AND NOW WE HAVE EVERYTHING

The harrowing, hilarious, totally honest account of parenthood we've all been waiting for. O'Connell's story is compulsively readable for parents and non-parents alike, as much about being young and unprepared for life as bringing another human into this chaotic world.

As someone who hopes to have kids someday, but has no idea what that might mean, reading this book felt like getting the first honest glimpse into that world after a lifetime of clichés.

Meaghan O'Connell's "And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready"... is the only baby-themed book that has yet offered me actual solace. This is due in large part to the fact that O'Connell offers no advice. She doesn't recommend certain carriers or protein-rich diets, nor does she feel compelled to tell you how pregnancy and motherhood ought to be. Rather, hers is a completely honest, often neurotic and searingly funny memoir of her pregnancy and childbirth... "And Now We Have Everything" is a welcome antidote in the panicked-expectant-mothers canon - though its fast-paced and gripping narrative will appeal to nonparents, too. Read this, I'll reply in the future when friends ask me for my pregnancy Google docs. It will make you feel less alone. Read more...

For every What to Expect When You're Expecting (and its ilk), there should be a What to Expect When You Weren't Expecting. But, strangely, there isn't, so Meaghan O'Connell has committed her experience of accidental pregnancy and motherhood to the page.

It's impossible to praise this book without realizing how the words we use to describe prose often originate in the words we use to describe the experiences of the body: laid bare, warm, ecstatic, brutal. Meaghan O'Connell is the rare author who can show us the chaos and conflict of pregnancy, birth, and motherhood without devastating us beyond repair. An essential read for prospective, new, and veteran parents and for the people who hope to understand their struggles, And Now We Have Everything is a stark reminder of the beating, breakable hearts of the world's mothers.

The kind of book I wished for when I was pregnant. Pulling no punches, the writing is blunt, honest...This should be required reading that your doctor hands you after you see the two pink lines on the pregnancy test.

Meaghan O'Connell's writing has meant everything to me as I've navigated the identity-warping maze of early motherhood. She is the most honest, funny, gifted, natural storyteller, and she shares her experiences generously and unsparingly, in a way that I hope will give her readers permission to feel all kinds of different ways about their own experiences, without shame, without self-hate, without regret, and without fear.

This honest, neurotic, searingly funny memoir of pregnancy and childbirth is a welcome antidote in the panicked-expectant-mothers canon - though its gripping narrative will appeal to nonparents, too. Read more...

And Now We Have Everything stretches beyond the well-worn narrative grooves of the delivery room, although O'Connell's keen observational acuity throughout those pivotal scenes is nothing short of a blessing...I am, of course, slightly bitter I didn't have this book three years ago as I stared down the barrel of motherhood myself-but I'm happy to do my due diligence, and pass it on to other moms-to-be in need.

The book is funny and sarcastic, and readers will appreciate O'Connell's passion on the subject, which is evident in the prose. - Associated Press, picked up by Washington Post, New York Daily News, New Jersey Herald, Sacramento Bee, Las Vergas Sun, Oklahoman, and more

Meaghan O'Connell writes with bracing clarity about the milk-soaked days of pregnancy and early parenthood, and I (truly) laughed and cried reading her account of crossing the great human divide. Maybe there are parents who don't have to wrestle with themselves and their spouses for a free hour, who dance out of the delivery room feeling sexy and serene, but I want to throw them out a window and then stay inside and talk to Meaghan about how life really is. The biggest compliment of all: I used several hours of daylight childcare hours reading this book, just because I didn't want to put it down.

I devoured this book. Smart, funny, and true in all the best ways, And Now We Have Everything made me ache with recognition of what it felt like to be a new mom (and a human).

Greek: Brainfood ; Hungarian: Corvina ; Portuguese (Brazil): Pri Primavera Editorial ; Turkish: Yabanci Yayinlari.

In the run up to publication, Meaghan wrote about giving birth a second time for The Cut. Read more...

And Now We Have Everything isn't a book of parenting advice, but a story of the unvarnished reality of what becoming a mother meant to one woman. And for me, that's a survival guide. Read more...

