Book: Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight? Confessions of a Gay Dad by Dan Bucatinsky, Audible Inc, January 2014
Book Info: Audiobook received for review from Audible, Inc. Running time: 5 hrs, 37 mins. Audiobook performed by: Dan Bucatinsky. Also available in paperback, 256 pages from Touchstone. Audible * Amazon * Goodreads
Dan Bucatinsky is a producer and writer for Grey’s Anatomy, and won an Emmy for his portrayal of James Novak on Scandal. (Hurry back from hiatus, Scandal!) In this book he talks about his and his husband Don Roos’ experience with adopting their two children Eliza and Jonah.
Bucatinsky talks about the waiting game during the adoption and surrogacy process, and the happiness of repeating the process with the same birth mother. Bucatinsky also shares his parenting adventures and his heartwarming and humorous experiences of raising a boy and a girl. It’s been awhile since I’ve had a small child in the house, and I wish I had this book when my baby was born! Bucatinsky tells you the things they don’t tell you in What to Expect the First Year.
I like humorous memoirs and there are a lot of funny moments in this book. This book will be insightful for parents to be and a source of comfort to new parents. Bucatinsky doesn’t sugar coat the issues and brings up topics like religion, parenting styles, role models, gender roles, body image, travel, and being a sports parent. There’s also lots of bathroom humor, as you’d expect in a book about raising young ones.
Bucatinsky also talks about his relationship with his husband Don, and how that evolves when you are parents. He also gets personal in discussing his father’s death and how his kids helped him heal.
Dan Bucatinsky performs the audiobook and makes you feel like you’re listening to a friend share funny family anecdotes. I’m familiar with Bucatinsky as an actor from Scandal, but didn’t really know anything about him before listening to this audiobook. Bucatinsky is a great storyteller and the perfect person to narrate his story. His performance is lively and energetic and he makes the humorous scenes even funnier, and the sad scenes even more meaningful. Hope he writes a follow-up book when his kids are older! Check out an audiobook sample:
This book would make a great gift for any new parent, or for someone going through the adoption process. The short essays will easily fit into a busy parent’s schedule, and are very relatable.
Dan Bucatinsky talks about how this book came to be:
I’m not a parent, but this still sounds like something I’d enjoy. I’ll have to check this out (since I am an Audible junkie, you know). I like that you include the audiobook samples on these reviews!
Sounds like a good one. The title is great too.