Download or read book A Drinking Life written by Pete Hamill and published by Back Bay Books. This book was released on 2008-12-14 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This bestselling memoir from a seasoned New York City reporter is "a vivid report of a journey to the edge of self-destruction" (New York Times). !--StartFragment-- As a child during the Depression and World War II, Pete Hamill learned early that drinking was an essential part of being a man, inseparable from the rituals of celebration, mourning, friendship, romance, and religion. Only later did he discover its ability to destroy any writer's most valuable tools: clarity, consciousness, memory. In A Drinking Life, Hamill explains how alcohol slowly became a part of his life, and how he ultimately left it behind. Along the way, he summons the mood of an America that is gone forever, with the bittersweet fondness of a lifelong New Yorker. !--EndFragment--"Magnificent. A Drinking Life is about growing up and growing old, working and trying to work, within the culture of drink." --Boston Globe

Download or read book Drunkard written by Neil Steinberg and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-06-19 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A compelling read, sad and wistful and breathtakingly forthright."—Chicago Magazine Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg loved his job, his wife, and his two young sons. But he also loved to drink. Drunkard is an unflinchingly honest account of one man's descent into alcoholism and his ambivalent struggle to embrace sobriety. Sentenced to an outpatient rehab program, Steinberg discovers that twenty-eight days of therapy cannot reverse the toll taken by decades of hard drinking. As Steinberg claws his way through recovery, grieves the loss of the drink, and tries to shore up his faltering marriage, he is confronted by the greatest test he has ever faced, and finds himself in the process. Steinberg's gripping memoir is a frank and often painfully funny account of the stark-yet-common realities of a disease that affects millions.

Download or read book Drinking written by Caroline Knapp and published by Dial Press. This book was released on 1999-08-02 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fifteen million Americans a year are plagued with alcoholism. Five million of them are women. Many of them, like Caroline Knapp, started in their early teens and began to use alcohol as "liquid armor," a way to protect themselves against the difficult realities of life. In this extraordinarily candid and revealing memoir, Knapp offers important insights not only about alcoholism, but about life itself and how we learn to cope with it. It was love at first sight. The beads of moisture on a chilled bottle. The way the glasses clinked and the conversation flowed. Then it became obsession. The way she hid her bottles behind her lover's refrigerator. The way she slipped from the dinner table to the bathroom, from work to the bar. And then, like so many love stories, it fell apart. Drinking is Caroline Kapp's harrowing chronicle of her twenty-year love affair with alcohol. Caroline had her first drink at fourteen. She drank through her yeras at an Ivy League college, and through an award-winning career as an editor and columnist. Publicly she was a dutiful daughter, a sophisticated professional. Privately she was drinking herself into oblivion. This startlingly honest memoir lays bare the secrecy, family myths, and destructive relationships that go hand in hand with drinking. And it is, above all, a love story for our times—full of passion and heartbreak, betrayal and desire—a triumph over the pain and deception that mark an alcoholic life. Praise for Drinking “Quietly moving . . . Caroline Knapp dazzles us with her heady description of alcohol's allure and its devastating hold.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “Filled with hard-won wisdom . . . [a] perceptive and revealing book.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Eloquent . . . a remarkable exercise in self-discovery.”—The New York Times “Drinking not only describes triumph; it is one.”—Newsweek

Download or read book Churchill A Drinking Life written by Gin Sander and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-08-23 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An intoxicating read. You'll want to consume it twice." —A.J. Baime, New York Times bestselling author of The Accidental President and Dewey Defeats Truman A fun little book packed with historic Churchill information, drinking companions, locations, and preferences, as well as plenty of cocktail recipes! Churchill was seldom short of a witty remark, and made his views on drinking quite well-known: “I have taken far more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.” When feeling down he said he felt like “a bottle of champagne . . . left uncorked for the night.” And when encouraging a young government minister to indulge in another drink, he promised, “Go ahead, I won’t write it in my diary.” Divided into four sections—Drink Choices, Drinking Companions, Drinking Spots, and Drink Recipes—this book will keep readers turning the pages of fresh and fun material as they lift a drink along with Winston. The book will also focus on the various eras—from the 1910s through the 1960s—the times in which he was drinking alone and with others. Working with the historic companies that kept him refreshed, it will include vintage advertisements and marketing material from their closely guarded archives. Winston certainly drank with a colorful cast of characters, and you’ll glimpse those such as FDR, Stalin, Coco Chanel, Charlie Chaplin, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and various other kings, queens, dukes, and duchesses. Among the elegant settings we will pop in and out of for a drink include Hearst Castle, Chanel’s house in the South of France, the Ritz Hotel in Paris, the Dorchester in London, Monaco, the Savoy, the Biltmore, and of course the bars and first-class cabins of the famed ocean liners the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary. So raise a glass and join us in toasting Churchill’s life and unique abilities!

