Product Description
Finally, after four hit novels, Carrie Fisher comes clean (well, sort of ) with the crazy truth that is her life in her first-ever memoir. In Wishful Drinking, adapted from her one-woman stage show, Fisher reveals what it was really like to grow up a product of "Hollywood in-breeding," come of age on the set of a little movie called Star Wars, and become a cultural icon and bestselling action figure at the age of nineteen.

Intimate, hilarious, and sobering, Wishful Drinking is Fisher, looking at her life as she best remembers it (what do you expect after electroshock therapy?). It's an incredible tale: the child of Hollywood royalty -- Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher -- homewrecked by Elizabeth Taylor, marrying (then divorcing, then dating) Paul Simon, having her likeness merchandized on everything from Princess Leia shampoo to PEZ dispensers, learning the father of her daughter forgot to tell her he was gay, and ultimately waking up one morning and finding a friend dead beside her in bed.

Wishful Drinking, the show, has been a runaway success. Entertainment Weekly declared it "drolly hysterical" and the Los Angeles Times called it a "Beverly Hills yard sale of juicy anecdotes." This is Carrie Fisher at her best -- revealing her worst. She tells her true and outrageous story of her bizarre reality with her inimitable wit, unabashed self-deprecation, and buoyant, infectious humor. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (179)

Skillful stand-up!
Carrie Fischer's writing style is hilarious, dramatic and totally involving. Wishful Drinking tells the story of her life as the offspring of celebrities with such humor and skill that the detail seems to all be there with a few impressionist brush strokes that suggest the fine points! It's clear that Wishful Drinking puts the reader front and center at the author's stand-up routine, and every word is solid gold.

If you are a fan of celebrity biographies or just looking for a great, funny read, don't miss Wishful Drinking because it's all that and more!

gotta love carrie
I read Carrie's earlier books and love her wit.This autobiography is funny and brutally honest.

very pleased
Wishful Drinking came in great condition, excellent service and just perfect contact.
Thanks, Etta

Vague
I really didn't know anything about Carrie Fisher except that she had been in "Star Wars."I picked up this book thinking she'd have an interesting and amusing story of an actress gone wrong, based simply on the cover illustration and the title.

Instead of a linear story of how Hollywood or her showbiz parents ruined everything, this is a meandering tale that touches on bits and pieces of the weirdness that is Fisher's life.

The major problem with this memoir is that it has been written after Fisher has undergone electroconvulsive therapy.Therefore, she doesn't really remember much of the most interesting parts of her life.She speaks very little about herself as an actress, and shares virtually no memories of "Star Wars," for which I'd imagine she is best known.

Instead, this is a vague sort of story that pops around in time, telling a snippet from Fisher's childhood, then one of her first marriage, then one from when she was heavily into drugs.... with seemingly no direction, no message, nothing to grab onto.She doesn't seem remorseful, or even particularly amused by her former life; there is an undertone of bitterness and biting sarcasm, but I'm not altogether sure at whom it is directed.

I finished this book feeling as though I knew almost as little about Carrie Fisher as I'd known before starting it.

Not as funny as I had hoped

I am a big fan of Carrie Fisher, starting with her screen debut in the movie Shampoo, as the ubiquitous Princess Leah and through her previous books, all thinly disguised memoirs. I admire her speaking up about her struggles with addiction and bi-polar disorder. I was looking forward to Wishful Drinking and so it is with sadness I have to say I didn't like it as much as I thought I would.

I think the biggest problem with this book is that it is basically a written version of her one woman show of the same name. While I can imagine seeing this as a show, with its interplay between audience and performer, and the author's own take on her work; as a book none of Carrie's acerbic wit comes through. Maybe it was because she wasn't hiding behind her Suzanne Vale alter-ego from her previous books; the ironic tone of those books just didn't come through as well here.While she turns a jaded eye on her parents, Hollywood life and her own struggles with mental illness something was just missing here.

There were lots of pictures scattered throughout the book, plus an extremely funny pedigree chart tracking her family and it's many marriages. And for me the funniest line in the book was the last one, her reason for doing drugs did make me laugh out loud.

