Photo Challenge for #scarathlon2022: “Black”
I‘ve yet to read this one, and actually picked it up at a little free library in Virginia last year
#teamslaughter
Clwojick Oooo I‘m intrigued 🖤 2y
33 likes1 comment
Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget | 
Photo Challenge for #scarathlon2022: “Black”
I‘ve yet to read this one, and actually picked it up at a little free library in Virginia last year
#teamslaughter
pickBlackout by Sarah Hepola. Number 6 of 2021. I always find myself draw to addiction memoirs and this one was no different. Sarah gives the reader a perspective of alcoholism that doesn‘t always get mentioned…the phenomenon of drinking until short term memories are no longer formed. I have been under anastesia for surgery and not having recollections of things before going under is freaky enough.
pickThis wasn‘t an easy read, due to the subject matter; the author talks about her alcoholism, the reasons behind it and her attempts to stop drinking.
However, I really liked the author‘s voice, her honesty and writing style so it‘s a definite pick for me.
Thanks for sending this to me (a long time ago!) @TrishB 😘
Yes. This was taken at the bar I work at. On the eve of taking a month, at least, off from alcohol. Looking forward to starting this and maybe reading other memoirs like this throughout the month. #Igotthis
so-so#Booked2019 #Autumn #BookAboutAddiction
Meh. I like memoirs—a LOT—let me say that up front. Addiction memoirs, maybe not so much. So now you know my bias. There are exceptions to this, but this book is not one of them. The positive aspects were very personal to me: Hepola grew up about a three-hour car ride due west from where I grew up, so some of the challenges she faced in the conservative South were familiar to me. She also followed a ⬇️
#AyUpAugust Did someone say #HappyHour ?!!??! Sara Hepola lived for those words, going through life fueled by her “gasoline of adventure” - alcohol. She would drink to excess, and then TRY to piece it all together the following day. After too many years of empty memories and nearly killing her self in the process, Sara finally decides to put down the glass and live a life of sobriety. An honest memoir of addiction & the price of family history.
pickA very good read. She doesn‘t romanticise any of it or pretend she‘s a hero for getting sober.
I can be judgemental about addicts having lived with two, a parent and a long ago ex husband. I don‘t think this is a nice thing, it just is, I do my best. It‘s hard for anything to put a chip in that judgement but this may of. Just a chip though. I probably need some way out fiction now.
#bookaboutaddiction #booked2019
Quick lunch time read. This book has sucked me in completely and it‘s so not my usual type of read.
Thanks Cindy!
pan2 ⭐
I didn't really enjoy this one at all. It wasn't for me. Some parts were good, but mostly I felt like I was listening to a whiney white girl. I also didn't find it funny at all. Luckily I got through it in less than 24 hours. It's my pick for #storyaboutaddiction for #booked2019 @Cinfhen @BarbaraTheBibliophage @4thhouseontheleft
pickThis is a brutal honest account of one woman‘s love affair with alcohol. Like most great love stories, there‘s going to be heartbreak. “Sobriety wasn‘t the boring part. Sobriety was the plot twist.” Sarah Hepola beautifully shares her battle with addiction and NEVER romanticizes or glamorizes her behaviors and actions. Eye opening and compelling a short but fulfilling read. #Booked2019 #StoryAboutAddiction
#MarchIntoThe70s Thanks to my Ozzie sista for this bitchin‘ playlist🤟🏽LOVED IT!!! Don‘t forget tomorrow the Royal Family Of Litsy will be cohosting #AnglophileApril 👑👛⛑🇬🇧 ( they think they‘re British😉) My #CurrentRead has a WHOLE LOT of #SexAndDrugsAndRockAndRoll and alcohol, loads of alcohol 🍷🍺🍹🍾🍸🥃 Writer Sarah Hepola confronts her addiction with brutal honesty and insightful humor. So far, this book is excellent.
#MyCurrentRead #BookKarma #channelyourflannel #Flannels4Life “I started wearing my dad‘s clothes in the fall of my sophomore year. I had raided his closet over the summer, plucking a gray flannel shirt and a pair of Levi‘s jeans, flecked with paint...but in the fall of 1993, the accidental lumberjack look was uniform. I liked the drape of the flannel and how those jeans slid down my hips.” @Billypar @batsy #90sSpringFling
pickI'm really glad I read this memoir. Hepola is a great storyteller and shares the good, the bad, and the ugly with such candor. She points out how heavily our genetics, culture, and society can influence our reliance on alcohol, whether it's celebrating important moments or simply having a conversation at dinner. Definitely an uplifting story and interesting look into her life. Highly recommend 🌟🌟🌟🌟
#yearinreview #2018wrapup
I read 40 Nonfiction books - you should read these 5!
