Memoir Monday and... Blackout by Sarah Hepola

Blackout by Sarah Hepola... For Sarah Hepola, alcohol was "the gasoline of all adventure." She spent her evenings at cocktail parties and dark bars where she proudly stayed till last call. Drinking felt like freedom, part of her birthright as a strong, enlightened twenty-first-century woman.

But there was a price. She often blacked out, waking up with a blank space where four hours should be. Mornings became detective work on her own life. What did I say last night? How did I meet that guy? She apologized for things she couldn't remember doing, as though she were cleaning up after an evil twin. Publicly, she covered her shame with self-deprecating jokes, and her career flourished, but as the blackouts accumulated, she could no longer avoid a sinking truth. The fuel she thought she needed was draining her spirit instead. A memoir of unblinking honesty and poignant, laugh-out-loud humor, BLACKOUT is the story of a woman stumbling into a new kind of adventure--the sober life she never wanted. Shining a light into her blackouts, she discovers the person she buried, as well as the confidence, intimacy, and creativity she once believed came only from a bottle. Her tale will resonate with anyone who has been forced to reinvent or struggled in the face of necessary change. It's about giving up the thing you cherish most--but getting yourself back in return.

The online magazine Jezebel had a post called "Ask a Former Drunk: When Do You Know You Have a Problem?". This post was written by Sarah Hepola and it's kind of an advice column where for the next four weeks on Tuesdays, Sarah will answer questions from people who have their own problems with alcohol. She mentioned that she had written this book, Blackout, she sounded interesting and the excerpt I read was good, so I'm highlighting it for Memoir Monday. The book has received a lot of praise and just came out in paperback last week. Published by Grand Central Publishing... it's on my TBR list! Want to read an excerpt? You can find one on Sarah Hepola's website.