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.
Category Archives: authors
Carrie Fisher’s Shockaholic & Wishful Drinking
The Devil in the White City
The third (and final) book by Erik Larson in 2019 was The Devil in the White City.
Like Larson’s other works, he weaves several different narratives together and highlights how certain circumstances align into a perfect storm for a certain disaster to happen. In this case, the World’s Fair came to Chicago in 1893 and so did H.H. Holmes, the noted serial killer.
The World’s Fair storyline follows Daniel Burnham, in his job to build the fair, and H.H. Holmes, in the building of his murder castle. Once again, Larson’s narrative indicates a perfect storm – one of the reasons Holmes got away with his murder castle for so long was because there were so many people in Chicago in 1893.
I found Holmes to be the most interesting part of the book, but that isn’t surprising considering my interest in serial killers. Holmes was a jack of all trades criminal – he committed insurance fraud, arson, bigamy, grave robbing, and so on, not just murder. Holmes confessed to 27 murders (including people authorities could verify as still living, lol) but ended up being tried and executed for just one – his partner in insurance fraud, Benjamin Pitezel. The number of Holmes’ victims is unknown, but the conservative estimates put his number of victims at 10-34, and more liberal estimates put him at 200+. There’s really no way to tell.
It was an interesting story. Even Burnham’s half of the narrative wasn’t boring, it just wasn’t Holmes’ half. It was interesting learning about the architecture for an event that wasn’t permanent, and ever more interesting learning how Burnham managed it when stuff happened like…his investor died.
Overall, I enjoyed this immensely. Interestingly, Leonardo DiCaprio acquired the film rights to this book some time ago. 2010 maybe? The project has been delayed, but supposedly now is in development to be a television series.
Larson has a couple of other books out, that I admittedly am not in a rush to get to but would probably enjoy. If I had to rank the three I read in 2019, I’d rank them as such:
1. In the Garden of Beasts
2. The Devil in the White City
3. Dead Wake
Frenchman’s Creek
I’m sure I’ve mentioned it here before, but Daphne DuMaurier is one of my favorite authors. In spite of this fact, I have not read all her books. This is one of the most recent ones I’ve read.
Frenchman’s Creek takes place during the reign of King Charles II. Dona, Lady of St. Columb and some level of aristocrat, leaves London in a fit of disgust with the society of the time. She retreats to her husband’s country estate in Cornwall, which hasn’t been used in several years. She quickly discovers that it’s being used as a base by the French pirate Jean-Benoit Aubéry, who has a notorious reputation and has been terrorizing the coast near by. She meets him and they begin a love affair.
Dressed as a boy, Dona joins the pirate crew and takes part in one particularly spectacular robbery, which brings her husband and his friend Rockingham to Cornwall. With other men, they plot to capture Aubéry, but Aubéry and his clever crew get the best of the search party – tying them up and robbing them.
I don’t remember exactly what happens but Dona has to kill Rockingham because he attacks her in a jealous rage when he figures out she’s in love with Aubéry. Naturally, Rockingham had his sights on Dona as well, and was a lunatic. Aubéry is eventually captured, but Dona helps him escape, and while she’s tempted to go with him on his ship so they can travel and have adventures together, she ultimately chooses to stay with her children and her husband.
This isn’t du Maurier’s usual style of novel – it’s much more romantic than the other works I’ve read by her, and it wasn’t as dark as other stories, with no horror elements. I did not have an issue with this. du Maurier’s language was as beautiful as ever, and the story was fun.
There an be an argument made that this book was semi-autobiographical. du Maurier struggled with identity during her life. As a girl she wished to be a boy and was a fierce tomboy. She described her sexuality as that of two people – a loving wife and mother, the persona she showed the world, and “a lover” which was she described as an overwhelmingly masculine energy. “The lover” was the force behind her creative work. There was also speculation that she was bisexual (but this is just speculation and has been denied by her children/surviving family). She is also remembered as something as a recluse who got tired of the aristocratic society she belonged to and the general public, but this depends on who you talked to.
With that in mind, it’s possible to see that struggle play out in this work. Dona becomes disgusted with her life and takes a break from it and joins a pirate crew dressed as a boy, while also engaging in a passionate fling with the captain. She is tempted to leave, but ultimately decides that her place is with her husband and children (much like du Maurier stayed with her husband and children, despite that her marriage wasn’t entirely happy.)
I really loved this story for the language, though. It’s an almost dreamy love story with a bit of adventure. It’s quite enjoyable and much more lighthearted than her usual stories, which both shows her depth as an author to jump into almost a different genre of work entirely. It’s not my favorite of her works (I think Rebecca will always be my favorite), but it was good work and I highly recommend it.
