Book Review: Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy

Summary: 
The acclaimed national bestseller---a no-holds-barred account of what you can really expect when you're expecting. Oh, the joys of pregnancy! There's the gassiness, constipation, queasiness, and exhaustion, the forgetfulness, crankiness, and the constant worry. Of course, no woman is spared the discomforts and humiliations of pregnancy, but most are too polite to complain or too embarrassed to talk about them. Not Jenny McCarthy!
 

In the New York Times best-selling Belly Laughs, actress and new mother Jenny McCarthy reveals the naked truth about the tremendous joys, the excruciating pains, and the unseemly disfigurement that go along with pregnancy. Never shy, frequently crude, and always laugh-out-loud funny, McCarthy covers it all in the grittiest of girlfriend detail. From morning sickness and hormonal rage, to hemorrhoids, pregnant sex, and the torture and sweet relief that is delivery, Belly Laughs is must-read comic relief for anyone who is pregnant, who has ever been pregnant, is trying to get pregnant, or indeed, has ever been born!
 
Review: 
A friend loaned this book to me when she found out that I hadn't read it.  I thought it was funny and truthful.  McCarthy tells it like it is---and holds nothing back. I wish I would have read this at the beginning of my pregnancy so I would have been more prepared for some of the things that have happened to me!


McCarthy is funny, and there were a couple of laugh-out-loud moments for me in this book.  The book is set up with short chapters, with each chapter detailing a pregnancy condition (stretch marks, headaches, forgetfulness, etc).  McCarthy has experienced most of the conditions described, and I liked reading about her experiences.

I would recommend this book to pregnant women, especially first-time mothers.  This is the truth about pregnancy---the things that happen to everyone that no one tells you about!

Just One Gripe: 
This book is just for fun.  It's not a pregnancy manual by any means.  It doesn't offer solutions to your problems, it's more of a commiseration: McCarthy is basically saying, this is what can happen, and yes, I've been there too and this is how I dealt with it.

The Best Thing About This Book: 
Reading what McCarthy went through and knowing that millions of other women have experienced what I'm experiencing kept me from feeling alone.

Appropriate for a younger audience: 
It'd be a good warning for teens to show them what pregnancy is really like.  Pregnancy seems to be glamorized in the media these days.

Score: 


4 comments:

  1. This one sounds cute! Granted I won't be prego for years unless I have some sort of immaculate conception, but I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it, Kelli! Fab review :)

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  2. I read book while on bedrest witht my second child. I about died laughing! I thought McCarthy caught so many not-so-great parts of prenancy and told it how it is in a funny way. As a woman who was not a "happy, glowing" pregnant woman, I appreciated her humor!

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  3. Sounds cute. I love the cover. Her laugh is almost infectious.

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  4. I read this one too. Can't remember if it was during the 1st pregnancy or the 2nd. It was definitely hilarious to read. I read her 2nd book, Baby Laughs I think, and it was just as funny.

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