Wishful Drinking

what a disappointment!!!! as other's have said, it's a mess of a book. couldn't she afford an editor? or did the publisher feel that since she was once a good writer, "postcards from the edge", she wouldn't need an editor?

i found the "chapters" a bit of a joke since there was no real content difference from one chapter to the next since she repeats herself alot. don't expect chronological order of events in her life, just expect truly free association of events, even within paragraphs.

if she was trying to let people experience first hand what a mental illness feels like, which seems to be the main topic of this book, she at least achieved that goal. i can honestly say i feel true sympathy now for the people who are experiencing it. unfortunately that wasn't what i was hoping to feel after i read a book by carrie fisher.

yes, there is a bit of name dropping but nothing surprising other than cary grant seemed to be somewhat of a drug counselor in his later years.

if you still want to read it, borrow it from the library, this book does not deserve any type of profit.

This book is candid, real, and reads as if Carrie Fisher were reading it to you. I wish I had seen her show that she based this book on, but this is a great second. I highly recommend it to anyone with an open mind and a raw sense of humor.

While I wish Carrie the best in her life and career, this book was not very entertaining. Indeed it does bring attention to Manic Depression, a serious illness, but, it doesn't take it seriously...or so it seems. I'm glad she is doing better and hope she continues on her journey to wellness.

I thoroughly enjoyed Carrie Fisher's book about (among other things) living with mental illness. I think Carrie takes her personal hardships and spins them into witty little life lessons. It was also enjoyable to get a (no longer) secret glimpse into the lives of some favorite celebrities. ?

I had read the phenomenal reviews about this (little) book and I was a bit upset to be able to finish it in one day. It's almost like reading an article in a women's magazine. It's funny and witty and it's obvious CF is a very smart woman--but a book? Come on. If she weren't famous, it never would have been published.

I found this book disappointing. I don't think it was as horrible as some other reviewers are saying, but "Wishful Drinking" wasn't as funny as I've been told it was or even as well-written as some of the carefully-edited excerpts I've seen on-line.

Fisher's writing style comes off as desperate: she's trying too hard to be funny. Her life was colorful and surreal enough that simply describing it in a straightforward manner would be enough to be entertaining. Instead she comes off as the text-only equivalent of a baggy-pants comedian trying to make the audience laugh with seltzer water, comic pratfalls and exaggerated gurning. She'll tell a punchline, then repeat it and run it into the ground as though she hopes the reader who didn't laugh the first time eventually will after multiple repetitions. "Look at me, everybody; I'm so funny!" She doesn't understand less is more: make your point and move on.

If this is what Carrie Fisher's celebrated writing was like, I don't anticipate wasting time on any of her other books.

Carrie Fisher is so very honest concerning her life and the drama throughout it all...and I can identify with many aspects of her book!
It's endearing, funny, and yet sobering.
Carrie has so much to give...a personality plus!
It shines throughtout this read which I highly recommend.

Pam Steadman

Very entertaining book even though the subject matter is sensitive, Carrie Fisher has a way with the stories she tells that had me howling with laughter! Saw the show on HBO too a few years back and enjoyed that immensely too!

Carrie Fisher is so real, and that's what I love about her! I picked the book up and didn't put it down until I read cover to cover. Wishful Drinking shows how Carrie's sense of humor helps her through situations many of us would find devastating!

Cheers to the store for their super service, too!

it was funny and sad at the same time. Carrie knew how to turn a tragic moment into a funny learning experience. i was only hoping she would go a little deeper into her true feelings and sadness.I think her comedic dry sense of humor was her shield. but,that is OK. everyone has differents ways of coping and she was brave to to share her story. I think it makes us regular folks feels a kindred feeling with those of our kind, famous or not. I will miss her, but I'm glad she was able to rest in peace in sobrity

If one 'has' to read this book, buy a used copy as Carrie seems to have written this one merely to make some money.

There are some mildly humorous episodes to accompany the revelation of her addictions to drugs and alcohol, and denigrating (probably righteously) her father, Eddy Fisher. On the positive side, she does seem to appreciate and love her mother, who was/is talented as well as eccentric.

Meh ... I didn't think it was all that great. Mildly entertaining, not a total waste of time, but nothing to write home about. I could be biased though, I have never seen Star Wars and had no idea who her famous parents were, oh well.

Carrie Fisher's memoir is self-effacing, sharp witted, and poignant. Her humor is dry, wry, and hilarious, while she deftly brings the reader to understand, without gooey sentiment, her fall into substance abuse.

It was with sadness at hearing the news of Carrie Fisher's early passing, that I decided to read this book. As talented as she is as a writer, the point of the book escapes me. She certainly shares much of her struggle but it left me with far more questions than answers as to why she wrote the book at all.

This is a very quick read but enjoyable. Carrie Fisher may not have the best sobriety and she may not be someone I would hire to be a speaker had I an organization looking for a mental illness advocate (she advertises herself on the book jacket as a "sought after speaker") as she is a chronic relapser, but her prose is both witty and fun. A good albeit quick read.

Carrie Fisher is funny but there was little that really provided insights into her thoughts and emotions. She skimmed the surface. I anticipated more depth from her as she has shown the ability to share.

The book is entertaining, as well as an interesting peep inside the belated actress and author. However this style is not my cup of tea. I felt like I was reading more of a "splat" than a narrative story. Also, I am sick of politics; so the prologue really did nothing for me. Again, this is an entertaining read but not my style. If I weren't a member of a book club I most likely would not have finished it.

Hilarious, even moving-- definitely one of those books that you must get on audio because the author adds so much in the reading. I cannot imagine what kind of party poopers are giving this one or two stars-- talk about resentment being the poison that you drink and wait for the other person to die.
Buy this, you will love it.

Carrie Fisher has done way too many drugs to write a cogent book. I wanted to see the real Carrie Fisher. Unless she was terribly shallow, the real person isn't here much. It's all very glib and glosses over what should have been important times to her. I can't recommend this book.

Crude language. Not particularly amusing. Author is not as funny as she thinks and tries a bit too hard to make light of a serious subject.. Unfortunately, her style detracts from what could/should have been an enlightening, inspiring message.

I wish Carrie Fisher had not died so that we could benefit from her self-deprecating humor over and over. She is funny and made her mental illness, alcoholism, and drug addiction seem like a lark. It was not! The fact that she survived it, could function, and actually be productive says much for the strength of addicts. I got this book after she died. I might not have bothered if she had not died so suddenly. I am glad I read it. I wish she was still with us because she is one of a kind and so was her mother. The book is easy to read, kinda like the way she gave interviews, not too serious and sometimes hard to follow but she was medicated most of the time. Being raised in the circus that is Hollywood and born to two of the most iconic members of the 50's, survived the departure of her father for her mother's best friend (who happened to be Elizabeth Taylor), I'd say she turned out better than expected. She says her brother got the good genes and had no issues with drugs or alcohol. You don't much about him either do you. It's always the 'sick ones' that get the attention. Anyway, this is a short book and is more a dialogue between Carrie and her audience and in fact this was her one woman stage play. Wish I could have seen it. I will miss Princess Leia.

If you are like me, you will have a bit of problem getting into the book at the start. But it will come to you pretty fast and then you won't want to put it down. There are many very funny stories. My favorite : Debbie, the closet, the dresses and the shoes. I love Carrie's sense of humor but cannot help wonder if it hides her vulnerability. Disappointed that it was not longer but I recommend it.

This autobiographical nonfiction book offers the verbal ramblings of the daughter of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds. The style is conversational with minimal writing talent. Don't expect any interesting revelations about her life or family. A few of the scenarios described seem to be more legend than fact. Carrie says her father fainted in the delivery room when she was born. Were fathers even allowed behind the doors in 1956? I don't think so. This is a volume I will not recommend nor buy as a gift. The photos in the Kindle format are mediocre.

I suspect this is the script for the stage show Fisher does, also called Wishful Drinking. The font is big, and the book is double spaced with blank pages before chapters, and it's still a short book! And there's a lot of photos. You can easily read it in 90 minutes. Parts of it repeat other parts, just Carrie being witty and conversational. She jumps all over the place chronologically. It's really not an autobiography, but more a series of examples of why she's the way she is. Although it's kind of hard to sympathize when life also handed out a lot of breaks and benefits "normal" people don't get, and some of the normal people have it hard, too, so don't envy us normal people that much. Normal is not all it's cracked up to be.

A repetitive, rambling account of some of the events in Ms Fisher's life, with some self depreciating jokes thrown in. Seems a lot like one of those books you pick up in the airport because you forgot to bring one, and it's either this or a Dutch newspaper.

She writes the same way she talks: annoying stream-of-consciousness babble.
I've noticed that her mother does the same thing.
With her famous friends and family and her very eventful life, she had a very entertaining story to tell, BUT she should have gotten a ghost writer to tell it.

I bought this as light, fun reading for a very long airplane ride. I saved it for weeks in anticipation. Not only is the writing not very good, it's just not that interesting. Maybe, and that's a big maybe, her performance is better than this book, but I wouldn't count on it. I know "funny" is highly subjective, and I should have remembered that before I bought this book after reading many good reviews. I thought it was awfully light on words and pages, and even though it's a kind of memoir, found it self-absorbed to the point of blindness.

Being a big fan or Carrie's books and admiring how she could survive such a Hollywood upbringing, I really looked forward to this new book. While there are moments of hilarity, it really reads better if you imagine her standing up in front of an audience doing this as a cross between a stand up routine and a semi biography. As a book it just is not on the same caliber as her previous efforts. But i was able to get through it by picturing her reading this live and laughing along with the audience. It is witty and funny in places but more properly belongs as it started - a stand up show or audio book. I applaud her survival and honesty about her addictions and bipolar disorder, but this is better as an interview than a book.

I should first say that I truly wanted to enjoy Carrie Fisher's book, "Wishful Drinking". In spite of its flaws, I finished the book, hunting to the last for some reasoning or moral concept within its pages, and the only conclusion I came to is that $9.99 was better spent elsewhere.

The first issue I had with "Wishful Drinking" was its lack of content. It certainly contains a few funny anecdotes, but they're of the "Heh." variety rather than the rolling on the floor sort. The vast majority of the anecdotes presented lack substance as she retells stories that were likely far more hilarious at the time that they occurred. For the observer, they lack the depth to hit home. For Star Wars fans, there really isn't a boatload of information here...two or three offhand references, a surprisingly low amount. This leads to my next issue.

Problem number two is that the book serves as a narrative spouting of issues for Carrie Fisher. Prior to reading "Wishful Drinking", I had no idea of her history of substance abuse problems in conjunction with a bipolar condition. This is an unwelcome revelation, but could at least serve as kindling to create a great big firestorm of a book. The issue is that Carrie Fishers writing style too greatly illustrates that she has had substance abuse and bipolar issues...her book lacks organization or structure, is devoid of context, and often lacks coherent thought. Unfortunately, her personal narrative presents as a disjointed and confusing babble rather than as personal conversation with the reader. This book could very easily have been written in a day or two, with absolutely no preparation or design.

To end, I had one final issue with this book. In a personal outpouring of her soul, or in a heartfelt retelling of past struggles, you will find no less conscientious or regretful a soul than Carrie Fisher. As she recounts her dark days of substance and alcohol abuse, you will find that there is no moral discovery or explanation of the impact that such problems have had on her family. The revelations of substance abuse serve only to introduce substance-void narratives, such as the time she spoke on the phone to Cary Grant (I'm sure it was much more interesting if you were there) or the none-too-regretful feeling of a woman proclaiming to the world "I've got substance abuse issues and I'm bi-polar! Whoo crazy lady on the way through, back up back up!" At the end, you will know that she suffers from considerable emotional and substance-abuse related issues, that she feels her mother and her daughter are absolutely awesome, life is pretty great, and there is apparently no negative repercussions from leading such a lifestyle, outside of having to undergo electric shock therapy...which doesn't seem to bother her, and which she apparently feels is pretty awesome.

If you deem to purchase this book, know that it is a manifesto consisting of a shoulder shrug and a swig off a bottle, of a woman quite amused with her own abuse problems, who will look at you from the pages of this book and say "Yeah I've got a problem, so what?"

I truly wish I had loved this book, but this pond is far too shallow for Carrie Fisher to actually reflect in.

Even though I'm sure her one-woman show is funnier, Carrie Fisher's wit and humor definitely come across in this book. There's no plot, and little chronology, but it comes across the same as it would on stage. Just an iconic and kinda crazy woman, rambling on about her strange and interesting life. Any fans of Fisher or Star Wars would love it, and I think people who don't fit one of those categories would at least be amused by it. It's a quick read, with large print and pictures!

I like Carrie Fisher, really I do. However, I have to agree with several of the other reviews - there was not much to this book. At first I thought I must have purchased the large print edition as the print is huge and appears double spaced (or 1.5 anyway). Take away the pictures and the blank pages and it IS like a pamphlet. I wish I had read comments prior to purchasing this book. In this economy, I can't afford to spend money on such a quick read. I am left wondering whether her electric shock treatments erased her memory of previous works, as much of this has been covered before in her fiction. Save your money folks.

This book is, without a doubt, the worst book I have ever read. I always pass my books on to friends or donate them to libraries/nursing homes. I have never discarded a book in 62 years, but this one is going into the oval filing cabinet.

I can't remember what, exactly, made me order this book. I think a misguided relative suggested it thinking it would be entertaining to someone in the recovery community. Books like these sell because of celebrity, obviously, but the author has led such an interesting life, there is an abundance of material to make wonderful and entertaining reading or perhaps even an insightful and inspiring story of recovery that could help someone suffering from addiction or mental illness.