I think this is one book that probably works better as an audio. I see that there is an audio version available, read by Carrie Fisher and I am thinking I may get it and listen. If I do I will be sure to let you know if it made a difference.
... Read more

Product Description
Carrie Fisher’s first novel is set within the world she knows better than anyone else: Hollywood, the all-too-real fantasyland of drug users and deal makers. This stunning literary debut chronicles Suzanne Vale’s vivid, excruciatingly funny experiences—from the rehab clinic to life in the outside world. Sparked by Suzanne’s—and Carrie’s—deliciously wry sense of the absurd, Postcards from the Edge is a revealing look at the dangers and delights of all our addictions, from success and money to sex and insecurity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

Good stuff
Funny, witty, entertaining, although I liked the movie better. Fisher has a real gift for dialog, witty turns of phrase and biting observations.

GOOD SERVICE - GOOD CONDITION - WILL BUY AGAIN
THE BOOK ARRIVED IN A TIMELY MANNER - IT WAS IN GOOD CONDITION - I WOULD USE THIS VENDOR AGAIN

amazing
its so funny-and true.encounters with others in the clinic arebeautifully realized..the addicts compulsions and rationalizations are presented in a masterly fashion.a must read.

Witty reading
Carrie Fisher definitely has a way with words. Suzanne, the protagonist of this book, says things that we all wish we could say off the top of our heads. The book follows her journey from ODing to trying to live life, instead of observing it. I enjoyed the ride and the read.

Great book, even if you don't like Carrie Fisher
This is a fun memoir, even if you are not a huge fan of Carrie Fisher. The day by day style she writes it in makes it fun and interesting to read, unlike most famous person type stories that are written in retrospective perspective. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

An entertaining read
I think this is one of Fisher's best books.She takes her knowledge of Hollywood, combined with her own experiences of life in Hollywood and turns it into a surprisingly funny book.

Boring and... well, a little dumb
I hate to rip an author apart, but this book just kind of stinks.The characters aren't really believable, and you don't even care about getting to know them.The story is just kind of trite and, frankly, not really worth the time it takes to read it if you have the ability to do something more worthwhile, like sleep or go to the bathroom.It's a fairly easy read, though, so you wouldn't have to be too much into self-abuse to get through it if you really felt you must.

Carrie, you can do better!
I really like Carrie Fisher.She grew up in the highly artificial environment of Hollywood with famous parents and yet has a compelling down-to-earthness that I admire.In interviews, she sounds like a very bright woman full of self-deprecating wit.Both "Surrender the Pink" and "Postcards from the Edge" sounded a lot like Ms. Fisher herself, to good effect.Yes, her characters don't live like the rest of us.In fact, most of us probably wouldn't want to live their lives, even if those lives are easier in material ways.

So, I'm convinced she was having a bad week or month when she wrote "Delusions of Grandma."Instead of the madcap, witty work of her other books, this one tries too hard.Ray, the protagonist's boyfriend, hangs around waiting for her to become less self-indulgent and self-obsessed and finally gives up.We feel for him, probably more than for her.She knows she is self-obsessed but can't seem to stop herself.Almost anyone has a habit they can't seem to break -- eating, alcohol, etc., etc.-- but when the habit is ALWAYS considering yourself and your whims first, it's really hard for other folks to have sympathy.

I love Ms. Fisher's other books.I think she has now thoroughly mined her own life for material.Maybe she could hire a research assistant to bring her information about something else, so she could apply her formidable wit to a fresh situation?

intriguing characters but so self-indulgent
I found myself skimming this book for the good bits - the ones that are witty or where things actually happen. But about two thirds of it are just tedious wallowing in intelligent but pointless musings. Some fierce editing would have made it an enjoyable book.

Laugh Out Loud Funny
Definitely read this with a friend in the room.(One who doesn't mind being interrupted while you read aloud from every other page.)
This book is full of the type of wit that I wish I possessed.
Not for people who like a very straight-foward plot.It is a bit overpowered by the prose, but with prose like this who cares?I reached the end and immediately wanted to either start over or invite Fisher to lunch.
Fisher has scored another hit. ... Read more

Product Description
Dinah Kaufman writes scripts for a living, and it fits: her life is full of bad lines. Particularly with men. They are all losers. Worse, they turn her down. Imagine her feelings when she finds a real man, Rudy Gendler, polished and successful, who loves her and wants to get married.

