ashleyholstrom's Reviews (1.38k)

Toward the end of the book, John Moe writes that depressed people are tired and sleep a lot because their minds are doing a decathlon every day. And I've never felt more validated in my need for 9 hours of sleep each night as well as at least one good daytime nap.

I wish I'd read this when I came out, because a good portion of this book didn't exactly age well. But the other parts are good.

I read Hyperbole and a Half at a time when I didn’t know I was depressed, but I found the comics ~relatable~ and funny. Now, I am fully aware, and Allie Brosh has crushed my heart to pieces again.

Solutions and Other Problems is so potent. It is, at times, the view inside my own brain. But also not. Brosh had a lot of terrible life experiences in the years between her first book and this one, out in September. She lays it all bare, alongside some fun comics about being a weird kid and having dumb dogs. But the devastation is present through all 500+ pages.

From The Best Comics We Read in July-September 2020 at Book Riot.

Sarah Hepola always had a relationship with alcohol. She started sneaking sips from her parents’ wine glasses as a kid, and went through adolescence drinking more and more. By the time she was an adult in a big city, all she did was drink. And the drinking turned into blackouts. Blackout is her poignant story of alcoholism and those many missing hours that disappeared when she had just enough to drink to wipe out her memory. Hepola gets through the darkest parts of her story with self-deprecating humor and a keen eye on what she was burying by drinking.

From 11 Gripping Books about Alcoholism and Recovery at Book Riot.

Lisa Smith lived a lovely life in the city, rocking it as a lawyer at a prestigious law firm. And then alcohol and cocaine barged in. Girl Walks Out of a Bar is Smith’s whole life through the lens of alcoholism: her insecurity as a teen, her anxiety as a young adult, her stress from a heavy workload as an adult. It all leads up to the day she realized puking and shitting blood was not normal and she checked herself into a detox facility. But the recovery process was terrifying: Was she going to lose all her friends, who gathered at bars? What would she do with all the free time no longer spent with booze?

From 11 Gripping Books about Alcoholism and Recovery at Book Riot.

A gorgeously designed little book full of ideas on creating less waste.

A nice little handbook to try to save the planet.

Maren and Devin are best friends and cofounders of Richual, an online community of well-meaning women looking for the ultimate in self-care and wellness. When Maren tweets something awful about the U.S. president’s daughter, she’s sent on a company-mandated detox, where she discovers some unsavory secrets about one of her board members. Meanwhile, her best employee is keeping a growing secret of her own. Complete with comments from the Richual message board and press releases to try to save face, this is the story of wellness influencers from behind the filter. Self Care is so funny and scathing and perfect, and Leigh Stein is a treasure.

From the Best Books of 2020 So Far at Book Riot.