Unfortunately, there is nothing worthy or entertaining about this boring read. I kept waiting for something to happen, either hilarious or insightful but that moment never arrived. This is a shallow attempt at being funny or insightful. It pretty much confirms my view of Hollywood being a cultural wasteland that without the help of occasional outsiders who show up and provide good material, would have nothing of value, entertainment or otherwise, to justify their existence.

I honestly wanted to like this book but could not. I don't condemn the author because she has obviously responded to requests from many to share her story with the world. Maybe at dinner or a social gathering, she could provide light entertainment, but once the words go into black and white, their insipid, boring and shallow reality becomes impossible to ignore.

I have enjoyed her acting over the years, but I found this book to be based in her ego survival. I did not find this book worth my time. If you are interested in supporting the limited thinking that shock treatments solve mental illness, then you will identify. However, I choose to know that I can recover with loving healthy methods that are an alternative to the toxic methods of medicine. I have chosen an alternate path and have found more sanity than I found in her book. However, she is usually a talented writer and engaging actress.

I don't generally write reviews, but this book just made me want to write one.

I've liked Carrie Fisher's other books and generally really like "memoirs" about drug addiction, drinking, mental health issues and things like that. So it seemed like Carrie Fisher's "memoir" titled Wishful Drinking would be very good. I was excited about reading it.

But, I did not like this book at all. It didn't go into any detail about anything in her life. Just a sentence or two about some "issue" and that's all. I was always waiting for "the story" then I finally just got to the end and really didn't feel like she actually told anything. It was just sort of rambling about herself while trying too hard to be funny yet leaving out an actual story. Along with that, although some authors can do the rambling, then getting distracted and changing to some other topic, she really couldn't pull it off.

I would not recommend this book at all which upsets me because I was really expecting something much better.

Wishful Drinking is adapted from Carrie Fisher’s one woman show and is a humorous look at her fantastical life growing up the daughter of celebrities and then becoming one herself. This was a great book to read right after Christmas. I laughed a lot while I read this book, it had a lot of great one liners.

Fisher tackles a lot of subjects including Hollywood inbreeding, what her life was like growing up, becoming an action figure as Princess Leia, and finding out she was bi-polar. It was an interesting look at her life and I appreciated how she tackled tough subjects.

This is a hard book to describe as it is so unique. I love old Hollywood and Star Wars so it was interesting to see these items from behind the scenes. It was also fascinating to read about Carrie’s personal struggles and how she kept battling her way through life trying to get better, especially for her daughter.

One surreal story that made me laugh was when her mother got Cary Grant to give her a call about drugs . . . and then her father did as well. Although Carrie Fisher is the daughter of celebrities and a celebrity herself, Cary Grant was someone she was in awe of. So, she had a couple of one hour talks with Cary Grant about her drug problems which was a very unreal experience for her.

I also liked her frank discussion about her marriage and their unraveling. She talked about her daughter and her love for her and I really liked that. Although Carrie Fisher had a bizarre family experience growing up, you could tell that family was very important to her. But that she also wouldn’t mince words if she thought her family members were being odd or hilarious.

Favorite Quotes:

There are so many it’s hard to pick from – but here is just one about her parents’ marriage break-up when her Dad cheated on her Mom with Elizabeth Taylor (cover your sensitive eyes – this is a ribald comment which were there a few of in this book, but it was hilarious):

“Because about a year later, Mike Todd took off in a private plane in a rainstorm, and the following morning Elizabeth was a widow. Well naturally, my father flew to Elizabeth’s side, gradually making his way slowly to her front. He first dried her eyes with a handkerchief, then he consoled her with flowers, and he ultimately consoled he with his penis.”

Overall, Wishful Drinking is a humorous look at the surreal life of Carrie Fisher. It made me understand her struggles better, while also causing me to chuckle at the absurdities of celebrity life. I highly recommend it with a word of caution that sometimes things get crass – but in a hilarious kind of way.

Book Source: Christmas Present from my Best Friend Jenn

Synopsis: Wishful Drinking is a autobiogaphical book written by Carrie Fisher of Star Wars fame. The book followed Fisher's one-woman stage show as developed together with Josh Ravetch.

The biography is somewhat framed with a particular point in Carrie Fisher's life when memory loss is a serious side-effect. Thus to embark on writing a biography may seem both appropriate and challenging for anyone given these circumstances as a response to this potential loss of history. But te way Fisher addresses it is rather head-on with a lot of humor to boot.

And thus we explore her life stating with her celebrity family, her getting into Star Wars and all the fun and crazy stuff in-between and beyond. She freely talks about her struggles with addictions of all sorts and mental illness and even waking up next to a dead friend. And how she retells these events with key details but perhaps some fuzzy bits as well is both revealing, amusing and downright funny.

What I Liked: So the book is pretty funny, and knowing it was performed as a live show of sorts helps explain that side of things. Fisher is more than open about making fun of herself and just blurting out whatever feels right, as is something that does become easier with age. And she has certainly had quite the colorful history that her rather candid approach to things helps a lot.

Experiencing this as an audio book is even better as Fisher is pretty savvy with comedy both in terms of writing and actually delivering such lines. Fisher's reading is lively and perfectly captures her often sardonic humor in terms of how she probably imagined it in her head when she read things or when she crafted her one-woman piece. It's a delight to read and one of the lovely artifacts that she has left behind given her passing.

What Could Have Been Better: That said, the book is still clearly a first effort at something as at times pacing feels slow or overall structure feels confusing. The "story" doesn't exactly follow her life in a chronological order, and that's fine. There are just bits that feel overly long while others seem too short. The way things were sequenced and such don't always flow all that well from one chapter to the next but Fisher's performance helps carry you through.

Many Star Wars fans may come across this book and hope to learn a lot more about her time as Princess Leia and maybe this isn't quite the book for you. This first memoir is a retelling of her life until that point and Star Wars is but one part of a larger whole. And it's her life to write about as she pleases, but it's still a bit of a surprise given how the book is marketed.

TL;DR: Wishing Drinking is a fun opportunity to learn more about Carrie Fisher's life and the audio book also helps you feel like you know her a bit more on a personal level, as crazy as that may sound. She may no longer be with us but she certainly lives on in her writing.

3.5 stars

This book is (more or less) the written version of Carrie Fisher's stage production "Wishful Drinking."

Carrie is probably best known for her role as the beautiful, intrepid 'Princess Leia" in the Star Wars movies. Carrie was 19 when the first movie filmed and - perhaps coincidentally - this was when the actress transitioned from habitually smoking pot to using hallucinogens and opiates. In time Carrie became a drug-addicted alcoholic with manic-depressive disorder (bipolar disorder 2). In this humorous mini-biography - written when Carrie was 52 - the actress relates her story.

Carrie was born a celebrity, being the child of actress/singer Debbie Reynolds and crooner Eddie Fisher. Debbie starred in iconic films like 'Singin' in the Rain' and Eddie has a long list of oldies, but is 'better known for his scandals than his singing.' In a bombshell incident reminiscent of Brad Pitt leaving Jennifer Aniston for Angelina Jolie, Eddie Fisher left Debbie Reynolds for the gorgeous widow, Elizabeth Taylor.

As it happens Eddie also largely abandoned Carrie and her younger brother Todd. According to Carrie, Debbie raised the kids in Los Angeles and Eddie 'checked in from time to time' while flitting from one woman to another. Eventually, Eddie married a Chinese woman - Betty Lin - and after she died 'he started to date all of Chinatown.' Carrie notes that 'this was fitting because Eddie had gotten so many facelifts that he looked Asian himself.' LOL

Carrie sang in her mother's nightclub act from the ages of 13 to 17 and - as it happens - also started doing drugs at 13. Carrie got hold of a bag of pot and 'experimented her brains out' with a friend. Carrie started seeing shrinks at the age of 15.....but was not diagnosed as manic-depressive until years later. By that time Carrie was in her mid-20s, and heavily into alcohol and drugs. She used these 'to turn down the sound [in her head] and smooth her sharp corners.'

Carrie's second shrink diagnosed her with bipolar disorder 1 and gave her prescription medication - but Carrie didn't want to take it. Instead, the actress jumped on a plane, went to New York and married her boyfriend, singer/songwriter Paul Simon. Carrie notes that her first marriage mirrored her mother's first union - both Paul Simon and Eddie Fisher were 'short, Jewish singers.'

Carrie was in her late 20s when she overdosed and had her stomach pumped. Realizing that her life had become unmanageable, Carrie started attending 12-step programs....thinking alcohol was her big problem. Over the years Carrie had four relapses or 'explosions.' During these she would become sexually promiscuous, spend excessively, and abuse substances.

Finally, Carrie's third and best psychiatrist correctly diagnosed her with bipolar disorder 2, and medicated her. Unfortunately, two of the pharmaceuticals interacted badly and Carrie was taken off her meds. She ended up psychotic. This eventually led to eletroconvulsive therapy which helped Carrie get better - but robbed her of many memories. Luckily, Carrie had enough remembrances left to write this book.

Carrie notes: 'After all the rehabs and all the mental hospitals, I thought to myself, if what doesn't kill you makes you stronger I should be able to lift Cedars Sinai Hospital and glow in the dark.'

Interspersed with the tale of Carrie's addiction and mental illness are interesting snippets about her life. Here are a few examples:

Carrie's stepfather Harry Karl (Debbie's second husband) was not a handsome man, but was wealthy and well-groomed, said to be distinguished looking. Carrie notes, 'That's ugly with money.' To Carrie's amusement, the very handsome Alec Baldwin played Harry in a movie. LOL

Harry had a 'barber' (pimp) who showed up every day with a 'manicurist' (wink wink). When Debbie caught on to Harry's shenanigans she high-tailed it to New York with the children - to do a musical. The couple soon divorced.....but not before Harry squandered all of Debbie's money.

When Todd (Carrie's brother) accidently shot himself in the leg with a gun, Debbie called Carrie from the hospital with the following instructions: 'Rush home and hide all the guns and bullets and flush Todd's marijuana down the toilet. Carrie notes, 'More like a mafia family than a show business one.'

Carrie adored her mother. She describes Debbie as 'the prettiest, funniest, kindest mother; quick and witty; a consummate performer; and an insanely strong life force.....but a little bit eccentric.' Debbie thought Carrie should have a baby with her (Debbie's) third husband, Richard Hamlett, because he had 'nice eyes.' Carrie declined.

Carrie had a beautiful daughter, Billie, with her second husband Brian Lourd. When Billie was one, Brian left Carrie for a man named Scott. This devastated the actress.....and perhaps exacerbated her mental illness.

After Star Wars became a megahit, Carrie was 'merchandised' into a little doll, a shampoo bottle, a soap, a watch, a Mrs. Potato Head, a Lego figure, a stamp, and a Pez dispenser. Much to Carrie's dismay, she's even a sex doll. Carrie notes, 'If someone tells me to go f*** myself, I can give it a whirl.' Ha ha ha.

Towards the end of the book Carrie acknowledges, 'The place I've arrived at in my life isn't everyone's idea of heavenly....but I'm in a good place.' Both Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds died in December, 2016 and they're missed. Fortunately, we'll always have their stories and films.

The book is entertaining and amusing - and provides an instructive and uplifting story about coping with addiction and mental illness. If you're interested in the subject, it's well worth reading.

Wishful Drinking is Carrie Fisher’s memoir with having both bi-polar disorder and a drug addiction as well as growing up as the daughter of two very famous parents – Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher. She starts out boldly by disclosing that she has had electroconvulsive therapy or ECT, as part of her treatment for her mental illness. Because of this, some of her memories are fuzzy or have been wiped out. One of her reasons for writing this memoir is to record the memories she has left in case they go as well.

Carrie has written this book with her trademark sense of humor. What easily could have been a depressing book what with her mental illness, an absent father, two-failed marriages and a drug addiction is actually really funny. I listened to the audio book, which she narrated herself. Her delivery makes her story all the more humorous. In fact, the book is based on her hit one-woman show, also called Wishful Drinking.

I just wish she would have included more details. For example, she talks about her on again/off again relationship with her first husband, singer/song writer Paul Simon, but doesn’t say what they fought about, just that they fought. And how did she find out her second husband was gay? I need to know! The book was pretty short at only three hours so there was room for more. Perhaps the details were foggy for her due to the ECT and that’s why she didn’t elaborate.

Carrie jokes about her death a few times and what she wants people to say about her after she dies. These parts were hard to listen to. Of course she didn’t expect to die so young. I’m so glad she wrote this book and narrated it herself so I could spend some more time with her. I recommend this book to her fans, which should be all of you!

There will never be another like Carrie Fisher. Having read her book, I feel like I know her. We grew up at the same time (I'm a year older) and even though I was raise by two "normal" parents, we still both lived roller coaster lives. Hers was just more out in the open. Reading this, I actually heard Carrie's voice in my head, telling me the stories she shared here. Getting her side of the stories regarding life with her mother, her barely there father and the two stepdads who both bankrupted her mother reminded me of my own multiple marriages (shades of her stepmother, Elizabeth). Carrie had me laughing so hard at times, the tears were rolling. Never a dull moment, even with all her health issues and bad choices in men. The two people who always were there for her were her mother, Debbie Reynolds, and her brother, Todd Fisher. And eventually her biggest shining star stood by her side until the end. Her beloved daughter Billie Lourdes
I plan to read Carrie's other books and am sure they will tickle me as much as this did. It's a quick read into the life, and mind, of the amazing Carrie Fisher. She left us far too soon, but even at the end she needed to move from this life with her mother close by. Both will be missed by many.
Thanks for the laughs, Carrie. I hope you've finally found the time to relax. May you forever RIP.

