Customer Reviews

Lighting Up: How I Stopped Smoking, Drinking, and Everything Else I Loved in Life Except Sex

5 star:		(8)
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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a psychologist who specializes (and has coped) with addiction. This book is a must read! Page for page, Susan Shapiro is a great writer.

I started this book on Friday and could not put it down, finished it on Sunday and felt sad when I hit the last page. As I began reading, I realized I would need paper and pencil to take notes to use in my own life. My whole life I've been surrounded by people who smoke and drink, and I made a conscious effort not to become one of "those people." But after I read this book, I realized I'm no better; that I have addictions of my own that have nothing to do with "controlled substances." This book sheds a lot of light on how to live through suffering so one can come out the other end feeling like a better person for it. Susan's writing is so down to earth that you will see yourself in her no matter who you are. Dr. Winters is a big player in the book, but it's the way Susan takes the wheel of her own life that makes you want to cheer for her and ask yourself why the hell you've waited so long to face what makes you "suffer" the most.

Dr. Winters said that underneath any addiction is a deep depression. Read it and find out what it means to you.

We're all hooked on something: love, sports, drugs, cupcakes. No matter what your addiction is, you'll profit from reading Shapiro's book. In it, she detoxes from the substances that are preventing her from living her fullest, best life (cigarettes, pot, booze, gum -- don't laugh...even bread & pasta, perish the thought!) With fearless honesty and self-deprecating humor, Shapiro walks readers through the process, which she tackled with the help of a brilliant addictions specialist (and wannabe writer) named Dr. Winters, who has plenty of issues of his own. You'll love the little Zen wisdom notes he gives her at the end of each session; feel the discomfort of withdrawal; relate to the negative reactions of those around her when Shapiro overcomes her addictions, one by one; and most of all, cheer her on as she confronts her demons. Packed with insights (and cheaper than therapy), this memoir should be required reading for anyone seeking to reinvent themselves.

This book is funny as hell and hard to put down - can emphasis with someone who writes about her struggles with giving up smoking and drinking while living "in the center of Manhattan, where I could get any substance I wanted delivered within twenty minutes"...

This book was an honest and provocative look at the life of an addict. Many people have different stories about how they cope with being an addict, but Susan Shapiro takes you inside the dark web of her addictions in a completely fresh and mind altering way! READ THIS BOOK! I LOVED IT!

Ms. Shapiro tackles her subject matter in a way not usually seen in this genre: hilariously and honestly. Using humor to convey her struggles with addiction doesn't diminish her suffering; rather, by portraying herself as neither victim nor heroine, she sheds a very human light on a subject to which so many of us can relate. If you're looking for hand holding or spiritual enlightenment, you won't find it in the pages of "Lighting Up," and for this I am very thankful. Not only was I entertained, but I was inspired by Shapiro's straightforwardness and success to finally address my own addictions with my therapist. A great read.

While reading Lighting Up, I quit smoking. My withdraw began the moment the book ended. Without Shapiro's voice to guide me through my own nicotine addiction, I was forced to accept my own sober misery. In an instant gratification society, it's easy to give into vices to hide what keeps us from happiness--our own neurosis. Shapiro's quest for overall health is about clearing smoke. Getting rid of the smoke destroying your lungs is fairy simple. But releasing the smoke in your heart is very tough. It becomes easier after joining Shapiro as she liberates herself and her readers by sharing her raw human emotions. Most stray away from showing weakness. Not Shapiro. She's a fearless memoirist, full of stories that ignite an even bigger fire--the power to be yourself.

First of all, I'll say that LIGHTING UP is one of the best books I've read in a long time... Very addictive and HARD TO PUT DOWN!! Her determination is an inspiration to anyone who is struggling with an addiction. It's completely unlike any of the other books that are written about an addiction... Not as DEPRESSING... It's humorous. READ THIS BOOK!!! Hands down... Susan Shapiro is an incredibly gifted writer!!!

Having never been a pot or cigarette smoker, much less an addict (not that I'm complaining!), it was hard for me to relate to that aspect of Susan Shapiro's story, which fills most of the book. Shapiro wants to stop smoking (a habit she began at age 13), toking, and drinking alcohol, so she visits a doctor that specializes in addiction therapy. He regularly sends her home with fortune-cookie-like words of wisdom to ponder, which he writes on his business cards. Much of the book is spent rehashing their sessions in great detail (she even goes so far as to interview her therapist about his own life), discussing her day-to-day behavior related to trying to kick her habits, talking about her relationships with her husband and overachieving family members, and attempts to get a book published.

As per the subtitle, "How I Stopped Smoking, Drinking and Everything Else I Loved in Life Except Sex," the therapy sessions work. Lighting Up likely won't be winning any literary awards, but within its genre, it's a decent, light memoir similar in some ways to Bridget Jones' Diary. I do have two small complaints: (1) the writing in Chapter 27 feels oddly robotic (the rest of the writing is pretty consistent), and, as a person whose parents chain-smoked from their teens on until they could no longer afford it (in their fifties) and whose father died suddenly and unexpectedly from chf two months after rekindling his relationship with cigarettes, (2) I was bothered by the cigarette-related part of the book's (otherwise lovely) dedication, "For my beloved father, who passed on his dark hair, olive skin, stubborn streak, and passion for books and cigarettes."

Better: Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding, A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, and The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.

I felt bothered, annoyed, somehow after I finished this and eventually chucked it into the trash. I couldn't help it. Shapiro's voice, obsessions and neuroses drove me nuts - enough already! Enough about the traumas and dramas and addictions and the family and the shrink, always the shrink. ENOUGH!

This book will appeal if you like New Yorky/shrinky topics, to hear ALL of a writer's dirty laundry, and a fast talking, neurotic New Yorker voice. If you do not, it will not.