Hertz and Nelson's approach is a welcome addition to the scholarship on searching for genetic relations among donor-conceived people and their parents . . . Random Families is an intellectually honest account of the complexity, and diversity, of same-donor networks . . . What becomes of these [donor network] possibilities remains to be seen, but for bringing them to light, Random Families deserves recognition.
Rosanna Hertz is the 1919 50th Reunion Professor of Sociology and Women's and Gender Studies at Wellesley College. She authored Single by Chance, Mothers by Choice, a path-breaking study of women who choose parenthood without marriage. Her first major book was More Equal than Others: Women and Men in Dual-Career Marriages.
Margaret K. Nelson is the A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Sociology Emerita at Middlebury College. Her books include Working Hard and Making Do: Surviving in Small Town America (with Joan Smith), and Parenting Out of Control: Anxious Parents in Uncertain Times.