Shockaholic

Carrie Fisher always told it like it was--at least to her perception. I loved her one-woman show, "Wishful Drinking. " We watched it several times when it first aired on HBO. We own the DVD, and it still brings a laugh. We also saw her in a one-woman performance where she just answered questions from the audience. Always interesting. Always humorous, bawdy, outspoken, and introspective. Brutally honest, this book explores her early years, electroshock therapy, Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, and her relationship with her father, among other subjects. Fisher was one-of-a-kind, and I enjoyed her humor and candidness.

Let me start by saying that I have always enjoyed Carrie Fisher's sense of humor. Her late night tv show was spicy and fun and interesting. Her appearance on the PBS special honoring the Star Wars guys was hilarious. So with thsee occasions in mind I couldn't wait to read her book. Oh dear. Such a disappointment. Caught in the past is an understatement. I'm sorry to say that I want no more of her writngs. BUT should she ever ask if I'd like to stop over and join her in a gabfest, I'm there in a nanosecond.
Sister Jay

This is a little bit less well-written than her other books, but I enjoyed reading it. Since her early unexpected death, you really can't recommend her methods of coping or medication or lifestyle, but she persisted in trying to keep it all together. I don't know if I would highly recommend this book but for Carrie fans, and especially for people with similar mental issues, they might find it especially interesting and even enlightening. She does have a lot of insight into mental illness and those parts were the some of the most interesting. The average person would not do the things she has done.

Carrie Fisher was a true gem, an extraordinary wordsmith, and one of the most original minds of our time. When she passed away I simply had to order this book. It was startling, sad, informative, and also completely hilarious. Made me feel like she was right here with me, telling me fascinating and crazy stories about her life. Highly recommend this quick read, to anyone who loves Carrie, and to anyone who has a special place in their heart for our beloved Princess Leia. This unique actress is going to be so missed.

I love reading Carrie Fisher...in fact throughout most of my adult life she has been "that funny writer chick" as opposed to that "otherworldly bun headed girl". But the irony is that her writing voice is indeed so grounded, her humour so inescapably embedded in her own limitation. Carrie does talk in her writing about having lead a life of escape. However, the feel of her work as a humorist/essayist always belies this, which is why her written work is so very good.

Can I say, I love Carrie Fisher's writing style. I feel like I am having a personal correspondence with her. Her books are witty, brutal in their honesty and yet, you never feel the weight of her problems. You simple hear her tale, laugh at her observations and leave her world thinking..."Wow, glad I am not there in person but it was sure fun to visit." And it is. they are great reads. I hope to get 20 more books out of her. One per year please! Step it up!

Sad to read this book in light of Carrie Fisher's and mother Debbie Reynold's unexpected recent passings. Vintage Carrie Fisher: smart-ass, insightful, well-written. Only downside: it's pretty inside-baseball for people who don't have an acute interest in her Old Hollywood era parents (Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds) their time, and her/their insular world of big name friends (Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor.)

This is a very funny book. I enjoyed Ms. Fisher's last book "Wishful Drinking" as well.That was hilarious and I can personally relate to her problems with being bipolar. But this book was funny and also very touching, as she talked about her father dying.

This is a slight book, an add-on to Wishful Drinking to comment on her use of shock therapy and say a little about people prominent in her life who have since died, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson (okay, not so prominent), and Eddie Fisher. Actually, she doesn't mention Taylor passing. In short, all three had been famous for so much of their lives, since childhood, that they had no concept how to be normal or live normal lives or relate to normal people. I don't know if Carrie Fisher does either, but she acts like she might. Her memoir about her stepfather is fairly disgusting because he was disgusting.

She does not reveal any big secrets or tell any scandalous tales. It is just reflections on fame and what it does to people.

What I would like to read, Carrie, is a behind the scenes of "When Harry Met Sally." You often seem to skip over that movie when you talk about your movies.

Item was described as being in 'very good' condition. I do not consider a water-damaged book with wrinkled pages and a tear in the dust jacket to be 'very good,' nor, I believe, does the book rating system. The condition was very disappointing for a book I purchased to add to my collection. At the very minimum, these features should have been honestly described. Although the price was good, the condition was over-stated to say the least. Would strongly recommend requesting photos from this seller to offer proof of the stated condition. Beware. Condition is likely not as described.

Carrie Fisher had the epitome of the dysfunctional upbringing - absent parent, druggie parent, early fame, psychological problems. She compensated with alcohol, drugs, and heaven knows what else. It's basically a sad story but - her saving grace is her ability to see the humor in even the worst of situations. However, this book left me feeling sorry for her; it's kind of a downer.

I will miss Miss Carrie Fisher...she was a wonderful person, actress & author. I am going to miss her sharp wit and wonderful interviews.

I liked Shockaholic, but not as much as her previous books, including Postcards from the Edge.

