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Nothing Good Can Come from This
"Kristi Coulter charts the raw, unvarnished, and quietly riveting terrain of new sobriety with wit and warmth. Nothing Good Can Come from This is a book about generative discomfort, surprising sources of beauty, and the odd, often hilarious, business of being human." ―Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams and The Recovering
Kristi Coulter inspired and incensed the internet when she wrote about what happened when she stopped drinking. Nothing Good Can Come from This is her debut--a frank, funny, and feminist essay collection by a keen-eyed observer no longer numbed into complacency.
When Kristi stopped drinking, she started noticing things. Like when you give up a debilitating habit, it leaves a space, one that can’t easily be filled by mocktails or ice cream or sex or crafting. And when you cancel Rosé Season for yourself, you’re left with just Summer, and that’s when you notice that the women around you are tanked―that alcohol is the oil in the motors that keeps them purring when they could be making other kinds of noise.
In her sharp, incisive debut essay collection, Coulter reveals a portrait of a life in transition. By turns hilarious and heartrending, Nothing Good Can Come from This introduces a fierce new voice to fans of Sloane Crosley, David Sedaris, and Cheryl Strayed―perfect for anyone who has ever stood in the middle of a so-called perfect life and looked for an escape hatch.
Kristi Coulter inspired and incensed the internet when she wrote about what happened when she stopped drinking. Nothing Good Can Come from This is her debut--a frank, funny, and feminist essay collection by a keen-eyed observer no longer numbed into complacency.
When Kristi stopped drinking, she started noticing things. Like when you give up a debilitating habit, it leaves a space, one that can’t easily be filled by mocktails or ice cream or sex or crafting. And when you cancel Rosé Season for yourself, you’re left with just Summer, and that’s when you notice that the women around you are tanked―that alcohol is the oil in the motors that keeps them purring when they could be making other kinds of noise.
In her sharp, incisive debut essay collection, Coulter reveals a portrait of a life in transition. By turns hilarious and heartrending, Nothing Good Can Come from This introduces a fierce new voice to fans of Sloane Crosley, David Sedaris, and Cheryl Strayed―perfect for anyone who has ever stood in the middle of a so-called perfect life and looked for an escape hatch.
224 pages, Paperback
First published August 7, 2018
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August 7, 2018
"This is why I drank, you know. Because I wanted every day to be like that. I wanted every day to feel like a movie montage, or at least to end in an epiphany, or at least to have a clear narrative arc, or at least to make some level of sense."
3.5 Stars
A memoir told in essay form, Nothing Good Can Come from This, is the non-chronological tale of Coulter’s life from alcoholic to sober woman. As with most books of essays some were stronger than others, but on a whole Coulter does a great job of making you feel her emotion and understand her journey. Feminism, love, politics, and culture all make an appearance and create for some hard-hitting, and sometimes humorous, stories and anecdotes.
"What's a girl to do when a bunch of dudes have just told her, in front of an audience, that she's wrong about what it's like to be herself?
I can see some people finding this a bit "woe is me" as she is an upper class white female with a good job, loving husband, and a childhood only partially marred by her parents. I, however, think it goes to show that alcoholism can consume anyone, not just those with downtrodden lives or no money in the bank.
"Take away my money or my extreme whiteness, and it might be clear that getting a lot of ethanol into my bloodstream as fast as possible is all I really care about."
August 2, 2018
A memoir of the author’s experiences of life, written in a series of relatable essays, including her battle with alcohol and how she used various things to distract from it, such as work, running, being a foodie, AA, and other obsessions. I like the tone used and the way it’s told straight out. My thanks for the advance digital copy that was provided by NetGalley, author Kristi Coulter, and the publisher for my fair review.
MCD x FSG Originals
Publication: August 7, 2018
MCD x FSG Originals
Publication: August 7, 2018
November 15, 2018
There are enjoyable parts to this, and I like the focus on sobriety, but I got sick of the author's apparent amazement with her uniqueness, especially in the essay "Desire Lines." I was shocked that she wrote this in at least her forties - she often comes off as a teenager. When she actually focused on her sobriety and running, I liked it, but I couldn't take the paragraphs about her epicureanism and love of high heels, as if either of those things were unusual or particularly interesting. I'll give it three stars, because I did really like the first essay with its focus on drinking culture, feminism, and the work place.
