Drink?: The New Science of Alcohol and Health, by David Nutt David Nutt is an English neuropsychopharmacologist, meaning he studies drugs that affect the brain. Of which alcohol is a big, bad one. He was fired, or asked to resign, from his position as a government drug advisor for saying on primetime radio "that alcohol... Continue Reading →
The Complicated Story of Women, Alcohol, and Sobriety
Book review: Quit Like a Woman, by Holly Whitaker (Amazon / Book Depository) Women are drinking more than we ever have before. Between 2002 and 2012, the rates of alcohol addiction among women rose by 84 percent—as in, it nearly doubled. One in ten adult American women will die an alcohol-related death, and from 2007... Continue Reading →
Poison, Prohibition, and the Beginnings of Forensic Medicine
Book review: The Poisoner's Handbook, by Deborah Blum (Amazon / Book Depository) The Poisoner's Handbook came up in Nonfiction November last year, when Silver Button Books mentioned it as an exceptional example of nonfiction that reads like fiction. I was surprised, as I wouldn't guess a book involving chemistry in any form would be so readable,... Continue Reading →
Life After Liquor: Essays On Quitting Drinking
Book review: Nothing Good Can Come from This, by Kristi Coulter Amazon Booze is the oil in our motors, the thing that keeps us purring when we should be making other kinds of noise. Kristi Coulter's essay "Enjoli", named after a perfume ad indicating women should be able to work and still keep it sexy for... Continue Reading →
Life at the Bottom of the Glass
Book review: Pour Me a Life, by A.A. Gill (Amazon / Book Depository) Surprised by how much I liked this! I picked it initially because earlier this year I read and loved Sarah Hepola's excellent memoir Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget, about drinking too much for too long, so I was open to... Continue Reading →