Fear: Trump in the White House
Fear: Trump in the White House is a 2018 (non-fiction, unfortunately) book by Bob Woodward.
For those who don’t know (I feel like most people do, but just in case), Bob Woodward is a renowned journalist best known as part of the Washington Post team that investigated and reported on the Watergate break-ins in the 1970s. This eventually led to scandal, exposing President Richard Nixon as a corrupt, paranoid lunatic and forcing his subsequent resignation of the presidency. Every idealistic teenager who wants to be an investigative journalist wants to be Bob Woodward, and he’s one of the most trusted journalists in the United States.
So Woodward’s investigative efforts carry weight, which is why this book was so damning. The book itself is based on hundred of hours interviews with first hand sources (which Woodward recorded), copious meeting notes, etc…
The book delves into the experiences of the people around President Trump, including but not limited to his (former) personal lawyer John M. Dowd, Defense Secretary James Mattis, and Chief of Staff John M. Kelly. Mattis and Kelly both deny passages about them but it seems unlikely Woodward would flat out lie about them.
This book came out before the midterm elections of Trump’s (first) term, and portrays the administration as chaotic and unprepared, led by a nutcase who was not suitable for the job but who wasn’t even capable of understanding how over his head he was.
I am pretty skeptical on many books based around current affairs, even by journalists as well respected as Woodward, because current affairs are often very nuanced and it’s hard to look at them objectively and gauge how accurate they are without historical hindsight.
That said, I struggle to find fault with this book, even though this book more or less confirms my view of Trump (I am/was not a Trump supporter). I am afraid of confirmation bias, but anybody who grew up on the New York area in the last 30-50 years knows exactly what kind of person Donald Trump is. Full disclosure: I am a 33 year old female from New York who grew up in the Westchester ‘burbs. My entire family on all sides came to the States in the early 1900s and has its roots in the Bronx. I’ve been exposed to Donald Trump for a large part of my life through local media, and my family has been hearing about him for the better part of half a century. The stories/descriptions of his words/actions in this book match previous patterns of things he’s said/done.
Watch what he does, not what he says. If you care to look, you will find stories dating back decades of how he’d hire contractors to do a job and not pay them, knowing they’d have to take the loss because they didn’t have the time or money for a long legal battle. He has a history of belittling employees and his “inferiors.” He shows up to major events unannounced and takes credit for things he had nothing to do with. He talks a big game and never backs it up. He is the worst breed of New Yorker. Every once and a while, he blunders his way into being right about something. The guy is and always has been a loud mouthed, narcissistic conman selling snake oil to the naïve. New Yorkers know this.
Plus, Woodward doesn’t just make shit up. He’s fair and he has a good track record of being critical and skeptical of all people in power, regardless of their political affiliation. I have trouble believing that he would suddenly become a sensationalist with an agenda to push out of dislike of Donald Trump. More likely, he’s observing the realizations of high ranking officials within the administration coming to terms with what at least two generations of New Yorkers who pay attention already know: Trump is not playing twelve dimensional chess, as his supporters and sycophants like to claim. He is in no way, shape, or form, fit to be President of the United States.
This book was disturbing but enjoyable, and the kind of high quality journalism we’ve come to expect from Bob Woodward. It’s a little dated at this point, but I think Woodward’s book will eventually be seen as a reliable record of an uncertain time in American history – a current events book at its best.
Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America’s Gutsiest Troublemakers
It surprises me as much as it surprises the next person that Nick Offerman has published not one but TWO books (and actually, I think a third, but that was written with his wife). For those who don’t know, Nick Offerman played the hyper-masculine Ron Swanson (with the best mustache) on NBC’s critical darling Parks and Rec.
The reason it surprises me that Offerman has written two books is because he seems like someone who would constantly be working on other things. I read his first book (Paddle Your Own Canoe) on my honeymoon, and a year later I found myself with his second publication: Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with American’s Gutsiest Troublemakers.
This is *not* a super deep history book. If you’re looking for truly scholarly material, you’re better off elsewhere. This book, while reasonably well researched, is an in depth look at people Offerman personally admires, who also have done some pretty great things for the United States (which is part of the reason Offerman likes them). I especially liked Offerman’s chapters on Wendell Berry and Teddy Roosevelt. (‘Bull Moose: Balls Deep’ is the election slogan we’re all looking for, honestly.)