Alas, he is not what he seems and the marriage ends just short of disaster. Dinah pulls herself together and finds...that she still loves Rudy! How can she win him back?

"A witty, astute, voyeuristic approach to the mating ritual that confounds us all." (West Coast Review of Books) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

To date or not to date
I don't usually read books where the relationship between a man and a woman takes center stage, the horrors that imitate real life are draining and exhausting at times, only making me feel lucky that I don't have to deal with such things. Luckily this book was so much more than that, it was a lot of fun to read and the ending didn't suck, I loved it! After reading "Wishful Drinking" and "Postcards from the Edge" I was ready for one more Carrie Fisher book before I switched themes for a while, this is referred to as a romance but it's got plenty of comedy and non stop male-female conflicts that were anything but romantic.

Dinah Kaufman is a young screenwriter who only wants what she can't have. When she's married to Rudy Gendler conflicts and lack of sweetness and proper communication take a toll on them until they break up. Once he's gone and in another woman's arms there's nothing sweeter to Dinah then the thought of them back together, she suffers from mood swings and unsatisfying flings then goes dry for so long that hunting her ex-husband down in the Hamptons where he's staying with his new blond girlfriend for the summer seems like a great idea. Her career is a success mostly because she's using her dysfunctional relationships as a guide for her fictional characters that reflect her soap opera like life. Dinah is an endearing person, her habit of buying band aids to cover her thumbs so she wont pick at her skin is real albeit whacky, the funny ways in which she tires to become more domesticated (cooking is not one of her virtues) and her search for happiness are all splendidly written and Fisher includes all of Dinah's brainstorming into the story giving her depth. I felt that Dinah sounded little older than her age (twenty eight) but perhaps going through the hellish relationships that she chose to pursue robbed her of her innocence and youthfulness.Once she makes up her mind and goes for the guy, unforeseen obstacles make her question her true heart's desire. The ending was a real surprise ( in a good way) which was nice for a change, lately any book I picked fell apart at the end, but this was solid.

The book was easy to get through once I got used to the constant second guessing that Dinah was doing, I actually liked it best out of all of Carrie's books and the dialogue was priceless, I wanted to bookmark all the fun quotes but at the end there were too many, it's something I would love to read again in the future to make sure I get all of it absorbed because Carrie Fisher has a lot on her mind and writing seems to be a form of therapy for her, I hope she never stops.

- Kasia S.

It's a name that sells, nothing else
Well, let's face it, Carrie Fisher writes about her. She is Dinah. And Rudy seems to be Paul Simon, according to the rumours. As a fan of Simon's, I started to read this book out of curiosity, but... only managed to read half of it. Carrie Fisher is not a writer, she could write columns or articles and be good at it, but a full length book? No. At least not this one. It's boring, mildly funny at best, and even if you imagine the "characters" as their real life "persons" it's boring all the same... sounds like those details of a relationship that are simply not material for a book. It goes on and on... cardboard characters and situations. No plot. The writing just drags. No point... complete bore! You actually say, "why am I reading this?" I should go for a walk instead. It's that bad.
There's only one thing behind this book: The notoriety of the name "Carrie Fisher". It sells. There's not much more to say. Maybe "Postcards" is better, but I'm not interested, after this. She's a good enough actress, period. No wonder this book is sold at 1 cent!

I surrender
I wish I'd only read "Postcards From the Edge," which was pretty fantastic -- the first time. "Surrender the Pink" and "The Best Awful" are unnecessary and laborious retreads. There is only so much one can take of Carrie Fisher's alter ego.

Why she named "Surrender the Pink's" character Dinah Kaufman when she bears no discernible difference from Suzanne Vale is confusing at best and damning of Fisher's ability to see outside herself at worst. In "The Best Awful," Suzanne even steals one of Dinah's jokes -- the aphrodisiac/anglodisiac line, which isn't even that funny.

Dinah and Suzanne have all the same quips and cadences and bad taste in men, and they become grating fast. The flirty non-sequiturs, the desperate attempts to be witty at all times. Worse, here, Dinah writes for a soap opera and creates a character that's just like her who pops up from time to time with one-liners of her own (all too florid to ever fly on daytime TV), so we have yet another Carrie Fisher incarnation to contend with.

