Half Baked

October 11, 2010
Author of the Flotsam blog and contributor to NPR's Morning Edition, Stevenson's witty takes on life and parenthood have won her many fans. With her first book, the self-admitted worrier recalls one of the scariest and most painful times in her life. After going through the ups and downs of in vitro fertilization, she becomes pregnant with twins only to lose one and prematurely deliver the other, Simone, a girl, who is immediately placed in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. With candor and clarity, Stevenson details the harrowing ordeal of watching her daughter fight for her life, slowly get better, and finally breath on her own. Her story is not for the faint hearted and she meticulously chronicles Simone's every step forward and back, revealing a profound experience that imparted the author with hard-earned wisdom and changed her forever. Her favorite quote – "it is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis" – is fitting, given that she spent several months wondering if Simone, now a healthy two year old, would have another day.

August 1, 2010
A funny memoir about struggling with infertility and giving birth to a not-quite-two-pound premature baby? Blogger Stevenson manages to pull it off. In this tragedy with a happy ending, Stevenson goes through in vitro fertilization (IVF), gets pregnant with twins, loses one of them, but delivers a surprisingly healthy daughter, Simone. The tale is full of funny moments. Stevensons husband, Scott, nicknames their IVF project Science Baby. When she is still carrying two fetuses, Stevenson jokes, My goal was a modest one: to get 50 percent of the babies out alive. Later, after Simone is released from the neonatal intensive care unit, Stevenson notes that the sound of crying makes her happy, not frustrated. Baby crying? Well, that means shes breathing! Even though the book offers plenty of comic relief, how many parents of full-term babies will want to wade through every detail of Stevensons fears, drugs, and checkups? Its the readers who are in Stevensons shoes who will seek out and smile at her inspiring tale of hope.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)