Title: Sober is the New Black
Author: Rachel BlackWeb site: www.soberisthenewrachelblack.blogspot.co.uk
Category: Self help, Addiction, Alcohol, Memoir
ASIN: B00HZIGNLU
Buy the e-book here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00HZIGNLU
Reviewed by Anna Buttimore B.A.Hons Administrator, originally for the spring 2015 issue of Law Care News
Sober is
the New Black by Rachel Black shows very effectively how
alcohol can insidiously, destructively and completely take over a life.
Throughout it powerfully juxtaposes events in the author's life--business
conferences, family holidays, book club meetings--when she was drinking, and
after she stopped. There's always a risk with this sort of personal memoir that
it can become egocentric and dull, but this one avoids that on two counts.
First, because Rachel will resonate with so many readers as a typical working
mother, someone they can relate to. Second, because it doesn't go too deeply
into aspects of her life (we never learn the names of her children or her Other
Half, or what job she does) and stays firmly focussed on the subject of alcohol.
I particularly liked the metaphor where the author compares lifelong abstinence with her mortgage. Both are burdens which look huge and terrifying when viewed as a whole, but are manageable and life-affirming on a day-to-day basis. The book well written, interesting and not overlong, but for me its best feature is the overriding optimism and delight on every page. If it has one message, it's that the sober life is wonderful. Rachel was evidently taken by surprise to find how much better everything, from social events to Christmas, is when you're not focusing solely on wine and how to drink as much of it as possible without anyone noticing. That brightness and assurance shines throughout the book and lifts it above other "sobriety memoirs”.
I particularly liked the metaphor where the author compares lifelong abstinence with her mortgage. Both are burdens which look huge and terrifying when viewed as a whole, but are manageable and life-affirming on a day-to-day basis. The book well written, interesting and not overlong, but for me its best feature is the overriding optimism and delight on every page. If it has one message, it's that the sober life is wonderful. Rachel was evidently taken by surprise to find how much better everything, from social events to Christmas, is when you're not focusing solely on wine and how to drink as much of it as possible without anyone noticing. That brightness and assurance shines throughout the book and lifts it above other "sobriety memoirs”.
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Join her on Twitter @SoberRachel.
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