Book Nerds Across America: memoir

Showing posts with label memoir. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Book Review : Drinking Games by Sarah Levy

GOODREADS SUMMARY:

Drinking Games explores the role alcohol has in our formative adult lives, and what it means to opt-out of a culture completely enmeshed in drinking. Sarah explores what our short-term choices about alcohol do to our long-term selves and how it challenges our ability to be vulnerable enough to discover what we really want in life. While many millennial women will see themselves in Sarah's words and story, Drinking Games is dedicated to anyone who feels like their private struggles are terminally unique. Whether it’s alcohol, food, exercise, or work, so many of us are grasping for control and struggling to keep our heads above water.

Candid, dynamic, Drinking Games speaks to the millennial experience of working hard, playing harder, and wanting everything to look perfect on social media. Dedicated to those who might be questioning their relationship with alcohol but scared that quitting drinking is an ending, Drinking Games illustrates how, for one woman, sobriety was just the beginning of the story. Sarah's words strike the perfect chord of relatability and biting honesty. Instead of claiming to have the answers, she takes readers by the hand throughout her journey and shows us that life's messiest moments are the ones that can end up being the most profound.

TEE'S THOUGHTS:

Author Sarah Levy shares her struggles with alcohol abuse in her new memoir Drinking Games. She gives readers an honest look at her navigation from being a person who abuses alcohol to becoming sober, and how it is absolutely, despite what many people think, possible to have fun without a drink in your life.

Her stories are relatable to anyone who has also struggled through becoming clean and also to those who may have just overindulged at times, or if the reader has known someone also going through the process of cleaning up. But the book is not all despair, she writes with humor, which I think we all need when we are struggling through something.

I found Drinking Games to be a heartfelt story of a young woman who not only struggled with drinking but also other things like body image issues, and you know, real things. I applaud Sarah Levy for both overcoming her drinking with dignity but also being brave enough to share the struggle with the world.

***Thank you to Macmillian Audio for the advance listen

Drinking Games was published today January 3rd, 2023

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Audiobook review -- Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies about Who You Are So You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be by Rachel Hollis

Book Summary
Founder of the lifestyle website TheChicSite.com and CEO of her own media company, Chic Media, Rachel Hollis has created an online fan base of hundreds of thousands of fans by sharing tips for living a better life while fearlessly revealing the messiness of her own. Now comes her highly anticipated first book featuring her signature combination of honesty, humor, and direct, no-nonsense advice.

Each chapter of Girl, Wash Your Face begins with a specific lie Hollis once believed that left her feeling overwhelmed, unworthy, or ready to give up. As a working mother, a former foster parent, and a woman who has dealt with insecurities about her body and relationships, she speaks with the insight and kindness of a BFF, helping women unpack the limiting mind-sets that destroy their self-confidence and keep them from moving forward.

From her temporary obsession with marrying Matt Damon to a daydream involving hypnotic iguanas to her son’s request that she buy a necklace to “be like the other moms,” Hollis holds nothing back. With unflinching faith and tenacity, Hollis spurs other women to live with passion and hustle and to awaken their slumbering goals.

Flo's Review
I first heard about this book from CatFairy Books, who talked about it in a blog post. I thought, "Hmm, interesting title," but then not too much past that. Then a few weeks later as I was scrolling through my Goodreads account, I found it on the "Want to Read" shelves of several of my friends. I decided to look and see if my library had the e-audiobook available, because as you may or may not know, one of my favorite things are audiobook memoirs read by the authors. I found it! And that's how this review begins.

Girl! I devoured this book. First of all, I'm so glad Rachel was the one reading it. Because when she really wants to emphasize something, when she really wants you to do something, her tone gets SO SERIOUS, and I think I would have missed that by just reading it. On the flip side, this book had so many good, practical suggestions that I wanted to be able to flag them and write them down as I heard them -- but I couldn't because I was driving. Then by the time I got to my destination, I'd forgotten them. Such is price you pay for audio.

One thing I really enjoyed about the book was the relationship between faith and girl power. Rachel recognizes and worships God, but at the same time believes that you are in control of your own life. It's a balance -- one that I subscribe to, and one that I appreciate. Some of the thoughts and tips she gave did stay with me, so much that I jotted them down the first chance I found myself with a pen and paper on hand. This is one of those books that I want to pass on. I am legit thinking about giving it to my sister for Christmas. I think she will relate to it and enjoy it. (No worries, my sister doesn't read my blog so the surprise will stay safe! Lol)

Rachel's voice is real and honest. Brutally honest. She admits that some of it is "tough love" and it is. But she is also so vulnerable in it, and several chapters where she related some of her hardest experiences made me cry. I will definitely be taking some of her advice on writing, dreaming, and bringing it every single day.

I definitely recommend this book/audiobook to any woman who wants to be inspired and feel validated. Rachel's message is one of solitary, hard work, and the power to live your dreams.

Friday, April 24, 2015

Yes Please by Amy Poehler

Book Summary
In Amy Poehler’s highly anticipated first book, Yes Please, she offers up a big juicy stew of personal stories, funny bits on sex and love and friendship and parenthood and real life advice (some useful, some not so much), like when to be funny and when to be serious. Powered by Amy’s charming and hilarious, biting yet wise voice, Yes Please is a book is full of words to live by.

Flo's Review
I've been itching to read Yes Please for a little bit now, and I'm not completely sure why. I like Amy when I see her, but I don't think I'd describe myself as an Amy fangirl or anything. Maybe it's the cover. It's bright and fun. I was able to snag the audiobook from my library and decided to go that route. I really, really, really enjoyed this book.

The audiobook was so so fun. There was music and guest appearances, and the last chapter was a taped reading that Amy did for an audience. I was wanting to drive around so I could listen to more of it. Yes Please is divided into sections and doesn't go in chronological order of Amy's life. I liked that. One chapter we were listening to her talk about being pregnant and the next we were hearing about her early days learning improv in Chicago. We went from hearing about SNL to hearing about her divorce. I really enjoyed how it wasn't all, "Here is my famous life." A lot of the chapters were dedicated to discussing at length the everyday joys and heartaches that anybody experiences -- first jobs, not getting enough sleep, mission trip. But then, because of the non-chronological order, we would get to hear about really cool celebrity stuff like stories from when she was working on SNL and Parks and Recreation.

Yes Please made me laugh a bit, but mostly it made me smile. I think Amy would be a fun person to go have a beer with and just shoot the breeze.

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