Shockaholic and Wishful Drinking are separate books by Carrie Fisher. I listened to The Princess Diarist not long after Fisher died, and as much as I enjoyed it, I ended up putting off reading these other two books. There are certain celebrity deaths that I am affected by, and Carrie Fisher is one of those (the other that immediately comes to mind is Robin Williams). But in 2019 I finally read both, back to back.

Wishful Drinking is the older book, a short book based on Fisher’s one woman show, and it was very funny. Fisher’s books are sort of dysfunctional memoirs. Fisher loves to highlight not only how wild her outside life was, but also how wild her inner life was, as she had bipolar disorder as well as struggling with substance abuse. Shockaholic continues on these themes, and Fisher goes into detail regarding her time using electroshock therapy. She credits it with greatly improving her mental illness/depression.

Some of Fisher’s stories are completely absurd, but she is consistently funny in both books. Her wordplay is witty and sharp, and some of her funniest moments are her tangents. Some criticisms I’ve seen include that Fisher is a product of Hollywood and it shows, but she *is* a product of Hollywood, so wouldn’t in show? She does seem rather self-aware. Certain critics – usually male – also seem put off by her frank descriptions of her experience with mental illness, which I will never criticize anyone for, because it’s different for everyone.

These books are short and funny and very honest. Any Carrie Fisher fan should definitely read them. They’re great airplane material, especially if you want to upset a complete stranger next to you, giggling through your flight.

Tagged: authors: carrie fisher, books: shockaholic, books: wishful drinking, genre: humor, genre: memoir, genre: non-fiction