Fisher and her characters try too hard, and then talk a lot about trying too hard.

Loyalty Soufflet
Surrender the Pink was as enjoyable a read as Postcards from the Edge. Fisher does a good job of letting her characters age and mature although all of them remain somewhat troubled. I found Surrender the Pink an intriguing follow up to Bachelor Girl, a cultural history of the single working woman. Dinah, the protagonist, is a classic example of the conflicted single gal. She loves her job, likes sleeping alone and yet wants to married and maybe have a baby. She toys with trying to get back together with an ex but ultimately comes to her senses. The book, save for the tacked on epilogue, ends with Dinah deciding to stay single. The epilogue choses to save her from spinsterhood, although I'm not sure I like her choice of man. With the epilogue in place, I am reminded of the film Something's Got to Give and I'm thinking of the daughter in the film as being akin to Dinah.

Funny and eloquently written
I have to say that I didn't know anything about Carrie Fisher before I started reading Surrender the Pink. So I just enjoyed the book without having any preconceived notions about it. For the first 60 pages or so I didn't find the plot all too engaging, but it kind of picked up when Dinah travelled east. What I really enjoyed about this book were the language, mostly the dialogues. There is nothing particularly intellectual about them, I just thought they were funny and they made the book well worth reading. ... Read more

Product Description
When we left Suzanne Vale at the end of Carrie Fisher's bestselling Postcards from the Edge, she had survived drug abuse, rehab, and Hollywood celebrity. The Best Awful takes Suzanne back to the edge with a new set of troubles -- not the least of which is that her studio executive husband turned out to be gay and has left her for a man.

Lonely for a man herself, Suzanne decides that her medication is cramping her style, and she goes off her meds -- with disastrous results. The "manic" side of the illness convinces her it would be a good idea to get a tattoo, cut off her hair, and head to Mexico with a burly ex-con and a stash of OxyContin. As she wakes up in Tijuana, the "depressive" side kicks in, leading Suzanne through a series of surreal psychotic episodes before landing her in a mental hospital. With the help of her movie star mom, a circle of friends, and even her ex-husband, she begins the long journey back to sanity.

Based on a truant's story, The Best Awful is by turns highly comic and darkly tragic, a roller-coaster ride through the dizzying highs and crushing lows of manic depression, yet containing all the fast and furious wit that made Postcards from the Edge both a bestselling novel and a hit movie.Amazon.com Review
Carrie Fisher's The Best Awful returns Postcards from the Edge fans to the often hilarious, occasionally tragic, but always captivating world of Suzanne Vale, a bi-polar, celebrity talk show host with a six-year old daughter, a gay ex-husband, an aging starlet mother, and an unbreakable will to survive. After Suzanne stops taking her medication, Fisher treats us to the wild, hysterical ride that follows Suzanne's manic episodes, including a search for Oxycontin in Tijuana with her tattoo artist and a new house guest in the form of Hoyt, a clinically depressed patient Suzanne picks up at her psychopharmacologist's office. Even after the inevitable psychotic break lands Suzanne at Shady Lanes, where she's the "latest loony to hit the bin," Fisher never deviates from her trademark wit and uncanny ability to find truth in every irony:

You entered the hospital broken, found some other like broken patient people, and once in their company, looked down on the other more pathetic inhabitants of the bin you shared, those flying even lower than you and your lo-flung co-conspirators...

An insider's look at the Hollywood most of us only read about in supermarket checkout lines, The Best Awful doesn't strive to be anything other than what it is--a rambunctious, honest, wise-cracking trip to rock bottom and back again.Supporting characters are just that, a backdrop against whom Suzanne hopes to find a plausible sense of self. For readers who can accept this novel for what it is, The Best Awful promises over 250 pages of uninhibited entertainment. --Gisele Toueg ... Read more

Customer Reviews (45)

Too bad the Audio CD is truncated.
I cannot really give an honest review of the book because the audio version is truncated. I received 5 CDs. The last track is very short and just stops in mid-sentence. Shame on the people that created the audio book.

Worst awful
This book was reallllly slow.I liked the description of manic episodes and the nervous breakdown.The writing was unimpressive and gave too much background information for the book to be interesting.The ending of the book was completely terrible and made me regret ever reading the book- it did not make sense with the rest of the book and made it seem as if Suzanne could not be happy on her own.

