Sleep Is for the Weak, Motherhood Is for the Iron-Willed

I was dying to get my hands on Sleep Is for the Weak: A book with a really long subtitle, the new mommyblog anthology (momblogthology?) edited by Rita Arens of Surrender, Dorothy. I love reading books; I love reading blogs; I'd love reading a book written by bloggers!

Thanks to the Parent Bloggers Network, I got the chance to review SIftW: The book with the most SEO'd subtitle ever, and it didn't disappoint. I read bloggers familiar to me (and everyone), like Amalah, Finslippy, Fussy, et al. I read bloggers who are friends (like our very own Binkytown!). I read bloggers who I hadn't previously discovered.

I don't think there was a weak entry in the bunch. Some, I'd argue, were a bit too slight to hold up in an anthology. On a blog, those quick but meaningful posts make you stop and take a breath, and ponder a bit before you plow on. In a book that includes meatier fare, such essays are just ... over before you've really settled into them. Somehow, they came across as more unfinished than pithy.

Mostly, though, these 54 essays were well chosen, resonant, and strong; they were by turns hilarious, poignant, thought-provoking (and all three at once). By collecting them into a book, Arens and the publisher, Chicago Review Press, give much deserved weight to bloggers' words. Yes, we are "real writers," and this book proves it. I'm proud to be a mommyblogger, especially if it puts me in the company of these fine women (and one man).

Read more about the book, its contributors, and its events and celebrations at BlogHer.

*By the way, the real subtitle is: The best of the mommybloggers including Amalah, Finslippy, Fussy, Woulda Coulda Shoulda, Mom-101, and more! Told you.