I usually wait until I have a computer keyboard to post reviews because it's just easier than doing it on my phone but this one I don't really want to keep in. The day she had her heart attack I was in panic mode for Carrie Fisher, and the day she died I spent most of the day crying. It seems crazy because I've never met her, don't know her personally, but I love her a whole lot. I have never read this book before tonight and yet I still felt like I knew the story so well. I'd never seen the show or hbo special but some parts were like reading a biography. I'm not famous and I don't come from famous parents. I'm southern and have never been to California or New York in my life but that wasn't what got to me. I'm bipolar. I was told this as a teenager and I never felt the diagnosis stuck. I didn't want it too. I've done the 6 days awake with no sleep, the mania, the I'm on top of the world and nothing can stop me. I've been there. I've also been on the depressed side where getting out of bed might as well have been a death sentence. Reading her story I read a little bit of my own and she stood up and told it, no apologies. I love her for it. She helped destroy the stigmas around mental illness. She was an advocate for LBTQ+ people. She loved her family. This short show turned book was hilarious and told a story though I have little to nothing in common with I felt it so well. I will miss Carrie Fisher. My the force be with her always, and me too because she's gone and it breaks my heart.

Carrie Fisher (1956-2016) tells pretty much all in this irreverent, funny, yet serious 2008 memoir that reads like a confession. Fisher recounts growing up with celebrity parents Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher (until he ditched to marry Liz Taylor), plus the rather twisted family life that existed with musical chair divorces and some rather odd family views. But mostly this is an open confession from witty yet troubled actress/writer with addictions to alcohol and drugs plus a bipolar (manic/depressive) disorder. Carrie relates her many flaws, with irreverent language that is as flippant as it is hilarious. She relates the flaws of those around her, from her loving mother Reynolds, to ex-husband Paul Simon. Imagine losing your second husband (Bryan Lourd) and father of your daughter because he turns out to be gay. Imagine Cary Grant calling you in an effort to get you off drugs.

I was never a Carrie Fisher fan, but this book made me laugh, and now her passing seems an even larger tragedy.

This isn't your average book of fairytales about a child growing up in Hollywood fame. In an era where Fisher's parents were both becoming legends of their times, Fisher begins with stories, which let us peek into windows of her life as she bares her raw self through adulthood. She takes us into her life with her stories about her dysfunctional childhood and despite the dysfunction shares her treasured memories growing up with a mother she adored, some of the glamor, but mostly how having a stage mother left her wanting more time with her mother, and the fallout from some of the wrong choices her mother made with her choice in relationships.

Fisher unabashedly takes us through her own rise to fame, later diagnosed with mental illness, what broke her, what healed her, and through it all she wears her smile of courage through her humor which no doubt became her shield helping her get through some of her weakest moments.

I laughed at some of her quirky analogies and appreciated the candor. If you enjoy stories of becoming and overcoming and are compassionate, you'll love this book.

I got this book after Carrie's death and finally got around to reading it. It is a quick read, full of stories that make you laugh, and cry, sometimes at the same time. It is written as if you are sitting down with her to chat.

The relationships Carrie had throughout her life are well documented here, and you can really see the relationship she had with her mother, and it really makes her mother's death even more sadder than it already is.

If you are looking for a quick read, but also something that helps you get a better understanding of life with mental illness....definitely pick this up.

The subject of mental illness should not be so taboo...more people are walking around with some form of it than we all realize.

I purchased this during a Thanksgiving Black Friday sale, a month before her untimely death.  It was the first memoir I’ve every purchased and I was hoping it contained a lot of behind the scenes stories about Star Wars. 

There were a few but mainly the stories are of her life and the fact that she has a mental illness.  The story starts with, how she has lost a lot of her memories due to electroshock therapy and having to battle severe depression and bipolar disorder.  I’m like wait, hold the phone! 

Mental illness isn’t something to joke about and I honestly didn’t realize she struggled so much with bipolar disorder. I knew she was into drugs but didn’t realize the rest.  I just idolized her as Princess Leia.  But then I grew up on Star Wars.   

The book isn’t laid out in any type of a cohesive flow and it just seems like she jumped from one thought to the next.  And I kept thinking wow is that how her mind works?  There were some funny moments and it was interesting to get a peek at her life. I just wish it wasn’t so all over the place.  

Wishful Drinking is Carrie Fisher's sardonic and darkly humorous look at some of the key moments in her past. In a no-holds-barred approach, she takes readers on a tour through her famous parents' many marriages and gives closer inspection on her own marriages as well. Carrie blames many of her issues on her mental health, with an emphasis also on her reasons for her drug and alcohol abuse. She makes no apologies for herself and, at times, laughs away a past that was certainly never boring.

This look into Carrie Fisher's life, as well as a brief glance at the movie that made her famous, was introspective and interesting. Although it was hard to listen to the author read her own words, considering her recent passing, I found it to be worthwhile to listen to the audio version of Wishful Drinking.

Carrie describes her bizarre family tree, her acting career, experiences as a "Star Wars" legend and her battles with mental illness and addiction with her signature gift for comedy. You gotta laugh or cry - and every fan knows Star Warriors don't cry. She finds the humor in life even when it's at its worst, and the result is a book that her fans, her parents' fans and Hollywood watchers will delight in. Carrie is a force to be reckoned with - and don't miss the standup routine of the same title if you're lucky enough to catch it on tv. Five stars from a lifelong fan and reader.

I suggest this book for people who need a way out and need something to relate to. As Tina S. said before “The textbook, in story form, of what deep depression is like and how one woman coped with it in many ways, some good, some harmful...but a guide to those who suffer without any guidance as to what therapies are out there.”

I suggest this book for many reasons being. Carrie Fisher, one of the many people in this world that struggles with certain issues, gives us something to relate to and a way out if we can’t find or afford a different way of help. She explains what it was like having a drug addiction or drinking issue and how she resolved it. She gives us a way out by showing how we are all similar in some way with our problems and how those certain problems don’t own you.

Personally in this book my favorite character was Carrie Fisher. She is my favorite character because she says everything in a very funny way and is not afraid to talk about what she wanted to. She was very personal about what she had to say and it’s kind of like she was sitting right across from you in a room and talking to you directly.

“I have problems but problems don’t have me” (122). This was my favorite quote when I was reading this book. It’s a very inspirational quote and shows how she never gave up until the very end, her problems didn’t own her, she owned them.

Ah, Carrie, I'm writing this review knowing that this wonderful woman died yesterday. I read Wishful Drinking with eager anticipation when it was first published... BIG mistake. To truly enjoy the full colour and depth of this book you must purchase the audio version. Carrie's voice may not hold the youthful softness it once had, but none of her warmth, wit or loveliness has been lost. Her anecdotes are hilariously told and not once does she let you pity her many misfortunes. As she herself will tell you, she's had a good life- just a shame it ended all too soon. RIP Carrie, the world is a little greyer without you.

Some other reviewers said this isn't her best writing. Well, Carrie's "okay" writing is other people's best. Her lovely mother features in this book heavily. Wishful Drinking is also a must for anyone who remembers or recognises that Debbie Reynold's mega-stardom once eclipsed her daughter's. Two film icons for the price of one book- what a bargain.

Carrie describes her bizarre family tree, her acting career, experiences as a "Star Wars" legend and her battles with mental illness and addiction with her signature gift for comedy. You gotta laugh or cry - and every fan knows Star Warriors don't cry. She finds the humor in life even when it's at its worst, and the result is a book that her fans, her parents' fans and Hollywood watchers will delight in. Carrie is a force to be reckoned with - and don't miss the standup routine of the same title if you're lucky enough to catch it on tv. Five stars from a lifelong fan and reader.

Wishful Drinking is an honest memoir written by Carrie Fisher in an attempt to recollect the “highlights” (and low-lights) of her life after receiving ECT. Carrie Fisher had absolutely no filter and it made reading this book so enjoyable! I’m usually pretty generous in how many stars i give a book, but this one definitely deserves it!

She tells of everything from what it was like growing up in her home, to performing in shows with her mother, Debbie Reynolds, to (of course) Star Wars, right to waking up next to a dead man in her bed.

This is a perfect read for all fans of Carrie Fisher! Rest In Peace ❤️

Another disappointed reviewer wrote, "I did not like this book at all. It didn't go into any detail about anything in her life. Just a sentence or two about some 'issue' and that's all. I was always waiting for 'the story' then I finally just got to the end and really didn't feel like she actually told anything. It was just sort of rambling about herself while trying too hard to be funny yet leaving out an actual story. Along with that, although some authors can do the rambling, then getting distracted and changing to some other topic, she really couldn't pull it off. I would not recommend this book at all which upsets me because I was really expecting something much better."

Spot-on review. I thoroughly enjoy celebrity biographies and, having seen several interviews of Carrie, I, too was really looking forward to this, and got ahold of it by interlibrary loan. It was a fast read because no real substance about the author shared, revealed, or reconciled. What was shared seemed almost glossed over, as though nothing was really a big deal, it is what it is, that's Hollywood, and what're ya gonna do - feh. What was shared skimmed the surface, much as you would "connect" at a cocktail party with a tidbit about yourself, but without saying anything. What was resolved internally is relayed as water off a duck's back. I didn't expect impassioned gut-spilling, but geez, what a let-down.

To be fair, the only memorable portion of the book is a brief genealogical chart of Carrie's family's relationships by marriage, divorce, scandal, and extended or merged families. Shows how incestuous Hollywood is with seemingly three degrees of separation at best ... but NOT anything of substance about the author.

Hate to say it, but when at the end of the book my first thought was, "I got more insight into Carrie Fisher from the tabloids." A month after having read it, my disappointment hasn't changed. If this book is indeed pretty much a transcript of her act, then the book needs to be seriously reworked.

To have survived her life, and with her humor intact, Carrie Fisher is an amazing soul. Her book Wishful Drinking is one of the wittiest books I've ever read. She really should have been a comedienne, and maybe she was and I just missed it, but this book is simply a delight. How could anyone make tragedy so funny? It certainly makes me glad I was never in showbiz, that's for sure.

My husband always says that people in showbiz don't really get married, they just date. Maybe living in a world of illusion makes your whole life seem like an illusion.

Take the story about Carrie's brother shooting himself in the leg with a blank. The police come and start asking important questions of Carrie's mother Debbie Reynolds, like, 'did you know John Wayne? What kind of a guy was he?' Next the reporters come and ask if Debbie if Todd shot himself in the leg to get publicity for her show. No one ever asks why Todd shot himself in the leg, but I wondered.

Then there was the line about Carrie's father Eddie Fisher, who went to comfort Elizabeth Taylor after the sudden death of her husband Mike Todd in a private plane crash. "Well naturally, my father flew to Elizabeth's side, gradually making his way slowly to her front. First he dried her eyes with his handkerchief, then he consoled her with flowers, and he ultimately consoled him with his *****. This made marriage to my mother awkward, so he was gone within a week." pg. 34 I

After reading this book, I sometimes wondered if movie stars didn't mind going through hell because it made such good fodder for their piece of work. Complete with lots of pictures, the only flaw I can find in this book is it's brevity. While it claims to be 175 pages, the font is large enough for it to be a grade-school reader, and double-spaced to boot.

If you're looking for a humor book, in the Chelsea Handler vein, this is the book for you, and Carrie even throws in some nice behind-the-scenes tidbits that make it even better.

This is a short, courageous, honest, cathartic, humorous & self-deprecating memoir of the life of a bi-polar person born into the glare of publicity & celebrity & constantly having to deal with that false & fake glare. Like every male baby boomer who saw Star Wars when it first came out on the big movie screen, I also fell in love & lust with Princess Leia.
Carrie Fisher could never escape from her real life role as being the daughter of America's then darlings: Debbie Reynolds & Eddie Fisher. They were the Brad Pitt & Jennifer Anniston of their day. Then, Eddie Fisher/Brad Pitt went off with the evil & alluring Elizabeth Taylor/Angelina Jolie, deserting America's sweetheart: Debbie Reynolds/Jennifer Anniston. Just imagine if Pitt & Anniston had a baby & soon after that baby's birth, he left Anniston for Jolie. That's what Eddie Fisher did to Debbie Reynolds.
Carrie Fisher grew up in this show business world. She even became part of her Mom's stage act when she was just 15. By the time she was 17, she was studying drama in London, England. At just 19, she was cast as Princess Leia. Carrie Fisher could never escape from the role of Princess Leia for the rest of her life. So, before she was even 20, she had already experienced the two things which defined her life: her birth to Debbie Reynolds & Eddie Fisher and her role as Princess Leia. Even though she became a well-reviewed author of four best-selling novels, acted in other blockbuster movies such as "When Harry Met Sally," was married & divorced twice (including a 12-year on-again off-again relationship with Paul Simon), became a mother in her own right to the lovely Billie, & a star of her own one-woman stage show; at the age of 53 she was still defined by those two events which happened before she had even reached 20.
Is it any wonder she would end up misusing alcohol & drugs? Ha, one would think that her behavior was quite normal in response to her life experiences. But, after years of misdiagnoses, she was finally told she was bi-polar &/or manic-depressive. With proper medication, she could function quite well. Well, in her case with proper medication & a series of ECT (electro-convulsive therapy), which has left her with memory gaps; but a more healthy approach to life.
This book is her first memoir. It was written after her ECT treatments. It was written to retrieve some of her memories & is adapted from her one-woman stage show. Sadly, today there is still a stigma against manic-depression & bi-polar disease. Fisher is courageous for speaking out about her addictions & her disease. The fact that she can do it with humor, makes it all the more palatable.

