Drinking Diaries: Women Serve Their Stories Straight Up [Paperback]

Caren Osten Gerszberg (Editor), Leah Odze Epstein (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 28, 2012

Whether you drink it or not, alcohol is likely a potent part of your life: our culture is saturated in it. Ask any woman you know to tell you a drinking story, and she’ll come up with one—in fact, she may even come up with five. With friends and with coworkers, at date night and at ladies' night, and on special occasions ranging from Valentine’s Day to the Super Bowl, we encounter alcohol—yet when it comes to discussing the nature of our relationship with drinking, few of us do so honestly and openly.

In Drinking Diaries, editors Leah Odze Epstein and Caren Osten Gerszberg take women's drinking stories out of the closet and into the light. Whether it’s shame, sober sex, and relapsing, or college drinking, bonding, and comparing the benefits of pot vs. booze, no topic related to alcohol is off limits in this illuminating anthology. With contributions from celebrated writers including Jacquelyn Mitchard, Daphne Merkin, Kathryn Harrison, Ann Hood, Ann Leary, Pam Houston, Jane Friedman, Elissa Schappell, Asra Nomani, Priscilla Warner, Rita Williams, and Joyce Maynard, Drinking Diaries is a candid look at the pleasures and pains of drinking, and the many ways in which it touches women’s lives.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Caren Osten Gerszberg is a freelance writer and co-founder of the blog Drinking Diaries. Gerszberg’s articles have appeared in The New York Times, Travel & Leisure, National Geographic Traveler, Parents, and other national magazines and websites. She has also had a regular column, “Mom U,” about her daughter’s college admission experience, at NYTimes.com.

Born and raised in New York, Gerszberg graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, going on to earn a dual master's degree in French and journalism at New York University. Her career in publishing began with a summer job at French Vogue in Paris, which paved the way for a full-time position at Mademoiselle magazine in New York. After four years as a research editor at Rolling Stone, Gerszberg launched her freelance career, and also became the New York correspondent for French Glamour, writing a monthly column in French.

Gerszberg has taught feature writing as an adjunct professor at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. A passionate traveler, she lives in Westchester County, New York, with her husband, three children, and two dogs.

Leah Odze Epstein, co-founder of the blog Drinking Diaries, is a young adult and adult fiction writer. She has worked as a news assistant at The New York Times, an adjunct professor of writing at Baruch College, and an assistant editor at One World/Ballantine Books.

Epstein has written book and movie reviews for publications including Publisher’s Weekly and Bookpage, and has worked as a freelance editor. She currently blogs about women and drinking for The Huffington Post, and some of her poems can be found on the website Literary Mama.

Born and raised in Bethesda, Maryland, Epstein now lives in Westchester County, New York, with her husband and three children.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Seal Press (August 28, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580054110
• ISBN-13: 978-1580054119
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #112,104 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Commentary on Creativity and Alcohol September 16, 2012

By Theresa K. Read

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

From Whitman and his early temperance novel to Hemingway and Steinbeck's shilling of Ballantine Beer, a lot has been said and written about male authors and their perverse affair with liquor. With Drinking Diaries, women writers give us their side of the story. This is simply a fascinating read. It is refreshing to review the struggle for moderation written about such utter honesty. It is impossible not to recognize yourself in these pages. Thanks Leah and Caren and contributors for this candid look at how drinking affects creative women.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars So insightful, well edited, great writing. October 2, 2012

By Yogamissy

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book hits the spot! Drinking as a metaphor? Drinking as a relationship impediment or stimulator? Drinking as escape? Drinking as entertainment? Drinking as a habit? Not drinking as a response to family experiences? I loved this book because it made me think, was entertaining, had stories I could relate to and made me tearful at others. As a grown woman with three kids, who has had many and varied experiences as a drinker and abstainer, as well as a lover of literature and writing of all I kinds, I found this book easy to read and poignant. A great hostess gift INSTEAD of a bottle of wine for those who don't partake, and a book to have around the house when daughters (in particular) are reaching that age when drinking becomes a part of their lives. I highly recommend it!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this while sipping! September 12, 2012

By Paula Derrow

Format:Paperback

This collection contains smart, heartfelt essays from terrific writers like Daphne Merkin and Joyce Maynard--and some other newbies that you may not know (but will WANT to). Far from a collection of sob stories about alcoholism, these essays open the subject of women and drinking WAY up: the joys, the silliness, the sex, the fights, the pleasures. I related, and, I'll admit, it caused me to look at my own drinking in a slightly more clear eyed way.