Drinking Diaries: Women Serve Their Stories Straight Up By Caren Osten Gerszberg

Drinking Diaries ebook

Drinking diaries was chosen as my book clubs read of the month Read the description sounded great I was stoked to read the book The rating was in the 4s so I knew it would be somewhat decentso I thought. Drinking Diaries ebook As I read the first couple of stories I was waiting for it to get good For me it was hard to get into and it didn t mesh well together I decided to investigate and see what other reviewers were saying To my dismay the majority of the reviewers were writers in the book Look I don t want to disrespect the writers or the book itself It was a great idea but frankly there were too many hands in the cookie jar Some writers were strong and some weren t at all I wanted some stories to continue and I wanted some to just end. Book Drinking diaries osrs This book just wasn t for me English I thought the book s stories were interestingly chosen A couple of the stories only had alcohol as a peripheral view Some authors reflected on the alcohol around them and my favorites were the author s stories of alcohol s grip on them whether past or present My favorite books to read entertains as well as teaches and Drinking Diaries accomplishes this English Yes I wrote an essay in this compilation but after receiving it at the launch party and meeting some of the extraordinary contributors to the book I decided to make my way through it Which I did in about three days This is not a book about alcoholism or revelry but a book about drinking Yes about struggles with alcohol but also pleasure nostalgia family culture relationships children Some essays are gripping than others and there is something about the honesty with drinking in the written form that holds a reader to his or her seat his or her eyes poised over a particular line Some are full of humor Some make fun of 12 step recovery Some while applauding it for getting them through The women who experienced these essays are all so real so different and in the end so enchanting The number of essays and the sheer variety made for a wonderful read and even read here seems to be the wrong word because there is something invasive about walking into all these moments minutes years in time With or without my own inclusion I highly recommend it and felt that every one of my friends could relate to at least one if not of the stories within English An interesting themed collection who would think that drinking could unite so many woman in such diverse ways I found the collection of essays somewhat uneven my favorites were by Maynard and Harrison they seemed so honest and subtle Some of the essays felt young written by new authors who still focused on the extremes rather than the subtle nuances and complexities All in all an enjoyable read English Some of the essays were better than others but overall this book was just OK Way stories of alcohol leading to horrible events than stories of people who use alcohol in appropriate social situations for merry making Seriously multiple times I thought first step wine next step heroin overdose Thought provoking but also depressing English Whether you drink it or not alcohol is likely a potent part of your life our culture is saturated in it Ask any woman you know to tell you a drinking story and she ll come up with one in fact she may even come up with five With friends and with coworkers at date night and at ladies night and on special occasions ranging from Valentine s Day to the Super Bowl we encounter alcohol yet when it comes to discussing the nature of our relationship with drinking few of us do so honestly and openly In Drinking Diaries editors Leah Odze Epstein and Caren Osten Gerszberg take women s drinking stories out of the closet and into the light Whether it s shame sober sex and relapsing or college drinking bonding and comparing the benefits of pot vs booze no topic related to alcohol is off limits in this illuminating anthology With contributions from celebrated writers including Jacquelyn Mitchard Daphne Merkin Kathryn Harrison Ann Hood Ann Leary Pam Houston Jane Friedman Elissa Schappell Asra Nomani Priscilla Warner Rita Williams and Joyce Maynard Drinking Diaries is a candid look at the pleasures and pains of drinking and the many ways in which it touches women s lives Drinking Diaries Women Serve Their Stories Straight UpReading this book was like getting together with a few good friends who share my love of alcohol I have had my own ups and downs with alcohol and the stories that these women wrote were poignant funny and at times sad I could relate to the women who felt so shy and inhibited they needed a drink to go out in social gatherings Or the author who had to pour herself a glass of wine at 5 pm to signify the end of the work day I appreciate the honesty these writers displayed Not all of them wrote about alcohol being a problem in their lives Many drank in moderation and talked about the role alcohol played in their family lives and their own I spent 8 years of my life as a bartender and now 8 years later I have seen some of my customers suffer from cirrhosis and some have died I love a drink just as much as the next person but I am reminded sometimes that overdoing it can kill A few of the stories address the extremes of alcoholism too The Becky Sherrick Harks story made me want to cry my eyes out I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good drink now and again English Drinking Diaries emphasizes the complexities of women s relationships with alcohol The collection opens with the Pam Houston piece mapping her terrifying legacy of passenger status car accidents against the timeline and backdrop of a childhood with alcoholic parents The factual sometimes humorous presentation is somewhat misrepresentative of the emotional implications inherent in her experience These various stories illustrate the nuanced and insightful depth with which women interact with booze from tales of junior high drunkenness to the subversive sips of a critically thinking Muslim woman Ultimately this collection reveals the ways in which drinking is both and less important than what is culturally ascribed English I ve been a sucker for memoirs lately and the short story format was merciful on my currently short attention span so this book really hit the spot Some of the stories I enjoyed the most Rum Soaked Leah Odoze Epstein I remember hearing that addicts are emotionally stunted stuck at the age when they first started using I think the same might be true for the daughter of an addict Every year on my birthday part of me is still sitting at that table waiting for my slice of cake with a pit in my stomach The Days of Wine and Seltzer Elissa Schappell When I picture my favorite moments with my husband someone is always holding a glass or a bottle of wine or a plastic cup I can plot the timeline of our relationship by what we re drinking Good advice from Runner s High by Eva Tenuto A friend told me If you find yourself obsessing saying the same thing over and over about someone else substitute your name for his and see if it still makes sense Mother of All Sins Asra Q Nomani A Muslim American woman learns to drink and takes a stand against the hypocritical and judgmental attitude towards drinking she sees in the Islamic world My Father My Beer Buddy Ann Hood A sweet and loving story of the author s close relationship with her father and their shared love of beer and travel Half Past Six Kathryn Harrison Alcohol dissolves my anxiety about meeting people and making conversation After a couple of martinis the prospect of socializing goes from a painful test I m afraid I m going to fail to something I know I ll enjoy Drinking as Genuine Vocation Jane Friedman Drinking can bring all kinds of behavior to the surface and bullshit or not those behaviors are still an expression of yourself a chance to uncover or reveal something that might otherwise remain hidden If you don t like what issues forth if you don t think it represents your true self then it s like denying you ve got a rascal inside just like everyone else Drinking brushes away that pretty curtain we ve made and when the curtain parts too wide our first inclination is to secure it better next time But I m a writer and writers are born to look behind the curtain English This suffers from the perennial problem of themed writings which is mainly that the writing is inconsistent This wouldn t feel so pronounced except that 90% of the stories deal with familial alcoholism and all say essentially the same things so compare and contrast becomes inevitable as does a feeling of staleness that comes from reading too much of the same thing at once Very few of the essays talk about the joy of moderate and responsible drinking and one has to wonder if that s because it is indeed as rare as the percentage of its appearance in this book or is it an odd slant that occurred because of the writers drawn to provide an essay to this project Regardless this is a hit or miss book of essays that may resonate a lot with those in recovery or dealing with those in recovery English From Whitman and his early temperance novel to Hemingway and Steinbeck s shilling of Ballantine Beer a lot has been said and written about male authors and their perverse affair with liquor With Drinking Diaries women writers give us their side of the story This is simply a fascinating read It is refreshing to review the struggle for moderation written about such utter honesty It is impossible not to recognize yourself in these pages Thanks Leah and Caren and contributors for this candid look at how drinking affects creative women English .