Knocked Down: A High-Risk Memoir

Journalist and children’s author Weintraub’s (We Got Game!) debut memoir traces her harrowing yet humorous adventures with marriage, high-risk pregnancy, and doctor-prescribed bed rest. Still grieving her father’s death, Weintraub moved with her new husband, Chris, to his family’s rickety farmhouse in upstate New York. A picture-perfect life seems within reach until Weintraub becomes pregnant and discovers that she has massive fibroids and other complications—if her baby is to survive, she must spend the next five months in bed. In this new recording read by the author, Weintraub achingly describes her growing anxiety when she realizes that bed rest is not cozy and fun but frustrating, confusing, and terrifying. As the stress of her pregnancy grows, other tensions and worries also impinge—financial concerns, a house that seems on the verge of collapse, and complicated feelings about her father, her faith, and her future. Weintraub captivates with an infectious mix of jittery anxiety, determination, and wit. Unfortunately, while her first-person narrative is intimate and affecting, her depiction of the men in her life is marred by forced and somewhat unconvincing voices.