Laurel Ridge staff and faculty are welcome to join us for the Do Empathy Book Series, a monthly book discussion that encourages us to see through others' eyes and grow in understanding of the human experience. Whether you read all the book, some of it, or none, you're welcome to join us!

December's book is Lucy Knisley's graphic novel, Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos. In her memoir, the comic artist chronicles her journey through pregnancy, including infertility, miscarriage, and a traumatic birth experience. Join us as we discuss: 

• How much - or little - people know about pregnancy beforehand and why
• The isolation or loneliness that pregnant people can experience
• The emotional and physical trauma of pregnancy, miscarriage, and infertility

Register through this page for a calendar invitation, event reminders, and notifications of when the book is ready for check-out. Registrants will be notified when the library has copies available for loan, typically five weeks in prior to discussion!

If you work hard enough, if you want it enough, if you’re smart and talented and “good enough,” you can do anything.

Except get pregnant.

Her whole life, Lucy Knisley wanted to be a mother. But when it was finally the perfect time, conceiving turned out to be harder than anything she’d ever attempted. Fertility problems were followed by miscarriages, and her eventual successful pregnancy plagued by health issues, up to a dramatic, near-death experience during labor and delivery.

This moving, hilarious, and surprisingly informative memoir not only follows Lucy’s personal transition into motherhood but also illustrates the history and science of reproductive health from all angles, including curious facts and inspiring (and notorious) figures in medicine and midwifery. Whether you’ve got kids, want them, or want nothing to do with them, there’s something in this graphic memoir to open your mind and heart.