Anyone have any recommendations for books with pregnant characters?  I don't mean fetish specific books.  Example:  A Light in August by William Faulkner has a pregnant main character.

It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but Belly Up is a pretty cute YA novel about a teenage girl slumming it through pregnancy. There's a lot of YA teen pregnancy novels out there, but Belly Up gets pretty descriptive with the bodily changes the MC goes through.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/35128563

In my early teens I heard of a novel called "Notes from the Underbelly" in a magazine review that caught my interest, but could never come across the actual book. Saw the cover, showing a pregnant woman's body from the waist down with her bare bump slightly peeking out from under her shirt. Whoa, nice cover. Teenage Noen is stoked. I tried to find it, but unfortunately could not, and it soon fell on the back-burner of my mind. Occasionally popping up in my head over the years, then going right back to the back of the bus.
Fast forward to 2022 and the name comes back to me, and I find it online and purchase it. Finally, this pregnancy-oriented novel is in my hands and I'm ready to hear about a women who refuses to give in to the changes that pregnancy forces upon a woman; weight gain, wardrobe re-evaluation, emotional changes, nesting, and whatnot. Maybe she'll describe how she'll continue to wear her regular clothes and just work around her growing bump. Maybe she'll pretend to be oblivious to her body's growth and changes. Nice.
This could be good, my Johnson and I are very excited. I'm ready to read a chapter or two, then shake hands with Rosie Palms.
I read a few chapters, and I'm already severely let down. The main character is snarky, nasty and just straight-up hates being pregnant. Pretty much complains throughout the whole novel. I know pregnancy is probably the roughest thing for a human to go through, but wow, should have just aborted it.
I could go on, but I won't. Skip this one.

East of Eden has a character that is pregnant with twins for a bit. I remember a couple of good lines about her "Bloated belly". I wouldn't read it if you were just looking for pregnant stuff though

(March 27, 2024, 6:53 pm)Noenzero In my early teens I heard of a novel called "Notes from the Underbelly" in a magazine review that caught my interest, but could never come across the actual book. Saw the cover, showing a pregnant woman's body from the waist down with her bare bump slightly peeking out from under her shirt. Whoa, nice cover. Teenage Noen is stoked. I tried to find it, but unfortunately could not, and it soon fell on the back-burner of my mind. Occasionally popping up in my head over the years, then going right back to the back of the bus.
Fast forward to 2022 and the name comes back to me, and I find it online and purchase it. Finally, this pregnancy-oriented novel is in my hands and I'm ready to hear about a women who refuses to give in to the changes that pregnancy forces upon a woman; weight gain, wardrobe re-evaluation, emotional changes, nesting, and whatnot. Maybe she'll describe how she'll continue to wear her regular clothes and just work around her growing bump. Maybe she'll pretend to be oblivious to her body's growth and changes. Nice.
This could be good, my Johnson and I are very excited. I'm ready to read a chapter or two, then shake hands with Rosie Palms.
I read a few chapters, and I'm already severely let down. The main character is snarky, nasty and just straight-up hates being pregnant. Pretty much complains throughout the whole novel. I know pregnancy is probably the roughest thing for a human to go through, but wow, should have just aborted it.
I could go on, but I won't. Skip this one.

Your icon pretty much describes how you feel lol

Orson Scott Card's Mither Mages series contains a fair bit of pregnancy, at least one main and one side character, and some discussion of submission and breeding which is interesting.

I believe I've read such a novel. It was called "To Save a Life". I don't recall the author of the story, but it's essentially a nonfiction about the perspectives of two women, one who lost her father recently and thus her joy in life with it and the other being pregnant with what is suspected to be her stepfather's child and has essentially lived a not so good life thus far. Together, they helped each other through their lives and at the end of the book, the pregnant lady, who is around 19-20 years old I recall, gives birth to a baby girl, or was it baby boy, I don't know, it's been several years since I last read it in my university's library.

It doesn't glorify pregnancy at all, it shows how it made the other one a bit miserable at times and there are moments in the book that I remember were quite hard to go through, like the moment that her stepfather threatened her and her unborn baby's life because she managed to pilfer his expensive watch. Bittersweet, that's what I can say.

And that story actually inspired me to write pregnant women as not just objects to be coveted and salivate over, but also human beings with feelings, thoughts, fears, and aspirations. It inspired me to write "The Girl Next Door" and "The Great Birthing Series".