August 7, 2018
I loved these essays. Coulter is a sharp writer, full of wisdom and humor. I think humor is one of the hardest forms to master (I sure haven't), and Coulter is brilliant at it: warm and compassionate and incisively funny. She dissects how the pressures of being a woman today can lead down the compromising path of addiction. This collection of essays is open-hearted, gut-wrenchingly honest and real.
August 7, 2018
GNab Kristi Coulter can take the most heart wrenching self doubt, the emotional writhing women tend to put themselves through on a fairly regular basis, and turn it around into a hoot. I haven't laughed so much in years. And she manages as well to point out many things women in general and southern women in particular never realize they have overcome. Not the least of which is tossing the crutch that replaced alcohol in our daily lives. Who stops to think how long it has been since you missed that first cleansing sip of a rye manhattan? Thank you, Ms. Coulter for your frank honesty. And for the laughs. May this be the start of a long, prolific writing career.
I received a free electronic copy of this collection of essays from Netgalley, Kristi Coulter, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, MCD x FSG Originals, Biographies & Memoirs in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.
pub date August 7, 2018
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
MCD x FSG Originals
Biographies & Memoirs
I received a free electronic copy of this collection of essays from Netgalley, Kristi Coulter, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, MCD x FSG Originals, Biographies & Memoirs in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.
pub date August 7, 2018
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
MCD x FSG Originals
Biographies & Memoirs
August 23, 2018
This is one of the rare collections that can change lives and I don’t say that lightly. Coulter writes frankly about getting sober with essays that detail her life before, during, and after. She writes about becoming a runner, the bullshit women have to deal with, and the human condition in general. The cover caught my attention, but the writing is very good, too. And she’s funny. I loved it!
Thank you, NetGalley! It was a privilege and a pleasure.
Thank you, NetGalley! It was a privilege and a pleasure.
May 3, 2018
Note: I received this book from the author/publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I'm a big fan of memoir/essays told with dry wit. Like enough to say it's probably one of my favorite genres. So maybe I'm biased, maybe I'm burnt out of realistic humor writing, maybe I'm in a weird place but this just didn't do it for me. Kristi Coulter writes about her decision to quit drinking and how life is both easier and harder without a drink. Some of the stories are funny, some of them more of a hit to the gut. Overall, her ability to articulate the struggles and then share them is well done and important.
However, I found the writing to be a bit on the rambling side of things, which I'm not always a fan of. There were some essays that would start in one place, somehow be in a completely different topic and then somehow come back to the beginning. It would just feel random or like she wanted to make a stretch to connect two different life moments. I felt like some of the essays also would have been more powerful or intriguing if there had been more digging into the emotional side of things. For example, her parents come up several times but she never really digs into the relationship with them or examines it further, which I think was a missed opportunity. But, who knows, maybe I've been swayed by too much therapy and I always see the parents as the place things go wrong.
Overall, this is an interesting set of essays that will definitely strike a chord with people familiar with alcoholism or addictions in general. I didn't personally love this but that doesn't mean it won't be a lifeline for some other reader.
I'm a big fan of memoir/essays told with dry wit. Like enough to say it's probably one of my favorite genres. So maybe I'm biased, maybe I'm burnt out of realistic humor writing, maybe I'm in a weird place but this just didn't do it for me. Kristi Coulter writes about her decision to quit drinking and how life is both easier and harder without a drink. Some of the stories are funny, some of them more of a hit to the gut. Overall, her ability to articulate the struggles and then share them is well done and important.
However, I found the writing to be a bit on the rambling side of things, which I'm not always a fan of. There were some essays that would start in one place, somehow be in a completely different topic and then somehow come back to the beginning. It would just feel random or like she wanted to make a stretch to connect two different life moments. I felt like some of the essays also would have been more powerful or intriguing if there had been more digging into the emotional side of things. For example, her parents come up several times but she never really digs into the relationship with them or examines it further, which I think was a missed opportunity. But, who knows, maybe I've been swayed by too much therapy and I always see the parents as the place things go wrong.
Overall, this is an interesting set of essays that will definitely strike a chord with people familiar with alcoholism or addictions in general. I didn't personally love this but that doesn't mean it won't be a lifeline for some other reader.
September 29, 2018
Nothing Good Can Come From This is a brilliant, raw portrayal of a the Author’s struggle with alcoholism.
February 13, 2019
White privileged women getting sober...this book is for you!
While I loved & related intrinsically to her descriptions of dealing with alcohol & sobriety...this book fell short, for me, for several reasons.
1. Her analogies about her experience as a newly or not yet sober person were so relatable & honest. I couldn't underline nor emphasize more her self reflections in this space.
