Quit Like a Woman
The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol
by Holly Whitaker
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Pub Date Dec 31 2019 | Archive Date Dec 17 2020
Random House Publishing Group - Random House | The Dial Press
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Description
“You don’t know how much you need this book, or maybe you do. Either way, it will save your life.”—Melissa Hartwig Urban, Whole30 co-founder and CEO
The founder of the first female-focused recovery program offers a groundbreaking look at alcohol and a radical new path to sobriety.
We live in a world obsessed with drinking. We drink at baby showers and work events, brunch and book club, graduations and funerals. Yet no one ever questions alcohol’s ubiquity—in fact, the only thing ever questioned is why someone doesn’t drink. It is a qualifier for belonging and if you don’t imbibe, you are considered an anomaly. As a society, we are obsessed with health and wellness, yet we uphold alcohol as some kind of magic elixir, though it is anything but.
When Holly Whitaker decided to seek help after one too many benders, she embarked on a journey that led not only to her own sobriety, but revealed the insidious role alcohol plays in our society and in the lives of women in particular. What’s more, she could not ignore the ways that alcohol companies were targeting women, just as the tobacco industry had successfully done generations before. Fueled by her own emerging feminism, she also realized that the predominant systems of recovery are archaic, patriarchal, and ineffective for the unique needs of women and other historically oppressed people—who don’t need to lose their egos and surrender to a male concept of God, as the tenets of Alcoholics Anonymous state, but who need to cultivate a deeper understanding of their own identities and take control of their lives. When Holly found an alternate way out of her own addiction, she felt a calling to create a sober community with resources for anyone questioning their relationship with drinking, so that they might find their way as well. Her resultant feminine-centric recovery program focuses on getting at the root causes that lead people to overindulge and provides the tools necessary to break the cycle of addiction, showing us what is possible when we remove alcohol and destroy our belief system around it.
Written in a relatable voice that is honest and witty, Quit Like a Woman is at once a groundbreaking look at drinking culture and a road map to cutting out alcohol in order to live our best lives without the crutch of intoxication. You will never look at drinking the same way again.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781984825056 |
| PRICE | $28.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 368 |
Featured Reviews
Celeste L, Reviewer
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.
Reviewer 542599
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.
Wendy W, Reviewer
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/
Kellie E, Reviewer
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.
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