Chick lit, lad lit, bebés (o su búsqueda) y niños

Hugh Laurie existía antes de House y protagonizó una película basada en el primer libro. Sí, el pequeñajo de la izquierda es Mr. Bean…

Ben Elton, Inconceivable (Maybe Baby)

Whenever Sam thinks about babies, he envisages rivers of vomit and sleepless nights. But wife Lucy can’t walk past Mothercare without crying. What’s more, she can’t seem to conceive–not by traditional methods, anyway. Hippy confidante Drusilla suggests an array of New Age remedies, including the intimate use of nutmeg oil and al fresco lovemaking. As Lucy faces a possible verdict of infertility, her love for Sam enters tailspin, accelerated by the advent of arrogant actor Carl Phipps. Meanwhile Sam, desperate to escape his tedious BBC job, conceives the inconceivable–turning the intimacies of their battle for babies into an acclaimed movie script.

Inconceivable tells a poignant and heart-rending story with Elton’s trademark wit, creating a novel that is entertaining and emotionally satisfying; as explosive as Popcorn and with the incendiary humour of Blast From the Past. It courageously tackles its central theme from both the male and the female points of view, and while delivering laughs on every page, it steers clear of laddish clichés. Lucy’s tale, though pregnant with unfulfilled emotion, never stints on humour. «There seem», she fumes, «to be more urban myths attached to infertility than there are to … film stars filling their bottoms with small animals.»

Aside from the rich vein of gags about DIY conception (Sam has to leave a power lunch with the excuse: «Sorry, my wife is ovulating …»), Elton also subjects the TV industry to relentless stand-up-style bombardment, giving birth to some brilliant asides, which enrich the main story but never overpower it. Funny, tragic, true and ultimately heart-warming, this book should be available on the National Health Service.

Sinéad Moriarty, The Baby Trail

Meet Emma Hamilton. She’s thirty-three, has a great husband, and loves her life. It’s the perfect time to start a family!

Emma has it all mapped out: Go off the pill in December, have sex, get pregnant by January, have the baby in September. And with the help of a personal trainer, Emma figures she’ll be back in shape by Christmas. Happy New Year!

But when three months of candle-scented sex fails to produce the desired result, Emma’s life becomes a rollercoaster of post-coital handstands, hormone inducing (a.k.a. sanity reducing) drugs, and a veritable army of fertility specialists. Emma and James try everything, from ovulation kits to in-vitro, but all their carefully laid plans seem to go south — in direct proportion to Emma’s plummeting self-esteem. And just when Emma feels she’s alienated everyone in her life — her twice-pregnant confidante, her singleton friend, even her own husband — eventstake a ninety-degree turn that will have unforeseen consequences for everyone.

With The Baby Trail Sinead Moriarty brings a wicked sense of humor to a subject of fevered concern for women today. Sizzlingly funny yet deeply moving, this novel is sure to ring true for women who can hear the tick-tock of their own biological clocks.

India Knight, My Life on a Plate

Clara Hutt, 33, speaks for middle-class marital ennui as she reflects on her life, her indifferent husband, Robert, her two lice-ridden young boys, and her «roomy four-bedroomed Victorian terraced» London home and asks, «Is that it, then?» With a sense of humor that ranges from witty and raucous to simpering and mean-spirited, British first-time author Knight relates the ribald story of a modern woman and her quest for happiness. Clara, whose fragmented family consists of a mother who’s fond of accumulating ex-husbands, a wealthy but distant father, two spoiled stepsisters and a listless stepbrother, resolves to have a «nuclear» family. After attaining this conventional goal, however, she discovers that marriage is more boring than blissful. The arduous rigmarole of «hoovering,» chauffeuring, cooking and compromising leaves Clara unsatisfied. She tends to complain, self-deprecate and obsess on trivialities while comparing herself to her friends: Tamsin, who is single, unburdened and prowling for romance; Stella the «pottery cat,» a rustic single mother who bakes her own bread; Naomi, the model housewife who feeds her kids gourmet lunches and manages to keep her home impeccably clean. Simmering with envy, longing for affection (and a little bit of «swooning»), Clara grows restless and seeks solace in the admiring eyes of an unlikely character. Although Knight’s lively narrative entertains while animating many of the common misconceptions people have about marriage, the reader should be prepared to suspend belief for the final course of this chatty tale.

Precio de los 3 libros: 14€