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4.0 

Operating Instructions

By Anne Lamott
Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott digital book - Fable

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Publisher Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The acclaimed author of Bird by Bird brings her brilliant combination of humor and warmth to a "smart, funny, and comforting" chronicle of single motherhood (Los Angeles Times Book Review).

It’s not like she’s the only woman to ever have a baby. At thirty-five. On her own. But Anne Lamott makes it all fresh in her now-classic account of how she and her son and numerous friends and neighbors and some strangers survived and thrived in that all important first year. From finding out that her baby is a boy (and getting used to the idea) to finding out that her best friend and greatest supporter Pam will die of cancer (and not getting used to that idea), with a generous amount of wit and faith (but very little piousness), Lamott narrates the great and small events that make up a woman’s life.

"Lamott is a wonderfully lithe writer .... Anyone who has ever had a hard time facing a perfectly ordinary day will identify." —Chicago Tribune

100 Reviews

4.0
“I was recommended this book by a family member, and cannot say how much of a perfect recommendation it was! Anne writes about the first year of having a baby in such a way that you feel like she’s writing about your own baby and your own life. It’s funny because she writes such incredibly specific things about her very unique circumstances, yet there is something universal about new motherhood. I highlighted so many passages, to remind myself of exactly how my baby is and exactly how I feel (because I’m not nearly as eloquent of a writer). This book inspired me to start writing differently in my journals and showed me ways to record the little things my baby does that I’d like to remember. So yes a 5-star book. But it really has to be mentioned that this woman is writing about having a baby in the 80’s. There are a lot of comments that in 2023 come across as a bit racist honestly. And there’s definitely some content that will stress you immensely as a modern parent lol.”
“I alternated between crying (weeping?) and laughing out loud at Operating Instructions. Reading Anne Lamott's tender writing was like looking into a mirror of my own neuroticism and spirituality. So good. So so good.”

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