I recently read Shockaholic, Wishful Drinking, and the Princess Diarist. While all three are variations on a theme (and even re-tread stories/jokes/content at times), this was the one I found most enjoyable and unique.

Carrie Fischer's wit is on full display in this book. I have enjoyed her commentary on everything from her father to Michael Jackson. I am sorry she will not be here to grace us with additional work. RIP Carrie.

I so get her way of thinking & dry sense of humor.I have always loved her mom too. She is a great story teller .I saw her one woman act & would go see her again in a minute.Can't wait to read her next book !

This brief memoir of an electroshock patient, who happens to be famous, is more of an explanation of her relationship to her dead celebrity father. A few brief excursions into her personal shock therapy, an apology about losing her memory to it, and some quips and that's all there is folks!

Shockaholic is a memoir by Carrie Fisher and a sort of follow-up to her prior memoir Wishful Drinking. It adds on to her stories of her life with perhaps some overlap to her other biography but not quite as well.

As the title indicates, one of the initial pieces that she addresses in this book is her shock therapy. She had mentioned her treatment in the other book but here she really goes deep into it and describing the process in vivid detail and what it means to people in her condition. It's intimate and somewhat jarring at times but it really sets the tone of the book as a whole - open, honest and with her being more than able to laugh at her own life.

This is not a book about her life as Princess Leia. Instead it's an honest sharing of her life and her relationship with her parents and all that fun stuff. We hear of her encounter with a Kennedy and even a lot of stuff about her friend Michael Jackson and it's all quite fascinating. She talks about each subject for as long as she wants to and then ends just as abruptly. You'll get enough but never too much and it's all quite magical.

What I Liked: The whole book, especially the audio book, feels like you've just sat down for tea or coffee with Carrie Fisher and she's telling you another story of her life. Each chapter is one such encounter and her naturally ability to tell a story really sings through. Even as an audio book she makes you feel at ease as she talks about her celebrity parents, of eccentric dentists and so much more.

She's an amazing writer with a flair for applying her rather sardonic sense of humor to a retelling of stories of her life. It's not just how she tells the story in this audio book but the very words she use to convey a strong sense of self as you immerse yourself in her life. And she really does take you away.

What Could Have Been Better: The book doesn't have a narrative structure and you pretty much bounce around to various points of interest in her life. We start by discussing her electroconvulsive therapy sessions but then start talking about her life and her parents and so on. I know it's a memoir and not a straight up narrative that needs a beginning, middle and an end but you can't help bu want to make sense of things.

And there is that sense of you wishing she talked more about herself and not necessarily the people around her. I understand wanting to discuss her fathers to varying degrees and family is sort of fair game in books like this. But then you have the bit about Michael Jackson which went on for quite a while. I guess she felt somehow obligated to set the record straight somehow given Michael's death. It's a noble effort and well-written, but felt somehow disjoint from things.

TL;DR: Shockaholic is another great memoir by Carrier Fisher and acts as a lovely preservation of these parts of her life in a format that can be enjoyed by friends and fans alike. She doesn't really pull punches and you don't want her to since it's that same fire that endeared Princess Leia to so many of us.

Carrie Fisher teased in Wishful Drinking that she had plenty of stories that she wasn't telling us. Well, Shockaholic contains some of those stories - it is essentially a disjointed collection of stories about her encounters with famous people who died since publishing her first memoir. I guess she then felt free to tell her stories about Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, and her stepfather Harry Karl. She also talks more in-depth and movingly about her relationship with her father (who died during the run of Wishful Drinking), and how that relationship changed as he aged and became more infirm. Although not as cohesive as Wishful Drinking, it is a fun read for more celebrity gossip written in her acerbic, playful style. This book is worth the price of admission just for the chapter detailing her triple date with Chris Dodd, Ted Kennedy, his date, and an anonymous Washington couple. For any woman who has had to grit her teeth and bear gross, harassing comments from dirty old men, you will find your mouth falling open in amazement and cheering for Carrie as she brazenly takes on Ted Kennedy in an epic battle of sexual comments and general audacity to see who would back down first.

After Carrie Fisher died, I, like many others, was reminded that she was not only an actress but a novelist. So, in a way, it seemed a fitting tribute to read at least one of her books. I chose Shockaholic, a candid, poignant compilation of personal essays about different episodes in her life.

As Fisher admits, ECT therapy destroyed some of her memories. To write down the things she did remember was clearly important to her. The essays aren’t really connected, except perhaps that many of them focus on a man in her life, whether a brief encounter or a family member. The longest and most moving essay is about her father’s later years, when Fisher looked after him until the end.

For me, the occasional brief reference to her own death is poignant and sad. She worked hard to get her life back on track after years of drug and alcohol abuse. What impressed me most was her eloquent, yet informal writing style. Fisher could be sarcastically analytical, funny, and whimsical. She really was a terrific writer who deserves to be read.