Wishful Drinking passes the time amicably. It may be of more interest if you're a huge fan of Fisher or even Star Wars although if you are the former, you probably know most of the information inside and if you're the latter you may be disappointed that this is not a behind the scenes account of the filming of that trilogy. I watched the Star Wars movies, when I was kid, seen bits of each movie when they've been on TV every now again, and really not thought about the actors in those films at all since then (well other than Harrison Ford who you still in movies all the time). However Fisher recently came out to Australia and did the live TV show circuit guest appearance thing that many a former American stars do, and she was actually quite interesting, funny and readily admitted to not coping well with the years after sudden fame. So I decided to check out this book about that derailment of her life. I found it quite interesting, you don't really feel too sorry for her any more than you would feel sorry for a heavy smoker who develops lung cancer, as most of her problems have come from stupid self decision consequences, most revolving around believing alcohol and harder drugs were the answer, but you've got to admire someone who's prepared to admit they have a problem.

As well as the off the rails due to substance abuse chapters, Fisher also tells how a childhood to celebrity parents contributed to her turning to those substances in later life. This is interesting if like me you have no idea she had celebrity parents and does give an insight into what life is like for the kids of celebrities such as not knowing the difference between the woman on screen and your actual mum in the younger years. Fisher does admit her brother never went down her path from the same hardly ever there style, parent upbringing and gives other reasons for what happened to her.

There's really not much Star Wars goss other than Fisher's reactions to obsessed fans who basically tell her they've had their hands down their pants thinking about her chained to Jabba for decades. She does tell Lucas' excuse to why she couldn't wear a bra as Leia, and obviously the mass approval of her likeness by Lucas as Leia, which she has had no control, into heaps of products has contributed to damaging her mentally. Especially the blow up Leia sex toys, a Leia collectable figure with realistic looking genitalia. As a reader you are sort of wondering if there wasn't maybe a bit of innaprorpriate behaviour from Lucas in Fisher's teenage filming years of Star Wars, that she hasn't revealed that have maybe contributed to her mental state.

A lot of the revelations aren't really detailed, Fisher seems to hint at or begin to take the reader down a path then moves onto something else. The flow of the book sort of jumps around. What's there is sometimes repeated, especially information in the first chapter that is retold as if she hasn't told you before in chapter 2. She does admit to short term memory loss these days due to substances and procedures, but an editor should have picked this up if even she couldn't. Plus the word count isn't that great, it'll only take you an hour or two to read it all.

It's satisfies me as a reader who hasn't been a fan of Fisher other than having enjoyed Star Wars. I would have liked to have seen a comment or two on the terrible Star Wars prequel movies, maybe an at least I wasn't in those line or something. If you've been following her life there's probably nothing new for you to read here, but if you haven't it's an entertaining enough read to pass a few hours of time.

‘Wishful Drinking,’ minimally adapted from Fisher’s one-woman show, is a rambling recounting of her life up to ECT therapy undertaken on advice from her psychiatrist. Features: the blackest of black humor, venomous sarcasm & sometimes offensive anecdotes told more for shock value than anything else. It's a very short book and makes for an interesting listen, with Carrie doing her own narration for the audiobook, but it's not a must-read unless you're a die-hard Fisher aficionado.

This review is for; Wishful Drinking and Wishful Drinking [WISHFUL DRINKING -OS]

At only 156 pages this is definately the shortest hardbook-cover book I ever read, but nontheless I found it to be an enjoyable read! Based on her solo, live, stage perfomance of the same name, Carrie Fisher quickly explains her whole life in a whirlwind style. She explained that her Hollywood parents Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher were the 1950's married couple version of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston with Elizabeth Taylor as the 1950's version of Angelina Jolie who ran off with Eddie Fisher. We also learn about Carrie's electro-shock treatments due to depression, but after completing her book you'll find out why she got depressed with the assortment of strange incidents that she experienced. For Star Wars fans like me, there is only a ten-page chapter about her experiences during that iconic, film trilogy. Very funny reading about hearing George Lucas's excuse for Carrie to not wear a bra because of the "no underwear in space excuse". She also explains with humor about her Princess Leia shampoo bottle where you twist off her head and pour the shampoo out of her neck. She also complained about a Princess Leia action figure of her where you can look up her dress and see more details than desired!

The short book also has a few black and white photos and newspaper clippings throughout the book to help illustrate some of the things and people Carrie talks about. Despite the very short length as a book, I find it hard to recommend it as a purchase because you can read it very quickly. Recommended if you can borrow it from a local library otherwise too short to enjoy thoroughly!

This was a very humorous look in to the mind of someone born and raised in Hollywood. I got a real laugh at one point when she says as a kid she used to fantasize about being a normal kid growing up in Scottsdale Arizona. The same city I grew up in fantasizing about going out to Hollywood. All in all not much new information if you know anything about the author but told in a very entertaining way. I listened to the audio book narrated by Carrie so I think that added a bit to it especially when she would imitate her mom. Not the type of book I usually recommend but well worth the read

First off, I LOVE Carrie Fisher. Her books are so great, her wit razor sharp and her candor refreshing.

I wish I saw this show when it was in town, but I hadn't heard of it (two small kids, had't gotten out much then) but can see this as a stand up show much more than a book or Memoir.

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have this turned into a deeper book (maybe not this deep and this is not her style, but this is a great example: Drinking: A Love Story by Carolyn Knapp). I don't want to get major back-lash from other readers, but I guess not having seen the show or realizing it was a show at first, I expected more of a "book" and this seemed like a TV script. I do imagine her reading it which helps a lot and it is very funny - so it is a 5 star entertainment, but a 2 star book --- in my opinion.

Carrie - please write a Vol II of this, meant for a book (AND come back on tour with this show)! :)

UPDATE: Reread it again...it is just a diff thing than an actual "memoir/book" -- it is entertaining, laugh out loud and refreshing. Carrie's comment to Bob Dylan about his outfit worn at one of her parties is worth the purchase alone, hysterical.
3.5 stars and CARRIE COME BACK TO SEATTLE and still want a VOL II!!!! :)

Surprisingly this book was a real breeze to get through, I read it in one sitting and enjoyed it but it wasn't as heavy as the cover permits one to believe. Of course who am I to say how hard someone's life is, especially after reading what Carrie Fisher, the actress and the real person with flaws and insecurities, had to go through in her life. Maybe people have a misguided sense that celebrities have all this money so therefore they should always be happy and carefree but such is not the case here. With her famous parents and their breakup Carrie hopes from stone to stone on a bobbing brook, and we get glimpses of her reflection in the water, that's how this book feels. She reminds us that celebrities are people too, they have a job but then they go some, have dinner and go to bed, they aren't magical creatures living in la la land, even if most are flawed by their altered sense of reality.

Written in a light and slightly sarcastic tone it takes the reader on a condensed version of Carrie's life so far, the journey to stardom and her breakthrough role in Star Wars. The gossip about her weight and the famous hair do is injected with humor and few anecdotes from the set and the crew were briefly mentioned, and I wish there was more of that in the book. After all she uses her Princess Leia image on the cover but inside the book she dances around the actual topic, I wish there was more on her Hollywood days and the old Star Wars era that is somehow still fascinating. Her alcoholism is briefly mentioned here and there and the book has a breezy feel to it, Carrie talks about serious things but in a lighthearted manner, as if she has it behind her and now can joke about it all. The many years in therapy were spent trying to like attending them, when in the end she realized she didn't have to like them, that it was okay to hate them but to learn something from them nevertheless.

I really enjoyed reading about her relationship with her mom, Debbie Reynolds and her own teenage daughter Billie, the sweet moments were shiny bright jewels that glimmered with love and adoration for those two women in her life. And Carrie is a cool woman; one can see that, I enjoyed getting a glimpse into her life, the ups and the many downs that made it hard to keep her emotions in line with her mood and her fight to be free of anything that clouded her feeling of being normal. The book is a light read, like I said it has many funny bits and pieces and some nice pictures form her personal stash of memories and I certainly want to read her other novels, since she has an interesting take on what all this is about. Life isn't easy but not going through is would be so much worse, we must always remember about the sunshine even if it's obscured by dark clouds.

- Kasia S.

I absolutely loved this book. It was a quick, but great read. Carrie was candid and sometimes brutally honest about herself. I learned so much about her and why she was the way she was. She led a very interesting life and upbringing and her talent continued into her writing and makes her passing all the more sad. Give it a chance...it is one of the best celebrity memoirs I have ever read.

Carrie describes her bizarre family tree, her acting career, experiences as a "Star Wars" legend and her battles with mental illness and addiction with her signature gift for comedy. You gotta laugh or cry - and every fan knows Star Warriors don't cry. She finds the humor in life even when it's at its worst, and the result is a book that her fans, her parents' fans and Hollywood watchers will delight in. Carrie is a force to be reckoned with - and don't miss the standup routine of the same title if you're lucky enough to catch it on tv. Five stars from a lifelong fan and reader.

Where Terri Cheney describes in her book -- Manic: A Memoir -- her depression, electroshock therapy and use of prescription drugs and alcohol in a serious, heartbreaking manner, Carrie Fisher's book -- Wishful Drinking -- recounts many similar experiences from more of a "been-there, done-that" survivor's perspective.

Fisher's inside stories of being the daughter of glamour couple Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, her marriage to folk-rock icon Paul Simon, being Princess Leia of Star Wars fame, learning that her husband and father of her daughter is gay, and dealing with being manic-depressive, bipolar and drug issues, is told in an honest, straight-forward and hilarious manner.

We've all -- whether we live in Kansas or Beverly Hills -- had weird, strange disasters to befall us. It's just part of being human. And, while the event may seem like the end of the world to us at the time they occur, years later they become just another funny story we tell to our best friends to share a laugh with. This is that sort of book, only Carrie Fisher has had more weird, strange events happen to her than most of the rest of us would in five lifetimes!

I loved the feeling of being privy to know what it's like to grow up in Beverly Hills, to learn what she thought of having such wealthy and famous parents. To hear the inside-stories of her father, ex-husband and George Lucas' owning her image from Star Wars' to make money off pez despensers, posters and a wide variety of other odds and ends.

At some point, a lot of us who deal with trying to live in such a crazy world decide to either give up and be angry at life forever, or -- and it's a choice I admire and believe in myself -- we just squeeze the lemons in our life dry, add sugar (and more than a bit of humor) and make lemonade. Bravo Carrie ! Good job, great lemonade !

R. Neil Scott
Middle Tennessee State University

Enjoyed WISHFUL DRINKING, written and read by Carrie
Fisher . . . it's adapted from her one-woman show of the
same, and it tells Fisher's story in a funny manner
that makes you think this should be the stuff for a novel
if it weren't so true.

Fisher, the daughter of Eddie Fisher and Debbie
Reynolds, came of age on a movie called STAR WARS . . . she
became famous at the age of 19, married then divorced
and then dated Paul Simon, learned that the father of her
daughter forgot to tell her he was gay, and woke up one morning to
find a friend dead beside her in bed . . . and that's just
a small part of her life, which also included bouts of alcoholism,
drug addiction and mental illness that eventually led
to electroshock therapy.

There were a lot of juicy anecdotes, many of them involving
her father . . . she rarely missed the opportunity to give him
a dig, probably because she never forgave him for leaving her
other to be with Elizabeth Taylor:

* My father had many big songs, but perhaps the one he's
best remembered for was "Oh! My Papa,": which I like to call
"Oh! My Faux Pas."

As for her mother, she did:

* Tons and tons of films, but I think the one she's best remembered
for is the classic film SINGIN' IN THE RAIN. But she was also
nominated for an Oscar for best actress in her role in THE
UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN but tragically, she lost to
Julie Andrews for her stunning, layered and moving portrait
of MARY POPPINS. Ibsen's Mary Poppins, of course.

What I most liked about WISHFUL DRINKING was some of the inside dope
about the entertainment business, including this tidbit on George Lucas:

* He wouldn't let her wear a bra in STAR WARS because he
was adamant that there was no underwear in space!

I heard raves about her one-woman show, but didn't take great interest because I'm deaf and could never see it without missing most of the content. So it was great coming across the book and seeing her show in words.

While the book made me chuckle at times, I get the feeling it doesn't quite capture the show as I know people's faces, inflections, and other body movements can make a difference to a presentation.

But the book offers a wonderful alternative for those who can't see the show whether because of distance or hearing loss. I also appreciate her honest addressing of dealing with being bipolar. Someone close to me has similar issues.

It's nice having a real-life account from someone well-known with an impressive resume to show my family member that it's possible to accomplish a lot -- just hope he does it without the drinking and drugs part. Things have changed from her early bipolar days to today, so it could mean the difference.

She's a child of a famous divorce, a divorcee, a mother, and a career woman. This story is a caricature of her life -- it blends humor and lack of remembering things exactly (she admits it repeatedly -- thanks to shock therapy).

As a busy professional with children, I managed to read the book in less than two hours. It was nice to read something from my standard business nonfiction and get a laugh out of her stories (not laugh at her, mind you).

