Quit Like a Woman
Books | Self-Help / Substance Abuse & Addictions / Alcohol
3.9
(284)
Holly Whitaker
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “An unflinching examination of how our drinking culture hurts women and a gorgeous memoir of how one woman healed herself.”—Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed“You don’t know how much you need this book, or maybe you do. Either way, it will save your life.”—Melissa Hartwig Urban, Whole30 co-founder and CEOThe founder of the first female-focused recovery program offers a groundbreaking look at alcohol and a radical new path to sobriety. We live in a world obsessed with drinking. We drink at baby showers and work events, brunch and book club, graduations and funerals. Yet no one ever questions alcohol’s ubiquity—in fact, the only thing ever questioned is why someone doesn’t drink. It is a qualifier for belonging and if you don’t imbibe, you are considered an anomaly. As a society, we are obsessed with health and wellness, yet we uphold alcohol as some kind of magic elixir, though it is anything but. When Holly Whitaker decided to seek help after one too many benders, she embarked on a journey that led not only to her own sobriety, but revealed the insidious role alcohol plays in our society and in the lives of women in particular. What’s more, she could not ignore the ways that alcohol companies were targeting women, just as the tobacco industry had successfully done generations before. Fueled by her own emerging feminism, she also realized that the predominant systems of recovery are archaic, patriarchal, and ineffective for the unique needs of women and other historically oppressed people—who don’t need to lose their egos and surrender to a male concept of God, as the tenets of Alcoholics Anonymous state, but who need to cultivate a deeper understanding of their own identities and take control of their lives. When Holly found an alternate way out of her own addiction, she felt a calling to create a sober community with resources for anyone questioning their relationship with drinking, so that they might find their way as well. Her resultant feminine-centric recovery program focuses on getting at the root causes that lead people to overindulge and provides the tools necessary to break the cycle of addiction, showing us what is possible when we remove alcohol and destroy our belief system around it. Written in a relatable voice that is honest and witty, Quit Like a Woman is at once a groundbreaking look at drinking culture and a road map to cutting out alcohol in order to live our best lives without the crutch of intoxication. You will never look at drinking the same way again.
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Author
Holly Whitaker
Pages
368
Publisher
Random House Publishing Group
Published Date
2019-12-31
ISBN
1984825054 9781984825056
Community ReviewsSee all
"While many aspects of this book are thought-provoking — namely the segment (chapter 2, I believe) demonstrating the irony between how we regularly drink a quite literal poison while prioritizing fitness and health in other ways — I cannot subscribe to the concept that the reason every woman drinks is due to the straight, white male with his evil agenda to make us sick and “keep us down.” To imply that all women are merely idiots who cannot seem to think for ourselves really irks me. We’re all consumers, period, and it doesn’t take a genius to know certain marketing works for certain groups. ALL groups, ALL products. Americans’ obsession with celebrity culture is the more plausible issue to the point she was trying to make; Whitaker even uses the example if we see Oprah and Gwyneth Paltrow promoting a certain beverage, then we will (maybe even subconsciously) want to emulate.
This story leans too much into cultivating a victim mentality around alcohol instead of working to break the cycle and explore healthy habits. According to this guide, learning to take accountability for your own actions is an irrelevant characteristic when you can simply just blame men. All of the people that commented how they read this and were cured forever should possibly be a testimony to one of two things-
1 I’m way off-base and this feminist mentality toward sobriety is absolutely on point or
2 we should not underestimate people’s need to place blame on something else in order to succeed.
Either way, if this concept works for you then I would absolutely call it a win and I am sincerely happy for you; it did not particularly resonate with me. "
"This book truly changed my life. I wouldn’t have been able to even conceptualize quitting alcohol.
The only problem is, this book opened my eyes in a way that is painful, and very raw.
Once you see it—all of it—after reading this book, you may never stop feeling incredulous like all of this MUST be some kind of massive poison prank.
"
J N
Jaz Nappier
"Helped me understand a little about my own coping skills. "
9 M
9uh Malone
"Best self help I’ve ever read "
M G
Megan Grabow
"Empowering and validating!! One of the must reads in QuitLit"
R
Rachel
"Yes! This book is great! Just an overall well thought out concept on how alcohol is doing women absolutely no favors. "
J C
Jessica Coromina