Get Up: A 12-step Guide to Recovery for Misfits, Freaks, and Weirdos [Paperback]

Bucky Sinister (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2008

As an atheist with a background in fundamentalism, Bucky Sinister was skeptical of 12-step groups when the time came for him to get sober. He was afraid of losing his artistic abilities and had big problems with the higher power concept. In spite of his hesitations, he stuck with the program and it rewarded him greatly. In Get Up, he shares the knowledge he gained on his journey, from being afraid of the 12-step philosophies to embracing them, motivating others to join him in their own efforts to get clean.
Sinister, a spoken word artist, poet, and performer, well-known on the West Coast for his grabbing, truthful, funny performances, puts out his own story, no frills, no excuses, and no holds barred. He offers a tough-love approach to recovery for all those, like him, who are turned off by traditional recovery books.
Sinister got sober using the 12-step program, has stayed sober, and now he leads the very group he joined on his path to recovery. In Get Up, he shares the stories and the steps that come from the self-identified scum bags who just might save your life. He talks straight to readers about how to make it work if they can't buy into the program right away. For example, Higher Power can be a whole lot of things-Thor and metaphor among them. He helps readers to accept the group in spite of their differences, rather than walking away.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This self-help book for the substance-abusing artistically—and atheistically—inclined is both a ringing endorsement of AA and a brilliant piece of literary performance with poetic and savagely funny insights. Spoken word artist Sinister—a self-professed misfit and recovering alcoholic and addict—celebrates sobriety and provides a methodical analysis of the 12-Step program interpolated with biting commentary (The difference between the Bible and a Magic Eightball is that 400 years ago, you would've been burned at the stake for owning a Magic Eightball) and encouragement that is, by turns, sincere (in particular a foray into why artists are so prone to addictions) and comic (Finding Your Inner A-Team). The book is a wild mixture of autobiography, philosophy, social criticism, pop culture and nuttiness: the consummate self-help book for those too cool for self-help books. Although the author occasionally veers uncomfortably close to glamorizing his addictions, his advice is sound, detailed and heartfelt. (Oct.)
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Review

"Step 13: Read Get Up, do what Bucky says, and find your inner A-Team character. And if you're a "normie", buy this book for your friend who thinks they are too cool to get sober." —Jen Kirkman, stand-up comedian, actor, and writer

"...a smart, snide, blasphemous self-help book written in a countercultural voice." —Rachel Swan, East Bay Express

"This book is rad." —Michelle Tea, author of Rent Girl and Valencia

"...refreshingly un-preachy...Get Up will strike a nerve in the recovery movement, which has heretofore had to convince certain people that it wasn't as lame as it seemed" —Katy St. Clair, SF Weekly

"Get Up is not your mother's coffee table recovery book. Bucky peels away the layers of fluff and sticks it right in your face. His use of comedy and colorful language will conjure up some laugh-out-loud moments…This release is perfect for the patient or counselor looking for a light-hearted, entertaining read. It combines recovery first-hand accounts, useful suggestions and scenarios and offers the reader an uplifting feeling without becoming over-powered by religious weights or flowery prose that often read like a real snooze on a page." —Jenna Bensoussan, Counselor Magazine

"If you're lost in a self made blizzard, or drowning in the drink, this book is a line you'll want to have. Told with Bucky's cracking wit, and clarity, it removes the fear from the first bite at the dozen. Walk on. Twelve steps. With hope. It's in this book." ―Alan Black, Scottish playwright and author

"I have been sober for more than 21 years, and this is the first time I have seen anyone take on the challenges of staying with a 12-Step program with such frankness. This is one of the best recovery books I have read, a whole new approach written with intelligence and honesty, and with a Bucky’s approach to the Higher Power concept will serve to help the millions of people out there who struggle with it every day." ――Tom Callan, president of Board of Directors of Changing Echos, a drug and alcohol treatment center

“[Sinister’s] iconoclastic approach to addiction recovery will make a valuable addition to the growing works in this field. Highly recommended for university libraries supporting the helping professions and larger public libraries” —Library Journal Starred Review

“Our generation, Generation X, is a generation that doesn't like to be marketed to. We don't like to join groups and we're very suspicious of trends. In a lot of ways Get Up is a 12-step book for people that remember Kurt Cobain on the cover of Rolling Stone wearing a t-shirt that says, ‘Corporate Magazines Still Suck.’ People who think Dolittle is the best album ever made…The book's very funny.” —Stephen Elliott, Huffington Post

"Every single person should own Bucky Sinister's 12 step book.  Addict or not.  It is an incredibly funny and interesting guide on how to successfully unpack one's mind when it's overpacked.  Simply put, this book should replace every magazine in every plastic surgeon's office and every bible in every motel." —Amber Tamblyn, Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated actress and poet

“Move over Dr. Phil and Dr. Drew and every other faux-folksy TV platitude-puss.  Mr. Sinister has the kind of wisdom – and writing skills – that only come from experience.” —G. Martinez Cabrera, San Francisco Bay Guardian

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 169 pages
• Publisher: Conari Press (October 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573243663
• ISBN-13: 978-1573243667
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #358,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an honest, direct and punk rock guide to cleaning up, October 25, 2008

By 

C. O. Aptowicz (NYC, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Get Up: A 12-step Guide to Recovery for Misfits, Freaks, and Weirdos (Paperback)

Bucky Sinister is a hulking, tattooed, punk rock poet who ruled the SF poetry scene, toured the country with his visceral verse and published on one of the country's most respected independent presses.