If you like autobiographies, humor and fiction, you'll enjoy this. Although not fiction, it feels like it as so many unusual things have happened to her that will never happen to most of us. C'mon, like you'll ever get to play Princess Leia or find a friend (not significant other) dead in your bed.

...that alcoholism, mental illness, drug addiction, and shock treatment can actually work together to deliver the most outrageous humor in authorship history to our eager front door (and even inside the house.) Now I've always been a fan of Hollywood Brat autobiographies, and Carrie's latest one is the FUNNIEST and most brilliant one I've ever devoured. I have to give credit, though, to Ned Wynn, whose book "We Will Always Live in Beverly Hills" contained a prologue so hysterical that no one else can top that one short page in their own books. And sure, I've found humor in other H-wood memoirs too. Jane Wyman was apparently so busy with her career and her social life that son Michael thought their black cook was his mother until he reached the age of eight. And Lana Turner was always so absent from home that Cheryl Crane actually envied her next-door-playmate, Liza Minnelli, because Liza's mom, Judy Garland, seemed to always just be laying around the house.
Well, I saw the humor. But I think the kids were serious.
Not to worry about Carrie Fisher though...not a single mishap or "tragedy" escaped her keen observation and a very blunt funny-bone. The only way to review "Wishful Drinking" is just to give you a few of her reflections, her lines, that had me laughing out loud. And I'm too damned old to laugh out loud.
Carrie became a star at 19 in "Star Wars" just as her mom, Debbie Reynolds, did at 19 in "Singin' in the Rain." Other than that, they shared very little, since Debbie seemed to take herself so seriously, and Carrie is totally relaxed telling us that she had an affair with a Democrat politician (Chris Dodd) but it was a Republican politician named Greg who died in her bed. Not that she'd ever have SEX with a Republican, and Greg was gay anyway, but they had both taken too much oxycontin and just passed out together. Carrie was the only one who woke up, but she still wants to honor Greg with a story about how he had shared office space in the White House with W. when George the First was President...and even tells in hysterical detail the 'frat boy fart prank' W. continually played on poor old Greg. Dead Greg. (Though I assume it was oxycontin that killed him, not W.'s flatulence.)
But politicos and her own parents are not the only ones cleverly ripped by Carrie's sharp tongue. About the Oscar nomination Debbie Reynolds accomplished for "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," Carrie goes on..."But tragically she lost to Julie Andrews for her stunning, layered, and moving portrait of Mary Popppins. IBSEN'S Mary Poppins, of course."
Her dad and mom had been Best Man and Matron of Honor at the wedding of their dear friends, Mike Todd and Liz Taylor. But upon the sudden demise of Mike Todd's private plane... "Naturally my father flew to Elizabeth's side, gradually making his way slowly to her front. He first dried her eyes with his handkerchief, then he consoled her with flowers, and he ultimately consoled her with his penis."
But Debbie bounced back by marrying "very, very old" Harry Karl, a shoe tycoon, who housed his new family in a gaudy mansion... "containing eight little pink refrigerators (you know, in case Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs came over) and we had a lanai and many utility closets and three pools (you know, in case two broke.)"
Not only does she dissect her new step-dad, but gets (and gives) some good laughs out of his past. He had been married to, and divorced twice, by... "the actress(ish) Marie 'The Body' McDonald, who married a total of nine times. That many marriages could give you a headache. Anyway it did with Marie because she overdosed on pain-killers. And that last husband, not to be outdone, shot himself. You might say they loved each other to death."
Her dad, the crooner, also takes a lot of blows from his loving daughter, who enjoys telling about how he once swallowed two new miniature hearing aids thinking they were pills of some kind. Eddie had moved on from Debbie to Liz, and then Liz went on to Richard Burton, so Eddie went on to Connie Stevens, and then to a "Miss Louisiana" who was in her early 20's wedding Eddie in his late 50's. But after that disaster, he did find a really wonderful Chinese lady named Betty Lin, and they were together for several happy years. But... "Betty passes away. But don't worry about him. He's not done for long, because now he dates all of Chinatown! He does this partly as a tribute to Betty and partly because my father has had so many face-lifts that he looks Asian himself."
You know, I'm saddened by Carrie's alleged mental problems...but I'm still laughing. And folks, all those little quotes and stories from her were just segments of the first two chapters! Wait till you get to chapter 3. If you are possessed with a dark, warped sense of humor like mine...you're gonna LOVE "Wishful Drinking." Honest.

Carrie Fisher is of course an icon, playing Princess Leila in the original Star Wars movie, and later becoming a genuine writer (in particular with "Postcards from the Edge" (which in turn was made into a successful movie with Meryl Streep). Yet at the same time, she went through some well-documented troubled times, the public figure that she is. Even though earlier works (like the afore-mentioned "Postcards From the Edge") drew on her real-life experiences, she had never written a proper memoir. Until now.

In "Wishful Drinking" (163 pages), Carrie Fisher brings us what it's like to grow up as an ultimate Hollywood child (being the daughter of 1950-60s icons Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds). The book starts off with "Hi I'm Carrie Fisher and I'm and alcoholic, and this is a true story". Early on in the book, Carrie warns us that "my reality has been formed by Hollywood's version of reality. As a child, I thought that Father Knows Best was real and that my life was fake." while at the same time informing us that her memories have been "reintroduced by electroconvulsive therapy... at the ripe old age of fifty-two", wow. That said, the entire undertone of the book is quite funny and entertaining (more on that later), and as such the pages fly by. Carrie drops names of other famous people on the fly (because that is how she meets).

Yet what I find a bit puzzling, and in the end disappointing, is how little she relates to us on her addictions and how she's been able to overcome them. At 163 pages, it all seems too brushed at the edges, without going into any deeper of it. This may be explained by the fact that this book is apparently based on Carrie's stand-up act of all this (also under the "Wishful Drinking" name) that eventually lead to this book. But not having seen the stand-up act (which I imagine is intended to be mostly just funny, and which I have not seen), the book doesn't leave me satisfied as to me there are too many aspects of her addictions, and her struggle to overcome them, are not addressed.

Carrie Fishers unending wit and charm shine through this quick, fun read. I highly suggest reading this before watching her Wishful Drinking special as it's nearly word for word in most parts, with the book adding a few extra stories here and there. It's heartbreaking that she left us so soon but thank goodness she left behind some great books to keep us company.

This is one of the lightest, fastest, and funniest memoirs I've had the pleasure of reading. Based on Fisher's one-woman show of the same name, it covers the stuff Carrie Fisher wants us to know about herself, which largely has to do with her bipolar disease, her addictions, and her family life. But unlike a lot of memoirs of addiction and mental difficulties, Fisher doesn't dwell on the details of those problems. She acknowledges them, she jokes about them, but she never asks for pity, never goes to the "look how horrible my famous life is, don't you feel bad for me?" well. In fact, I think she goes out of her way to say "don't feel bad for me, just laugh at me."

Of course there are Star Wars jokes (she certainly relishes knowing how many men self-worshipped in front of her "space bikni"), jokes about her famous parents and their relationships (including a two-page photographic spread she uses to prove that her daughter is not actually related by blood to the boy she has taken a liking to), and even some jokes about her short marriage to Paul Simon. And plenty of pictures of everyone involved in her famly even peripherally over the years.

I wil say this: Carrie Fisher is one very candid and blunt woman. Some people may be put off by just how blunt (see the "self-worship" comment above as a tame example). I wasn't put off at all. I found myself laughing out loud (which is something I don't really do despite how often I type it online), and doing it often.

Highly recommended, especially if you grew up worshipping (or self-worshipping) Carrie Fisher or Debbie Reynolds.

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.

I couldn't decide whether to give this 2 or 3 stars. I learned about her parents. I learned that she has/had an addiction problem. I didn't learn much more about her. I know this is based on her show, but as a book it could have been expanded. Overall I did enjoy this but I want more. I read this over a weekend, it was that small.

Comment about the hardcover book. The binding is glued not sewn so it started to come apart easily. I had a library book and had to show them the damage that I didn't cause.

Bwahahaha! Hilarious. That's what this book was. I've read Carrie's first three novels (Postcards from the Edge,Surrender the Pink, and Delusions of Grandma) and found them just average. However, WISHFUL DRINKING, her memoir, really captures Carrie's wit and sarcasm. I was immediately drawn to the book in a bookstore by the cover featuring Princess Leia's highly recognizable bun hairdo (hairdon't?), facedown, with a martini glass in her hand. It was the perfect cover! I had to have the book.

I realize it's a memoir and that Carrie went through a long bout with drugs, alcohol, etc, but my favorite stories of hers were of growing up with her parents, Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, and their escapades. I would have LOVED to have read much more of these stories (and see more photos!) from this period of her life. Everyone (and by everyone, I mean celebrities) has stories and memoirs about their life with drugs, but not everyone was born to the can't-keep-his-p*nis-in-his-pants Eddie Fisher and the over-the-top-but-loving Debbie Reynolds.

The memoir is short (too short!) and a quick read (too quick!), but now it makes me want to get off my bookshelf Carrie's fourth novel, The Best Awful, and finally read it.

This book fed my inner fanboy in a number of different ways.

FIRST: I love classic Hollywood. Carrie Fisher's tales of growing up in Tinseltown with her mother and her later exploits in the business make for engaging reading. It's a great reminder of something the silver screen makes us forget so often: these "legends" of film are no less human than you or I.

SECOND: I love Star Wars. Duh. "Princess Leia" telling us behind the scenes stories of the movies that shaped my generation made this memoir worth its weight in gold pressed latinum. (Yes, I know that's a Trek reference and not a Wars reference; live with it.)

LASTLY: I love life. Sometimes, though, life (REAL life) isn't all about Jedi Knights and working on acting jobs. Carrie's candid writings about her personal experiences with topics like substance abuse and untimely death (waking up in bed next to a dead friend!) are deep and, at the same time, darkly entertaining.

The book is one part stand up comedy, one part pulp culture history, and one part personal insight into a talented mind. It all adds up to a interesting cocktail.

FUN FACT: The book is almost more fun on audio book since the author herself reads it herself.

The blurb from Entertainment Weekly heralds this book as "funny as hell", but to be honest, I didn't so much as crack a smile. Wishful Drinking was originally a live show, a comedic routine starring Carrie Fisher. Adapted as a very short book, clocking in at a little over 150 pages, the audience effect is lost, leaving this as one un-funny book.

That's not to say that I didn't enjoy the book. I really did think it was an interesting glimpse behind Hollywood's closed doors. Although, I'm not sure I will ever be quite the same now that I know that Debbie Reynolds did drugs and was a bisexual. Singing in the Rain will be forever tarnished!

Carrie Fisher talks about her mother a lot in this book. She reveals her rather twisted family tree, including hookups and love-children.

The cover alludes to the fact that Carrie is an addict, and while she does touch on the topic a few times over the course of the novel, she doesn't talk a lot about it. She mostly just tells interesting stories about her time as an addict. For instance, the three times that Mr. Cary Grant called her to talk her off of LSD addiction. This happened because her mother decided to call him instead of, oh i don't know, a rehab program?

An entertaining and interesting book, but absolutely not "funny as hell".

Some of my favorite lines from Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking is this quote by Carrie Fisher: "So I say, Well, baby-if you want to be a comic, you have to be a writer. But don't worry, you have tons of material. Your mother is a manic-depressive drug addict, your father is gay, your grandmother tap dances, and your grandfather shot speed. And my daughter laughs and laughs and laughs, and I say, "Baby , the fact that you know that's funny is going to save your whole life."

Through this book Carrie invites us to laugh along with her at her life so we can laugh at our own problems as well as understand other people's problems better. So this book is funny and good for you. Wishful Drinking was written after she created her Broadway Show by the same name and apparently the content is basically the same as the live performance. It's about her life and basically reads like a comedian's monologue. The humor is wry and witty and the book is very honest. Anyone who likes Carrie Fisher or books about celebrities should love this one.

This book reads very quickly with a steady flow of wit with a dry, at times sarcastic but nearly always ironic tint. Written in the first person as if the author were pouring out her heart over an early morning coffee to a confidant, the book appears to take a very intimate course about Carrie's Fisher life from childhood through to her present status which is post electroshock therapy for depression. A cast of very famous people flows through her life, beginning of course with her parents, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher. The first is glorified while the second fairs poorly. There is an attempt to seek an explanation for her later battles with drugs, alcohol and a bipolar disorder, but to me strong reasons do not appear. Expected milestones pass such as her father's infidelity with Elizabeth Taylor, Fisher's marriage to Paul Simon, as well as lesser known anecdotes such as one involving Bob Dylan and Carrie Grant. The book has the tone of a tell-all autobiography but clearly a lot of history and background is not revealed and to me it seems that the humor attempts to divert one from deeper issues. Overall the book is interesting and entertaining but it still leaves one wondering.

I picked this up yesterday, thinking I'd just read the first chapter, and found myself glued to the chair, occasionally laughing out loud, reading right through to the end. Fisher's a very funny woman, with just the sort of semi-bitter, sarcastic tone I like. It begins with a dead man in her bed, and ends with electro-convulsive therapy. In between there's Star Wars, in more ways than one. It's an intriguing mix of damn-the-torpedoes, scorched-earth, combined with sincere affection and compassion, and the sort of hard-earned humor I hear in those church basement meetings I go to regularly. There is the unavoidable name-dropping (how could there not be with the sort of life she's lived), and although no one comes out unscathed, including Carrie Fisher, all are treated with generosity.