Download or read book Drinking with Men written by Rosie Schaap and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-01-24 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NPR “Best Books of 2013” BookPage Best Books of 2013 Library Journal Best Books of 2013: Memoir Flavorwire 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2013 A vivid, funny, and poignant memoir that celebrates the distinct lure of the camaraderie and community one finds drinking in bars. Rosie Schaap has always loved bars: the wood and brass and jukeboxes, the knowing bartenders, and especially the sometimes surprising but always comforting company of regulars. Starting with her misspent youth in the bar car of a regional railroad, where at fifteen she told commuters’ fortunes in exchange for beer, and continuing today as she slings cocktails at a neighborhood joint in Brooklyn, Schaap has learned her way around both sides of a bar and come to realize how powerful the fellowship among regular patrons can be. In Drinking with Men, Schaap shares her unending quest for the perfect local haunt, which takes her from a dive outside Los Angeles to a Dublin pub full of poets, and from small-town New England taverns to a character-filled bar in Manhattan’s TriBeCa. Drinking alongside artists and expats, ironworkers and soccer fanatics, she finds these places offer a safe haven, a respite, and a place to feel most like herself. In rich, colorful prose, Schaap brings to life these seedy, warm, and wonderful rooms. Drinking with Men is a love letter to the bars, pubs, and taverns that have been Schaap’s refuge, and a celebration of the uniquely civilizing source of community that is bar culture at its best.

Download or read book Blackout written by Sarah Hepola and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2015-06-23 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this unflinchingly honest and hilarious memoir, a woman discovers that her best life is a sober one. For Sarah Hepola, drinking felt like freedom; part of her birthright as a twenty-first-century woman. But there was a price–she often blacked out, having no memory of the lost hours. On the outside, her career was flourishing, but inside, her spirit was diminishing. She could no longer avoid the truth–she needed help. Blackout is the story of a woman stumbling into a new kind of adventure–sobriety. Sarah Hepola's tale will resonate with anyone who has had to face the reality of addiction and the struggle to put down the bottle. At first it seemed like a sacrifice–but in the end, it was all worth it to get her life back.

Download or read book Not Drinking Tonight written by Amanda E. White and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2022-01-04 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this honest discussion of mental health, the founder of Therapy for Women explores our reasons for drinking alcohol—and the benefits of taking a break. When “retired party girl” and popular therapist Amanda White admitted she was an alcoholic, it wasn’t because she’d done something outrageous while under the influence, like land herself in jail or get married in Vegas. It was because she realized three things: 1. Alcohol was making her life worse. 2. Moderation wasn’t helping. 3. She could not be a therapist if she continued to use alcohol to numb her life. Something needed to change—not just her relationship with alcohol, but her relationship with herself. Choosing not to drink can be daunting. It’s everywhere in our culture, our socializing, and our destressing. And it can seem black or white: you drink, or you don’t (and if you don’t, people ask why). That’s where Not Drinking Tonight comes in. Judgement-free and relatable, Amanda helps you unpack your relationship with alcohol by showing you how to: Find out why you drink. Whether it’s a glass of wine after work or a weekly bar crawl, your drinking habits can be the result of everything from biology to trauma. Heal your relationship with alcohol. Understand how your relationships have been affecting your life, and learn how to set boundaries and create true self care. Build the sober life you love. Learn what comes next—how to maintain your social life, navigate sex and relationships, and love yourself. Not Drinking Tonight isn’t a program to stop drinking. It’s the first book to help you address the root issues that cause you to reach for a drink, and create a life you love—one that is not perfect, but is messy and real and one you are fully present for.

