No Biking in the House without a Helmet

Author: Melissa Fay Greene
Published: 2011
Genres: Non-fiction, Adoption
Rating: 1

Summary
Two-time National Book Award finalist Melissa Fay Greene is best known for her books on the civil rights movement and the African HIV/AIDS pandemic. But Melissa and her husband have also pursued a more private vocation: parenthood. “We so loved raising our four children by birth, we didn’t want to stop. When the clock started to run down on the home team, we brought in ringers.” When the number of children hit nine, Greene took a break from reporting. She trained her journalist’s eye upon events at home. This work is a celebration of parenthood; an ingathering of children, through birth and out of loss and bereavement; a relishing of moments hilarious and enlightening. No Biking in the House Without a Helmet is a loving portrait of a unique twenty first-century family as it wobbles between disaster and joy.

Review
The book is well-written and intriguing, and the author is poignantly honest about her roller-coast emotions during her first adoption experience. Unfortunately, because of an overabundance of a strong explative, I only made it about 20% of the way into this book before putting it down.