{"product_id":"second-life-isbn-9780385549738","title":"Second Life","description":"\u003cb\u003e“\u003ci\u003eSecond Life\u003c\/i\u003e is not only a book for parents; it's for anyone intrigued (and concerned) by the ways in which our digital footprints impact the circle of life itself.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Elle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Engrossing….With a reporter’s gimlet eye, Hess lenses out from her personal experience…[She] has a (hilariously reluctant) native’s ear for the (awful) millennial marketing sound.” \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“[Hess probes] both the effect of the internet on maternal guilt and anxiety (a nearly universal condition) and the more specific challenges of her own motherhood journey….Smart, funny, and filled with love.” \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs an internet culture critic for \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, Amanda Hess had built a reputation among readers as a sharp observer of the seductions and manipulations of online life. But when Hess discovered she was pregnant with her first child, she found herself unexpectedly rattled by a digital identity crisis of her own.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the summer of 2020, a routine ultrasound detected a mysterious abnormality in Hess’s baby. Without hesitation, she reached for her phone, looking for answers. But rather than allaying her anxieties, her search sucked her into the destabilizing morass of the internet, and she was vulnerable—more than ever—to conspiracy, myth, judgment, commerce, and obsession.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs Hess documents her escalating relationship with the digital world, she identifies how technologies act as portals to troubling ideologies, ethical conflicts, and existential questions, and she illuminates how the American traditions of eugenics, surveillance, and hyper-individualism are recycled through these shiny products for a new generation of parents and their children.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt once funny, heartbreaking, and surreal, \u003ci\u003eSecond Life\u003c\/i\u003e is a journey that spans a network of fertility apps, prenatal genetic tests, gender reveal videos, rare disease Facebook groups, “freebirth” influencers, and hospital reality shows. Hess confronts technology’s distortions as they follow her through pregnancy and into her son’s early life. The result is a critical record of our digital age that reveals the unspoken ways our lives are being fractured and reconstituted by technology.\u003cb\u003eOne of the \u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e's 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction in 2025 \u003ci\u003e•\u003c\/i\u003e One of \u003ci\u003eThe New Republic\u003c\/i\u003e's Best Books of 2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA Most Anticipated Book of 2025: \u003ci\u003eVulture \u003c\/i\u003e• Lit Hub • \u003ci\u003eThe Los Angeles Times • TIME\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Engrossing…With a reporter’s gimlet eye, Hess lenses out from her personal experience…[She] has a (hilariously reluctant) native’s ear for the (awful) millennial marketing sound.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eSecond Life\u003c\/i\u003e is not mainly a medical odyssey but, rather, a mordant contemplation of the many screens…that reflected and mediated Hess’s experience of pregnancy and early motherhood….[It] is foremost a mash note to Hess’s firstborn son…the book’s charisma is rooted in its mood of droll astonishment….Despite the oracular hubris of the genetic-screening vanguard, the story a parent wants has only one primary source, one reliable narrator. You have to wait for him.” \u003cb\u003e—Jessica Winter, \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Hess trains her critic’s eye on her own life, probing both the effect of the internet on maternal guilt and anxiety (a nearly universal condition) and the more specific challenges of her own motherhood journey.…Smart, funny, and filled with love.”\u003cb\u003e \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“With wit, discernment and candor…[Hess] captures the anxiety and weirdness of reproduction in our modern screen-based, app-oriented culture.…Insightful…very funny.” \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—The Wall Street Journal\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Exceptional. . . .Impeccably blends tech skepticism, cultural criticism and memoir. . . .Hess is a savvy, charmingly acerbic analyst. . . .[She] writes with a calm, uncloying sympathy for anyone eager to allay their concerns by discovering more about their offspring. . . .[A] book about knowing, [with] striking, beautiful moments.”\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e —The Washington Post \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Spot-on and brutally funny….Hess smartly paints herself as just another willing victim of the internet, a contradiction that speaks to how so many people view their online habits.” \u003cb\u003e —\u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“A smart, well-observed memoir. . . .Clear-eyed. . . .It could have been easy to dunk on the dystopia of it all, but Hess avoids that easy path, staying in the muddled middle where most of us live.”\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e —The New Republic\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“With an investigative eye and a sense of humor (tempered by an appropriate amount of alarm), Hess. . . probe[s] the larger phenomena influencing the act (and industry) of reproduction. . . .\u003ci\u003eSecond Life\u003c\/i\u003e is not only a book for parents; it's for anyone intrigued (and concerned) by the ways in which our digital footprints impact the circle of life itself.”\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e —Elle\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Hess’s debut memoir bursts with humor and intelligence as it weaves the story of her own pregnancy....This unexpected page-turner is as vulnerable as it is sharp.\u003ci\u003e”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Vulture\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“[Hess] connects her experiences to excellent research.