What Not to Expect When You're Expecting

A refreshingly frank and funny take on motherhood that is not designed to make you feel guilty I have 10 worries, and the first nine are all variations on the theme of labor and "Is there really a baby in there, or just some lizards?"

Over the course of her first two pregnancies, Zoe Williams shared her forthright insights into impending and new motherhood in her regular Guardian "Anti-natal" column, a straight-talking corrective to the sea of advice that engulfs pregnant women and new moms. Whether bemoaning the fact that simply being pregnant seemed to give overbearing people the urge to comment on everything she ate, drank, or wore (I'm drinking coffee and suddenly that makes me an evil mom-to-be. What is wrong with these people?) or inventing elaborate lies to explain why she was late to take her first born for his injections (Perhaps I moved to Italy, but the economic downturn destroyed my prospects and I had to move back.) her commentary is honest, feisty, and—in some cases—downright hilarious. This antidote to standard parenting books offers an idiosyncratic, individual take on becoming a mom—a pregnancy companion with attitude.