I heard about this book on the All the Books podcast and decided it would be a healthy exercise of seeing other perspectives. I wanted to read it because I personally stand at the opposite spectrum-- I have basically always pictured myself having kids-- and I wanted to hear the opinions of people who think differently from me. My hope was to learn to see from their perspective, to understand the reasoning of people who choose not to have kids. 
 This book was fun on audio. It certainly delivered what I was looking for. The writing was all great, and quite varied. Out of the 16 essays by different contributors they varied from wry, sarcastic, and humorous to heartfelt, vulnerable, and difficult. Some essays were more researched and about reproduction and populations in general, whereas others were deeply personal. I liked most of them, and I thought it was a good book. 
 Objectively this book is probably worth 4.0 stars. I gave it 3.0 stars because of my personal experience with it. It was actually a lot of hard work to listen to so many opinions that were different from mine. I absolutely recognize the validity and reasons behind the contributors opinions! But it's always a mental exercise to empathize with people who are not like you. I found a few recurring themes to become repetitive after some time. I probably could have learned as much from this book from about 8 essays. 
 I found this book paired nicely with the Great Courses lecture series called Scientific Secrets for Raising Kids who Thrive. This is developmental psychology/parenting advice about actually having children sits on the opposite side of the spectrum and helped me balance my audiobook content! 
 I recommend this book to people who are looking for a realistic, open dialogue about the choice some (or many) people make not to have children. I also recommend this book to people who are judgmental or not understanding of people who choose not to have children. As this book will show, there are a million reasons why someone might make this choice, and the decision is NOT selfish, shallow, or self-absorbed!