden flip in attitude. I myself experienced that instant bond and trusting my intuition about mothering my daughter so I understood where the author was coming from, I suppose? But I also have lots of friends who did NOT experience the start of motherhood this way and am always looking for narratives that support the point of view that it doesn't come naturally to everyone and that it's okay that it doesn't come naturally to everyone. So from that perspective, this book was a tiny bit disappointing and that might sound incredibly unfair since it's non-fiction and a memoir and the author was obviously just telling her experience. Other than that? Laughed out loud, loved it, resonated with it, thought it was great.

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