Rockabye by Rebecca Woolf

It's always exciting when a blogger publishes a book. But Rebecca Woolf's new book, Rockabye: From Wild to Child, was even more exciting to me. Rebecca writes the wildly popular blog Girls Gone Child. I have to admit that I am not a devoted Girls Gone Child follower. I read Rebecca's blog occasionally. She always makes me feel something and I've been struck many times by what an outstanding writer she is.

No, I've been dying to read Rebecca's book ever since an encounter I had with her last year at BlogHer. Joanne, Pundit Mom, introduced us and I immediately moved into blogger small talk mode and started talking about her blog. But unlike 90% of the population, I could tell that Rebecca was uncomfortable talking about herself, uncomfortable at the BlogHer cocktail party, and even more uncomfortable with the idea of being a Rock Star Blogger. As an introvert myself, I immediately understood Rebecca's discomfort and wanted to put her at ease.

I liked Rebecca even more that night when I somehow ended up in a conversation with her and Bite My Cookie about plastic surgery. I was thrilled that both of them were willing to talk to me about it candidly. But if you want to know Rebecca's position on that, you're going to have to read her book!

To get to the point, when PBN gave me the chance to review Rockabye, I was thrilled.

Rockabye is Rebecca's story of becoming a mother. She writes honestly about her unexpected pregnancy, her wonder over her son Archer, and her ambivalence about her new role as a "Mommy." One thing I love about the book, and about Rebecca, is her complete indifference to what everyone else is doing. She forges her own path, and that comes through in her book.

But the most compelling thing about the book is, of course, Rebecca's writing. She has a gift with word pictures. She brought me into her life and, even though we have very little in common on the surface, I found myself strongly identifying with her turbulent emotions as she passed through early motherhood. A scene you absolutely can't miss is Rebecca's description of child birth and seeing her son Asher for the first time. It's an amazing piece of writing and a powerful passage. I find myself thinking about it from time to time and I've had to go back and read it again.

So if you haven't gotten the jist of this review yet, GO BUY ROCKABYE. I want Rebecca to keep putting out books, so buy a few copies for friends too!