2. The author seems to attribute so much of her "success as a sober person," to her infallible male partner. She creates and idealizes her partner -- and truly, let's pretend he's an incredible sample of humankind. Yet, so many of her complex problems seem easily resolved because she's lucky enough to have encountered a saintly man who is infinitely at her ready, infinitely understanding & unrealistically accommodating to her own intellectual and physical development.
This is a beautiful idea, and I don't doubt this author's belief and experience in this space...yet, if you truly want to write a book about female addiction, I find it problematic that so many of her complex experiences are resolved by this heroic character of her partner. He always reflects back the best of her character. He gets sober soon after she does. He effectively saves her from her worst inclinations with his unfailing and unflappable support.
Let's just imagine sober Kristi without "John." And please don't mistake this for my distaste for her. She has a truly insightful way of describing her experience as a human getting sober. But if one reads her book as redactive, one might imagine that the only path to salvation is the acquisition of the equivalent of a "Toto," to the Lone Ranger.
Basically, would she have been able to achieve and sustain sobriety without this idealized and insanely self-subverting partner? And how does one apply her own journey to self discovery to themself, in the absence of this omnipresent and idealized companion. She characterizes "John," who has little of his own thoughts and feelings, and who instead serves as a sounding board for her own. He's easily moved from FL to Ann Arbor, and he's easily convinced to get sober after his wise master does...he always plays a perfectly supportive role.
But that's not reality, for most women. And I'm not hating on this author for her experience. But it appears shallow and uninformed to discuss getting sober in the context of a completely supportive and suggestive male partner. I would ask her -- where would she be, in terms of sobriety, if John hadn't existed? If he were serving a term in prison? If he were abusive and inaccessible emotionally?
The author might not even care...but most women, myself included, can't relate at all to this caricature of John that she has created. I do think it's important to explore how her story changes without this mythical John to support and advance her sobriety. I feel compelled to acknowledge that her experience is so distant from the norm to be irrelevant. Most women have no "John." Or we have some innately flawed version of this hero named "John," in her world.
What's the path to sobriety and happiness without any reliance on a support network -- in the form of John, family, etc? Her socioeconomic reality screams out so loudly to me, in this work. Perhaps she just has little experience in life beyond white middle class privilege...but her access to complete social and economic parachutes are all too acute in this work. It's hard to imagine how this book has any relevance beyond to the white, 40-something upper middle class woman who happens to get sober under the best possible conditions. She's never been incarcerated. She's never actually faced any consequences for her professed sexual promiscuity. At the end of all her drinking turmoil, she returns home to her very well-paying job (which she goes to great lengths to remind you of at every opportunity) as well as her subservient partner, no kids, a vaguely unsatisfying parental relationship and effectively...her greatest peril lies in resisting the rose on the menu at a schmaltzy gastropub.
I wanted so desperately to identify with this woman...but ultimately, I could not. And I would suggest that, unless you're a reformed sorority sister or faux goth punk who grew up in a middle class family...this woman's experience getting sober is, at best, not useful, and at worst, juvenile, oversimplified and entitled. She's funny, but she fails to recognize how to reconcile her experience with reality beyond her own. Recommended for women with weekend houses in the hamptons who desire to get sober. Not recommended for any woman other than the aforementioned situation contemplating getting sober.
Perhaps, with time, her white and economic privilege will give her perspective. More likely, she will continue to think that her running and not drinking and love for John is in any way significant to the rest of womankind. I wish her all the best to evolve.
While I loved & related intrinsically to her descriptions of dealing with alcohol & sobriety...this book fell short, for me, for several reasons.
1. Her analogies about her experience as a newly or not yet sober person were so relatable & honest. I couldn't underline nor emphasize more her self reflections in this space.
2. The author seems to attribute so much of her "success as a sober person," to her infallible male partner. She creates and idealizes her partner -- and truly, let's pretend he's an incredible sample of humankind. Yet, so many of her complex problems seem easily resolved because she's lucky enough to have encountered a saintly man who is infinitely at her ready, infinitely understanding & unrealistically accommodating to her own intellectual and physical development.
This is a beautiful idea, and I don't doubt this author's belief and experience in this space...yet, if you truly want to write a book about female addiction, I find it problematic that so many of her complex experiences are resolved by this heroic character of her partner. He always reflects back the best of her character. He gets sober soon after she does. He effectively saves her from her worst inclinations with his unfailing and unflappable support.
