Rating: 
Summary: You Booze..You Lose
Review: Great memoir. Nicely written from a female perspective. For a male perspective...check out, "PERAMBULATIONS" by C.S. Back. I liked this one too. Very well written, honest and real. Bravo....
Rating: 
Summary: Requred reading.
Review: This wonderful book was instrumental in getting me to rehab and a life of sobriety....it described my drinking to a tee, and helped cut through my unbelievable conviction that I, who drank to get drunk every other day, kept thinking I could drink! For every woman who is an active drinker, but has the gnawing wish for help, this is required reading! As for those who are long in recovery, may be it is not so helpful....but if for those unhappy drinkers, who try and try to stop, but can't, this may be the proverbial hammer that will deal a fatal blow to the vicious cycle of "...just one little glass of wine...." Thank you, Ms. Knapp!
Rating: 
Summary: Disturbed My Serenity
Review: "Drinking: A Love Story" is a well-written book, but when I tried to read it at nine years sober, I found it profoundly disturbing. I only read the first three or four chapters before I put it down.Had I been in the first three years of sobriety when this book was published, I probably would have loved it and related to it. Many of my fellow travelers thought it was wonderful. Unfortunately for me, I found the book to be a drunk-a-log.
Rating:
Summary: "Everyone Can Relate"
Review: I found this book to be not only honest, but cleverly written---I loved the way she wrote it-- as if alcohol was the lover that she felt that she couldn't live without. No matter how degrading or awful it made her feel. For I feel as a woman in society, we are judged by whether we have or have not landed a man. For my addiction has been "needing" a relationship with a man. That means at my expense, no matter terrible he made me feel--I felt as long as he was around, I was accepted and acceptable. This book is not only about addiction, but also how we must learn ourselves and teach our children SELF ESTEEM. Feeling good about yourself is priceless and the possibilities are endless. Thank you, Caroline Knapp, for sharing such a raw experience.
Rating:
Summary: Gives Insight
Review: My mother, a recovering alcoholic, recommended this book to me. Ms. Knapp's tells an honest and painful story which gave me a real insight into what goes on in the minds of alcoholics and helped me to further define the role alcohol plays in my life. I gave the book four stars because it jumped around too much for my taste. I would have enjoyed it more if it had been chronologically ordered.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book--a must-read for anyone in recovery
Review: As a recovering woman alcoholic approaching the end of my first year of sobriety, I found this book fascinating. Carolyn Knapp's deeply thoughtful,unflinching analysis of how she came to be addicted to alcohol made so much sense to me that I found myself saying "Yes! That's it exactly!" as I turned each page. Her exploration of the relationship between her eating disorder and her alcoholism was wonderful as well. I purchased several copies of this book to give to my woman friends in AA and I recommend it to anyone who is in recovery or exploring the possibility of breaking an addiction.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Greatest Books About Addiction
Review: I cannot begin to tell you how much I loved "Drinking: A Love Story" by Caroline Knapp. Without self-pity and with no desire other than to let the complete truth be known, Knapp relates the heartfelt story of her addiction to alcohol and the strength and love that it took to overcome it. She comes from a position of such love in telling her story, and it's impossible not to be moved by it.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, all too true memoir of an alcoholic woman
Review: Caroline Knapp is a courageous writer and one who was able to step off the elavator that destroys so many alcoholic women. Her story is compelling; her honesty and willingness to share her darkening years prior to going to rehab are appreciated by this recovering alcoholic who has lived a double life as well. Alcoholism is a progressive, deadly disease and the path it sets out to take to destroy Knapp is ever so familiar to many women. Knapp captures the seductive role alcohol plays with women who have sensed or been told that "something is wrong " with their lives. Knapp's own love story with drinking alcohol will be a constant reminder to me that sobriety is ever so precious, one day at a time.
Rating: 
Summary: Better if there was more on recovery...
Review: Many have discussed this book's "eye opening" experience. However, where's the meat on discussing what it's like to "recover" ???? That, ladies and gentlemen, is the very, very hard part about alcoholism and getting over the drink. This book brushes over that aspect in only a few pages and treats alcoholism as if "once the problem is recognized and acknowledged, the hard part's over." This would have been a far better book if would have spent as much time talking about "recovery" as it did in its indulgent self-appraisal of what the "drinker" actually experiences. While I recommend it for folks who may need a kick in the pants to recognize the problem, dealing with alcoholism once it's there is far, far...far...more difficult. Perhaps there's a book in that concept all by itself...
Rating:
Summary: Crossed Paths
Review: I found this wonderful book in a used bookstore in my new Calif. home and recognized the author's name, having read her weekly articles in The Phoenix during my Boston years ('87-'95) when I was also chasing the bottle in many of the very same bars... I probably saw her in the Aku-Aku numerous times during MY post work decompressions before I jumped in my car & headed back to Cambridge (before I was tooo drunk, and of course before the liquor stores closed)... There is an honesty in this book that shines in ways her newsprint work never did... I realize now that some of that hip, urban glibness was part of her own internal dialogue & self-delusion. I am astounded that she was able to produce such consistant work while he addiction was spiraling out of control (a feat I was failing at at the time) I've read many of the same confessionals that Im sure everyone scanning these reviews has: Pete Hammill's 'The Drinking Life', Bob Welsh's 'Five O'clock Comes Early' and even Exley's " A Fan's Notes"...which is an ALL-TIME classic piece of work...... but Caroline's story IS different because she IS a woman, and like it or not-our society STILL has more tolerance of a hard-drinkin' guy than of a hard-drinkin' gal. This book examines the other social pressures that contributed to her alcohol addiction, the sort of pressures that are unique to women...food & body issues, 'being the good daughter' etc. True, as some of the other reviewers have mentioned, it does fall into some repitition about halfway through... but remember how many times we have had to jump through the same hoops over and over and over before we've learned the lesson once and for all. Male or Female...read this book.
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