We’ve all been anxiously awaiting the release of blogger and mom Rebecca Woolf’s memoir Rockabye: From Wild to Child. And it’s not just because many of us were already huge fans of Rebecca’s well-known (and well written) blog [this]Girl’s Gone Child. I think that many us saw Rebecca as a cross-over star — a blogger (with a great deal of published work, don’t get us wrong) that was able to cross over to the world of books.

And from the reviews thus far, she’s done a fantastic job. In fact, one blogger compared Rebecca’s book to another well-liked memoir. “The book reminded me most of Anne Lamott’s Operating Instructions, and that, my friends, is a high compliment.

The book is described in different ways by different bloggers. One mom wrote the following:

“This is a love story, but it’s not quite the love story that we’re used to hearing. It’s not romanticized or filled with gauzy clouds and sleeping babies. Instead, it’s a raw, honest story of what it means to fall in love with your husband, to go through childbirth with a sense of humor and a bit of fear, and to transform yourself into a mother-creature that is still true to the woman that lives inside.”

Our reviewers noted that you didn’t need to be the wild singleton turned mom to relate to this book. “And somehow, I found myself identifying with Rebecca. Not because I have tattoos (I don’t) or because I was a big party girl who got pregnant unexpectedly (I wasn’t), but because I’m a mother.”

Another added this: “In some ways — OK, LOTS of ways — my life couldn’t be more different than Rebecca’s, but I connected with her writing instantly. It didn’t matter that she was a 20-something and I was a 40-something. It didn’t matter that she had been a “wild child” and I never was (though I always wanted to be!). Her stories about her motherhood and life experiences resonated with something in me — she touched a place in me that was strong yet hesitant, opinionated yet ambivalent, a mother struggling to still be myself.”

Additionally, they noted the gorgeous simplicity of her writing. “Rebecca has a way with a sentence that at first glance seems simple. But the word “simple” doesn’t do her work justice. She has an ease with a sentence just as she seems to be at ease with herself. She says what she means and she doesn’t mince words.” This mom added, “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.”

Bloggers honed in on a strong core message, as one mom wrote:

What Rebecca has to say is something that, really, we all need to hear. There is more than one way to be a mother. There is my way, there is your way, there is her way.

Another echoed those sentiments:

I was also inspired by her courage and ability to do things her way, which for her was, in her words, “backward and inside out and upside down.” But really, it was the perfect way for it all to happen. For their family.

As did this mom:

So when you’re tempted to worry about whether you should look at yet another parenting magazine for motherhood advice, take a little advice from the pages of Rockabye, and look to your inner self.

Check out the rest of the reviews, and join me as I talk to Rebecca LIVE on Wednesday from 9-9:30pm EST on my podcast.

Mon 4/28 - Her Bad Mother , mothergoosemouse
Tues 4/29 - Metro Mama
Wed 4/30 - Letters to My Daughters
Thurs 5/1 - Mother Bumper
Fri 5/2 - 24/7, Motherhood Uncensored
Sat 5/3 - Round-Up Review

If you’re reading/reviewing Rebecca’s book, let us know. We’d be happy to link your review on this post or our final round up. And if you don’t have a copy yet, you can purchase it via Amazon!

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A couple of announcements:

* You still have time to submit your entry for our Blog Blast! Last week’s lucky winner of a $250 Spa Gift Certificate (selected at random with random.org) is Ebony Mommy! And stay tuned — we’ve got a blog blast every Friday through the end of May. WOO!

* Check out Mamazine’s 2nd Annual MAMA FOCUS contest. Lots of great prizes!

* Congrats to PBN blogger and now mom of two Binky on the birth of her beautiful son.