It's a somewhat thin book, but it doesn't aspire to be more than it is -- large print and lots of pictures. I suspect it will appeal most to those of us who have been through at least some of what Fisher has, and who can appreciate the crazy (sorry!), and perhaps sacred joke of it all. Well worth reading. I imagine her live show is even better.

Having not read previous books by Carrie Fisher, I was first taken aback by her frank disclosures and acerbic wit. This is not a tentative storytelling but a scathing commentary on some of her life issues.

She talks frankly and sarcastically about her ECT treatments and effect on her memory. She discusses ex-spouses, former step-parents and family with equal openness. She certainly is not easy on herself either, when it comes to her drug use and mental issues.

At several points she remarks on the extraordinary life she has lead and knows it is not remotely normal. What really struck me, was that there seems to be no parental direction. It is like she was treated like an adult from birth. She has a great relationship with her Mom, but Mom is more like a sister...

You can see her hyper personality as she zings from one topic to the next and can easily imagine she would be a blast to talk to. However there were points, the commentary seemed brittle like the edges of a wound. She doesn't turn away from that either, nor does she dwell.

This book was hard to put down. I'm not sure if it was due to the lurid detail or great dialogue.

There was a certain whimsy in this book, a humor and a charm that offset the often sad and unsettling stories of abuse her mother experienced at the hands of a neighbor boy and his friends, deaths, mental illness, aggressive objectification, and addiction. It's a really quick read and very entertaining, though sometimes it's meandering style might lead the reader to lose track of which story is being told at any given moment.

I loved this book. Carrie Fisher was a great story teller. She wrote very conversationally and I felt like we were having coffee together and chatting, maybe sharing a piece of cake. My only regret about this book is not having read it sooner. I was saddened when I finished the book, knowing that there would be no more memoirs to come out. I felt the exact same way when I read Shockaholic.

I have bipolar disorder and reading this book not only makes me feel better, but it makes me smile, laugh or both.
Not an easy thing to do when it comes to me! I loved it and look forward to reading her other books. I already had her books listed on my wish lists, but now that she and her mother have passed so suddenly, I find myself wanting to read them all as soon as possible. RIP Carrie Fisher.

Despite the sometimes dark subject matter, Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher is ultimately a light, quick, and humorous read. Ms. Fisher's ascerbic wit and droll humor make reading about drug addiction, alcoholism and depression entertaining. Carrie Fisher is nothing if not irreverant and funny. Wishful Drinking is packed full of hilarious antedotes about some of old time Hollywood's biggest stars as well as interesting tibits such as the fact that she once dated Senator and former presidential candidate Chris Dodd.

It is worth noting that Wishful Drinking can be read in one sitting. It therefore makes the perfect airplane book, but you might want to purcahse it used from the store.

After reading Wishful Drinking, you'll wish that Carrie was one your friends so that you could call her up on whim to do lunch as she regales you with tales from her unusual Hollywood upbringing....you would be sure to ask about the Christmas when she was 15 and her mother gave both Carrie and Carrie's grandmother vibrators as gifts!

"Wishful Drinking" is a funny, self-deprecating memoir based on author Carrie Fisher's one-woman show about her crazy, addiction-prone life. She begins by describing her childhood upbringing as the daughter of celebrity parents, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, and chronicles her various failed relationships, drug addictions, mental illnesses, and rehab stints. Carrie is a very funny writer, and her snarky personality comes across terrifically in these pages. The book itself is incredibly short, which is disappointing, and the narratives aren't quite as detailed as I'd like them to be. (However, Carrie explains this up front by claiming that she doesn't remember most of her life due to her experiences with electroshock therapy, so I guess I should cut her some slack.) Overall, this is a brutally honest and exceptionally funny story about the life of the woman best known for her role as Princess Leia in the original "Star Wars" trilogy. Read this for a few good laughs, or buy it just for the cover alone, which cracks me up every time I look at it.

The book starts a bit slowly but don't let that dissuade you. It picks up quickly and becomes a wild ride. Carrie is a master of the snarky comeback. No one is safe from her barbs, not even herself. You don't have to be a Star Wars fan to enjoy her stories. Having said that, however, her story of combining Star Wars dialogue with London drama school elocution drills had me giggling uncontrollably. Definitely worth the time.

I read this book in 2 sittings. It was very easy to read and, especially after watching her HBO special of the same name, could hear her voice clearly through the writing. She wrote the book 8 years ago and I think she deserves a lot of credit for being so honest about her condition. Her life was very unique in some ways (being the daughter of 2 Hollywood people, and an icon in her own right), but she never makes you feel like she is above other people with similar problems. I'm sure that one of her goals in writing the book and being so honest, was to show people, that one can deal with mental heath and addiction issues and still have a life that is worth living. It is very sad that she didn't have more time, and didn't get to continue enlightening and entertaining us.

This is Carrie Fisher's 'real' autobiography. The high and low points of her life have been detailed and chronicled in several novels written by Fisher, but this is the first book in which she claims to provide more than a simple review of the facts thinly disguised as fiction. In this 'Tell All Saga' she likens it to , "a really, really detailed personals ad", and by the end of the work, "you'll feel so close to me that you will want to divorce me". The book recounts her early childhood as the daughter of two of the biggest stars of the 50's, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, and takes the reader up to her recent adventures in electro-convulsive shock therapy. Booze, pills, toxic relationships, and a crazier than crazy family life have done nothing to stifle her razor sharp wit, or dulled her uncanny ability to see the humor in almost anything. WISHFUL DRINKING is a short work, and I read it in an evening in one sitting.

From the dedication page to the final page, Carrie Fisher had me captivated. WISHFUL DRINKING was absolutely hilarious! My only complaint is that I wish it were longer. I read this book cover to cover in a single sitting.

Based on her one-woman show by the same title, the memoir offers a few extra stories that were left out of the show. The entire book is infused with humor and wit. It’s very clear that Ms. Fisher is an incredibly cleaver and intelligent woman, who truly does live by her words “if my life wasn’t funny it would just be true, and that is unacceptable”. Ms. Fisher had me laughing consistently throughout the entire book. Ms. Fisher covers her entire life, up to the age of 52, when the book was published. She talks about her legendary parents, growing up in Hollywood, Star Wars, and so much more.

I, honestly, cannot say enough good things about WISHFUL DRINKING. I don’t want to say much more, because I don’t want to give anything away. I will definitely be reading it again in the future and will be reading more of Ms. Fisher’s works as well.

If you haven’t read this book yet…

DO IT!!!

GO READ IT!

NOW!!!

How terribly honest and forthcoming. Carrie Fisher dishes on her family, addictions, & especially mental disorders. I enjoyed her biopic journey as I have lived just about that long...the new 31. I also LOVE Cary Grant & would probably be happy to have him monitor my addictions, if I had any my parents cared to report. I have to applaud her for doing everything possible to remove the stigma of mental illness. It is LONG overdue. I would totally read this again, but instead I'm moving forward to her next book!

I'd say this book drove me crazy, but under the circumstances I don't think it would be appropriate.

For Carrie can write. She has proven it again and again. I love her books, especially Postcards from the Edge, Surrender the Pink and The Best Awful. They are funny and harrowing and brave throughout.

This is funny at moments, harrowing at times and frequently brave, but it's not a book. Nor even a memoir. It's literally a "postcard from the edge," a short note home, or perhaps the transcription of her one-woman show. It's shallow, and that made me sad because Carrie has proven she can do better.

However, I still love how her mind works and I'll be in the audience when Wishful Drinking arrives in Chicago. How can I pass on my chance to hear Princess Leia describe how she busted George Lucas for merchandising her "galaxy snatch," aka "lagoon of mystery?"

Hilarious autobiography, taken from the actress's one-woman show. All the juice is in here; personal history with her famous parents (Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds) and their public meltdown over Elizabeth Taylor; her long relationship and short marriage to Paul Simon; her burst of stardom with the Star Wars franchise; but most of all, and overriding all else, Carrie's mental illness. Carrie is bipolar, and was undiagnosed and self-medicating for years and years, which led of course to Carrie being an alcoholic and drug addict. She's now an advocate for electroconvulsive shock therapy, even with the resulting loss of memories that need to be constantly rebuilt. That's not a path for everyone. We all shared this book around the house, and we all laughed out loud. Fisher renders even the most harrowing events of her life with a razor sharp tongue and eye for irony that makes the darkest hours relatable. She's someone I would enjoy hanging out with, crazy and all.

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.

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

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Carrie Fisher: Instant Gratification takes too long.
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Carrie Fisher reveals her whole life in this book. Her addictions, her sobriety, how her mom dealt with these behaviors, and a few comments about her absent, narcissistic self-absorbed dad.
But these stories are only funny if you care about the celebrity carrie fisher. If you don't really care about Ms. Fisher, then this autobiography is dry. I bought this because i thought it would focus on her attempts at sobriety, in the realm of "Drinking: A Love Story. Her addiction struggles are discussed, but it's not the focus of the book.
The book is mainly about her hollywood upbringing, career and the craziness of it all. Ms. Fisher has had some major life crises (elctroshock therapy, a divorce because her husband and father to her on decides he's gay).
She also discusses the struggles of her mom Debbie Reynolds, who lost two fortunes to her 2nd and 3rd husbands.

In the end, she shows that wealth doesn't bring happiness. I have a tendency to envy wealthy celebrities. But this book helped me understand my envy is misplaced.
Also, there is also a LOT of re-cycled material from her other book "The Best Awful". There are whole paragraphs that are word for word. Carrie Fisher retells the same story over and over again, about the poor little rich girl. If it was so tragic, so awful, why does she parade it around for decades? It's because these celebrity cry-fests are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The book is a followup to her one-woman show of the same title. probably the same jokes too. The humor didn't work too well for me in the audiobook. But i doubt i would have laughed if i was at the show either. There is a deep sadness to the stories of her life.

Quite possibly her best work, Fisher is unapologetically honest in the telling of her side of the story. She is witty, cunning, and dangerously truthful. I wish I had discovered Fisher's writing a lot earlier as she is a goddess of words.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. My wife, on the other hand, struggled through it and gave up before the end. While painfully funny, she mostly found the whole thing distasteful. Indisputably, Ms. Fisher has gone through life with a recklessness that she was lucky to survive. She stitches together her unlikely story with a multitude of funny and bizarre anecdotes about herself, the famous, the near famous and the unknown. She does not wallow in self pity but rather gets that the joke is on her. She is pithy, ironic, self-critical - heck, you name it - and somehow the whole sordid mess works. If the reader is willing to suspend judgment and take it all in for what it is (a stranger than fiction memoir of olympic scale dysfunction), they will be amply rewarded.

Carrie Fisher writes her life with humour. She's had her ups and downs and still keeps going. I am left with wanting to know more about her. She just gave us general surface information and I wanted to know more details. It is a good introduction of learning who she was.

I was a big-time Star Wars fan up until the one with the Ewoks and I never looked back (or was it forward?) after that. But I ended up really liking Carrie Fischer as a writer and TV guest/personality. For training herself and others how to not take herself too seriously, she should be applauded.

This was a great read - I actually didn't know much about Carrie Fisher's family (I know, I'm like the only one!) So the book was an eye opener. Written in a way that you can tell she's laughing at herself, even through some really unusual situations. Definitely recommend this book, and I look forward to reading some of her others!

An unusual phenomenon occurred while I read Carrie Fisher's new book, Wishful Drinking. Instead of reading the book, I seemed to be hearing the book. Carrie Fisher's voice is loud and clear in her first memoir. As one of the most interviewed celebrities in the past several years, her voice is recognized by the general public, so that must be what's going on here.

Fisher's writing in Wishful Drinking is more clever than incisive, enthusiastically veering in several directions at once in this scattered memoir. But it certainly worked for me; I just hung on for the ride, so I truly enjoyed reading it. Fisher's wit and humor sparkle throughout, and you'll find yourself laughing out loud more than once. I believe Fisher, through her humor and reader-wincing honesty, holds up mental illness for what it really is: on par with physical illness and thus worthy of being freed of stigma.

Though I almost always choose to read a book over hearing a book, Wishful Drinking would make a wonderful audiobook. At present, Wishful Drinking is available in hardcover and through Audible as an audio download for your mp3 player.

I have mixed feelings about Wishful Drinking, I enjoyed it for the most part, and I love Carrie Fisher, but I feel a little cheated. First, to get the technical stuff out of the way, I bought this as a digital book, and at 84 'pages', 10 dollars felt like a lot of money to pay for it. The actual hardcover is something like 124 pages, so I'm not sure if there were a crap ton of pictures left out or what, but that's a fairly big difference. There Were pictures in it, but I haven't yet compared the book to my digital copy to see what was missing. The stories were good, but there was a lot of detail and context missing, whether because she couldn't remember it or because she wanted to leave it out. Fair enough, either way. It was funny, but vague.

This unbook is entertaining and funny. But if the author wants to get an award (as she wishfully says she does) she'll have to try a bit harder. Do a bit more research for starters. Her list of alcoholic manic-depressives includes Sylvia Plath-- who was not an alcoholic. Her list of non-alcoholic manic-depressives includes Judy Garland, who was really, really alcoholic (on Blue Nun Leibfraumilch yet-- a wonder she lived as long as she did). Thoughtful stuff like that.

This was definitely taken from her show. It was disjointed and a bit rambling here and there, but her sincerity and heart shines through. It makes me so sad that Carrie can't see the beauty she has to offer.