Download or read book This Naked Mind written by Annie Grace and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-01-02 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking and inspiring book that challenges our relationship with alcohol by exploring the psychological factors behind alcohol use and the cultural influences that contribute to dependency. Many people question whether drinking has become too big a part of their lives, and worry that it may even be affecting their health. But, they resist change because they fear losing the pleasure and stress-relief associated with alcohol, and assume giving it up will involve deprivation and misery. This Naked Mind offers a new, positive solution. Here, Annie Grace clearly presents the psychological and neurological components of alcohol use based on the latest science, and reveals the cultural, social, and industry factors that support alcohol dependence in all of us. Packed with surprising insight into the reasons we drink and Annie’s own extraordinary and candid personal story, This Naked Mind will open your eyes to the startling role of alcohol in our culture, and how the stigma of alcoholism and recovery keeps people from getting the help they need. This Naked Mind will give you freedom from alcohol. It removes the psychological dependence so that you will not crave alcohol, allowing you to easily drink less (or stop drinking). With clarity, humor, and a unique blend of science and storytelling, This Naked Mind will open the door to the life you have been waiting for. “You have given me my live back.” —Katy F., Albuquerque, New Mexico “This is an inspiring and groundbreaking must-read. I am forever inspired and changed.” —Kate S., Los Angeles, California “The most selfless and amazing book that I have ever read.” —Bernie M., Dublin, Ireland

Download or read book John Barleycorn or Alcoholic Memoirs written by Jack London and published by . This book was released on 1914 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Drinking Companion written by Kelly Boler and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an effort to cut back on his drinking, F. Scott's Fitzgerald briefly limited himself to only one glass of beer--thirty times a day. Dashiell Hammett drank himself into a writer's block that lasted thirty years, and John Cheever conquered a decade-long addiction to create his greatest novel. Malcolm Lowry would drink anything from gin to formaldehyde, while housewife/poet Anne Sexton always traveled with a thermos full of martinis. In her book Drinking Companion: Alcohol and the Lives of Writers, Kelly Boler looks at the many different ways that liquor ran through the lives and works of fifteen great writers. Told from varying vantage points--fame and obscurity, glamour and despair, suicide and recovery, shame and bravado --these stories shed an important light on the role that alcohol played in the real lives of our most creative artists.

Download or read book Soberful written by Veronica Valli and published by Sounds True. This book was released on 2022-01-25 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How to stop drinking, stay stopped, and develop emotional skills for a life of excitement and connection ... without the hangover. “No thanks—I’m not drinking tonight.” In a culture that equates alcohol with enjoyment and social acceptance, making this simple statement can make us feel like we’re depriving or even punishing ourselves. “When we realize we don’t want to drink anymore or can no longer drink safely, it can feel like the only choices are to spiral out of control or embrace a joyless life,” says psychotherapist and sobriety expert Veronica Valli. “But it’s not true! Sobriety can be a path filled with fun, excitement, belonging, relaxation, and romance.” Soberful offers a practical and straightforward program on how to get sober and stay sober by increasing your self-worth, energy, and participation in life. Valli begins by debunking widespread beliefs about alcohol and sobriety, including the illusion that alcohol itself is the problem. Then she takes you into the heart of her method for building an alcohol-free life that works—the Five Pillars of Sustainable Sobriety: • Movement—Taking care of your body for physical and emotional health • Connection—Using self-compassion as a foundation for creating healthy and authentic relationships • Balance—Learning how to disarm the triggers that make you want to drink • Process—Validating, honoring, and accepting the past to move forward into the future • Growth—How to keep changing, keep learning, and keep choosing to stay sober throughout the journey of your life “When we change how we experience the world, we can stop trying to escape our feelings with alcohol,” Valli says. As a leader and pioneer in the field with 21 years of sobriety, Valli now shares the same steps that worked for her and her clients. Written with gentle humor and compassion, Soberful provides a road map to a life beyond drinking—one that is expansive, fulfilling, and joyously free.

