Kelle Hampton
“In her tender and genuinely beautiful memoir, Kelle Hampton encourages us to not simply accept the unexpected circumstances of our lives, but to embrace them like the things we wished for all along.”
—Matthew Logelin, New York Times bestselling author of Two Kisses for Maddy
Bloom is an inspiring and heartfelt memoir that celebrates the beauty found in the unexpected, the strength of a mother’s love, and, ultimately, the amazing power of perspective. The author of the popular blog Enjoying the Small Things—named The Bump’s Best Special Needs Blog and The Blog You’ve Learned the Most From in the 2010 BlogLuxe Awards—Kelle Hampton interweaves lyrical prose and stunning four-color photography as she recounts the unforgettable story of the first year in the life of her daughter Nella, who has Down syndrome. Poignant, eye-opening, and heart-soaring, Hampton’s Bloom is ultimately about embracing life and really living it.
Tracy on Goodreads wrote:I can't say I loved this. It was really hard to follow, and the author seemed incredibly shallow. So much of her story was about how things look, beer and limes, and other things. Also... I completely understand a person being brutally honest about having a hard time with finding themselves in a situation like this - but I think a lot of the things she said went past honesty and deep into cruelty. I was expecting more story about how she came to terms with handling a situation she wasn't expecting - rather than a story about how she drank herself silly to comfort herself.
I have to say I was disappointed when I realized that this book was written by the same author as the over- the-top birth blog I have seen on the internet in the past, and included even more of the staged, professionally shot yet supposedly candid photos of the entire birth experience. ("I cried all night and writhed in pain at the thought of my child having Down syndrome, calling out to friends to save me and sobbing uncontrollably so that when I awakened, my face was so swollen I looked like a prize fighter with slits for eyes" accompanied by an artsy black and white photo capturing that morning where Kelle is perfectly made up with perfectly styled hair and not a bit of swelling to be seen as she gazes at her newborn in soft focus.) Kelle is just "too". Too happy, too sad, too many friends at the birth, too dramatic, too perfectly coiffed at all times, too photographed, too...
I wanted to like this book but just didn't.
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