I know the stars have a love/hate relationship with Star Wars, but I speak as one who found a piece of myself in those films. They mean a lot to me. They embody nobility, bravery, loyalty, friendship, the grey between good and evil. They may be the butt of so many jokes and the bane of the actors' existence...but for some of us, they are our salvation. Our bible!

I love that Carries owns her experiences and is unapologetic. I know the pressure of feeling not good enough, and not being able to recognize when people love you. I think some people need a day to see exactly what others truly think of you. And for them to believe it.

Accepting oneself is the hardest thing to accept.

With the exception of a scattering of witty statements, the writing was pretty much ... embarrassing. And with a lot of outdated humor. If I were writing a bad Vanity Fair article on Ms. Fisher, I'd throw up some psycho-babble stuff and say that she was still so traumatized by her life experiences, she tried to cover it - shallowly at best - with weak jokes.

What made it even worse was the attempt to shove decades of rich history into the literary equivalent of one 1/2-hour sitcom episode. It didn't even add up to a decent "drunkalog."

I was just glad when it was over.

The second star is for those rare flashes of wit.

I received a copy of "wishful thinking" for Christmas. I have already read the whole entire small wollop of a book. It is a look into who she was before she was famous, about her famous parents, and how she came to be famous throughout the trials and tribulations of being on drugs and an alcoholic. Along the way, she uses her wonderful writing and sense of humor which makes this much more bearable and easy to read than some of the other memoirs I've read.
I have been a fan of her writing for a while and was not disappointed with this one. It could have been longer, but overall, it was entertaining hearing about her life through her words.

This was a great read and too short. Very interesting insight in to Carrie Fisher, whom I am a fan from Star Wars days. Her comical insight in to her current and past life made this short book fly by. If you like reading about Hollywood types and their lives this is recommended.

I have been eyeing this book for a while now wanting to read it but reluctant, because really I don't have a big desire to know celebrities life stories, but I thought why not? So I finally picked it up and was happy that Ms. Fisher read the audio book herself! I think that she has a great way with words, and is a very funny writer. She can take depressing and horrifying situation (a man dying in her bed for instance) and spin into into an amusing tale. Carrie weaves some of her life tales into this book, which is also a one woman show that she released on DVD (it is the same title "Wishful Drinking") and I do have a desire to watch it after 'reading' this book. A lot of celebrity (and non celebrity) memoirs are so dull, they may have funny stories but, it becomes dull, like reading a phone book, but ( I feel redunant here) this one is funny and outrages and very insightful. If you're a fan of Carrie, you may have already read this since it was released in 2008, but if you haven't then I would recommend picking this up. It's short and very entertaining!

When I first started this book I thought I was mistakingly rereading Shockaholic. This book seems to have a lot of the same material. However, Ms. Fsher's candor about her problems and marriages makes for an interesting read.

A fabulous read! Carrie Fisher's `Wishful Drinking' delivers with the same caustic wit that she has become known for in her years since helping to save the universe from the clutches of the evil Empire. Through a cynically trained gaze, Fisher tells the story of her life, steeped as it has been in the ridiculous. There was the original 'Brangelina'-esque circumstance of her parents, actress Debbie Reynolds and "womanizing yet virtually absent" singer Eddie Fisher, who went on to leave Reynolds for screen siren Elizabeth Taylor back in the 50's; there is the great comparison chart where Fisher outlines the multiple marriages, spouses, and children that her parents subsequently managed to rack up between them; there is Fisher's own acerbic take on her experience of being the iconic Princess Leia for the last three decades, a role that she mockingly proclaims as a "stunning, layered, and moving portrait"; there is the usual drug and alcohol anecdotes that one would expect in the memoir of a child of privilege such as Fisher; there are details about her tumultuous relationship with singer Paul Simon, and the fact that she was left by a man - for a man; in short, Fisher's book, and her life, are never wanting for absurdity. If you liked `Postcards From the Edge' or any of her other post-Star Wars work, then you will probably get a kick out of `Wishful Drinking'. I found her honesty endearing and the biting sarcasm with which she employs regularly throughout her narrative to be a lot more clever than I initially expected from this book. My only complaint would be that it was too short - at 160 pages, the reader is left wanting more, wanting Fisher to dryly recite yet another awkward family or Leia-related moment. A definite selling point for her show by the same name! The archival pictures were also a nice touch. In any event, if you appreciate acerbic commentary and cynicism in your literature as much as I do, then `Wishful Drinking' is your book! One need only glance at the title cover - a photo of the inebriated galactic heroine Leia, clutching at an empty martini glass surrounded by a variety of little blue pills - and you can quickly come to appreciate Fisher's sardonic wit! Like with the recurrence of the Proper Copper Coffee Pot! (the book will explain this rather amusing reference). Personally, I thought it was a really fun read and would highly recommend it!

In Carrie Fisher's new book, a sort of sequel to her successful memoir Postcards From the Edge, she talks about her alcohol and drug addiction, her mental illness (she's bipolar) as well as her ECT treatment (otherwise known as electroshock therapy.) Wishful Drinking reads like a casual discussion between friends, which makes sense when you learn it's actually Fisher's one-woman show put into book form.

Unfortunately, it also reads like the script for a one-woman show put into book form--a book that could have used some judicious editing. There are a fair number of paragraphs that begin with "Now," "Anyway," "So," and "Well," that work as conversational dialog on stage but make for sloppy writing and annoying reading as a book. Fisher also tends to repeat herself--also sloppy and annoying.

As performance piece recycled into a book, Wishful Drinking would probably be best "read" as an audio book read by the author. My enjoyment of this short memoir suffered the equivalent of seeing the film preview for a one-note comedy that gives away all the best jokes in the trailer. I'd learned about this book on another blog that dropped some of the best lines by way of raving. Intrigued and amused, (and unaware that this was based on a stage version), I was disappointed. There just isn't enough humor or story to make it worth recommending.

I have forever wanted to get and read this book. When i started reading it i couldnt put it down and kept reading even after i was done with the book. This is and amazing book and it goes through her entire life i never even knew she had drug problems and was bipolar. I learned alot about her and learned alot from her. Even in a tradegy you can pull yourself out of it. She deals with her life in the book in a realistic way but also funny and moving. I now hold alot of respect for Carrie Fisher for how she turned her life around.

Carrie, you have done it again! I am writing this in the conversational style you have written Wishful Drinking in. I could not put the book down--and I would not call it a "Fast Read" with its depth. You show your reader that Whatever one is going through, one can transcend with humor, warmth, and a wide angle lens. I admire your honesty through all of your life experiences of Hollywood, Relationships, and your inner workings/plus struggles. What a gift to others full of malaise, resentment, and paralysis because of what life has given them: Very Transcendental and wonderful humor, new writing styles forged, and direct contact with your reader's own consciousness. Should one enjoy a non linear read, which actually is Not disorganized (language and thoughts Are circular--but you (Carrie) do this with clarity. For those wishing for serious diagnose of ailments, especially bipolar, they may read Jamison's own description in The Unquiet Mind. She is a very accomplished psychiatrist who could not believe, at first, she was bipolar. Now, she is writing about the connection between artists, geniuses and bipolar. For those wishing a start, go to the internet to look up Famous People with Bipolar--artists, actors, scientists--all fields past and present. There are one million people (or more) diagnosed with bipolar or who go undiagnosed. Should more write of their experiences,Carrie, you would not feel like a "poster child" Should one look at this country, or the world--would you not call it bipolar too? I am writing this in response to those who wished more serious issues addressed, in the midst of reviews. I could write much much more and cite. Find out what you think.Carrie Fisher is the writer's writer in her style and ability to open up one's own creativity. She is Proust, Virgina Woolf, Faulkner-- with a comical edge spanning Hollywood and the Universe. For the reader, this is a must read. You will feel that you are listening,sympathizing, and laughing over life with her over tea at home, or cappuccino at a cafe. Thanks Carrie! I want to read it again! Rochmanna Miller-A Los Angelino too.
A byline: Actually, Wishful drinking does not discuss bipolar that much. Postcards on the Edge discussed self medication,and The Best Awful, the journey into discovery of bipolar. I had written this because there may some who are judgmental, because of lack of the most scientific evidence regarding brain chemicals (such as lack of seratonin) now featured in such magazines as Time. There are different forms and it raps around the personality of each person differently. This add on will hopefully encourage others to read more on the findings, and for Carrie to feel less like the Poster Child who had the courage to discuss it.

I miss Carrie Fisher but thankful that she lives on in the words of her books. This one mirror her stage show and is sheer brilliant for its ability to mockingly take on life and all it's sent her way. Thank you for this gift.

If you are looking for a book that focuses on Princess Leia and the backstage scoop, this is not it. Carrie rambles on in mixed order about her life, family and strange relationships. She only lightly touches on a few moments during the iconic movie. Carrie is a self professed alcoholic and druggie.....although somewhat recovered. Just when you think the book is running in order and getting good it swoops back in time without giving you an address of where you are going. The language was unnecessarily harsh and rude at times. It's more like a bad attempt at a comedy club act in writing. Since the author is reading the book and putting her true feelings into her reading, all I kept thinking while she was reading was HOSTILE SARCASM. I think she has more issues to work through.

The only reason I gave it two stars instead of one is because I did laugh out loud a few times.

This book is an absolute classic....to have it read to you by Ms. Fisher makes it pure gold. Her brutal honesty, sarcasm and lack of any kind of a filter made her such a strong advocate for mental illness and addiction; she will be missed by millions of folks like me who admired and loved her. I am a Star Wars fan too, but have not seen her through that prism for decades now.....she was a tremendous writer and advocate for the many, many, many just regular folks who deal with life's struggles each and every day. May the force be with you Carrie.

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.

Hysterical, reflective and hits home. As someone with bipolar disorder I too have engaged and crazy behaviors, the problem is, I can't remember half of them. Carrie Fisher comes from an absolutely crazy family and experience so many things. If it weren't for the media chances are she forget half of what she's done as well. If you want to have a good laugh and remind yourself that you shouldn't take things too seriously this is the book for you

I laughed loudly throughout this book, although some of it was poignant & sad. Carrie Fischer has such an honest voice and she tells all her stories truthfully and with so much humor. I love this book. I love Carrie Fischer. More, please!!!

The literary version of her one woman show is hilariously funny, a bit all over the place, and short enough to read in an hour or two. My regret with the book is not hearing it read by her, as part of it's charm would be her droll delivery. Nothing is dwelled on for very long, from her upbringing, to Star Wars, to her failed marriages. Instead it's all a series of quick burst vignettes that thread their way to the present. However, if you're a fan of Fisher, you'll find there's alot to like besides that Princess Leia coif.

Like Princess Leia's plea to Obi-Wan Kenobi, Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking, just feels desperate.

Her latest memoir is based on her stage show of the same name, and is not quite equal parts enjoyable and frustrating. Coming in at a scant 163 pages, it also feels unfinished.

In it she regales us with stories of drug addiction, electroshock therapy, and her unusual relationship with her mother and the bizarre cast of characters that flitted in and out of her life. It feels like an outline, to get ideas down on paper, before she got to work on the real version of the book.

We rarely get and in-depth details of stories that are screaming for in-depth details. She jumps around from topic to topic like a hummingbird on speed.

When she does slow things down a bit to talk about poignant moments in her life, like when one of her best friends died in her bed, she plows through them with one liners and a jokey countenance, as if needing to convince us that she really is ok with everything that has happened in her life. And maybe she is ok with everything that has befallen her, but to me it was too much. It felt like I was looking at her through a carefully constructed bubble of rote quips and defensive posturing. I wanted to really connect with her, to get serious, and really peel back the layers of a complicated woman who has led a complicated life.

The book does indeed have some very humorous parts, and her conversational tone is sweet and endearing, but in the end, her manic need to elicit laughs is its undoing.

If she does get around to putting pen to paper again without the artifice and all of the emotional shield generating, it will make for one amazing read. For her to get there and write that book, is my only hope.

Celebrity autobiographies such as this are usually self-indulgent, but this one was more so than necessary. Reading it felt as if it was just more therapy for Ms. Fisher to explain and expel her various demons and it told us nothing interesting about her aside from some gossipy tidbits that appeal to readers of tabloids.

"Wishful Drinking" is a poorly written book, with Fisher changing tenses every few paragraphs. It's filled with short chapters and was only 156 pages long so I finished it in a couple of days, but if I'd read it non-stop I could've finished it in a few hours. It left me wanting to know something of substance, rather than Ms. Fisher's snippets of thoughts and memories. If she had an editor, it didn't show. It was a disjointed mess and had chapter titles such as "A nearby arranged all around her." What does that even mean?!?

Also, there was the requisite bashing of G. W. Bush and most all things republican (aside from her dead, homosexual, republican friend). Ms. Fisher made it seem as though she personally suffered during those years due to the administration. The only suffering she experienced was due to her own drug and alcohol abuse. Fortunately, I borrowed the book from the library so I didn't have to suffer by shelling out money for this fluff.

My mistake was chuckling and buying the book because of its cover. Excuse me. It's a little bit of a stretch to be calling it a book. With a handful of large black & white pictures and generous amounts of white space between the lines and chapters, its just a gussied up pamphlet. It's short enough that you'll be able to read this book while killing time during a few sessions on the toilet. Ms. Fisher can be funny but the memoir is set up like an off-color Henny Youngman routine. I half expected to hear a ba-dum-bum-CHING drum roll at the end of most paragraphs. It's also narrated much like her self-deprecating, manic personality. The pamphlet is erratic and repetitive. This I found annoying. Not my cup of tea.

