Library Journal
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Sweeney (Saturday Night Live, 1990-94) shares her experience with and musings on becoming an adoptive mother to a 17-month-old Chinese girl. Forgoing the traditional route of marriage and pregnancy, she decided to take matters into her own hands and adopt a child by herself after considering the question: "What did I have, biologically, to pass on that was so important? My Irish heritage with its tendency toward alcoholism and depression?" Throughout are snippets from Sweeney reminiscing about her own childhood ("Turns out, my childhood was probably not nearly as bad as I once thought it was. In fact, my newly revised attitude about my mother is that she did the best she could"), and her sharp humor shines through. -VERDICT While there is no shortage of celebrity-parent tales, singles looking to adopt will find inspiration along with the giggles. Purchase for demand. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

An author, playwright, actress, and comic perhaps best known as the androgynous Pat on Saturday Night Live, Sweeney's most challenging role came as a late-in-life single mother when she adopted her 18-month-old daughter from China. With a failed marriage behind her and recovering from the cervical cancer that left her unable to have children, Sweeney embraced new motherhood with an exhilarating combination of zeal and doubt. Chronicling her adventures in international adoption, novice parenting, and disastrous dating in a series of riotously candid essays, Sweeney demonstrates how her trademark sense of humor and hard-won optimism enabled her not only to raise a bright, well-adjusted, and accomplished child but also helped her find a husband who would face these challenges with her. From the typical awkward discussions with her 8-year-old daughter about the birds and bees to reluctantly opening her heart and home to a straggly stray dog to adjusting her career goals to accommodate her new family, Sweeney takes life's quotidian rituals to hilarious heights.--Haggas, Carol Copyright 2010 Booklist