Let's just imagine sober Kristi without "John." And please don't mistake this for my distaste for her. She has a truly insightful way of describing her experience as a human getting sober. But if one reads her book as redactive, one might imagine that the only path to salvation is the acquisition of the equivalent of a "Toto," to the Lone Ranger.
Basically, would she have been able to achieve and sustain sobriety without this idealized and insanely self-subverting partner? And how does one apply her own journey to self discovery to themself, in the absence of this omnipresent and idealized companion. She characterizes "John," who has little of his own thoughts and feelings, and who instead serves as a sounding board for her own. He's easily moved from FL to Ann Arbor, and he's easily convinced to get sober after his wise master does...he always plays a perfectly supportive role.
But that's not reality, for most women. And I'm not hating on this author for her experience. But it appears shallow and uninformed to discuss getting sober in the context of a completely supportive and suggestive male partner. I would ask her -- where would she be, in terms of sobriety, if John hadn't existed? If he were serving a term in prison? If he were abusive and inaccessible emotionally?
The author might not even care...but most women, myself included, can't relate at all to this caricature of John that she has created. I do think it's important to explore how her story changes without this mythical John to support and advance her sobriety. I feel compelled to acknowledge that her experience is so distant from the norm to be irrelevant. Most women have no "John." Or we have some innately flawed version of this hero named "John," in her world.
What's the path to sobriety and happiness without any reliance on a support network -- in the form of John, family, etc? Her socioeconomic reality screams out so loudly to me, in this work. Perhaps she just has little experience in life beyond white middle class privilege...but her access to complete social and economic parachutes are all too acute in this work. It's hard to imagine how this book has any relevance beyond to the white, 40-something upper middle class woman who happens to get sober under the best possible conditions. She's never been incarcerated. She's never actually faced any consequences for her professed sexual promiscuity. At the end of all her drinking turmoil, she returns home to her very well-paying job (which she goes to great lengths to remind you of at every opportunity) as well as her subservient partner, no kids, a vaguely unsatisfying parental relationship and effectively...her greatest peril lies in resisting the rose on the menu at a schmaltzy gastropub.
I wanted so desperately to identify with this woman...but ultimately, I could not. And I would suggest that, unless you're a reformed sorority sister or faux goth punk who grew up in a middle class family...this woman's experience getting sober is, at best, not useful, and at worst, juvenile, oversimplified and entitled. She's funny, but she fails to recognize how to reconcile her experience with reality beyond her own. Recommended for women with weekend houses in the hamptons who desire to get sober. Not recommended for any woman other than the aforementioned situation contemplating getting sober.
Perhaps, with time, her white and economic privilege will give her perspective. More likely, she will continue to think that her running and not drinking and love for John is in any way significant to the rest of womankind. I wish her all the best to evolve.
April 9, 2024
This gets all the stars for how relatable it is! It’s a well told story on the author’s relationship with alcohol. On how to want not to want wine and then just stopping, after many years. She juggled a high performance job with a bottle of wine every night, a quite admirable feat!
I no longer have the high stress job that sent me down the wine drain every Friday for years. My anxiety level was such that drowning it out was the easiest route. Eventually, just like the author, I replaced drinking with running.
Unlike the author, I am not a teetotaler. Yet. My January dry spell extends far into spring. I don’t like how lethargic it makes me. It takes very little, now that I am paying attention. I shared a couple of bottles with my partner during Easter holiday - not all on one night! - and it was horrible.
The author went cold turkey and stayed that way, which is very impressive. There were so many aspects of her life that I recognized.
I no longer have the high stress job that sent me down the wine drain every Friday for years. My anxiety level was such that drowning it out was the easiest route. Eventually, just like the author, I replaced drinking with running.
Unlike the author, I am not a teetotaler. Yet. My January dry spell extends far into spring. I don’t like how lethargic it makes me. It takes very little, now that I am paying attention. I shared a couple of bottles with my partner during Easter holiday - not all on one night! - and it was horrible.
The author went cold turkey and stayed that way, which is very impressive. There were so many aspects of her life that I recognized.
April 27, 2018
A new favorite book for me - to sit alongside the work of Cheryl Strayed, Heather Havrilesky and Sarah Hepola. I know a book will stay with me when I have to read it with my journal by my side because the author is prompting me to ask new questions about my own life - to think and look back and wonder and write it all out.
A good book like this is on the level of a great conversation - and that's the true accomplishment here from Coulter. This book is like having a brutally honest, funny, sometimes sad, always interesting, opinionated friend right there beside you.