Definitely *not* the best awful.
I slogged through almost 100 pages of this book before just giving up. I kept waiting for something to happen. Some movement, some dialog - SOMETHING. But it was just blah blah blah. Not even the wittiest blah blah blah. This is the third of Carrie Fisher's books that I have read and will definitely be the last.

There is a limit to how much background I need on any given character and this book (at least as much as I could stand to read) went waaay beyond that. Was she getting paid by the word?

The Best Awf
Even though this is fictional novel the story of Suzanne through her experience with bipolar disorder is as real as it gets.A great book for those who personally experience this very difficult illness and/or their close family and friends.I highly recommend this book.

Not Worth Reading
After years of reading mostly non fiction, I finally had the time and inclination to get back to reading fiction.After enjoying all of the Jane Green, Gigi Levangie Grazer and Candice Bushnell novels, I tried this book... but try as I may, I was unable to read it. It just seems to be a series of ramblings and observations with no real story line.I liked Carrie Fisher in Star Wars and wanted to read about how her life was with a famous mother.She has a story to tell.... but should have let someone who is a good writer tell it for her.Luckily I just borrowed this book from the library and didn't waste money buying it. ... Read more

Product Description
Infused with her trademark incisive wit, Carrie Fisher's Untitled takes readers on a rollicking, behind the scenes tour of the Star Wars phenomenon. ... Read more

Product Description
Now available in paperback, Lauren Greenfield's acclaimed Fast Forward is a powerful look at Los Angeles youth culture and its influence on the rest of our society. From the affluent children of the Westside to the graffiti gangs and party crews of East LA, young Angelenos reckon with an overwhelming barrage of advertising and entertainment images emphasizing money, possessions, and eternal youth. This collection of 79 color photographs, accompanied by interviews with the children and their parents, reveals the realities of growing up fast in a culture that is at once irresistible and unforgiving. A compellingprecursor to Greenfield's widely praised Girl Culture, Fast Forward is a telling document of the direction in which today's ultra image-conscious culture is pointed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Superb In Every Respect
From the Introduction by Carrie Fisher, the extraordinary photographs by a young photographer, Lauren
Greenfield (whose subsequent work more than justified our excitement over this book), to the afterword
by Richard Rodriquez, who unfailingly expresses in the most sparse and articulate prose, the exact phrase
to describe what we all wish we had the power to think and say, this is a book of both accomplishment
beyond her years, and the promise of extraordinary work in the future.

Buy it.Read it and review the images many times.It only gets better with each insight gained from picking
it up again and again. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Instant gratification takes too long
Carrie Fisher's memoir, Wishful Drinking is a witty romp through the ruins of her dysfuntion: She suffers from Bipolar Disorder, drug addiction and alcoholism, low self esteem, and has undergone Electroshock Therapy, which has erased major parts of her memory--like a real-life version of The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. She is also the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, actually designated America's Sweethearts. Eddie left Debbie when Carrie was only three to marry the recently widowed Elizabeth Taylor, whose former husband, Mike Todd, was Eddie's good friend. Soon after the marriage Eddie was dumped by Liz when she met Richard Burton on the set of Cleopatra.

Carrie has written four books, one of which was made into the 1990 film, Postcards From the Edge, loosely based on her life. Meryl Streep played her while Shirley MacLaine's character was based on Carrie's mother, Debbie Reynolds. The best scene is where Shirley upstages Meryl at her own birthday party. The story of her life. She was married to Paul Simon, and another one of her husbands left her for another man, an experience she used as the basis for her book, The Best Awful. And, oh, yeah. She was Princess Leia in 3 episodes of Star Wars. The cover of Wishful Drinking shows Carrie head down on the bar holding a martini glass, you can't see her face, all you see is the Princess Leia 'bagel buns' hair do.

She used Wishful Drinking as the basis for a one-woman show that opened on Broadway in September 2009. She used both the book and the show as a kind of extended personals ad, and I must say I find her very attractive, for her sparkling wit as well as her physical beauty, but I am afraid that if I wrote to her, she'd use the letter to mock me in her book, as she did to one poor fellow. Besides, she is kind of crazy and would probably be very high maintenance. If you look up the definition of Bipolar, they illustrate it with a picture of Carrie Fisher.

