Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget (by Sarah Hepola)

I like to treat myself to books on my Kindle when I travel, and also at all other times. This was an airplane read on the way to Jenfu's wedding in Minneapolis. Kind of ironic that I was reading this book about drinking on the way to a weekend that I spent drinking! Ah, life!

At any rate, this is a wonderful memoir, and I tend to be picky about memoirs. It reminded me of Liars' Club. I love Hepola's funny, wise, unpretentious voice, and was compelled by her story both before and after she quit drinking. 

I highlighted some of my favorite lines:


A confrontation is like a cold bucket of water splashed on you at once, but what you might not realize is how long the bucket of water was building. Five drops, a hundred drops, each of them adding to the next, until one day -- the bucket tips.

So much clinging and drama. We sounded like parting lovers fleeing the Nazis, not two kids bored in American History.

When men are in a blackout, they do things to the world. When women are in a blackout, things are done to them.

I paid lavish attention to every word she spoke. Until then, it had not occurred to me what an act of love this was: to remember another person's life.

Recommended.