Inheritance

 It's hard to believe how much can change in the course of less than one lifetime and the attitudes toward artificial insemination is an example of great change, especially over the past decade or so, due in part to affordable DNA testing.
 [a:Dani Shapiro|13932|Dani Shapiro|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1531841838p2/13932.jpg]'s [b:Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love|40364332|Inheritance A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love|Dani Shapiro|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1531185781l/40364332.SX50.jpg|62645055] does indeed read like "a gripping genetic detective story and a meditation on the meaning of parenthood and family," as [a:Jennifer Eagan|15739954|Jennifer Eagan|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s blurb on the back cover says.
 Additionally, you get the feeling of really knowing Shapiro, who I'd never heard of until I read this, warts and all. (I found it funny that she calls her late mother a pathological narcissist a few times in this book, which is her sixth memoir.)
 I've never been a fan of memoirs, but in this passage Shapiro changes my mind:

 Students sometimes tell me that they're waiting for someone to die before they feel they can write their story. They say this sheepishly, guiltily. As if, in some way, they're wishing for that person to expire, already, so they can get on with the business of writing about them. I try to liberate my students from these tortured thoughts by telling them that they may as well just start now, because it can be more difficult to write about the dead than to write about the living. The dead can't fight back. The dead have no voice. They can't say: But that isn't how it was. You're getting it wrong. They can't say: But I loved you so. They can't say: I had no idea.