And Now We Have Everything shows how the most normal thing in the world - having an ordinary, healthy baby after an ordinary, healthy pregnancy - means being visited with all possible extremes of pain, fear, and love. O'Connell renders this normal and horrific experience real, in both emotional sweep and brutal particulars. The questions she asks is simple: What is it like? And this joyous, useful, grim book tells it straight: "F****** awful."

AND NOW WE HAVE EVERYTHING by Meaghan O'Connell is a Best Book of 2018 per NPR, Bustle, BookRiot, Powell's and Electric Lit, part of the LongReads Holiday Gift Guide, The Millions Year in Reading thrice so far, one of WBUR's 15 Books That Ask What It Means To Be Free In 2018 and Autostraddle's 50 of the Best Feminist Books of 2018!

A stunningly insightful book.

Part memoir, part guidebook, And Now We Have Everything captures all the fears and anxieties mothers-to-be have, but still aren't allowed to say out loud. Smart, insightful, and searingly honest, Meghan O'Connell's exploration of motherhood should be on every expectant parent's baby registry.

Each story she tells is sharply observed, wickedly funny, and painfully important. I have never read anything about parenthood that so clearly encapsulates what it feels like.

O'Connell isn't playing a birth story for shock value or sympathy here, nor is she doing the written equivalent of shoving cute baby pictures into strangers' faces. She's cracking open her experience, analyzing the pieces, and gluing the resulting discoveries back together with perspective and artistry. To do so is an act of generosity. Read more...

Equal parts anthropology and autobiography, And Now We Have Everything is a rigorous and thoughtful debut (and funny, let's not forget funny) from a fiercely intelligent writer. Meaghan O'Connell has done a great service to new moms and dads: showing that anxiety and humiliation are a part of being a parent, and best confronted with humor and honesty.

I began And Now We Have Everything on a Friday evening and was finished with it by Saturday afternoon--and that was with house guests to entertain and two children to keep alive! Meaghan O'Connell's honesty, humor, vulnerability, and willingness to explore motherhood in all of its messy complexities made me feel understood in a way few books do. I never wanted it to end. A necessary, brilliant debut.

Stripping away the mythical fantasies of motherhood, O'Connell delivers a poignant and funny look at what it means to be a parent in our current time. The warts-and-all examination is powerful reading for anyone with or without kids.

This is the book on motherhood that I've been waiting for. ... Refreshingly candid about pregnancy, birth, and the early days of motherhood, And Now We Have Everything spoke deeply to me. There were parts where I was laughing so hard that tears streamed down my face, times when I was gently weeping as I remembered, and moments where I just felt so thankful that this was written proof that I was not alone in my experiences, both good and bad. Read more...

Meaghan O'Connell's AND NOW WE HAVE EVERYTHING is on 30+ Most Anticipated and Best Of lists, including Esquire, Elle, Nylon, Huffington Post, The Boston Globe, The Rumpus, GoodReads, The Millions, BookRiot, Bustle, The Week.

Cheryl Strayed is a fan of this strikingly honest account of motherhood that covers everything from the ravages of breastfeeding to postpartum sex (or lack thereof).

[O'Connell's] account is energised by her devotion to revealing the truth... Her book is a testament, a gift to mothers who might want their realities confirmed, as well as to everyone else.

As any parent knows, having a child is akin to detonating a tiny bomb in the middle of your otherwise wonderful life. O'Connell is fearless when negotiating the mess and magic of such difficult terrain, the place where fantasy goes to die and a genuine adult must rise in its stead (and function perfectly on no sleep). And Now We Have Everything is like the very best conversations, the ones you have in lowered tones at the back of a smoky bar with a trusted friend - funny, dark, and threaded with just the right amount of hope.

And Now We Have Everything stretches beyond the well-worn narrative grooves of the delivery room, although O'Connell's keen observational acuity throughout those pivotal scenes is nothing short of a blessing... I am, of course, slightly bitter I didn't have this book three years ago as I stared down the barrel of motherhood myself-but I'm happy to do my due diligence, and pass it on to other moms - to-be in need.

O'Connell's honest, heartbreaking, and hilarious book about motherhood and identity is unlike anything I've ever read. And Now We Have Everything is a smart, tell-it-like-it-is essay collection from a much-needed voice.

Frankly speaking, this is a must-read for anyone with a mother, anyone with a baby, anyone who knows anyone with a baby - anyone.