My condolances go out to Carrie as her father, Eddie Fisher, just recently passed away, but her feelings for him were rather ambivelant. After reading his 1999 memoirs, where he bragged of the numerous women he'd seduced, she remarked "I am going to have my DNA fumigated." Her mother, Debbie Reynolds, was also a little eccentric, but mainly she made Carrie feel inadequate when she transformed herself with make up and clothes, right before her eyes, from her mother to a movie star. How can you compete with the Unsinkable Molly Brown? Her mother/daughter dynamic is ably demonstrated by Meryl Streep and Shirley Maclaine in Postcards From the Edge.

Carrie reveals in Wishful Drinking that she once had a fling with U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut). When Dodd was asked to comment in 2007 (for The Kansas City Star), he told a reporter, "it was a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away". Who could resist the chance to use that line in a situation like that?

Anyway, my offer to date Carrie Fisher is still open, but I confess that I never saw Star Wars, and I did see one movie from the series, but all I remember is Java the Hut. I don't even know if she was in that one or not. So, at least I am not one of those creeps that tell her, "I used to think of you all the time from when I was 13 to 24. Well, at least once a day."

The Bottom Line is Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking is like a dry martini, or a sparkling glass of champagne. It is a breezy romp through dismal terrain, and a tale of survival, from somewhere, under the rainbow. Call me, Carrie.

-------------------------
Carrie Fisher: I was street smart, but unfortunately the street was Rodeo Drive.
===================

Delusions of Grandma (1994) by Carrie Fisher
Surrender the pink (1990) by Carrie Fisher
Postcards from the Edge (1987) by Carrie Fisher
The Best Awful: A Novel (2004) by Carrie Fisher
Postcards from the Edge (1990) Screenplay by Carrie Fisher
Star Wars Trilogy (1977, 1980, 1983) Carrie Fisher was Princess Leia
Cougar Club (2007) Carrie Fisher was Glady Goodbey
Shampoo (1975) Carrie Fisher was Lorna Carp
Singin' in the Rain (1952) Carrie Fisher's mother, Debbie Reynolds was Kathy Selden
Under The Rainbow (1981) Carrie Fisher was Annie Clark

------------------
Carrie Fisher: Instant Gratification takes too long.
===============

Hilarious and touching.
Carrie Fisher is a brilliant humorist, and this book is her one woman show in print.She chronicles her not-particularly-normal life growing up in Hollywood and subsequent crash into bi-polar disorder, revealing both from the inside in a vivid but un-sensational narrative, delivering candid insights with brilliant self-deprecating humor.

Wishful Drinking is a quick read, delicious for movie star buffs and vastly informative about manic depression as viewed from the inside.

Too little, way too late
Logging in at 162 pages in print large enough for the reading impaired is this dull, repetitive .... thing.Less than a memoir, not a diary, I don't know what you would call it.I have to believe that Carrie Fisher has more, and better stories to tell than this.Perhaps she doesn't remember them.She claims that electroshock therapy has destroyed her memory, so then what purpose does this book serve?It is only mildly funny, has little information and can only really be praised as a quick read.Whatever she was paid was too much.Her earlier novels, "Postcards From the Edge", etc. are much better.

Good Fun/read

Albeit an all too breif autobiography but never the less a fun read with photos included. Intersting, humorous and informative.

Taken from or based on Carrie Fisher's currently playing 1 woman stage show "Wishful Drinking" which move
s onto Broadway New York this fall is a 5 star thumb's Upfor this reviewer/fan.

Highly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
This striking, large format volume presents photographer Carrie Mae Weems's compelling serial works on the status and place of African Americans in the United States. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

carrie mae weems- a true image maker
the images in the book are incredible, and the text takes the reader through her life and her work.ideas of humor, racism and stereotypes are well explained.this book is a good representation of her work. ... Read more

Product Description
* An anthology of writings by some of the most influential women in history on the often misunderstood and misrepresented female drug experience.* With great honesty, bravery, and frankness, women from diverse backgrounds write about their drug experiences.

