Media Review

Book: Rebecca Eckler's writing

With her new book out just a couple of months ago, it seems like a good time to spread the word about Rebecca Eckler. Eckler is a Canadian writer who has been a columnist for the Globe and Mail and had her first baby-related book, Knocked Up: Confessions of a modern mother-to-be, published by Anchor Canada in 2004. Wiped: Life with a pint-size dictator came next in 2007 and now Toddlers Gone Wild is finally out.

I enjoyed Knocked Up, which I read during nursing times shortly after Natasha was born. I laughed out loud at much of it. It is written as a diary and probably was culled from either diary or blog entries, based on the detail she remembers and includes.

I was disappointed with Wiped, though. Though she bravely exposes some of the not-so-good stuff - particularly her post-partum depression - to the world, I did not find it as engaging a read as her first one, and sometimes, when I was walking laps around the park to try to put Natasha to sleep, I was ready to throw the book across the grass when Eckler was complaining about being scared of the nanny who they employed 8 hours a day to help her with caring for her new baby. I could not quite relate to her struggle of whether to increase the nanny's Christmas bonus from the previous year's $500 and a designer handbag or stay at the previous year's bonus, or this new mom's month-long vacation that her partner (known only as "The Fiancee") sent her (and the nanny to help with the baby, of course) to Hawaii for when her depression was first diagnosed.

Her new book is a series of essays about life with a "boddler", a no-longer-a-baby but not-quite-a-toddler age child. I'm in the phase right now and can identify with the misnomer of both "baby" and "toddler." I look forward to reading her experiences, especially as mine have been the material for so much writing. This time her book is published by Key Porter, and you can find it at most book stores or online.

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