- The tale of the only active volcano in the Continental US
- A white man goes undercover in the Deep South as a black man in 1960 & writes up his experiences
- What seems like a jaunt across America becomes an examination of what haunts us as a nation
- A woman‘s memoir of her alcoholism
- A prison chaplain shares her stories of inspiration from a hopeless place
pickOnce I started listening to this I didn‘t want to stop. I‘ve been in her shoes - nights lost from too much booze, the trying to piece things together the morning after - and she writes about it honestly and poignantly. The chapters on her getting and being sober were brilliant. It‘s a memoir about addiction and recovery but it‘s relatable in the way she writes about insecurities, doubt and the struggle of finding your own identity. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
P. 23, "I remember so much about those blackouts. The blackouts leveled me and they haunt me still. The blackouts showed me how powerless I had become. The nights I can't remember are the nights I can never forget.
pick5⭐️ - best memoir I‘ve ever read. Definitely in my top 10 reads for the year.
Full review below.
One note:
You should read this book. And you should read it with a book club or as a Buddy Read - you ARE going to want to talk about it. But you might skip the wine that night, and that might be best.
Read this book! ❤️📚
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23341862
This book! I‘ve highlighted more quotes than I can share, more than I have in any other book in recent memory... and I‘m still in the Prologue!
And I‘m not a blackout drunk. But the emotions she taps into, the life experiences she‘s had, are just so relatable. The drive to be just like the boys, when you‘re not a boy and denying that leaves you empty ... the feeling that your life is off its track ... can‘t wait to see what‘s next...
pickPowerful memoir about drinking and sobriety and emotional honesty. Written with openness and pain, this one resonated. Recommend.
pickHepola describes the journey in her relationship with alcohol and alcoholism, what it took for her to quit, and the transformational road of recovery. For anyone who has ever suffered from an addiction, this is a MUST read.
“Alcohol is one hell of a pitchman, and perhaps his greatest lie is convincing us we need him, even as he tears us apart.”
“Sometimes people drift in and out of your life, and the real agony is fighting it. You can gulp down an awful lot of seawater, trying to change the tides.”
Sarah talks about drinking just about everything in this memoir about alcohol. Including The bubbly.
#emojinov #🍾 day 6
Igor and I are turning in (with a book, of course!). Happy National Cat Day Litsyverse!
#Igor #NationalCatDay
This book is like driving by a bad accident. You don‘t want to see the carnage, but it‘s so hard to look away. You want to help, but know there‘s really nothing you can do.
This is well written and relatable, which is scary since it‘s about alcoholism. I go between understanding her “girls just want to have fun” attitude and total disbelief at the situations she has found herself in after blacking out. Scary. Especially with family history... ⬇️
Author @ChrisBohjalian recommended this book at Texas Book Fest last Nov. I‘m finally getting around to starting it today.
#Sietje and I are enjoying a beautiful fall afternoon in the sun on our new back deck. After 4 years of almost-Season-free-Texas, it‘s so nice to experience some actual fall like weather in TN!
#blackbooks #riotgram 🖤♠️⚫️⬛️🖤🤓
A much easier task than I thought! Only read 2 of these- many to look forward to.
#anditsaugust #addiction @RealLifeReading
#complicated #augustgrrrl @Cinfhen
Books and memoirs about drug and alcohol addiction are some of my most sought-out reads. Before becoming a teacher, I planned to become an addictions counsellor, and last year I worked with teens with addictions. Here are some of my favourite addiction-related fiction and nonfiction books.
Day 13 #AugustGrrrl This memoir is on my TBR along with Drinking by Caroline Knapp. Both are meant to be powerful reads reminding readers what happens when you #RaiseYourGlass too often, And the power alcohol plays in our society. I really want my kids ( the 24 & 22 year old) to read these two memoirs....
pickI loved this book. I imagine it would be moving and powerful even if you've never known an alcoholic (or been one). It's even more so if you have, but the lessons that Hepola learns can apply to all of us.
Up next...
I really like this dedication.
#GIVEAWAYTHETRUTH I loved Sarah Hepola's memoir. It was very real and relatable. Also I got to meet her in person and she is a delight!!
#TBR
Thoughts?
#litsychallenge #litsyreadingchallenge2017 #readingchallenge2017
An update on my bingo board! I'm getting close to having a bingo along the middle row! Does anyone have any recommendations for authors who are 23 this year, or were 23 when their books were published?
Goodreads has awesome NY Times Bestsellers deals today !! 💸💸
pickMind blowing account of the drinking life. It has made me think about my own drinking habits.
When you quit drinking, you are sandbagged by the way alcohol is threaded into our social structure. Drinking is the center of weddings, holidays, birthdays, office parties, funerals, lavish trips to exotic locales. But drinking is also the center of everyday life. "Let's get a drink," we say to each other, when what we mean is "Let's spend time together." It's almost as if, in absence of alcohol, we have no idea what to do.
There is ecstasy in the room you are not supposed to enter, the room no one knows about. Ecstasy is when everyone is gone and still you are held.
"An evolved life requires balance. Sometimes you have to cut out one thing to find balance everywhere else."
Is there a better way to spend a Sunday? 🐶 #24in48 #kobo #readathon
pickI thought this memoir was very interesting. Sarah Hepola shares her story of how and why she started drinking and her struggle to stop. I am fortunate that I never developed a drinking problem, but I have friends who have. This book helped me understand their struggles better. Would recommend this for anyone who is trying to stop drinking or has a friend with an alcohol problem.