I've read a bunch of memoirs over the years and tend to like this approach better - breaking your life up into essays that take a slice of experience and dive in deep to take a look. "Enjoli" will be a revelation for those who haven't read it online yet but the shorter, sarcastic pieces on how to quit drinking are a treasure, too. But I've basically highlighted the full essays "Girl Skulks into a Room," "Fascination" and "Pussy Triptych" because of all the great sentences that made me stop, only to pick up reading again and run into another great sentence.
A truly memorable debut and a must-read for any woman.
DISCLAIMER: I received an advance e-galley of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review
A good book like this is on the level of a great conversation - and that's the true accomplishment here from Coulter. This book is like having a brutally honest, funny, sometimes sad, always interesting, opinionated friend right there beside you.
I've read a bunch of memoirs over the years and tend to like this approach better - breaking your life up into essays that take a slice of experience and dive in deep to take a look. "Enjoli" will be a revelation for those who haven't read it online yet but the shorter, sarcastic pieces on how to quit drinking are a treasure, too. But I've basically highlighted the full essays "Girl Skulks into a Room," "Fascination" and "Pussy Triptych" because of all the great sentences that made me stop, only to pick up reading again and run into another great sentence.
A truly memorable debut and a must-read for any woman.
DISCLAIMER: I received an advance e-galley of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review
September 3, 2018
I wanted to like this soooooo much more than I did. It was okay! I respect any person who is vulnerable enough to share their story with the world, and I think Kristi had a lot of valuable points to make about why women drink. Some of her essays were downright beautiful. The letter to her friend? Gorgeous. The bit about falling in love with someone else, while being in love with her husband? Thought-provoking (and a little depressing), but some were a little tedious. Anyway, I'm glad I read it.
February 8, 2019
This was the absolute worst. The entire book she sounds entitled with her cushy job that pays too much. I thought this would be more of her journey to sobriety, but honestly, I didn’t get that much at all.
Maybe I’ve become cynical of essays and memoirs. But not everyone is interesting enough for a memoir.
Maybe I’ve become cynical of essays and memoirs. But not everyone is interesting enough for a memoir.
May 8, 2018
The book feels very contrived and cliched. There is no strong movement of voice or original thoughts. It did not hold my interest at all and I am a prolific reader who rarely abandons a book but I just couldn’t go through this one. Thank you #Netgalley for the copy though.
December 10, 2018
This is a well written memoir and the author lives in Seattle so that was interesting to me. It's a quick read but I guess I was expecting more due to the high ratings here.
September 5, 2018
Coulter's essay collection about what happens when she stops drinking is both raw and heartfelt -- and also wickedly sharp and humorous at times. Coulter definitely comes from a place of financial privilege -- and she acknowledges this multiple times throughout the collection. She looks at the holes that drinking has tried to fill in her life -and it's relatable to anyone who has engaged in any kind of compulsive behavior as a distraction or substitution for dealing with emotions, inadequacies, or challenges. There were several places in here where I underlined phrases or passages because they rang so, so true. In particular, the essay called Permission (After Mary Oliver) was perfection - -and should be required reading.
June 9, 2024
Nothing Good Can Come from This is Kristi Coulter's debut memoir, written and published while she was still an Amazon employee (see her later memoir, Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career, about her experience at Amazon), which came about after a Medium piece she wrote on this topicwent viral. It details her lifelong unhealthy relationship with alcohol that started in her teens, lasted throughout her 20s and 30s, and finally came to a head in her 40s before she found sobriety (and running). Unlike many similar addiction memoirs, there is no dramatic downfall, no arrests, convictions or imprisonments, no dissolution of her key relationships, etc. -- just engaging writing and incisive reflections on how Coulter's experiences and environments facilitated her unhealthy habit.
Further reading - addiction memoirs:
Lit by Mary Karr
Girl Walks Out of a Bar: A Memoir by Lisa Smith
Between Breaths: A Memoir of Panic and Addiction by Elizabeth Vargas
Reborn on the Run: My Journey from Addiction to Ultramarathons by Catra Corbett
My stats:
Book 116 for 2024
Book 1719 cumulatively
Further reading - addiction memoirs:
Lit by Mary Karr
Girl Walks Out of a Bar: A Memoir by Lisa Smith
Between Breaths: A Memoir of Panic and Addiction by Elizabeth Vargas
Reborn on the Run: My Journey from Addiction to Ultramarathons by Catra Corbett
My stats:
Book 116 for 2024
Book 1719 cumulatively
January 27, 2019
I really love Kristi Coulter’s writing. I came across her because of her viral article on Medium, then read through her blog - so of course I was gonna read her book too. There are no earth-shattering insights in here, but she’s honest and brave and funny, and it was well worth the read.