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Los Angeles Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e“Second Life \u003c\/i\u003eisn’t the new \u003ci\u003eWhat to Expect When You’re Expecting\u003c\/i\u003e. Hess isn’t offering parenting tips to tech-savvy caretakers. Instead, she takes readers on an eye-opening adventure down the parenting internet rabbit hole.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eTIME\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“A truly amazing book.” \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eLiana Finck, illustrator and author of\u003ci\u003e Passing for Human\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eSecond Life\u003c\/i\u003e is…a powerful firsthand account of how digital cultures are distorting and radicalizing parental decision making.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eScience Magazine\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Second Life\u003c\/i\u003e is the best account of the perinatal period since Anne Lamott's Operating Instructions (1993), sounding out the tender and weird ways in which we create our own user's manual for parenthood.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Observer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Hess brings to her subject humility, curiosity, and a sly, self-aware wit. . . Sweeping and incisive. . . Fresh and complicated. . . A captivating, charged, and crucially provocative consideration of motherhood in modern America.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“[A] fierce and funny debut memoir. . . .An astute document of pregnancy and parenting in the internet era. . . .Incisive and refreshing.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The story of a crisis-born odyssey, \u003ci\u003eSecond Life\u003c\/i\u003e charts a new mother’s descent into and re-emergence from the internet’s ‘pregnant underworld’ with clarity, rigor, and tremendous wit. That such a deft a vivisector of our digital age should find herself lost in its churn of data-brokerage, commerce, and myth is a reminder of what we’re all up against, and an engine of Amanda Hess’s bracing and eloquent memoir.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Michelle Orange, author of \u003ci\u003ePure Flame\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Amanda Hess is that rare thing, the real deal. \u003ci\u003eSecond Life\u003c\/i\u003e is unexpected, intellectually rigorous, funny, beautiful; and the wisdom is hard-won. A major debut from a profoundly talented writer.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Claire Dederer, bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eMonsters: A Fan’s Dilemma\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“Second Life\u003c\/i\u003e is a treat….Hess takes us on fascinating detours into the history of fetal imaging…feminism’s flirtation with eugenics, and the origins of what we now think of as ‘natural childbirth’….A tender and often very funny memoir….Hess is a generous thinker, even when she’s up against ideologies that repel her.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Cut\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“There is no better chaperone than Amanda Hess through the strange world of surveillance, monetization, bureaucracy, and alternative medicine to which pregnant people and mothers are subjected.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Max Read, editor of Read Max and former editor-in-chief of \u003ci\u003eGawker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Only Amanda Hess could step through the blue light looking glass of our phones and explore her specific—and our collective—anxiety, dissociation, data points, targeted ads, and apps; she emerges a more sensate, embodied, and sharper critic. The honesty of \u003ci\u003eSecond Life \u003c\/i\u003etook my breath away.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Angela Garbes, author of \u003ci\u003eEssential Labor \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eLike a Mother\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“\u003ci\u003eSecond Life \u003c\/i\u003eis an incredibly urgent and moving investigation into the business of pregnancy and motherhood in our divided, digital age…Occasionally harrowing, frequently hilarious, and deeply original.”\u003ci\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Thomas Page McBee, Lambda award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eAmateur\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eMan Alive\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Finally, a book about parenthood that acknowledges that the internet is the \u003ci\u003efirst\u003c\/i\u003e place we go to navigate pregnancy. Hess doesn't demonize or valorize it but rather serves as a smart—and very amusing—guide to the good, the bad, and the truly weird of how we give birth today.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Marisa Meltzer, author of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling \u003ci\u003eGlossy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eAMANDA HESS is a critic at large for \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e. She writes about internet and pop culture for the Arts section and con­tributes regularly to \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Maga­zine\u003c\/i\u003e. Hess has worked as an internet columnist for \u003ci\u003eSlate \u003c\/i\u003emagazine, an editor at \u003ci\u003eGood \u003c\/i\u003emagazine, and an arts and nightlife columnist at the \u003ci\u003eWash­ington City Paper\u003c\/i\u003e, and has served as the second vice president for the NewsGuild of New York, a union representing media workers. She has also written for such publications as \u003ci\u003eESPN The Magazine, Wired, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003ePacific Standard, \u003c\/i\u003ewhere her feature on the online harassment of women won a National Magazine Award for Public Interest.","brand":"Doubleday","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300192735461,"sku":"NP9780385549738","price":29.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780385549738.jpg?v=1767736255","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/second-life-isbn-9780385549738","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}