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How to Baby

A No-Advice-Given Guide to Motherhood, with Drawings

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Hardcover (Paper-over-Board, no jacket)
$28.00 US
5.1"W x 7.3"H x 0.89"D   | 14 oz | 24 per carton
On sale Apr 30, 2024 | 272 Pages | 9780593595961

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A wryly personal and deeply relatable graphic memoir skewering the “traditional” parenting book to chronicle the absurdities, frustrations, and soaring joys of new parenthood—from the acclaimed New Yorker cartoonist and author

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR


How do you know if you’re ready to have a baby? How do you know if you might be pregnant? And how do you deal with peeing all the time and being hungry all the time and fielding well-meaning but kind of insulting advice and finding a doula and being dropped by your old friends and learning why it’s called mom brain and not dad brain and the tyranny of the milestones you’re not meeting and negotiating boundaries with in-laws and realizing that your heart now exists outside of your chest and in the body of this tiny little being whose entire existence depends on the quality of your care? 
 
To tackle these questions and many others, award-winning cartoonist and memoirist Liana Finck began illustrating her early years of motherhood, giving images and language to her insecurities, frustrations, and wild joy. 
 
In How to Baby, Liana takes her witty and lacerating cartoons (“Hobbies for Pregnant Women: Waiting on Hold with the Insurance Company”) and weaves them together with comic essays (“You Married a Brute. Worse. You’re a Nag: Go Ahead and Argue with Each Other”), handy lists (“Nesting. The Comprehensive List of What to Buy and Why Getting Things Used Is Dangerous and Unamerican”), and profound observations. Together, these brilliant pieces form an immersive and comprehensive narrative whole—a baby book, a resource, and an emotional balm—for our time.
Liana Finck is a cartoonist, illustrator and regular contributor to the New Yorker where she also authors the “Dear Pepper” advice-from-a-dog column. As the author of eight books, her work also frequently appears in The New York Times, The Atlantic, New York Magazine and more. She is the recipient of Fulbright, Guggenheim and New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships. She teaches creative writing at Barnard College. www.lianafinck.com View titles by Liana Finck

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About

A wryly personal and deeply relatable graphic memoir skewering the “traditional” parenting book to chronicle the absurdities, frustrations, and soaring joys of new parenthood—from the acclaimed New Yorker cartoonist and author

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR


How do you know if you’re ready to have a baby? How do you know if you might be pregnant? And how do you deal with peeing all the time and being hungry all the time and fielding well-meaning but kind of insulting advice and finding a doula and being dropped by your old friends and learning why it’s called mom brain and not dad brain and the tyranny of the milestones you’re not meeting and negotiating boundaries with in-laws and realizing that your heart now exists outside of your chest and in the body of this tiny little being whose entire existence depends on the quality of your care? 
 
To tackle these questions and many others, award-winning cartoonist and memoirist Liana Finck began illustrating her early years of motherhood, giving images and language to her insecurities, frustrations, and wild joy. 
 
In How to Baby, Liana takes her witty and lacerating cartoons (“Hobbies for Pregnant Women: Waiting on Hold with the Insurance Company”) and weaves them together with comic essays (“You Married a Brute. Worse. You’re a Nag: Go Ahead and Argue with Each Other”), handy lists (“Nesting. The Comprehensive List of What to Buy and Why Getting Things Used Is Dangerous and Unamerican”), and profound observations. Together, these brilliant pieces form an immersive and comprehensive narrative whole—a baby book, a resource, and an emotional balm—for our time.

Author

Liana Finck is a cartoonist, illustrator and regular contributor to the New Yorker where she also authors the “Dear Pepper” advice-from-a-dog column. As the author of eight books, her work also frequently appears in The New York Times, The Atlantic, New York Magazine and more. She is the recipient of Fulbright, Guggenheim and New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships. She teaches creative writing at Barnard College. www.lianafinck.com View titles by Liana Finck