July 31, 2018
This is a memoir told in essays, which can feel disjointed, but for me it did come together in the end. Kristi is a successful businesswoman with a drinking problem. This is not a story commonly told. Pretty much all of the addiction memoirs I've run across have felt like a competition to who can achieve a new low. Which is a dreadful thing to aspire to, as many people die on their way down. Also, the vast majority of people with drinking problems do not have the horrific consequences described in those books. A lot of people are able to deny their problems, and also aren't able to find help they feel is appropriate because it's all geared to much more severe versions of the problem. But I really admire Kristi for acknowledging that it was a problem and figuring it all out for her, before she had terrible consequences. I think more people might see themselves in Kristi than in Sarah Hepola.
Anyway, I thought she was very forthright and straightforward. Her life seems fairly normal, with a loving husband she sometimes squabbles with, a house that sometimes breaks down, a very demanding job with a lot of travel, and a level of income that means she can eat out at super-fancy restaurants regularly, and developing a palate and considering herself a "foodie" came with an awful lot of wine. Soon she was drinking a bottle of wine every night. And when she tried not to, she found she couldn't. She'd really, really try, and she still couldn't.
What seemed to be key for her eventual success, after being a functional alcoholic for ten years, was when she stopped hoping that one day she's want to quit. And instead she just quit. It was waiting for the wanting, certain one day it would appear and provide her with unlimited fortitude and strength, that held her back.
It wasn't easy. And she didn't do it alone. Well, she did for the first year, white-knuckling it. But then she went to AA. She writes in a fun, breezy style, that's also refreshing for an addiction memoir. I really enjoyed it. It's short and can be read in just a few hours.
Anyway, I thought she was very forthright and straightforward. Her life seems fairly normal, with a loving husband she sometimes squabbles with, a house that sometimes breaks down, a very demanding job with a lot of travel, and a level of income that means she can eat out at super-fancy restaurants regularly, and developing a palate and considering herself a "foodie" came with an awful lot of wine. Soon she was drinking a bottle of wine every night. And when she tried not to, she found she couldn't. She'd really, really try, and she still couldn't.
What seemed to be key for her eventual success, after being a functional alcoholic for ten years, was when she stopped hoping that one day she's want to quit. And instead she just quit. It was waiting for the wanting, certain one day it would appear and provide her with unlimited fortitude and strength, that held her back.
It wasn't easy. And she didn't do it alone. Well, she did for the first year, white-knuckling it. But then she went to AA. She writes in a fun, breezy style, that's also refreshing for an addiction memoir. I really enjoyed it. It's short and can be read in just a few hours.
March 22, 2021
I enjoyed a few things about this book. I enjoyed the honesty and relatability of describing an obsession with alcohol. Thinking only about it, how to have hobbies that pair with it, using food as a good excuse to ingest it.
What I strongly disliked about this book was Kristi’s tone. It was only till the last pages of the book did she address her privilege, but even so, in a way that she is confused as to how she arrived at a place of wealth in her life. This struck me. Her us vs. them mentality is apparent, especially when she discusses her move from liberal Ann Abor to Seattle. She has a clear disdain for the people she left in Florida, it’s flagrant.
The book just irked me in a way I can’t describe. It’s as though Kristi sifted through her entire life for problems or an answer to her unhappiness and the only thing that could be brought to the surface was, well maybe I’m an alcoholic?
This is a woman raised by a tenured college professor in a professed affluent Florida town, where she was subjected to *gasp* - hand me down cars! There is nothing surprising about how she ended up where she is. So, the narrative that she is surprised by her wealth is tone deaf. If she didn’t make a point several times to mention how rich she is, I wouldn’t need to make a point of it in a review.
Good for Kristi for ditching booze but I think some real humility and self introspection would do her some good. Being a person who also lives in Seattle, she sounds like a cliche’.
What I strongly disliked about this book was Kristi’s tone. It was only till the last pages of the book did she address her privilege, but even so, in a way that she is confused as to how she arrived at a place of wealth in her life. This struck me. Her us vs. them mentality is apparent, especially when she discusses her move from liberal Ann Abor to Seattle. She has a clear disdain for the people she left in Florida, it’s flagrant.
