I enjoyed the premise and concept of this book, including the ways that alcohol suppresses women into becoming our highest selves. What I didn't like was the alternate treatment options that Whitaker suggests: she denounces Alcoholics Anonymous, but suggests filling one's time in sobriety with essential oils and other skeptical therapies. It just barely didn't hit the mark for me.

Woman’s Work: Climbing out of the Bottle in 2020

SO glad there’s an alternative cover for Holly Whitaker’s debut non-fiction book, Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol. The cover on the ARC was just sorta black with purple and orange and other colored wine bottle shapes floating and it looked eighties without the Patrick Nagel cool factor–PLUS it had “Quite Like a Woman” at the top of each page which I know I shouldn’t quote so I’m not. I’m just saying.

Amazingly passionate and researched, QLAW covers an alternative and holistic path to sobriety dovetailing with Whitaker’s personal story of quitting alcohol and so the book basically breaks down how she came to find this non-AA course of fighting addiction–hers were alcohol, food, cigarettes, pot, shitty jobs, and shitty men.

Anyone waiting for the blow-by-blow tale of the demise of HOME podcast (me) will have to read Laura McKowan’s debut memoir/self help book, We Are the Luckiest (released the same day as Whitaker’s) in hopes of clues–not that the two women owe us anything but I’d die for the dirty details.

Wendy Ward
http://wendyrward.tumblr.com/

Thank you to netgalley for the advanced copy! I quit drinking 3 years ago, and not because I had a "Problem" with it, but because it made me feel like shit. While I had read other think pieces about how alcohol affects women specifically, seeing all of the history laid out like this was power. and Holly's own experience certainly adds to the narrative. Good read for anyone considering their relationship with alcohol. No matter the level of use, it may open your eyes to some surprising realities.

I can't decide how I feel about this book - there were parts I really liked and parts I really didn't.

Parts I Liked:
- Author's thorough understanding and research of the way alcohol has become acceptable in our culture
- Very empowering and passionate voice
- Few books are written on recovery, addiction and trauma just for women and I appreciated the author's perception to fill this gap in writing

Parts I Disliked:
- SO. much. Swearing. I felt it took away from the flow of the book at times!
- I felt a lot of the book was very negative towards systems and programs that while they may be flawed, help a lot of people (eg. 12 Step). The author's personal opinions were very strong on this and I felt disagreeing on this point took away from what I could get from the rest of the book.

Quit Like a Women is quite an eye opening glimpse into the world of alcohol and alcoholism. Growing up living with someone who stopped drinking when I was born and went to weekly meetings this was quite the eye opening. As I got older I then realized those meetings were AA meetings. This book helped me understand a lot of what this person was going through. The authors own personal stories bring alcoholism to real life. Her quote "The harder I tried to be more perfect - the more cleanses I did, books I bought, and budgets I made, the more things I bought to cover up and paint over the mess that was my life - the harder it became to keep together" I also like the chapter of the book "What do you do for fun if you don't drink?." I would recommend this book to others and you do not have to just be a woman. I believe this information is valuable to everyone.

I loved that someone is questioning how we look at addiction in this country. Holly stuggled herself and now helps women find better ways for them to heal than simply “AA”.
There is a ton of research and she goes into how the big tobacco companies and alcohol hook us in the first place. She also gives things to do, and explains how weird alcohol culture is- that it’s Ethanol (Yep the same thing found in fuel is in alcohol).

The downside for me was how pushy it was with “feminism”. I’m all for equal rights, and having a different program offered to men and women that is more personalized. She also points out whiskey marketed to women to feel as powerful as a man, and I get points like that.
There were things said about President Trump, Being too loud and taking up space, and trying not to put it as much on the individual - yet that is the culture we live in, that’s how America was founded as an individualistic culture.

I appreciate what she was doing, and she did her research and had life history. I’m glad she’s in a better place in life and happier now. However I couldn’t let everything else go.

Interesting book and perspective! I’m definitely grateful I read it. It was largely a memoir, which I wasn’t really expecting based on the description. And there was some super interesting science and history about alcohol use but NOTHING IS CITED OR SUPPORTED, which unfortunately is a deal breaker for me - I’ll be unable to recommend this book.

I adored this book and it has changed my drinking habits after reading it. Holly truly did her research in writing this book and her deep love of the subject shows through her meticulously crafted words about alcohol and its effects on the female body. That was really the best part about this book was that it particularly discussed alcohol on the female body and its impacts. I have only ever read books that talk about alcohol and men, so it was really special to see how ethanol impacts MY body. I enjoyed her stories and overall the book was just really empowering and helpful.

This book is sort of half memoir, half self-help. Whitaker found that AA did not work for her and she posits that it is because AA is male-centered and that women would find her program for alcoholics more beneficial. The book details her program and that seems to be the central focus of her book, but is interspersed and bolstered by her personal story.