(March 27, 2024, 9:13 pm)cheshcat2

(March 27, 2024, 6:53 pm)Noenzero In my early teens I heard of a novel called "Notes from the Underbelly" in a magazine review that caught my interest, but could never come across the actual book. Saw the cover, showing a pregnant woman's body from the waist down with her bare bump slightly peeking out from under her shirt. Whoa, nice cover. Teenage Noen is stoked. I tried to find it, but unfortunately could not, and it soon fell on the back-burner of my mind. Occasionally popping up in my head over the years, then going right back to the back of the bus.
Fast forward to 2022 and the name comes back to me, and I find it online and purchase it. Finally, this pregnancy-oriented novel is in my hands and I'm ready to hear about a women who refuses to give in to the changes that pregnancy forces upon a woman; weight gain, wardrobe re-evaluation, emotional changes, nesting, and whatnot. Maybe she'll describe how she'll continue to wear her regular clothes and just work around her growing bump. Maybe she'll pretend to be oblivious to her body's growth and changes. Nice.
This could be good, my Johnson and I are very excited. I'm ready to read a chapter or two, then shake hands with Rosie Palms.
I read a few chapters, and I'm already severely let down. The main character is snarky, nasty and just straight-up hates being pregnant. Pretty much complains throughout the whole novel. I know pregnancy is probably the roughest thing for a human to go through, but wow, should have just aborted it.
I could go on, but I won't. Skip this one.

Your icon pretty much describes how you feel lol

Tails would not be a fan of this novel either.

I just really wanted to enjoy this, but I forgot this came out in the early 2000’s. Pregnancy wasn’t yet seen as attractive and, dare I say, sexy, as it sometimes is portrayed today. Maybe even still a bit taboo to many. Felt like it was more the butt of jokes (the weight gain, waddling, discomfort, mood changes, etc.) in most forms of media. That’s how I see it at least.

Didn’t “Goodnight Mister Tom” have a pregnant character also? Might have heard of that somewhere, but I’m unable to confirm at the moment.

(March 31, 2024, 11:56 am)Noenzero

(March 27, 2024, 9:13 pm)cheshcat2

(March 27, 2024, 6:53 pm)Noenzero In my early teens I heard of a novel called "Notes from the Underbelly" in a magazine review that caught my interest, but could never come across the actual book. Saw the cover, showing a pregnant woman's body from the waist down with her bare bump slightly peeking out from under her shirt. Whoa, nice cover. Teenage Noen is stoked. I tried to find it, but unfortunately could not, and it soon fell on the back-burner of my mind. Occasionally popping up in my head over the years, then going right back to the back of the bus.
Fast forward to 2022 and the name comes back to me, and I find it online and purchase it. Finally, this pregnancy-oriented novel is in my hands and I'm ready to hear about a women who refuses to give in to the changes that pregnancy forces upon a woman; weight gain, wardrobe re-evaluation, emotional changes, nesting, and whatnot. Maybe she'll describe how she'll continue to wear her regular clothes and just work around her growing bump. Maybe she'll pretend to be oblivious to her body's growth and changes. Nice.
This could be good, my Johnson and I are very excited. I'm ready to read a chapter or two, then shake hands with Rosie Palms.
I read a few chapters, and I'm already severely let down. The main character is snarky, nasty and just straight-up hates being pregnant. Pretty much complains throughout the whole novel. I know pregnancy is probably the roughest thing for a human to go through, but wow, should have just aborted it.
I could go on, but I won't. Skip this one.

Your icon pretty much describes how you feel lol

Tails would not be a fan of this novel either.

I just really wanted to enjoy this, but I forgot this came out in the early 2000’s. Pregnancy wasn’t yet seen as attractive and, dare I say, sexy, as it sometimes is portrayed today. Maybe even still a bit taboo to many. Felt like it was more the butt of jokes (the weight gain, waddling, discomfort, mood changes, etc.) in most forms of media. That’s how I see it at least.

Didn’t “Goodnight Mister Tom” have a pregnant character also? Might have heard of that somewhere, but I’m unable to confirm at the moment.

Not to mention it got a television adaptation.

Roberto Bolaño is one of the greatest writers ever, he is from Chile and is described by the New York Times as "the most significant Latin American literary voice of his generation". I don't know if you heard of him, but his writing is really excellent, too bad he died kinda young in 2003 aged only 50.

And guess what, he wrote a short story about pregnant porn! Of course, the story is more complex, but I think it's the first literary material of this quality to directly mention preggo porn!
The story is called "Prefiguration of Lalo Cura" published in The New Yorker magazine in 2010 (the Spanish speaking can already hear the word play on the name Lalo Cura, la locura)
You will see that the story is written from... an exceptional point of view. And that reminds me of the topic here about the "morality" of maieusophiliac pornography.

Here is the link to enjoy the piece: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/...-lalo-cura