laynemandros's reviews
236 reviews

Drunk-ish: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving Alcohol by Stefanie Wilder-Taylor

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

3.0

I listened to “Drunk-ish” in January on the trek from West VA back down to New Orleans and overall, I enjoyed it. One of my best friends in NOLA is a recovering alcoholic and I have another loved one who relapsed in their addiction this summer, so this book hit me right in my feels. I imagine it would for anyone who has a loved one in active addiction or recovery.

J, my aforementioned friend, has a lot in common with Stefanie. She’s Jewish, hilarious, and very matter-of-fact about her addiction. I saw so much of J in this book and after reading it I feel like I understand J just a little bit more, even though I’ll never truly know what it is like to work through addiction.

It is hard to rate and review memoirs because, well, how do you rate and review someone’s personal history, struggles, emotions, etc.? It’s hard. I will say something that was very apparent to me while reading is that this is a book that center’s the author’s identities (duh, Layne, it’s a memoir), but I say that to highlight that if you’re looking for an intersectional reflection of alcoholism and addiction, this isn’t going to be it. Wilder-Taylor delves into her experiences with being a mother and a woman, but reflects very little (if at all) on her whiteness and how that impacted her addiction and recovery.

The chapters about motherhood were (surprisingly for me because I am generally uninterested in motherhood because I dislike children and don’t have a desire to have them) some of the most poignant. These passages will stick with me. I’m glad this book gave me more to think about in terms of how I can better support my loved ones who are in recovery for addiction.

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Glad I started off the year with such a banger, and if my first book of 2024 indicated how the rest of my reading year will go, then we’re off to a good start.

One thing about me is that I love Jesmyn Ward, she’s hands down one of my top five favorite authors of all time. I expected to be blown away by this book because I’ve had visceral, emotional reactions to all of her work (I’ve read all of her books except “The Fire This Time), but I wasn’t. To be clear, I enjoyed this read, but I wasn’t as enthralled with this one as I have been with Ward’s work in the past. I guess it might be a little unfair to compare her books to each other when so many of them are my absolute favs.

I have no bones to pick with this book, if you like beautiful, moving writing with layered prose and incredible plot execution then you’ll want to pick this one up. Overall, I enjoyed the book, but I felt the middle of the novel lagged for me a bit. I feel like this might be twofold, I’m not really a fan of historical fiction or magical realism— two things that dominate this novel.

As always, the climax and falling actions of Jesmyn Ward’s writing absolutely captivated me. This is a beautiful and complex story of ancestry, particularly motherhood, of Black women who were enslaved in the south. The motif of water and the reclamation of water after the trauma of ancestors being forcibly transported to America via the Atlantic Ocean was particularly poignant for me throughout this read.

Not much else to say about this one, Jesmyn Ward never misses. In 2024 I hope to check off the last book of hers that I’ve yet to read.

Content Warnings

The Trees by Percival Everett

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3.75

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

3.0

Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place by Neema Avashia

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adventurous challenging emotional funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻

Leave the Lights On by Liv Andersson

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Silly, unbelievable plot with v annoying characters. Should have DNF’ed but unfortunately I powered through 🥴

*Thanks to LIBRO.FM for the gifted ALC, y’all are the best 🫶🏻

Midnight Is the Darkest Hour by Ashley Winstead

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced