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Wishful Drinking Carrie Fisher 9781439102251 Books

Download As PDF : Wishful Drinking Carrie Fisher 9781439102251 Books

Wishful Drinking Carrie Fisher 9781439102251 Books

This author is an alcoholic and I am a bookaholic. When I start reading a book, I compulsively continue it, even if it's God-awful and I hate it. This unfortunate quirk has caused me many a boring hour, but in this case I owe it a debt of gratitude.

Which is a way of saying that the giddy, girly style of writing in the first chapter almost drove me insane. Nothing but my reluctance to abandon a book kept me going. But then a miracle happened and the writing (while informal and still WAY too full of whimsy) settled down. By the second chapter, I was glued to Fisher's weird family diagram (parents, sibling, spouses, step-parents, half-siblings, step-siblings, actresses, actors, singers, agents, artists, beauty queens, and a respected Chinese-American author) and laughing hysterically. Welcome to Hollywood.

This is not a book you read to find out "what happened." Unless you've been living in a cave, you know all about Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher and Carrie Fisher and Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and Cary Grant and Paul Simon. Their lives may not have been any more troubled or eventful than many private citizens, but they were lived in full view of the public. Old style Hollywood with its carefully groomed stars and jealously guarded publicity may be a thing of the past, but the celebrity machine is still cranking away even more furiously than when Eddie Fisher caused an international scandal by dumping his wholesome wife and marrying Liz Taylor (who soon dumped HIM and married Richard Burton.) Who cares? A lot of people, judging from the ink that was wasted on reporting every detail.

Fisher herself grew up the daughter of two celebrities and became one herself at the tender age of 19 when she played Princess Leia in the Star Wars series. She married a famous singer and then an agent, had a daughter, wrote books, and performed one-woman shows. She also abused drugs and alcohol, attended AA meetings, was in and out of mental hospitals, was diagnosed as bi-polar, and underwent electroshock therapy. You could say she's lived a "full life."

I'm disinterested in the entertainment industry and in celebrities in general, and yet Fisher is an appealing woman. She comes across as brutally honest, especially about her own problems and mistakes. You get the impression of someone who has been through so much craziness that she has both developed an inner toughness and been stripped of the need to hide her defects and weaknesses.

I read this book or a version of it years ago and remembered being impressed. I was happy to find the Kindle version and enjoyed re-reading it. I think it's a valuable story. No, most of us didn't grow up in Beverly Hills, but most of our lives have been touched by addiction and mental illness. In the end, this isn't a story of a celebrity. It's a story of a woman and how she's dealt with her problems.


Tags : Wishful Drinking [Carrie Fisher] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A provocative, uproarious memoir based on the author's one-woman show describes growing up with celebrity parents,Carrie Fisher,Wishful Drinking,Simon & Schuster,1439102252,Actors;United States;Biography.,Authors, American;20th century;Biography.,Motion picture actors and actresses;United States;Biography.,20th century,Authors, American,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Entertainment & Performing Arts,BIOGRAPHY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY,Biography,Biography & Autobiography,Biography & Autobiography Personal Memoirs,Biography Autobiography,BiographyAutobiography,Biography: general,Entertainment & Performing Arts - General,GENERAL,General Adult,INDIVIDUAL ACTORS AND ACTRESSES,Motion picture actors and actresses,Non-Fiction,Personal Memoirs,United States,Women

Wishful Drinking Carrie Fisher 9781439102251 Books Reviews

This by all means should not​be looked at as an autobiography but rather as a conversation with the now late Carrie Fisher. You sit down​in a bar with her, both of you ordering a pint of beer. She looks at it, then at you and says "Hi I'm Carrie Fisher and I'm an alcoholic"

From this point on she opens her heart to you. She reveals all of her secrets and experiences. She goes on tangents and just keeps the conversation going with you as personally and as candidly as possible. You don't so much get to sit down with your hero of stage and screen, but rather get to know a human being in a world full of larger than Life characters. She's the one sane person in an insane world and the product of that. This book is a journey into how and why she became the hero known as Carrie Fisher. And I say she is a hero because having come from such a surreal life it is hard not to fall in love with her and admire the strength and Gaul this woman has in the face of a difficult reality.

By the end of the night her pint is still full, yours is empty, and somehow you feel like you not only got to know her but have been hugged by her just moments before she throws glitter at you as an expression of affection.

This is what wishful drinking is. A very sober but enriching tale into the life of a person born into American royalty, thrust into a surreal life way too young, and her battle to keep herself together with pride and dignity through it all.
Not a life-changing memoir but a life-affirming one, with a sharp, honest recounting of actress/author Carrie Fisher's life. In turns funny and bawdy, she never asks for pity, but goes at it like a true recovered addict all her pain digested into humor, but never denied. I suffer from similar issues and found her believable and illuminating and empowering. There is nothing poetic or soaring about this book, just a fellow journeyman telling their bittersweet tale of survival. And that is more than enough.
Since being diagnosed as bipolar a couple of years ago, I've been on a journey to discover people who have been successful and thrived in spite of bipolar disorder, because so very much you hear about it is so horribly depressing. In my quest to find 'normal' (aka functional) people who have Bipolar, I stumbled across Carrie Fisher's name, and I'm glad I did! This book, written in true bipolar style of jumping from one subject to the next and going off on random tangents, is a hilarious and positive book that reads like a one hour comedy special. It's a little bit of her background and history, but mostly humorous anecdotes from her life, with the message intertwined throughout that even though she's been through some hard times, she is doing well and loving her life. I think anyone who enjoys random humorous stories would appreciate this book, but I would especially recommend it to anyone struggling with a diagnosis of bipolar it gives you hope that you're not doomed and you CAN live a happy, fun, and fulfilling life in spite of the disease. Kudos to Carrie Fisher for being so open and candid about her life and struggles so others don't have to feel alone.
I bought this book the day after Carrie's death, about an hour after I learned of her mother's death. I was too sad to go to bed so I bought this book instead. And read it straight through.

I'm glad I did.

"Postcards from the Edge" was my only prior impression of the relationship these two women had. This memoir paints a very different picture. I am sorry the world has lost these two brilliant and beautiful souls, but I am glad for them both that they still have each other.
This author is an alcoholic and I am a bookaholic. When I start reading a book, I compulsively continue it, even if it's God-awful and I hate it. This unfortunate quirk has caused me many a boring hour, but in this case I owe it a debt of gratitude.

Which is a way of saying that the giddy, girly style of writing in the first chapter almost drove me insane. Nothing but my reluctance to abandon a book kept me going. But then a miracle happened and the writing (while informal and still WAY too full of whimsy) settled down. By the second chapter, I was glued to Fisher's weird family diagram (parents, sibling, spouses, step-parents, half-siblings, step-siblings, actresses, actors, singers, agents, artists, beauty queens, and a respected Chinese-American author) and laughing hysterically. Welcome to Hollywood.

This is not a book you read to find out "what happened." Unless you've been living in a cave, you know all about Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher and Carrie Fisher and Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and Cary Grant and Paul Simon. Their lives may not have been any more troubled or eventful than many private citizens, but they were lived in full view of the public. Old style Hollywood with its carefully groomed stars and jealously guarded publicity may be a thing of the past, but the celebrity machine is still cranking away even more furiously than when Eddie Fisher caused an international scandal by dumping his wholesome wife and marrying Liz Taylor (who soon dumped HIM and married Richard Burton.) Who cares? A lot of people, judging from the ink that was wasted on reporting every detail.

Fisher herself grew up the daughter of two celebrities and became one herself at the tender age of 19 when she played Princess Leia in the Star Wars series. She married a famous singer and then an agent, had a daughter, wrote books, and performed one-woman shows. She also abused drugs and alcohol, attended AA meetings, was in and out of mental hospitals, was diagnosed as bi-polar, and underwent electroshock therapy. You could say she's lived a "full life."

I'm disinterested in the entertainment industry and in celebrities in general, and yet Fisher is an appealing woman. She comes across as brutally honest, especially about her own problems and mistakes. You get the impression of someone who has been through so much craziness that she has both developed an inner toughness and been stripped of the need to hide her defects and weaknesses.

I read this book or a version of it years ago and remembered being impressed. I was happy to find the version and enjoyed re-reading it. I think it's a valuable story. No, most of us didn't grow up in Beverly Hills, but most of our lives have been touched by addiction and mental illness. In the end, this isn't a story of a celebrity. It's a story of a woman and how she's dealt with her problems.