Women have been experimenting with drugs since prehistoric times, and yet published accounts of their views on the drug experience have been relegated to either antiseptic sociological studies or sensationalized stories splashed across the tabloids. The media has given us an enduring, but inaccurate, stereotype of a female drug user: passive, addicted, exploited, degraded, promiscuous. But the selections in this anthology--penned by such famous names as Billie Holiday, Anais Nin, Maya Angelou, and Carrie Fisher--show us that the real experiences of women are anything but stereotypical.

Sisters of the Extreme provides us with writings by women from diverse occupations and backgrounds, from prostitute to physician, who through their use of drugs dared cross the boundaries set by society--often doing so with the hope of expanding themselves and their vision of the world. Whether with LSD, peyote, cocaine, heroine, MDMA, or marijuana, these women have sought to reach, through their experimentation, other levels of consciousness. Sometimes their quests have brought unexpected rewards, other times great suffering and misfortune. But wherever their trips have left them, these women have lived courageously--if sometimes dangerously--and written about their journeys eloquently. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

SISTERS Give The Wildest Ride
Being on the fringe of consensual reality and yet being able to take some notes of the journeys beyond, is an awesome gift.The stories in SISTERS OF THE EXTREME are such gifts of the God-Us. I have the original SHAMAN WOMAN, MAINLINE LADY and went through my contribution, line for line, and the only difference noted was my photo had shrunk in this new, revised edition.(This is consistent as now, being in my fifties, I notice that I am shrinking some also.)The tone not only is consistent from the first edition but vividly expansive.(I was somewhat embarrassed being in the first edition, with the stereotypic cover -- yet in this new volume, I am honored not only for the outrageous company kept and new sisters included but engaging graphics.)

As the God-Us dances about the universe, skirt swirling the galaxies, being on the fringes gives the wildest ride.This book is a travelogue by explorers of multi-dimensional realities written in white ink, from the heart of our Sisters-in-the-Clan-of-Encouragement:this book is a major herstoric contribution to the sext of human consciousness.

Jeannine Parvati (Baker) Author HYGIEIA: A WOMAN'S HERBAL

A fine survey of women whose lives were changed by drugs.
Sisters Of The Extreme is an informative and engaging presentation of famous female authors who write about the drug experience includes avariety of works from such notables as Bronte, Alcott, Di Prima, and more.Writings from historical works through modern times are gathered in SistersOf The Extreme, a fine survey of the lives and experiences of women whohave had their lives changed by drugs.

Stick with the original. It's better.
Let's get one thing straight right off the bat, Sisters of the Extreme is a "reissue" of 1982's Shaman Woman, Mainline Lady -- cut, streamlined and reformatted beyond all recognition. Evidently, the authorstook the edge off their book for a more "conservative" era --either that, or they assume their reader's minds have been so numbed bydrugs that we NEED heavy edits and People Magazine-inspired"look" to hold our limited attention.

Sure, there are a coupleof new excerpts worth reading (the one from Mary Woronov's "The MolePeople is revealing), but for the most part, Sisters of the Extreme seemsto be pandering to old YUPPIES who need a little stimulation. I swear thatif I read ANYTHING by Carrie Fisher ever again, it will be too soon --enough of the "I went to rehab and got a bad haircut" trip.Getover it.

In the introduction, the authors do say that they edited someexcerpts for space and deleted others all together. When I got out the twoeditions and compared them almost line for line, I discovered a disturbingtrend -- whereas Shaman Woman, Mainline Lady allowed one to take thewritings at face value, Sisters of the Extreme has definite agenda. Sistersof the Extreme doesn't LIKE drugs. It doesn't want ME to like drugs. Itwants me to be TITILATED by the writings. The difference isclear.

Sisters of the Extreme is a product of the times. It's been dumbeddown and punched up. Sure, the authors include a couple of writings on sexmagick and a few counter culture cartoons, but the overall smell ofpolitical correctness is stupifying.

The gist of my review is this: ifdon't already own a copy of Shaman Woman, Mainline Lady, go ahead and buySisters of the Extreme. Then, go on a quest for the Real Thing.

