Crossing the Moon

After a comment by her mother that ""people who don't have children are the most selfish people in the world,"" the 39-year-old author (Feeding the Eagles) and her husband, Jeff, began trying in earnest to have a child. In this often touching memoir, Alden details the medical procedures she underwent after learning that her progesterone level was too low to sustain pregnancy. She also describes how her infertility initially impacted negatively on her self-image and gave her physical problems. The product of a 1950s Southern girlhood, Alden had to overcome cultural expectations that she marry and become a mother immediately after college in order to pursue a career as a writer. Eventually her writing, in addition to support from her husband and other women in the same situation as hers, enabled Alden to end her struggle to become pregnant and to enjoy and appreciate life without motherhood. (Sept.)