Rating: 
Summary: A touching story
Review: I was interested in this book after reading some of Beck's columns in Mademoiselle; she knows how to keep a reader's interest. The most interesting parts of the book are Beck's stories of how Adam has affected everyone around him, how he seems to have a gift for teaching others what is important, despite any limitations he may have. I found I wanted to read of more of these stories, but that's really not the focus of the book. For the most part, this book is about Beck's and her husband's struggle to accept the pregnancy and their child for what he was and how that changed them permanently. I think it's definitely worth reading.
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Summary: A life changing experience
Review: Besides being an incredibly entertaining and a laugh-out-loud/cry along book, this memoir is exceptional in that it's not just the recounting of a period in "someone's life"--it is a book that can't help but change your life. Martha Beck writes about her workaholic career plans, marriage, pregnancy and birth of her second child, Adam with such amazing insight, humor and love that you can't help but fall in love with her and her family. Martha had to rethink not just her plans for her family's future, but her entire value system and view of reality as she prepared herself to be the mother of a down syndrome child. This is a must-read. I guarantee that you will be swept away by this book--and it will challenge and change your most basic thoughts about life, priorities, and spirituality. And, most importantly it will make you very, very happy!
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Summary: overwhelming beauty and wisdom!
Review: I was overwhelmed by the beauty and wisdom (and sheer good writing) of Expecting Adam... for all who are searching for the Meaning of Life, the answer is right there on pg. 136! May I also recommend Life as We Know It by Michael Berubi, another title which addresses quality of life issues raised by the birth of a Down Syndrome child.
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Summary: Warm, funny and intriguing description of a magical birth
Review: I've never read anything quite like this book. It's a fascinating description of Martha Beck's pregnancy with and delivery of Adam, a magical child who happens to have Down Syndrome. Martha's writing is at once funny and profound. The book left me much wiser about parenting so-called "handicapped" children and, more broadly, what it reflects on the priorities of life.
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Summary: I'm Martha Beck's editor; here's why I love her book so much
Review: I wanted to tell you more about EXPECTING ADAM because it's the freshest, funniest, wisest book I've come across in years. At its heart, this is a memoir about learning to live through the fear of change and trusting that the forces around you will watch over you. It's an account of the life-transforming things that happened to Martha when she discovered during her second pregnancy that the baby--whom she and her husband John later named Adam in utero--had Down Syndrome. The miraculous events that followed this crushing discovery forced Martha and John to trash their carefully planned lives in Harvard's ivory tower and make fearless, unconventional choices instead. As Martha told me, "That was when I lost my life, but fortunately, it was the wrong life." I've gotten amazing quotes for this book from Anne Lamott, Marion Winik, and Jacquelyn Mitchard--none of whom knew me or Martha--among others. But just as important, I've gotten more raves for EXPECTING ADAM from my coworkers than for any other book I've edited since I started in the business in l98l; our marketing director told me that "reading this book made me a better person." I've gotten so many calls from our sales reps about it that I picture them basically trying to love this book onto the shelves. I've got to believe that all this is because EXPECTING ADAM is such a genuinely fulfilling reader's book. I've also come to admire and adore Martha--okay, flat-out love her--because she's so terrifically funny, warm, and inspiring. I really think she's helping me get a life too. I hope you'll be as moved and surprised by EXPECTING ADAM as I've been. Let me know what you think of it. Yours, Elizabeth Rapoport, Executive Editor, Times Books
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Summary: I enjoyed this book a lot
Review: I read this book a few years ago and enjoyed it thourally. Handicapped children bring an aspect to their parents lives that so called normal children cannot. As a mother of an emotionally handicapped child I could totally relate to the author's feelings and had I known about my son's handicapped before his birth like Martha did, I would have never been able to abort him.
Rating: 
Summary: My experience at Harvard was very different
Review: As an LDS woman, Harvard alum, mother, and friend to someone who has Down Syndrome, I anticipated loving this book. I somehow imagined that Beck's experiences might have mirrored mine, that I would find in her a kindred spirit. I was wrong.
Beck's Harvard is inhabited with mean-spirited, intensely competitive, narrowly focused, hamsteresque charicatures. None of the students or professors has the wisdom, perspective, and insight of the author.
My experience at Harvard was different. I recall a lot of kind, warm, loving people. I remember conversations that lasted late into the night, about spirituality, love, dreams for the future, personal struggles, and more. Study partners who were happy to help me better understand a difficult concept or prepare for a test. Lots of people who volunteered with kids in the inner-city, at soup kitchens, hospitals, homeless shelters, on crisis hotlines. A lot of good people trying to find a way to make a difference in the world. A vast array of religious, ethnic, & ideological backgrounds, all kinds of ways of imbuing their lives with meaning. Complicated people, people with ambitions, insecurities, moments of stress, sure. But overwhelmingly, I remember people with good hearts and a desire to do the right thing. I'm sorry that Martha Beck couldn't see more of that in the people around her.
The recurring theme of this book is that Beck was blind, but now she sees. She once was self-absorbed and obsessed with academic prestige, like everyone (sic) around her. But during her pregnancy with Adam and subsequent to his birth, she claims to have discovered the true meaning of life, & found joy and wonder and truth. The problem with her writing style is that stage one comes through loud and clear, while I'm still straining to detect the joy, the profundity, and the warmth that should characterize stage 2.
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Summary: A great way to reconnect with the wonder of parenting
Review: Many of the reviews seem to focus on whether or not the angels and other mystical experiences in this book are 'true'. This book reads as though they were true to the author and I think that is all that matters.
However we get there, surely the goal in life is to learn to love, and I read this book as Ms Beck's story of learning to love a child who was not generally considered lovable in the the world in which she lived.
Zealots are zealots whichever side they are on. I too have encountered people who feel the right to choose means you must choose. If we had known our son would have early developmental problems, and had someone then promoted abortion to us, we would likely have perceived some of them to be monsters also. (I find the anti-choice zealots equally distressing, I must add.)
And the people who have helped me to be a better parent are all angels in my book.
For me, this was a book about learning to love your children, whoever and whatever they are. Whatever it takes to achieve that is ok with me.
To paraphrase Pi in 'Life of Pi' - there are 2 stories here, one with angels and one without. The 'truth' cannot be proven. Which one would you rather believe? The answer to that question affects only you.
Finally, reading this book was a refreshing break from day to day life and I came away from it in awe of the magic of motherhood - once again. It's a great read - impossible to stop once you start, which is always fun.
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Summary: Deeply disliked this book
Review: I had two pregnancies (and babies) as a graduate student at a prestigious institution and I'm also quite familiar with the culture at Harvard. Granted this was recently and not a decade or so ago, but her portrayal of Harvard's culture is ridiculous and frankly offensive. I'm so tired of our society's anti-intellectualism and this just feeds it. My experience of graduate school is indeed stressful, but very supportive and my deans, professors, and advisor have been truly patient with my progress and doting on my babies.
This book just seemed over-the-top contrived and emotionally manipulative. I was given it as a gift and was unable to be genuinely greatful to the giver once I read it.
Rating:
Summary: So many skeptics
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.
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