Knocked Up: Confessions of a Hip Mother-to-be »

Rebecca Eckler is one of Canada's most well-known journalists. She has been a columnist with the National Post, Canada's national newspaper, for five years, including a stint as a New York-based columnist and feature writer. Her work has also appeared in such publications as Elle, Fashion, Lifestyles, Canadian House and Home and Mademoiselle. She was the host of the television show Modern Manners, and has appeared on CTV and CBC television, and on Global television as a reporter, along with numerous stints on radio shows across Canada and the United States.

Rebecca Eckler is a popular newspaper columnist who lives the fabulous life and gets paid to write about it. So when a tipsy romp with her fiancé on the night of their lavish engagement party leaves her unexpectedly expecting, she is utterly at a loss. How will a woman who loves nothing more than a night out on the town sipping cocktails with her fellow party girls survive the pregnant life?

Knocked Up is the witty, engaging and refreshingly frank chronicle of a modern woman’s journey into motherhood. We follow Eckler from the first trimester (a.k.a. the longest three months of her life), through the “fat months” of the second trimester, on to the "even fatter months" of the third. Flipping the pages of this Bridget-Jones-style diary, we share in Eckler’s discovery of prenatal vitamins and nursing bras, ultrasounds and obstetricians. And we experience her growing horror at the physical symptoms of pregnancy: all-day “morning” sickness, fatigue, varicose veins, and cravings. And the weight gain, oh the weight gain. Who knew the day would come when she could no longer put on her own socks?

Along for the ride is a cast of characters as comical as any met in fiction. There’s the Sexy Young Intern, a Sophia Loren look-a-like with her skinny eyes set on Eckler’s job; the glamorous friends who continue to drink Manhattans, while Eckler sips Perrier; and the Cute Single Man who knows just when she needs a carton of ice cream or a game of Scrabble. And then there’s the fiancé, living in another city, who, thanks to the miracle of long-distance phone lines, appreciates better than anybody the highs and lows of the hormonal rollercoaster pregnant Eckler is on.

Lighthearted, intimate, and very funny, Knocked Up is the diary of a modern mother-to-be determined not to let pregnancy and motherhood change her life. Not. One. Little. Bit.

Publishers Weekly

Canadian journalist Eckler was a young hipster covering club openings, trends and the minutiae of yuppie life for a newspaper when a "whoopsie" moment after her engagement party (later dubbed the Conception Party) left her pregnant. The 29-year-old author and her fianc , who lived far away and whom she planned to marry and move in with at some point, were initially shocked but later accepting. This wasn't exactly in Eckler's plan (though what was in the plan isn't quite clear, either). She becomes cautiously excited about her vague perception of parenthood, but repeatedly horrified by what pregnancy brings: weight gain, a ban on alcohol, stretch marks. Eckler writes, diary-like, about each of these revelations as well as more than anyone would want to know about both her weight and her daily trips to McDonald's. Eventually, she and her fianc move in together and seem genuinely excited about the baby's arrival, which may comfort readers unimpressed with some of Eckler's other decisions (she doesn't completely stop smoking; she schedules a C-section for nonmedical reasons). Sometimes this mommy memoir feels like a humorous crash course in maturity, though at other points the author's attitude comes dangerously close to that of one who has a baby as a chic accessory. Agent, Denise Bukowski. (Apr. 5) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.