Note: I finished this book via audiobook.

A birth that nearly killed the author because doctors didn't take her symptoms seriously (from when she was pregnant to the moment of her delivery of her child), the author chronicles her journey to recover her physical body and mental capabilities.

Perhaps it's because I'm a woman who is considering pregnancy right now, but this book hit me hard. Pregnancy—and recovering from pregnancy—is truly a kind of miracle because of the potentially dangerous consequences: You could literally die to give life or be disabled. It's incredibly scary, and I feel like it's not emphasized enough in our society that pregnancy is truly a vulnerable state. (People typically just think of the joyous side of it.)

I appreciate this book's many parts, which reflect her fragmented, brief memories, but it's still fairly chronological, so it's easy to follow along. I liked the parts about her faith, specifically the meditation on her name and her children's names, and the larger universe that might be involved in her miraculously waking up. The prose is at times emotional but, for the most part, pretty straightforward.

Unfortunately, my fear came true when I saw how short the audiobook was. It's only about 6.5 hours long, which is quite short (I've read memoirs longer than 8 hours). This short length warned me that there would be some parts of this author's journey that she wouldn't dive into--and I was correct.

There are certain events and information she presented but did not dive further into, especially toward the end. So this book doesn't feel comprehensive in terms of her emotional journey. We got her journey from the start of her almost death to the end of her new beginning with her recovery, which is interesting as well, but I'm a bit disappointed that the book doesn't expand on some of these other parts.

For example: Her recovery journey that paralleled alongside her son's growth into a toddler. I felt like more could've been said about these parallels? But it doesn't happen as much.

Despite some of these incomplete aspects, I still enjoyed listening to the book and getting a sense of that disconnect in the brain and relearning how to become oneself again. I think it's an important read for anyone who might be considering pregnancy but also just an interesting read for anyone who wonders: What does it mean to recreate yourself and what does it take?

Note: I read this book via audiobook.

Not as poetic as I hoped, but the author is a journalist, not a poet, so that makes sense. Throughout the book, you can hear the journalistic kind of tone and investigation--not necessarily a bad thing, but it personally pulled me out of some of the emotions. However, I still liked listening to this book. As someone who's not Christian, I thought the farm, family, and friends were a good way to interrogate and intertwine the teachings of the Bible. It never came across as propaganda but genuine exploration. Also, I appreciated the history of the different plants.

My main disappointment is that in the beginning of the book, he posed a question to himself, something like, "What would grandma think of me?" in regard to his queer identity (since she was very religious and likely wouldn't have approved). He never addressed this directly again about what he thinks she would say. The final chapter before the acknowledgment is one way of his answer to his question, I suppose, but I would've liked a more direct approach.

A tender memoir of maternal familial histories, Koh's experiences dealing with the separation from her parents, especially her mother, and letters from Koh's mother during that separation. I loved the lack of chronology of the book and was fascinated by the histories of her grandmothers. I also liked how much dialogue and talking there is--as if to fill up the spaces that Koh herself could not during this painful time.

Unfortunately, I think listening to the book rather than reading it dampened my enjoyment of the book a little bit. I always love hearing author's voices in their own books--especially as language and voice is so critical to this book--but Koh's voice is very soft, and her pacing is surprisingly slow. As an audiobook, I had to listen to it at 1.25 or 1.5 speed so that it sounded more "normal" speed.