I generally don't read books about celebrities, but I picked up this book from a library last night because I thought that it would be funny/different. And it was! I read it in one sitting and I must say, I really enjoyed reading it. It is a quick and fun read.

Here are a couple of excerpts from the book:

"...so this was the first time a man had ever taken care of me. I mean, he used to give me baths (like I was a Labrador.)"

"...So, you see, it's very exclusive. It's sort of like and invitation to the White House - only you meet a better class of people in the mental hospital."

From one-woman stage show to book, this is a natural progression for this talented, writer, actress, humorist. Slim--at less than 200 pages--with type large enough that we eyesight challenged middle-aged fans can read without our glasses, it's also peppered with photos. I read through it in an afternoon.

If you're a fan of Carrie Fisher's writing, especially her books Postcards from the Edge and Delusions of Grandma, (I wasn't a big fan of her novel The Best Awful), this will be a nice addition to your collection. Or if you've seen her show and would like to have a companion piece--kind of like a detailed Stage Bill--than this is a good choice. If, on the other hand, you're looking for a thorough memoir or a seasoned collection of humor essays, you'll most likely be disappointed. Without question, Carrie Fisher is laugh out loud funny, and the extraordinary cast of characters comprising her highly visible dysfunctional family makes it no wonder why she's opted to share the tales of her existence.

"My entire existence can be summed up in one phrase," she writes. "If my life wasn't funny it would just be true, and that is unacceptable." She goes on, of course, to write several more phrases, but her opening line certainly rings true.

Michele Cozzens is the author of It's Not Your Mother's Bridge Club.

Touching and laugh out loud funny. A well executed 'biography on speed' with a fascinating look at an eventful life. Carrie's down to earth view of her life and struggles is touching as well, and those struggling with mental illness will find much to identify with and feel good about not being alone, in the highest parts of society.

Got this as a gift for the 2nd day of the Jewish Festival of Lights and devoured it in one manic all nighter sitting. Many years ago I recall seeing Fisher at an infamous LA underground showbiz subculture award show event which lead me to believe that she's real people, not an elite snob. As for flakiness, show me a goodie-two-shoes in LA and I'll show you a never-was F lister off the social radar and movieland icon charts.

This tidy concise autobio reads like a female Lenny Bruce stand up comic stream of consciousness head trip filled with wit and candor revealing private mental challenges made public. They are painful but the honesty and straightforward priority of her verbiage exorcises demons through an infotainment of absolute truth void of denial or excuses. She doesn't defame others for her self described inbred past. Instead she blames fame.

What happens when dimly lit stars self destruct in a fishbowl is a lack of street smarts makes them trust establishment figures too much so that they are easy prey for shrinks and toxic drug prescriptions. All this when a lifetime of substance abuse can be their original sin to begin with. So, are seeds of emotional instability more rooted in the chicken of childhood family neglect or the egg of substance abuse escapism?

Winking at the reader to make real people down to earth points, Carrie the victim is living proof of the vain Hollywood cult of celebrity where being alive means being in front of audiences and the media and family life and love is labeled quality time. Her Hollywood royal parentage makes it clear that she's an alpha female with too strong a life force for mensches. Hot blood likes to argue and hints at a need for intimacy.

Disease bought in liquor stores or from drug dealers is weakness and bad food, drugs or booze poison our minds and bodies. No one is born with chemical imbalances without outside intake. Carrie exhibits over the top anecdotes over the medical version of who she is when her reality was of someone bored and in need of something to fill up her time. She chose drugs and that caused her to lose her mind. And not the other way around.

But if Carrie grew up normal or boring we wouldn't have had Fisher the great novelist. All literary savants are head cases. And aside from her sci-fi cinematic legend, she found her true calling in life in words and books where she was meant to be all along. She may be a case study for those whose job it is to say what's wrong with you if you need help. For me, Fisher is just a classic air sign who thinks too much and lives in her head.

The only downside of this book is the revelation of the shock treatment. But not for the shock value but because she is too good with words to be subject to clinical erasure of a lifetime of experience still valuable as storage baggage for future novels. That she underwent an ECT therapy memory clearance of past regrets to get better renews her pop relevance for fans who know that only A list people survive Hollywood's A list.

About her looks. At her best she resembled Mary Ellen from the Waltons, (Judy Norton-Taylor)---who was once in Playboy. Enough said. History shows all great writers have agita. Those who lose it lose themselves in words. It's only a matter of time before she gets her just due. This memoir is sodium pentathol for warm hearts and souls from a beautiful mind perfected through life's suffering. And we should all be so lucky.

This book just saved my life. So I'm reading it again. Funny, witty, candid, honest, clever, fun. It's very short, unfortunately, but feels like a conversation. Can't wait for another. Carrie Fisher has always been known for her humor and wacky stories and this is one of the best she's done. Apparently, all true. She's paid a high price for such a fascinating life, and all that she'll leave behind in books and film is well worth it to the rest of us that enjoy her work in all it's facets.
I recommend this to everyone, because, lets face it, everyone's a little nuts, and it helps to have someone nuttier to laugh at. And relate to. And this makes it all okay.

Thanks!

I love Carrie Fisher, and think she is one of the wittiest people alive, but this book reads like a collection of chapter drafts that nobody bothered to edit. The first two chapters cover almost identical material, with some of the same witty asides, even. It's like she wrote chapter 1, then lost it, wrote it again, found the first draft, and then decided to just use them as chapters 1 and 2 -- there, almost halfway done!

The font is huge, and the content is probably more like 40 pages worth if it had been in normal font -- this would have been better as a long magazine article.

The cover is perhaps the most promising part of the book. As others have said, her stage show is probably hysterical -- with inflection and all. Much like David Sedaris books--it's funnier in the author's voice -- heard spoken out loud.

Disappointing, especially since she is capable of so much more.

I can add little to the other one- and two-star reviews; I can, however, agree wholeheartedly with those who were a bit embarrassed for the author, who was trying to be funny and failing spectacularly. I felt I was at a cocktail party, being forced to listen to a long-winded story that was just not going over very well. The book's only virtue? It was short, thank God.

This book is more of an outline of a book than a book. It seemed like something jotted down lazily every night rather than a thoughtfully written recollection of your life. I read this book in a few hours, and it left me - well, I don't want to say it left me wanting more because I was fairly put off by the way the story was told that I was too annoyed to want more. But I definitely expected more. Maybe if this book had been filled in more and plotted out better, it would have been more enjoyable. As it is, I definitely cannot recommend it, unless you are one of the stalkers Fisher mentions.

Carrie Fisher is first and foremost Princess Leia to me, but aas both she and I got older things changed and she showed she was human and went througgh things we all do (Yes, I watch ET and the rest) In Postcard From The Edge there was part of what she was about (though I only saw the mmvie) and this is the first book that I picked up that she has written.

In this book she reveals details of her life without the benfit of a vehicle such as Postcards. Here the stories are first hand and direct with a wonderful sense of humor. There is some stream of consciouness and bouncing, but it still flows as you bounce along what she says.

She has gone through alot and her bouts with depression are well-known. In this book she shows how well she has beeeen able to deal with it and help make our days a bit brigther with her humor. It is a very quick read and I do wish it was longer, but that it is because it was enjoyable and she never overstayed on a topic which would make it long and drawn out. Like a good actress, a good writer knows when to stop just short as oppossed to going too far.

Very highly recommended.

This was a quick, humorous, entertaining read. this was my second memoir for April and a very different direction from the first. I enjoyed the pictures of her family that were included. And what a hilarious conclusion!

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.

This is the first of Carrie Fisher's books that I have read and let me just say, it is HILARIOUS! I laughed out loud until I lost my breath in several places. With just the written word, this woman conveys biting sarcasm and a sharp wit. She is also warm and clearly a loving person as evidenced by her description of her family and friends, particularly her mother, brother, and daughter.

I very highly recommend this book.

This book is great. Just like Alan Alda's style of writing, you can hear the author's voice talking to you like you're having coffee together. You can't help but laugh at the situations and ways she talks about them...the fact that sometimes all you can do is laugh - even at something difficult makes this book relate-able to many. I didn't read the other non-glowing reviews but I would ask "What were you expecting that wasn't fulfilled? What did you want?"
I think she is smart. I think she brings up topics people need to be thinking abuot. I think she's a real person & a survivor. Great book!

I always find it interesting that people judge a book by it's length. I agree this was a short memoir, but the content was hilarious and worth every bit of my time and money. I have not laughed this hard in awhile, and loved the sarcasm. I do wish it was longer, because I could have read Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking all day, but in no way did that diminish what I did read.

I think Carrie Fisher is one of the funniest people on earth and this book doesn't change that opinion. I laughed out loud several times while reading this book and that takes a bit of doing for me. Just the cover alone gives you an idea of what to expect inside. It has always been apparent to me that Fisher's other books have been fairly autobiographical, despite her claims to the contrary, but this one she admits is actually her life. Given everything she talks about in the book, it is a blessing that she has such a resilient sense of humor. As I read every page, I could hear her voice speaking every word, her sarcasm so present. So much so, that after I read the book, I treated myself to the audio version as well just to hear her tell it with her own voice. If the book wasn't written with such a humorous, self-deprecating view, it would be blindingly sad. I am roughly her age, so maybe I relate to people and situations like hers because I know of so many others who have experienced similar ones, minus the Hollywood setting. However, not all of the situations familiar to me have been experienced by only one person! Read this and share it with all your friends. They'll thank you.

Ok Carrie, when did you marry Billie's father?

News to me.

I have been a fan of Carrie's for nearly 30 years. Guess that makes me bad being a fan since "Star Wars". She does bad mouth her fame & the success of the film. For all the bad points of it it did make you money remember that. Best I can call what she says.

Photos throughout as well. A disappointment was seeing all the "Star Wars" & "Jedi" photos we have seen a million times. Guess "Empire" did NOT matter as no photos from it. I was glad to see the rarer photos-just needed more of them.

Her wit is seen through out the book. I enjoyed that, her twists on things & how she puts things.

CARRIE, YOU NEED TO TAKE BETTER CARE OF YOURSELF.

No mention of Belshui or Dan Aykroyd, who she was supposed to have been engaged to years ago.

And, I did think the book should have been longer.

Or, will there be a part 2 Carrie?

I expected this book to have some insight into fisher's childhood, what led her down the path of alcoholism and shock-therapy treatment, and what those experiences were like for her. Instead, it's a short series of often not-funny disconnected one-liners. At the end of some paragraphs I expected a short-drum-roll, followed by "Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week, ladies and gentleman". It appears to be, as some people have already noted, a transcript of her one-man show which does not translate at all well to paper.

Fisher reveals at the start of the book that the shock-therapy treatment left her with little memories and that the purpose of writing her book was an attempt to try and recapture some of them. Well, that's fine as a therapy exercise, but don't then try and pawn it off as a revealing autobiograpghy. It took me about 2-hours to finish this extremely short book and gained nothing from my experience. That's $20 and 2-hours of my life that I will never get back; don't waste your money or your time on this one.

I got this book and was really excited knowing I would love it but alas, I did not. I think Ms. Fisher can be funny and I read a lot about mental illness but I was put off by her tone. The geeks who have whacked off to her all these years and all of us other nerds have helped pay her psych bills. As I write this I gaze at a $350 cartoon statue of her and R2-D2 on my desk. I have spent more money on Star Wars toys for my son than I will put towards his college education. So yes, I am an idiot but I really didn't need Carrie Fisher to remind me of that continuously through the book as she pretty much puts down all the lowly normies who do things like drive cabs and read fan magazines. Don't bite the hand that feeds you your Thorazine!

I have enjoyed Fisher's past efforts and wanted to like this one. The cover blurb said "Funny as hell..." Frankly this was one of the saddest stories I have ever read. Ill-conceived and poorly written, it achieves nothing in the end. I wonder what you have to have inside you to think any part of this book is humorous? I gave up on it threes times but, to be fair, picked it up again to read it to the end, just in case I was missing some illuminating moment. Didn't happen for me.
I wish Ms. Fisher well. I am glad that others seems to like the book and hope she realizes some gains from it's publication particulary in the realm of personal peace.

I was looking forward to reading this book. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to my expectations. I found her mental health jokes somewhat funny, but also disturbing. It was a very short book, but I still found myself looking to see how many chapters were left so I could move on to something else. Maybe Carrie Fisher fans would enjoy this book more. I am not one of them.

This book was pretty entertaining! My biggest gripe is that it was so short. 150 pages, large margins and lots of pictures throughout. It's a super quick read but I love Carrie's dry humor. I look forward to reading her other memoirs.

Which when you think about it, shouldn't be all that funny. But the formerly drug-addled Ms. Fisher manages to laugh all the way to sobriety, or at least until the next incident.

I think very highly of her. The book is hilarous, amusing, sometimes moving. She uses language in inventive ways. You'll just have to read it.

This is the third in an accidental trilogy, but less momentous than Ms Fisher's first two memoirs. While it seems a cathartic over-indulgence about her electroshock therapy, it is ALWAYS in the range of just funny to hilarious.(Her off-the-subject parenthetical mumblings provide the most clever and raucous laugh-out-loud moments and some real insight into Ms. Fisher's wonderfully twisted, sardonic and sarcastic mind).

The oddity is that you learn more about Ms. Fisher's ditzy and funny mom, Debbie Reynolds--a truly warm accounting of life with a uniqely weird movie star, . If anything, you feel that this book is too short for more than two bathroom readings, and leaves you wanting for more...to read, that is. I would highly recommend this book to both my best friends and worse enemies.