As I said, this is a book of essays by Offerman about people Offerman admires. I enjoyed it tremendously, but only because I wasn’t expecting a scholarly history book with no opinions in it, apparently. Some of the complaints I’ve seen leveled at it are completely bizarre to me – like valuing hard work but espousing principles “opposite of the entrepreneurial spirit” which I think means the reviewer rejects Offerman’s opinion that our corporate overlords (who he doesn’t trust) should pay workers a living wage for honest work.
Offerman definitely has some opinions about things like cellphones being a pain in the ass. While he does go overboard with some of his points (clearly for comedic effect), he also uses that humor to make points. Sometimes life *is* better when your cellphone isn’t an appendage of your arm. Sometimes technology, while also being pretty great, really fucking sucks. This is part of Offerman’s personal brand as well as a real point – he’s obviously a slight curmudgeon (somewhat purposefully) but again, I’m not sure what people were expecting here regarding Offerman himself being part of the book. I expected opinions and comedy.
This book was fun, lighthearted, and humorous (which apparently some people don’t like). Offerman narrates the audiobook himself, which is adds another layer of humor, as Offerman is a very good, understated comedian. If you don’t enjoy Offerman’s brand of humor (or pretty mainstream left leaning political opinions, like “Democrats and Republicans, but especially Republicans, all kind of suck”) you’re not going to enjoy this book.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark
I won’t say I’m a true crime obsessive but I will say that it is one of things I do periodically get obsessed with and can’t get off of until I’m literally having nightmares and the rest of my world is suffering from a lack of decent rest. Criminal Minds is one of my favorite shows, I watch endless episodes of the many shows on Investigative Discovery. I read true crime books and I find myself down the Wikipedia rabbit hole of unsolved murders and missing persons and unidentified remains.
Fortunately, I haven’t completely succumbed to podcasts yet.
Like many people, I find serial killers endlessly fascinating, because they are so completely different than normal people. How can they do the terrible things they do? What are their methods? Their motives? What makes them tick? But it’s hard to study these things. The gruesome nature of the subject matter is the stuff of nightmares, and it’s hard not to feel like a ghoulish voyeur going through crime scene information and notes and message boards and anything you can get your hands on. You begin to worry if you’re like them, if you’re capable of such violence. You begin to relate to the victims. It’s a dark place and can become a very dark obsession that’s hard to pull yourself out of.
This book popped up as recommended for me in 2018, and I think that was around the time they arrested a 70+ year old man for the crimes extensively reported on by Michelle McNamara in her book I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer.
McNamara was the wife of well known comedian Patton Oswalt. She was a very talented writer, but she had issues with pills, and she actually died two years before the book was released due to an accidental drug overdose of prescription drugs. Oswalt, investigative journalist Billy Jensen, and crime writer Paul Haynes completed the book from her extensive notes after her death. Most of it was already written and just needed to be organized.
I haven’t read that many true crime books for the simple reason that most of them aren’t very well written. They’re informative and interesting enough but they don’t tell the story very well. The authors writing them are not true storytellers. They’re retired cops or investigative journalists (where storytelling technique isn’t the most important thing), or FBI agents, or in the case of the latest true crime book I read, a sports journalist, or whoever.
Let’s just say that the Truman Capotes don’t come along very often.
Michelle McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is the best true crime book I’ve read since In Cold Blood (which I have to revisit because I haven’t read it in years). It was captivating and smart and so completely captured the humanity of the Golden State Killer’s victims. She told their story and explained her investigation into this guy’s identity in such a way that didn’t feel voyeuristic, which is a feeling I sometimes get from true crime books. I didn’t feel like I was prying into the lives of victims in a ghoulish way at the worst moment of their existence, I was learning their names and their lives and they were becoming people I knew who happened to have a terrible thing happen to them, not exhibits who have emotional scars or worse on display for all to see.
This book didn’t lead to a tip that meant the arrest of the Golden State Killer, but it led to enough attention that the case came back into prominence. It couldn’t be ignored. McNamara wrote the book after writing articles on the serial rapist and serial killer she had coined “The Golden State Killer” for Los Angeles Magazine in 2013.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department finally arrested Joseph James DeAngelo on April 24, 2018 and charged him with first degree murder based on DNA evidence, 42 years after his first rape. The statute of limitations had expired for his burglaries and rapes, so he couldn’t be charged with those crimes, but on June 29, 2020 DeAngelo plead guilty to 13 counts of first degree murder with special circumstances and 13 counts of kidnapping in order to avoid the death penalty.
Michelle McNamara has been gone for four years. She didn’t get to see the publication of her book, or see the arrest and guilty plea of a serial killer she was helping to find, or see her daughter grow up.
