247 reviews for:

Drinking: A Love Story

Caroline Knapp

3.99 AVERAGE

readrunrepeat42's review

4.25

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad tense fast-paced

monster_maven's review

3.0

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I'm sad I found out that she died at 42 years old. I kept thinking I'd like to hear an update to her story the whole way through. Her mom told her to quit smoking and then to die of lung cancer. Tough.
I'm reading this book during my month of "Sober October"[day 17] and so much of what she says is very personal to my own battle with alcohol. We all have ways to quantify ourselves against others when it's truthfully a personal battle. I love her honesty. Any drinker can empathize with her struggles and her life in general.

kristenfh's review

2.0

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I thought this book was very well written, but way too long. I found myself doing a lot of skimming because the author just went on and on. Overall, this book gave insight into her alcohol addiction, but was a boring read.

vivian_munich's review

5.0

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Caroline.

pretty_b1rd's review

5.0

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"Sometimes I think I am literally phobic about feelings"

this is my Everything I Know About Love.

such a raw and cathartic read, i loved every sentence.

chawkinsknell's review

4.75

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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Extremely well-written and gripping. At moments, it felt like too much description/gushing over alcohol, but at the same time, that is exactly what the book claims to be about: a love story. It would have been much harder to read had I not known Knapp had stopped drinking.

ryanpait's review

4.0

reflective medium-paced

unofficialcate's review

5.0

dark hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

bybyberry's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark informative sad medium-paced

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this book is gonna stay with me for a long time. a beautiful and important story, answering difficult questions like "why don't they just stop drinking" or "couldn't they tell something was wrong?".
this memoir gave me so much understanding and compassion for people suffering with addiction. i really love that the author told her story with such honesty, while also sharing others stories of others addicts she has met and became friends with ; it helped create an entire picture of alcoholism and its many forms, and i know i'm gonna remember their stories. 

sharondblk's review

5.0

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By turns heart-rending and uplifting, this addiction memoir is a very strong example of the genre.

Spoiler

What broke my heart though, was finding out partway through this that Caroline dies of lung cancer after quitting drinking, and 6 years after this book was published. The book finishes before then, on a very strong resolute note

I guess it's a lesson not to waste time stagnating in a bad place.