Book review: Under the Influence

Title: Under the Influence
Author: Joyce Maynard
Rating: 4 out 5 stars

Summary:  Helen is facing a lonely life after her drinking led to the end of her marriage and losing custody of her young son Ollie.  Her visitations with Ollie are awkward and she makes ends meet as a school photographer and waitressing at catered events.

When Helen meets Ava and Swift Havilland, she falls under their spell.  They're wealthy philanthropists with a seemingly perfect marriage and glamorous life.  They take her under their wing and welcome her and Ollie into their well-connected world.  Ava and Swift's generosity includes offering to help Helen regain custody of Ollie.  

But then Ollie is a witness in an accident involving Swift and his son and Helen begins to see the Havillands for what they really are and finds herself at a turning point.  

Review:  If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know I love a good story about addicts.  The title's a play on words and the recovery part is more of a sub-story, although it's the circumstances of Helen's sobriety that led to the friendship between her and Ava.  I'm not sure if I've read Maynard's other work before (although I'm reading another one right now), but I like it.  There's something clearly more sinister going on but Helen is blinded by Ava and Swift's money and attention, that she chooses to ignore what's right in front of her.  She was, as the book states, under the influence.  It takes her son being used as a pawn for Helen to wise up and see the truth.  Good summer read!

Time to write: 4:46.  

Book review: Party Like a President: true tales of inebriation, lechery, and mischief from the Oval Office

Title: Party like a president : true tales of inebriation, lechery, and mischief from the Oval Office
Author: Brian Adams
Illustrations: John Mathias
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Summary:  A president-by-president account of all the various vices the POTUS' were emboldened to.  

Review: I love a good addiction story and to hear about all of the Presidents' various vices was a dream book.  What's not to love?  Booze, women, drugs, gluttony--what more could you want to know about our great country's leaders?  The main reason I didn't give it the full five stars is it would have been nice to hear a little more dirt about some of them.

Time to write: 1:48

Book review: Blackout: Remembering the things I drank to forget

Title: Blackout: Remembering the things I drank to forget

Author: Sarah Hepola

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Summary:  Sarah's a blackout drinker.  What's a blackout?  A blackout is essentially an empty space in your mind where you don't remember what happened. Blacking out is not the same as passing out. Sarah would wake up in a strange bed (or her own bed) and have no idea how she got there.  Sometimes there'd be a man in the bed with her and she'd have no idea who the guy was.  Sarah decided she needed to get alcohol out of her life and come to terms with who she was without alcohol.

Review: I've always been a sucker for addiction stories. I watched Intervention for years and recently got sucked back into it.  I have a fascination with understanding what led people to go down the path of addiction (or get dragged) and what motivates them to get better.  This book was right up my alley.  Sarah's accounts of her alcoholism and blackouts is raw and honest.  It takes a lot of courage to share that she doesn't remember things.  Highly recommended.

Time to write: 4:23  

Book review: All Fall Down

Title: All Fall Down
Author: Jennifer Weiner
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Summary: Allison has it all--a beautiful house in the suburbs, a beautiful little girl, and a flourishing career as a blogger. Despite this "perfect" life, she's not as happy as things appear.  For one, her marriage is struggling--her husband sleeps in the spare bedroom and Allison is starting to suspect he's having an affair, or close to having an affair.  Also, her dad just got diagnosed with Alzheimer's.  Holding it together for the perfect life is really stressful. Fortunately she has her friends Oxy, Vicodin, and Percocet to help her out.

Review:  I listened to this book on CD in my car.  This book is stressful at times, probably because this woman's life so closely resembled my own.  Also, the daughter's voice was really whiny.

As many women out there know, life is overwhelming sometimes--kids, job, husband, and everything else--it can be a LOT to manage.  As I listened to this story (and as I listen now to my own whiny children and can't they just give me 10 minutes to finish this long overdue post?), I couldn't help but think, "wow, this could be me".  And if this is why people become addicted to pain killers, I can totally see why.  There's so much to do in so little time, it's great to have something to take the edge off and relieve some of that stress so you don't have to worry so much.  Unfortunately it can get expensive, especially when you have to seek out illegal ways to get it once you get cut off from your docs.

While this story hit close to home, I love a good addiction story.  One of my favorite shows used to be Intervention.  Once I had kids I had a hard time watching the ones with the younger addicts--those broke my heart--but it was fascinating to watch Allison's spiral into addiction and her subsequent attempt at recovery.

This was one of those books where as I went through each CD I got a little sad that I was one CD closer to the end of the book.  Despite how stressful it was to feel like I was listening to my life, I didn't want this story to end.  Highly recommended.