Download or read book A Monk Swimming written by Malachy McCourt and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2024-03-05 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this “irresistible memoir that’s equal parts pathos and belly laughs,” the Irish American writer and actor shares stories from his first decade in the US (People). Malachy McCourt left behind a childhood of poverty and painful memories of his father and mother in Limerick, Ireland, when he followed his brother, Frank, to America in 1952. In A Monk Swimming, McCourt recounts the decade that followed. With not much to his name other than his sharp wit and knack for storytelling, McCourt was unsure what he would do after arriving in New York City. He worked as a longshoreman on the Brooklyn docks, became the first celebrity bartender in a Manhattan saloon, performed on stage with the Irish Players, and told tales to Jack Paar on The Tonight Show. Although McCourt gained success, money, women, and, eventually, children of his own, he still carried memories of the past with him. So, he fled again. He found himself in the Manhattan Detention Complex, otherwise known as the Tombs. He was arrested several times: poolside in Beverly Hills, in Zurich with gold-smugglers, and again in Calcutta with sex workers. McCourt’s journey also took him to Paris, Rome, and even Limerick again, until finally he was forced to grapple with his past. “[A] funny, oddly winning book.” —The New York Times “A rollicking good read that, as the Irish say, would make a dead man laugh.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer “A triumphant tale. . . . You will find yourself laughing through the tears.” —Newsday “Howlingly funny.” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution “Build[s] on the story of the McCourts’ early life so dazzlingly told in Angela’s Ashes by his brother Frank.” —Thomas Keneally, author of the international bestseller Schindler’s List

Download or read book The Outrun A Memoir written by Amy Liptrot and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2017-04-25 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “It’s wild writing: sexy, unguarded, raw, and ardent … highly recommended.”—The Millions After a decade of heavy partying and hard drinking in London, Amy Liptrot returns home to Orkney, a remote island off the north of Scotland. The Outrun maps Amy’s inspiring recovery as she walks along windy coasts, swims in icy Atlantic waters, tracks Orkney’s wildlife, and reconnects with her parents, revisiting and rediscovering the place that shaped her. A Guardian Best Nonfiction Book of 2016 Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller New Statesman Book of the Year

Download or read book Quit Like a Woman written by Holly Whitaker and published by Dial Press. This book was released on 2019-12-31 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “An unflinching examination of how our drinking culture hurts women and a gorgeous memoir of how one woman healed herself.”—Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed “You don’t know how much you need this book, or maybe you do. Either way, it will save your life.”—Melissa Hartwig Urban, Whole30 co-founder and CEO The founder of the first female-focused recovery program offers a groundbreaking look at alcohol and a radical new path to sobriety. We live in a world obsessed with drinking. We drink at baby showers and work events, brunch and book club, graduations and funerals. Yet no one ever questions alcohol’s ubiquity—in fact, the only thing ever questioned is why someone doesn’t drink. It is a qualifier for belonging and if you don’t imbibe, you are considered an anomaly. As a society, we are obsessed with health and wellness, yet we uphold alcohol as some kind of magic elixir, though it is anything but. When Holly Whitaker decided to seek help after one too many benders, she embarked on a journey that led not only to her own sobriety, but revealed the insidious role alcohol plays in our society and in the lives of women in particular. What’s more, she could not ignore the ways that alcohol companies were targeting women, just as the tobacco industry had successfully done generations before. Fueled by her own emerging feminism, she also realized that the predominant systems of recovery are archaic, patriarchal, and ineffective for the unique needs of women and other historically oppressed people—who don’t need to lose their egos and surrender to a male concept of God, as the tenets of Alcoholics Anonymous state, but who need to cultivate a deeper understanding of their own identities and take control of their lives. When Holly found an alternate way out of her own addiction, she felt a calling to create a sober community with resources for anyone questioning their relationship with drinking, so that they might find their way as well. Her resultant feminine-centric recovery program focuses on getting at the root causes that lead people to overindulge and provides the tools necessary to break the cycle of addiction, showing us what is possible when we remove alcohol and destroy our belief system around it. Written in a relatable voice that is honest and witty, Quit Like a Woman is at once a groundbreaking look at drinking culture and a road map to cutting out alcohol in order to live our best lives without the crutch of intoxication. You will never look at drinking the same way again.

