Rating: 
Summary: Enchanting Read...
Review: I found this nonfiction book enchanting. Martha Beck does a wonderful job recreating the magical and sometimes frightening days of her pregnancy with her Downs child, Adam. The everyday miracles and paranormal events she and her husband encountered during and after the pregnancy are both incredible and unbelievable at some level. However, woven as they are throughout the tapestry of Ms. Beck's rich and poignant memoir, you can't help but believe in and truly experience the mysterious and wonderful changes this unique child brought to his ambitious, Harvard-educated parents' lives. I recommend this book to anyone who is or hopes to be a parent, and anyone who has ever found themselves running on the fast-track treadmill of corporate or academic over-achievers.
Rating:
Summary: Thank you, Martha Beck!
Review: I read like a fiend and must say this is one of the best books I've read in ages. This is not the the sad tale of a yuppie couple expecting a child with Down's. It is an honest, insightful and yes, even humorous, account of this strong and interesting woman's journey to the acceptance of her less-than-perfect baby. Anyone can appreciate Beck's dilemma as she decides not to terminate her pregnancy and faces the fallout from that decision. Beck takes us on a truly heartbreaking but wonderful journey as she faces the unknown. Written beautifully, told with painful honesty...I can't recommend this book highly enough. Be forewarned, however, Beck does dabble in the spiritual and mystical challenging the acceptance of even the most open-minded soul. I have recommended this book to all my friends and family. Those who have taken the plunge have loved it as well. If you don't read this book you are truly missing out on a tale which will warm your heart, make you laugh and cry out loud and cause you to examine your own beliefs and value system. Thank you, Martha Beck!
Rating: 
Summary: She swears it's all true, but......
Review: I'm puzzled by this book still, several days after putting it down. Can it be true? Is it possible for someone to have the incredible good luck that Martha and John had during Martha's pregnancy? Or is the story the product of a mind half-crazy from dehydration, overwork, stress, and the knowledge that her baby will be born with Down syndrome? It's a credit to Beck's book that we're not quite sure!Martha Beck is a very smart woman married to a very smart guy. They have swallowed the Harvard message that work comes first hook, line and sinker. Nevertheless, Martha and John manage to get into serious trouble through a sort-of-unplanned second pregnancy. Martha has an unspecified auto-immune disease which results in 9 long months of debilitating nausea. Her husband takes on an assignment which requires him to spend 2 weeks of every month in Asia while still trying to finish a thesis. She herself has a punishing schedule, also working on her PhD. They already have an 18 month old daughter to whom not a whole lot of attention is paid. This would be enough to unhinge anyone, but then odd things begin to happen. Martha and John become convinced that they "know" their unborn son; Martha senses there's "something wrong," and when they discover the baby has Down syndrome, they make the improbable--at least for Harvard--decision to continue the pregnancy. At the same time some very good things happen--a generous friend takes Martha under her wing and probably prevents her from spending most of her pregnancy in the hospital, Martha miraculously gets her child into the toughest child care center around, and she somehow finds a way to communicate with John even when he's half a world away. But some things happen that are hard to believe. Could she have been saved from the burning building by someone unknown? I'm not sure, and I had to wonder why an intelligent, pregnant woman would deliberately start down 10 flights of smoke-filled stairs with an 18 month old child in her arms. Could a life-threatening hemmorage mysteriously stop after Martha passes out form loss of blood? Not sure, and again I had to wonder why with her last ounce of strength Martha didn't call one of the faithful friends she had to bail her out. Can unexpected, wonderful things happen in life? Yes. Do people get saved from life-threatening situations they get into partly through their own fault, again and again? Not so sure. If, however, you can suspend disbelief for awhile the book is very good in parts. I loved Martha's description of her son, and I wondered for the first time about the automatic assumption that every woman over a certain age will have amnio and abort if something is wrong. Surely Adam must have had problems, which Beck doesn't share with us, but the good times are truly lovely. I also thought her description of life at Harvard quite brutal but mostly accurate. I'm not sure that giving birth wouldn't have been a good excuse for late homework even back then, but Beck accurately portrays the way Harvard professors can completely terrify highly intelligent adults--I know from experience. And Beck makes a very convincing case that there's an alternate reality out there, even if you cen't believe everything she tells us.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fantastically Funny Book that starts to get Ridiculous
Review: When I read the first half of the book, I really loved it. Parts, (like where the author describes the scenes at her in-laws and own parents houses) were so hilarious it was unreal. She really has a fantastic wit about her. Some of the stories about Adam after his birth, were so touching they brought tears to my eyes.
However, I must agree with some other readers who suggest she is a bit whiney, a bit spoiled, and perhaps a bit ridiculous. The first few times she mentioned connecting with her husband through time travel and feeling her invisible friends, it was neat. Having come from a very spiritual family who tended to see spirits around them, of course, I do believe in this. It starts to make you wonder why she is so darned special, to have all of this spiritual help... personal hugs from God... rescues happening over and over. Even before she found out about her baby having Down's Syndrome, she was experiencing these miracles on what seemed a weekly basis. She isn't the only person who has suffered with severe illness, or has felt alone. When she needed her husband, she was wisked away to sit with him in an Asian cafe. When she was choking from the smoke, an angel carried her to safety. When she was starving and dehydrated, a person she barely knew knocked on the door with her groceries. What does that say to those of us who have suffered the lonely the times without a spouse or friend... or those who have died in fires or other tragedies, or to those who are starving... even when little children are neglected by irresponsible parents... why aren't the angels there to feed them? This author got much more than her share of miracles, seemingly undeserving of them... while most of us get none? Also, doesn't it seem odd that, after such a terrible pregnancy, she would turn around get pregnant with her 3rd daughter so quickly? (Adam was 2 when the 3rd daughter was born). Kind of makes you wonder if she was really so sick. And, finally, I kept hoping she would turn to the obvious conclusion to the mystery of Adam. It seems obvious to me, a spiritualist, that he is reincarnated from previous lives she had with him, or maybe that he is a spirit guide of hers. One of those suggestions would make more sense then the generic term of "angel".