In themeantime, the use bibliography in Sisters of the Extreme to find and readthe original sourced writings. You'll be glad you did. ... Read more

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Weekly entertainment magazine. ... Read more

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Word count: 2263. ... Read more

Product Description
Finally, after four hit novels, Carrie Fisher comes clean (well, sort of) with the crazy truth that is her life in her first-ever memoir. In Wishful Drinking, adapted from her one-woman stage show, Fisher reveals what it was really like to grow up a product of "Hollywood in-breeding," come of age on the set of a little movie called Star Wars, and become a cultural icon and bestselling action figure at the age of nineteen.Intimate, hilarious, and sobering, Wishful Drinking is Fisher, looking at her life as she best remembers it (what do you expect after electroshock therapy?). It's an incredible tale: the child of Hollywood royalty -- Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher -- homewrecked by Elizabeth Taylor, marrying (then divorcing, then dating) Paul Simon, having her likeness merchandized on everything from Princess Leia shampoo to PEZ dispensers, learning the father of her daughter forgot to tell her he was gay, and ultimately waking up one morning and finding a friend dead beside her in bed.Wishful Drinking, the show, has been a runaway success, Entertainment Weekly declared it "drolly hysterical" and the Los Angeles Times called it a "Beverly Hills yard sale of juicy anecdotes." This is Carrie Fisher at her best -- revealing her worst. She tells her true and outrageous story of her bizarre reality with her inimitable wit, unabashed self-deprecation, and buoyant, infectious humor. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Interesting and yet annoying
Something tells me you really need to hear this read in Carrie Fisher's voice.Yet that voice has this built-in -- what is it?Wryness?Sarcasm?No, not really.Annoyingly sardonic self-awareness?Whatever it is, it is really, really grating.Perhaps one can only really bare one's soul by keeping a safe distance, but now I wish I'd just read the book instead.

A fun, honest potrayal
I completely disagree with the above review.What should we expect? A perfect intergalactic princess to tell us her cute story? NO, this is the real thing.Carrie tells the story of her life through amusing anecdotes and pure honesty.Highly recommended!

Read by the author
This is just awful.Carrie's voice is painful to listen to, gravelly and used beyond her years.And her story is weird and sad, but not at all interesting.Fortunately it's only three disks. ... Read more

Product Description
Les achats comprennent une adhésion à l'essai gratuite au club de livres de l'éditeur, dans lequel vous pouvez choisir parmi plus d'un million d'ouvrages, sans frais. Le livre consiste d'articles Wikipedia sur : Harrison Ford, Natalie Portman, Christopher Lee, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Samuel L. Jackson, James Earl Jones, Liam Neeson, Alec Guinness, Ewan Mcgregor, Billy Dee Williams, Temuera Morrison, Warwick Davis, Anthony Daniels, Hayden Christensen, Ian Mcdiarmid, Jake Lloyd, Ray Park, Pernilla August, David Prowse, Kenny Baker, Ahmed Best, Peter Mayhew, Bonnie Piesse, Joel Edgerton, Sebastian Shaw, Jeremy Bulloch, Phil Brown, Shelagh Fraser. Non illustré. Mises à jour gratuites en ligne. Extrait : Harrison Ford est un acteur américain né le 13 juillet 1942 à Chicago, dans l'État de l'Illinois aux États-Unis. Il doit sa notoriété à sa collaboration avec George Lucas, qui a été le premier à lui donner l'occasion de s'affirmer en tant qu'acteur. Avec ses rôles de Han Solo dans la trilogie originelle de et d'Indiana Jones, il accède au rang de vedette internationale. Il confirme son statut d'acteur majeur du cinéma de divertissement après que l'Association nationale des propriétaires de salles de spectacle l'eut consacré « star du siècle du box-office » en 1994. En effet, les films dans lesquels il a tenu un rôle majeur ont engendré près de six milliards de dollars. Il met sa notoriété au service de la conservation de la nature et de la préservation de l'environnement en sensibilisant, notamment, sur le cas critique de la déforestation des forêts tropicales. Chicago, ville natale d'Harrison Ford.Harrison Ford naît durant l'été 1942 à Chicago d'un père catholique, Christopher Ford, et d'une mère juive, Dorothy Nidelman. Son grand-père paternel, John Fitzgerald Ford, est un irlandais catholique et sa grand-mère, Florence Veronica Niehaus, une allemande. Ses grands-parents maternels, Harry Nidelman et Anna Lifschu...http://booksllc.net/?l=fr ... Read more