Download or read book Sober Curious written by Ruby Warrington and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-12-31 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Would life be better without alcohol? It’s the nagging question more and more of us are finding harder to ignore, whether we have a “problem” with alcohol or not. After all, we yoga. We green juice. We meditate. We self-care. And yet, come the end of a long work day, the start of a weekend, an awkward social situation, we drink. One glass of wine turns into two turns into a bottle. In the face of how we care for ourselves otherwise, it’s hard to avoid how alcohol really makes us feel… terrible. How different would our lives be if we stopped drinking on autopilot? If we stopped drinking altogether? Really different, it turns out. Really better. Frank, funny, and always judgment free, Sober Curious is a bold guide to choosing to live hangover-free, from Ruby Warrington, one of the leading voices of the new sobriety movement. Drawing on research, expert interviews, and personal narrative, Sober Curious is a radical take down of the myths that keep so many of us drinking. Inspiring, timely, and blame free, Sober Curious is both conversation starter and handbook—essential reading that empowers readers to transform their relationship with alcohol, so we can lead our most fulfilling lives.

Download or read book Take Control of Your Drinking written by Michael S. Levy and published by Johns Hopkins University Press. This book was released on 2021-01-12 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Accepting that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to controlling drinking, the latest edition of this bestselling book will help you assess your drinking and determine whether moderation or abstinence is the best path for you. For decades, the standard treatment for people struggling with alcohol consumption has focused on convincing them to admit that they are an alcoholic, to stop drinking entirely, and to enter into a program, most commonly Alcoholics Anonymous. But in his more than thirty-five-year career as an addiction specialist working with people who want to change their drinking habits, Michael S. Levy has found that the routes to behavioral change actually vary. And although abstinence is the successful route for many people, others can moderate their drinking on their own or with professional help. In this practical, effective, and compassionate book, Levy helps people take control of their alcohol problem by teaching them how to think about and address their drinking habits. Beginning with a set of self-assessments that reveal whether the reader's use of alcohol is creating problems, Levy explains the causes of problem drinking, discusses the growing recognition of the various ways an alcohol use disorder can show itself, and talks about why it is so difficult to change. Offering advice for choosing between moderating your drinking or abstaining altogether, he also touches on coping with slipups, fighting helplessness and the fear of failure, and knowing when moderation is not achievable. The book is unique in that instead of telling people what they need to do, it meets people at their stage of change and level of readiness to change and helps them decide for themselves what they need to do. Drawing on the latest scientific evidence, this new edition includes • a chapter on the concept of self-medication—a useful but at times overused idea; • a chapter on the concurrent use of drugs (particularly cannabis) during recovery; • an exploration of modern strategies for dealing with drinking, including technology (apps that count drinks, for example) and medications that curb alcohol consumption; • reflections on the use of stigma; • communication strategies for individuals seeking to share their struggle with others; • an exploration of common triggers; • additional worksheets and tips to achieve success; • further material about self-help programs; and • insights about the dark side of addiction treatment. Ultimately, Take Control of Your Drinking empowers people to tackle their drinking problem and gives them the freedom to do so in a way that fits with their own lifestyle and values. This book is useful for anyone who may find that they are drinking too much, for the loved ones of such people, and for clinicians who want to broaden their skills when working with people who struggle with alcohol.

Download or read book Raising the Bottom written by Lisa Boucher and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-06-20 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you ever wondered if social drinking has unintended consequences to your health, family, relationships, or your profession? Have you ever thought that losing control of your drinking couldn’t happen to you or someone you love? All the women you know are too smart. Too rich. Too kind. Too together. Too much fun. Pick one. We live in a boozy culture, and the idea of women and wine has become entrenched. Is your book club really a “wine club”? Do you crave the release a drink can bring to cope with anxiety, parenthood, the pressures of being a mom, a wife/partner, a professional? In Raising the Bottom, mothers, daughters, health professionals, and young women share their stories of why they drank, how they stopped, and the joys and rewards of being present in their lives once they kicked alcohol to the curb.