At home with Drinking Diaries
According to Newsweek Magazine, 60% of women drink — Drinking Diaries
A few month’s back a girlfriend sent me a copy of the newly released (Sept 2012) book Drinking Diaries: Women Serve Their Stories Straight Up.
I was excited to receive the book as, at the time, I had been drinking daily. Hang on, that sounds bad on paper, so let’s back track a bit. What I mean by that is my husband and I would drink a few (or more) glasses of wine at dinner each night. With, most weekends us drinking wine at lunch and the occasional Mimosa or Bloody Mary at breakfast if dining out. Wine is like Water in our home sometimes!
Before receiving the book, I felt trapped, like I could not break the evening wine routine. I was so tired of waking up cloudy in the mornings, especially with an on-the-go toddler to tend to. Drinking alcohol now is not like the good old days pre-baby where I only had to get up to walk the dogs and get myself organized – Ha!
The worst part about it all was that I really did not have anybody to talk to about my love/hate relationship with alcohol, and honestly I was not sure how other people would judge me if I did discuss my feelings with them – you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t as the saying goes.
Every night I would look forward to a glass of wine, and every morning I felt horrible because I was not 100% and clear as a bell – it was like living in the movie Ground Hog Day with the same thing happening over and over.
My Little Boy never lets me sit down and read, not that I mind being interrupted!
I hoped that reading “Drinking Diaries” would give me clarity on what I was going through and give me the secret to NOT feel like drinking wine every night… well it did more than that. It literally scared the hell out of me and I stopped drinking… for a while anyway!
One essay in particular in the book titled “IT.MUST.BE” by Becky Sherrick Harks brought me to tears with her reminiscing her childhood memory with best friend, Stacy. Stacy died from cirrhosis of the liver at 26 years of age leaving behind 2 little boys. I was devastated, with the story still haunting me.
On the other end of the scale, there is a beautiful story titled “My Father, My Beer Buddy” written by Ann Hood who talks about her awe-like relationship with her Father growing up, sharing beers and tales from his time traveling all over the world while he was in the Navy. This also brought me to tears just with the sheer love that is portrayed by the Author between a Daughter and Father.
“Drinking Diaries” is a book filled with happy and sad short essays written by women who are journalists, bloggers and novelists. All of who have various relationships with alcohol – occasional drinkers, former alcoholics, friends of drinkers and non-drinkers.
The book is a collection of 28 short essays which are broken into 5 categories – Girlhood, Relationships, Culture, Family and Revelations. There is surely, at least, one story that every person can relate to in some way or another. I also liked that as it is many tales in one, it is perfect for a Mummy-On-The-Go like me, as I can pick it up, read a bit and put it back down making it an easy read.
“Drinking Diaries” is available online from $10-$16 at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books A Million, Indiebound and Powells – take your pick. If you want more of Drinking Diaries you can also visit www.DrinkingDiaries.com for videos, forum and further stories.
“Drinking Diaries” is a thought-provoking, insightful book which I give two-thumbs up too. It helped me to reconsider my relationship with alcohol, and I really appreciate that. I was a little lost there for a while! Not anymore.