But Sinister was also an addict who, by his own words, didn't stop drinking until he "ran out of access to alcohol, by lack of money, lack of charm or lack of consciousness."

When Sinister decided to seek help for his addiction, he faced a series of fears specific to him and his community: if all of the concerts and events he loved were held in bars, how can he possibly navigate them without drinking? If all of his punk rock friends were still hitting the bottle, wouldn't they resent him / reject him for cleaning up? And as writer rarely performed or wrote sober, how would this affect his art?

But ultimately, Sinister triumphed -- not only over his addictions, but over his life.

"Get Up: A 12-Step Guide to Recovery for Misfits, Freaks and Weirdos" is a clear-eyed, honest account of his Sinister's journey as well as a self help tome for "misfits" of all types looking to get their life together.

I'm sure much will be written about Sinister's "on the level" perspective: this is not a holy-than-thou, 'do it my way and be saved' type of book. Rather, Sinister confides in the reader like a peer and friend, sharing stories which can be as funny as they are raw, and sharing advice that resonates long after you put down the book. The book works with -- as opposed to against -- the traditional 12-step program, helping addicts see the potential these meetings have, even if some aspects of them (at first) may seem completely contrary to their lives.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who is struggling with addictions, or knows someone who is.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing Sinister About It, June 1, 2009

By 

The_Fifer (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Get Up: A 12-step Guide to Recovery for Misfits, Freaks, and Weirdos (Paperback)

I've been sober for 19 years as of this writing, but I would not classify myself as a misfit, freak or weirdo. Well, maybe a little. I'm not an artist by trade. I play a little music and do some writing, but I've got a straight job in an office, and a wife and kids at home in a development house in the suburbs on a tree-lined street. Though I am certainly a skeptic when it comes to religious/spiritual ideas, by all outward appearances I've got more in common with Ward Cleaver (or maybe Ned Flanders) than I do with Bucky Sinister.

In any case, I've read a fair number of recovery and self-help related materials. Without a doubt, this is the single most helpful, direct, honest and practical one of the bunch. I've had the book for about eight weeks, and I've read it cover to cover three times now. The second time through, I started marking it up with highlighters, writing in the margins and sticking post it notes to certain pages. The third time through, I started writing in my own notebook.

I gave up going to 12 step meetings more than 10 years ago, mostly because I was exhausted with the disrespect given to those with atheist, agnostic or, in many cases, anything other than Christian beliefs. I thought I had learned enough that I could keep working a program without going to meetings. After reading this book, though, I realized that I had fallen away from that.

I have several goals in life that I have been kicking around for a long time, but on which I have not made any progress. These things are important to me, but I continue to go through the motions of my life without addressing them.

This book has inspired me to begin to work my program with a new vigor. Maybe going to some meetings will help to keep me focused on my program. Bucky's advice for non-Christian survival in the rooms makes the possibility of meetings a lot more palatable than the condescending "We Agnostics" chapter of the Big Book. I've got more balls now than I did back then, and I'm willing to try. And it's high time I go through the steps again with a practical purpose in mind and not just go through the motions of them because a sponsor said to. Bucky's breakdown of the steps, by the way, is excellent.

Yes, there's a bit of filler in the book ("Your Inner A-Team," "The Hero's Journey" and "My Life in the Art Scene," for example, though I loved "Achieving Your Goals the Lee Marvin Way"), and sometimes Bucky's desire to show how hipper than thou he is becomes nearly cringe-worthy, and calling people who aren't alcoholics "normies" is cringe-worthy, but I can forgive those things when the rest of the material and the overall message is this powerful.

In conclusion, if you've got any excuse for not fitting in in recovery, whether you're a not yet completely dried loner out or you're a crotchety old timer who's angry that you can't smoke at your home group anymore, I suggest that you get a copy of this book and give some of the ideas in it a chance.

Thank you, Bucky. I'll let you know how it goes.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, February 27, 2009

By 

C. Rediske (waverly, iowa USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Get Up: A 12-step Guide to Recovery for Misfits, Freaks, and Weirdos (Paperback)

Bucky Sinister speaks sense to that portion of addicts of whom so many others cannot even begin to approach. He is straight forward, honest, and non-preachy. But he is SOBER! This book does no disservice to the AA program, he goes through it all without telling anyone else how to make it work for them, but he knows how to say it without becoming disingenuous. I recommend anyone, alcoholic or not, to read this book. It is for freaks, misfits and weirdos as well as those who love them. Thank you Bucky Sinister!