The book just irked me in a way I can’t describe. It’s as though Kristi sifted through her entire life for problems or an answer to her unhappiness and the only thing that could be brought to the surface was, well maybe I’m an alcoholic?
This is a woman raised by a tenured college professor in a professed affluent Florida town, where she was subjected to *gasp* - hand me down cars! There is nothing surprising about how she ended up where she is. So, the narrative that she is surprised by her wealth is tone deaf. If she didn’t make a point several times to mention how rich she is, I wouldn’t need to make a point of it in a review.
Good for Kristi for ditching booze but I think some real humility and self introspection would do her some good. Being a person who also lives in Seattle, she sounds like a cliche’.
July 23, 2018
I like to read personal essays but I've realized that the more that I relate to an author, the more that I enjoy the essays and I really related to Kristi Coulter. I found this full of low-key humor and so many sentences that I ended up highlighting because it fell so true to me. My only complaint is that they started to feel really similar towards the end but for women (and there are a lot of us) in our late thirties/early forties who feel some days require a glass of wine, this is a very authentic wake up call. I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
September 4, 2018
I loved this book of loosely connected essays. Ostensibly about how the author stopped drinking in her forties, but a sneaky memoir (oh, the sadness of her childhood!), a love story, adventures with friends, and great honest commentary on being a women at a male-dominated company. This is sad, funny, wrenching, and lovely stuff. How could I not love a book with the line, "I found the other of sobriety today."?
November 16, 2018
“Can you ask the bartender to make me something nonalcoholic that isn't sweet?'... What he got was a coupe glass filled with something that tasted a little like tea, a little like soda, and a lot like belonging. It was delicious"
“What I'm thinking, but don't know yet how to say out loud, is Does anyone know what they're becoming until they've become it? I'd been running for three years before I realized I was a runner. I'd been drinking for twenty-five before I knew I was a drunk.”
“What I'm thinking, but don't know yet how to say out loud, is Does anyone know what they're becoming until they've become it? I'd been running for three years before I realized I was a runner. I'd been drinking for twenty-five before I knew I was a drunk.”
January 11, 2019
I tore through this and loved every minute. I want to reread it. This is my favorite kind of book. All the essays stand alone and work together. It’s about her sobriety, but it’s about so much more, too: feminism and marriage and career and money and sex. Her voice is extremely funny, but she never uses humor to avoid telling the truth or being vulnerable.
What I learned: How to write about one story from multiple angles. That I should check out Laurie Colwin.
What I learned: How to write about one story from multiple angles. That I should check out Laurie Colwin.
February 11, 2018
3.5 stars. some of her essays were a full 5/5, others a 2. Kristi's honesty, retrospection, and introspection are raw and painstakingly detailed. Her journey is a truly remarkable story of determination, grit, and willpower to become truly alive in the world without the burden of a long-term, debilitating addiction.
December 19, 2018
An instant classic in the 'soberlit' genre, up there with Drinking, A Love Story, Blackout and Lit. Even if you don't have a drinking problem, this book is a warm and lyrical look at compulsions and distractions, and all the ways we try to get out of the "here and now", and how futile is in the end.
I love this book.
I love this book.
August 13, 2018
At turns hilarious and poignant, this is a recovery book that breaks all the stereotypes.
March 13, 2019
I was surprised by just how much I liked this book! Coulter is funny and frank, and it certainly helps that we like the same stuff and live in the same place. There's a whole essay about The Pantry's farm camp, something I've dreamed about doing (although now that I know you have to kill a chicken I think I'll skip it). There's another about my favorite poem. A whole essay! It really felt like hanging out with a cooler, wiser but still messy friend.
There's a sense of sort of a second coming-of-age to many of the essays that really appealed to me. I think it's a common feeling, reaching what I call "real adulthood" (although let's be honest, most people call it middle age) and realizing that this IS your life. You're not waiting for something else to happen or for something to start anymore. This is it. For Coulter, that realization is tied pretty closely with her decision to quit drinking, but I don't think you have to be sober to understand and relate to it.
Interestingly, although I went in expecting the alcoholism to be the hard to swallow part, if readers will get stuck on anything, I think it's the way that Coulter talks about her wealth (she's a longtime Amazon employee with excellent stock options). In one essay, she buys a $1700 handbag to celebrate her fiftieth day of sobriety. I'm in favor of rich people acknowledging that they have money, and so it mostly didn't bother me, but it can be a little jarring, especially if you're reading along empathizing with her and then suddenly she's shopping at Barney's. If you read Nicole Cliffe's twitter feed and aren't bugged by the way she talks frankly about money and spending it, I don't think this will bother you either.