Rating:
Summary: So many skeptics
Review: It's a shame that people are unwilling to accept possibilities simply because it's beyond the scope of their experience. In reading the reviews here, I understand why people have trouble believing. But, they shouldn't completely discount someone else's experience just because it's different from their own. While I've had nothing in my life nearly as miraculous as Martha Beck's experiences, I've had enough strange occurrences to know that what she writes is absolutely possible. And, there are many people who have had extraordinary experiences. I wish the same for the rest of you who are too closed-minded to open up to the possible. Your life will be forever changed for the better.
Rating: 
Summary: Expecting Adam, Not Expecting Fiction
Review: It's a little hard to access the veracity of someone's magical experiences, but the veracity of the rest of the book seemed to lose me with each passing chapter. Beck's descriptions of Harvard reminded me of the movie Good Will Hunting - where the academic moral was that the folks who are janitors are in fact the truly smart people and the professors are inadequate boobs. But lucky for Martha, she has it both ways. (she's the OUTSIDER - making her smart - but with the 3 degree credential for her 165 IQ.) And did anyone out there buy the story about the Smurfs??? (This was my first tip off that she was inserting transparently ludicrous scenes that could be easily adapted to a Hollywood screenplay.) And the books she claims were at the Harvard Coop - such as "Pre-Law for Preschoolers" and "Toddling Through the Calculus" are certainly not in print here at Amazon. It certainly made me doubt a lot more incredible material when she was willing to fabricate such seemingly trivial details. Does anyone believe there is a daycare center that signs up parents 5 years before the birth of their child? And if Dr. Goatstroke was anything but a character out of cental casting, I'd be amazed. (apparently Goatstroke is the name of a town in Utah.) The litany of improbable events - near death experiences, strangers at the door with grocieries, car accidents, drownings - combined with the obvious factual fabrications - began to make me think this was supposed to be a satire. Somehow, though, from reading most of the other reviews here, people took this book SERIOUSLY. Perhaps like Martha, there is a profound desire for people to believe what they want to believe.
Rating:
Summary: As different as it gets...
Review: Martha's book is more than an autobiography. It's a lesson of how to face life when your "friends" and the society you've always counted on give you their back. The book is fascinating and touching and I couldn't put it down. Having and raising a Down Sindrome child might be a different and difficult task, but it can also be a funny and interesting learning experience as Martha beautifully describes it. It all depends on how you look at it. It made me laugh and cry, but above all, it made me grow inside. I'd love to meet Adam!
Rating:
Summary: Is Martha a flake?
Review: Being an open-minded yet logical sort, I read about Martha's strange spiritual experiences with some skeptiscm but an understanding that perhaps I do not know everything - perhaps it is all true, I have no idea. The only person I've ever known to have paranormal experiences happens to be mentally ill. At any rate, it's her story and not mine. What can I take from it? I thought for a Harvard trained accomplished person (and I did get a bit tired reading about how very hard they all worked), she sure let her little girl watch alot of TV. I'm left wondering could Harvard truly be so cold? Why does Martha get visits from the angels? Why does Martha have a death wish? I've never experienced it, but a hug from God or whatever it was - is it really so great it makes you not want to live here with your family, even your angel son? If this was someone I knew, I'd recommend some psychiatric counseling.
Rating: 
Summary: An insult to the reader's intelligence
Review: The main reason I finished this book is that I actually started to find it funny that someone could claim all these supernatural events happened to them in a mere 9 months. I could have swallowed one or two of these "true" experiences but - come on Martha! Angels carry you out of burning buildings!Angels save you from horrible pregnancy complications! You and your husband communicate via mental telepathy across continents (and you both receive messages from your unborn child too!) Empty seats on airplanes magically become available for your husband! Empty spots in kindergartens magically open up for your toddler! This kind of stuff permeates this book. Perhaps the author is so convinced of her Harvard trained brilliance that she views others as dumb enough to fall for her stories. Each day when I went out walking with my colleagues at lunch I'd update them on the latest developments and we'd all have a good chuckle. Martha gets one star for decent writing skills and for the nerve to claim that this is non-fiction.
Rating:
Summary: I liked it
Review: I really liked this book. My book club chose it and I was a little skeptical. While the "visions" were not my favorite part of the book, I genuinely enjoyed the story. The author's humor in the face of adversity is truly a gift. Of course I read this book for pleasure but a lot of the themes really hit home. There are a lot of messages about living within your beliefs and values that affected me personally. I passed this on to a friend who recently experienced a death in her family and she enjoyed it as well. I would say read it without any preconceived ideas and then draw your own conclusions.
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