But this case, this book, ended up being her life’s work. It is good work. It’s a true crime book, but it’s more than that, because true crimes should be about more than just crime, and this book is those extra things. It’s a biography and a memoir – victims, law enforcement, ordinary citizens, the dark side of the American dream. It’s a book about what people can do when they pool resources to find someone who needs to be found. It’s a book about searching for justice.
It’s a true crime book, but it’s a really good true crime book. It’s a true crime book the way true crime books should be written, and if you’re going to read true crime books, you should read I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.
Happy Birthday, Dr Seuss!
I think I’ve mentioned it in the past, but Dr. Seuss was one of my favorites growing up. Remembering him on what would have been his 116th birthday 🖤
Click on the picture to visit 12 Dr. Seuss Quotes to Inspire All Ages
Mr. Dickens and His Carol
One of my favorite stories ever is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and Dickens gets a lot of credit for “inventing” Christmas with that story. His tale of a crotchety, miserly old man visited by three ghosts of Christmas whose teachings grow his heart three sizes warms my heart every Christmas. I make it a point to read/listen to A Christmas Carol each year, and each year I watch the movie with my mom. The best version is the black and white version with Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge.
Samantha Silva’s Mr. Dickens and His Carol is one of a series of tellings about Dickens writing his famous Christmas story that have arrived on the scene in the last few years.
The premise: Dickens, his latest novel (Martin Chuzzlewit) a flop with critics turning against him, is blackmailed by his publishers into writing a Christmas story to save them all from financial ruin. This includes Dickens himself, whose growing family and social circle is becoming more and more unruly, with his wife planning a large Christmas party for just about everyone they know. With a nasty bout of writers’ block and an approaching deadline coming up fast, Dickens meets a muse named Eleanor Lovejoy, who sends Dickens on a Scrooge-like journey of his own, testing his beliefs in generosity, friendship, and love.
The story he writes changes the way the world looks at Christmas.
A little history: this era in England – the Victorian era – was the time when celebrating the Christmas season was becoming a big deal. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert popularized the Christmas tree in Britain, and carols had experienced a revival. Other Christmas stories had proven successful, so it isn’t unbelievable that Dickens’s publishers would coerce him into writing one.
I loved this book. I thought it would be sappy and over sentimental but it wasn’t. I liked that Dickens was a grumpy old man and that he bah humbug’d it a couple of times. I liked that his relationship with Eleanor was more that of friendship than dirty old man, which was what I was expecting. I don’t know why I was expecting this, but I was wrong and was happy about it.
A Christmas Carol was supposedly written in a frenzied six weeks, with much of the work composed in Dickens’s head as he took long nighttime walks around London (some accounts say as many as 15-20 miles) and I felt Silva did a particularly good job conveying this time crunch in the book. Writing the whole thing in six weeks required a lot of frenzied periods of activity, and I felt that here.
Dickens put an emphasis on a humanitarian side of the season, and that was felt here too, showing Dickens influences due to his relationships with his family, friends, and fans.
And of course, there was a happy ending.
Mr. Dickens and His Carol is a must read for anyone who loves Dickens, A Christmas Carol, and the spirit of the holiday.
The Princess Diarist
Losing Carrie Fisher in 2016 bothered me. I loved and admired her from afar, the way many did. I thought she was brave, and she was funny, and she was brilliant.
I borrowed and listened to The Princess Diarist because I missed her, and I wanted to hear about her affair with Harrison Ford. Not exactly the most serious reason, but a reason all the same.
I loved the parts where she read her diary. I get that part. I get the teenage girl/young woman stuff. The part where her daughter read her poetry/stream of consciousness? Not so much. I am not good at poetry.
There wasn’t a lot about the making of Star Wars, but there was a lot of insight into the heart of a young woman from the perspective of her older self. I relate! I angsted so much as a teenager. Now…not so much.
It was a short book – I think I listened to the whole thing in one to two afternoons. Worth it if you want some gossipy deets on a steamy affair and the classic overthinking of everything by someone new to the sex game. Not worth it if you wanted a lot of cool Star Wars info. I didn’t need the Star Wars info to enjoy it.
I liked The Princess Diarist and its look at Carrie Fisher, who has been one of my heroines since I watched her blow out the grate on the Death Star and say, “into the garbage shoot, fly boy!” and always will be one of my heroines for her writing talent, her sharp wit and biting humor, and her always honest evaluation of herself.
Her last memoir is deeply personal and lovely. It made me miss her. I never met her, but I miss her.
words in scarlet ink 