There's a sense of sort of a second coming-of-age to many of the essays that really appealed to me. I think it's a common feeling, reaching what I call "real adulthood" (although let's be honest, most people call it middle age) and realizing that this IS your life. You're not waiting for something else to happen or for something to start anymore. This is it. For Coulter, that realization is tied pretty closely with her decision to quit drinking, but I don't think you have to be sober to understand and relate to it.
Interestingly, although I went in expecting the alcoholism to be the hard to swallow part, if readers will get stuck on anything, I think it's the way that Coulter talks about her wealth (she's a longtime Amazon employee with excellent stock options). In one essay, she buys a $1700 handbag to celebrate her fiftieth day of sobriety. I'm in favor of rich people acknowledging that they have money, and so it mostly didn't bother me, but it can be a little jarring, especially if you're reading along empathizing with her and then suddenly she's shopping at Barney's. If you read Nicole Cliffe's twitter feed and aren't bugged by the way she talks frankly about money and spending it, I don't think this will bother you either.
December 1, 2019
4.5⭐️
This book was such an enjoyable surprise. I was scouring Hoopla looking for a non-fiction audiobook and literally stumbled across this book and am so pleased I did. For one, the audiobook is great, narrated by Kristi Coulter. Highly recommend. Now for the book itself....
This is Kristi's story about how she quick drinking and life "on the other side" so to speak. It's also a look back at the role alcohol has played in her life since she was a teen - from drinking at high school parties to tailingating before concerts to the parties in college. She talks about the role alcohol plays in our everyday lives from work conferences to Vino and Vinyasa - it's literally everywhere. And when you enjoy the socialization factor and a good buzz how alcohol can really pervade your life, impact your choices and how seamlessly it becomes a part of our everyday.
There were so many moments in this book where I found myself shaking my head in agreement and relating to stories she told - thinking about concerts I went to, work events and how you could literally go to a Farmers Market and find a booth serving booze. This was more than just a story about her journey but also an interesting social commentary and a deep look inside at just what role alcohol played in her life, her decisions and her relationships.
I found this to be a thoughtful book and one that certainly brought up a lot of questions and interesting thoughts. Her voice and style reminded me a lot of Rachel Hollis (big fan!) and I enjoyed the book so much I promptly bought the physical copy. I can definitely see myself rereading this as there are great nuggets of wisdom, encouragement and relatability in it. Highly recommend!
This book was such an enjoyable surprise. I was scouring Hoopla looking for a non-fiction audiobook and literally stumbled across this book and am so pleased I did. For one, the audiobook is great, narrated by Kristi Coulter. Highly recommend. Now for the book itself....
This is Kristi's story about how she quick drinking and life "on the other side" so to speak. It's also a look back at the role alcohol has played in her life since she was a teen - from drinking at high school parties to tailingating before concerts to the parties in college. She talks about the role alcohol plays in our everyday lives from work conferences to Vino and Vinyasa - it's literally everywhere. And when you enjoy the socialization factor and a good buzz how alcohol can really pervade your life, impact your choices and how seamlessly it becomes a part of our everyday.
There were so many moments in this book where I found myself shaking my head in agreement and relating to stories she told - thinking about concerts I went to, work events and how you could literally go to a Farmers Market and find a booth serving booze. This was more than just a story about her journey but also an interesting social commentary and a deep look inside at just what role alcohol played in her life, her decisions and her relationships.
I found this to be a thoughtful book and one that certainly brought up a lot of questions and interesting thoughts. Her voice and style reminded me a lot of Rachel Hollis (big fan!) and I enjoyed the book so much I promptly bought the physical copy. I can definitely see myself rereading this as there are great nuggets of wisdom, encouragement and relatability in it. Highly recommend!
February 7, 2021
I feel like I'm drawn to every book on sobriety these days. Something about feeling acutely understood in such specific ways that feels rather absent from my regular life. I just want to exhale whenever I read a phrase that so perfectly captures my own feelings, like it's been plucked right out of my brain, and this book had so many exhales.
I appreciated her voice, her self-deprecation, and her deep self-awareness, the way she organized these stories too.
She's just a really lovely writer, and I'm so glad she wrote this.
I appreciated her voice, her self-deprecation, and her deep self-awareness, the way she organized these stories too.
She's just a really lovely writer, and I'm so glad she wrote this.
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