Make Mine a Double pours together a collection of witty, intelligent, and provocative pieces about women and their beverages of choice. Edited by humorist and academic mahatma Gina Barreca, the twenty-eight original essays here come from a diverse community of voices from ages twenty-one to seventy-nine, including such luminaries as Fay Weldon, Wendy Liebman, Amy Bloom, Liza Donnelly, Nicole Hollander, Beth Jones, Dawn Lundy Martin, and many others.
Equal parts paean to spirits, an open discussion of drinking (or not drinking), and a call to feminists everywhere to say "salut," Make Mine a Double shimmers with thoughtfulness, humor, and self-examination. These tales of women's complex relationships with alcohol are the story of every woman's effort to find her independence and sense of belonging, be it at a college party, a high-powered cocktail party, or on a stool at the neighborhood watering hole.
Barreca and the writers have agreed that all their profits from the book will be donated to Windham Hospital's "Gina's Friends" fund, which aids women in need.
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"In lieu of an evening out with the intelligent, witty contributors, this laugh-out-loud funny, touching, thought-provoking collection is highly recommended."--Library Journal
"Barreca's anthology fills a gap in the portrayal of drinking women by not positing them as merely lightweights or lushes, but as intelligent, confident women who embrace and celebrate the drink. Readers and students of Women's Studies, Gender Studies, Sociology, Psychology, and Social History will definitely find many questions and issues to discuss."--Bookslut
"A collection of witty, provocative pieces about women and their beverages of choice pulled together by humorist Gina Barreca, these tales of women's complex relationships with alcohol are the story of every woman's effort to find independence. All profits from the book will be donated to Windham Hospital's 'Gina's Friends' fund, which aids women in need."--Publisher's Weekly
"In Make Mine a Double, a spirited collection of 28 original essays, Barecca, Amy Bloom, Fay Weldon, Nicole Hollander and others write humorously about the social stigma of women who sip as well as their relationships with (or without) booze."--More
Review
"Make Mine A Double raises the bar and tells the true story about women and booze that is both sobering and funny." (Elmore Leonard, author of Raylan )
Deemed a "feminist humor maven" by Ms. Magazine and "Very, very funny. For a woman" by Dave Barry, Gina Barreca is most recently the author of It's Not That I'm Bitter: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World (St. Martin's, 2009/ppb. 2010). She has appeared on 20/20, 48 Hours, NPR, the BBC, The Today Show, CNN, Joy Behar, and Oprah to discuss gender, power, politics, and humor. Her earlier books, include the bestselling They Used to Call Me Snow White But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor, as well as Perfect Husband and Other Fairy Tales: Demystifying Men, Marriage and Romance, Sweet Revenge: The Wicked Delights of Getting Even, and Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Coeducation in the Ivy League; her books have been translated into several languages, including Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, and German. She's the editor of seventeen books, including The Signet Book of American Humor and The Penguin Book of Women's Humor as well as The Erotics of Instruction and A Sit-Down With the Sopranos. She writes for the "Brainstorm" section of The Chronicle of Higher Education and blogs for Psychology Today, does a weekly column for The Hartford Courant, a monthly column for Principal Leadership, and occasionally spars with her former co-author (of I'm With Stupid: One Man. One Woman. 10,000 Years of Misunderstandings Between the Sexes Cleared Right Up) Gene Weingarten in his "Below the Beltway" column in The Washington Post. With degrees from Dartmouth College, Cambridge University, and the City University of New York, Barreca is Professor of English and Feminist Theory at the University of Connecticut.
Finally, a book for women who enjoy a their vices! Essays, stories, poems, and historical contexts for women and drinking. You can sip these pieces one by one or gulp them down all at once, but this is great gift book for birthdays, showers, divorces (!) and new phases of women's lives.
Make Mine a Double works from the unusual premise that women must drink to seize their full human rights. Well, that's not exactly true, since a few of the essays are not literally about drinking. But they all explore how women in our culture must struggle to claim their desires, how a girl is encouraged to drink "like a lady" rather than "with gusto."
As a man who was always scared when his date ate like a bird, I love the women in this book and I love how insistent they are on having their pleasures. I love how sensitive these essays are to the messy ways we tell girls to tame themselves, largely so that they can be ready to clean up after those boys who "will be boys." There's a wide range of voices and all of them are funny, smart, and touching in powerful combinations.
This is horrifying in its pompous justification for reckless endangerment of health - physical, emotional and spiritual. I understand these authors are very commiteed to their agenda. That they write so well and powerfully is proof of their dedication to winning their stake in the argument. The rationale is amusing Ladies - I use your title facetiously. These females - oh so eolquent and well-educated - are tripping over their bios to impress. Why do they so often have to pooh-pooh alcoholism as having no danger here? I will wager that none of the authors has ever experienced any true hardship of addiction or of any type. Maybe this is a cleverly crafted preface for replase? Maybe the book was underwritten by the pharmaceutical corporations, health insurance and addiction clinics that tediously try to heal those duped into seeking these titillating adventures. Don't ask, I'll tell you - I am female, an accomplished professional woman and I am sober. I won't play one upsmanship games (certaonly you will not get my bio), but I could rival your stories. So what? Shall I name those recently deceased or hospitalized that may have bios as important as yours that you may have harmed? I didn't see any you at the funerals. "And I, Oh I Will Always Love You", girls, as you remind me to be proud that I am alive, happy and loving.