I wanted to like this book but I couldn't. It felt like she just threw it together just to fill out the book when her main goal was to convince us that her father was a decent human being and not the worthless, lowlife degenerate he really was. In that regard, she failed.

Carrie, however, did show herself to be a very loving daughter who accepted her father for who he was and knew that the only way to have him in her life was to become his doormat.

He was a narcissistic sociopath so as long as Carrie served her purpose, taking care of him, she was deemed finally worthy of his love and attention. It was beyond dysfunctional, but it was what she wanted most in life, to be his chosen one, and she finally became his favorite person to leech off of.

It was laughable when she was describing him as loving, when in fact, the man was love bombing her. Textbook technique of a sociopath. Once he has you disarmed, you are ready to be used then discarded. The man was just too old and sick to find a woman desperate enough to use, so he settled for his desperate for his love daughter instead.

This book was depressing. She was a disappointment due to her constant coddling of a grown man. I can't stand women who make excuses for why certain men act like children instead of adults. They never hold these men accountable then wonder why they have no self esteem. They allowed these losers to suck their self worth right out of them.

In the end, she gained a dependent but lost her ability to love herself. In life and death, he literally left her with nothing. He taught her that was worthless and was undeserving a man's time, attention and love. She had to give everything and in return she received meaningless words, empty gestures and the burden of being his caretaker.

Of course he was loving, appreciative, grateful at the end. He got everything a parent expects from their child without doing any of the work. That's why I will always say she was a better daughter to him than she ever was to her mother. Unlike him, her mother put in the work, yet was used as a punching bag for having the audacity to stay. Meanwhile, he did nothing, and is coddled, babied, taken care of because he's a weak, pathetic, needy, lazy, worthless piece of crap who chose women and drugs over his career and children.

I lost respect for her. I don't think it's honorable to reward bad behavior. I don't think it's loving to be a doormat for a father who was never a father. I find it pathetic to give everything to a man who's unworthy, undeserving of anything. Good for her, but I can't praise a woman for being happy she was used and manipulated.

And for the love of God, he was not a good man. If he was a good man, no wonder she never had any lasting relationships if he was her benchmark for what a good man is and does. Also, I doubt she inherited her ability to love from a man who was incapable of loving anyone.

Love is showing up, he never did. Love is being present, he never was. Love is an action, something he never learned how to do. Neediness isn't love. Being charming isn't love. Love is deeper than the hollow, empty, superficial bs he pretended to give in order to use people for his own personal gain.

He was not a joyous, loving man. He was a cruel, manipulative, depraved sociopath. Trying to put a positive spin on a despicable individual won't change the fact that he's truly a deplorable human being. I get loving your sperm donor but let's not act like he was anything more than a loser who threw his life away and abandoned his children due to being a morally bankrupt womanizer.

Carrie Fisher, she of famous parents and Star Wars fame, has produced another short but engaging lump of memoirs. And by short I mean this is in the region of 160 pages and the print isn't small either. So you need to question the value for the price, but as to the content..

Ms Fisher has her daemons, but she remains articulate and witty with a sharp observational sense. She covers a number of different aspects in this, her shock therapy, Michael Jackson, Liz Taylor and her parents in the main, her style is self-depreciating and humorous and she doesn't hold back. She comes over very well as a warm, caring and aware person whose addiction and depression problems are not hidden and are put into context. You kind of think that time in her company would be a real pleasure (although she has memory problems relating to the on-going shock therapy and she may not remember it!).

So short but entertaining, the insight to Jackson (and his dentist!) was probably the most interesting along with her tale of a dinner with a very famous senator! A combined volume of all her biographical writing would probably be fascinating, but the short chunk approach leaves you wanting more and feeling slightly short-changed.

SHOCKAHOLIC, Carrie Fisher's semi-sequel to 2010's WISHFUL DRINKING, is a more personal collection of essays about a handful of episodes in the life of Ms. Fisher, leaving me wishing she would chuck out the style and write a full-sized memoir. Let me go on record as saying that I love and adore Carrie Fisher, not for the STAR WARS films, but for her many acidic turns in television and film and how she used her level of celebrity to espouse various causes and battles. From LAVERNE & SHIRLEY to WHEN HARRY MET SALLY to SCREAM 3, Fisher has lampooned her image as Hollywood scion while maintaining a literate reputation as behooves someone who has not only married Paul Simon but starred in one of Woody Allen's best films (HANNAH, naturally). As a writer, Ms. Fisher was introduced to me by my good friend Antonio Gramsci, who forced POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE on me in 1987. Since then I have enjoyed her novels in lessening frequencies, from SURRENDER THE PINK to DELUSIONS OF GRANDMA. This changed with the autobiographic WISHFUL DRINKING which was delivered to audiences as a one-woman show in 2010. I was fortunate enough to see the show on Broadway at Studio 54 with Antonio that fall, and she was as entertaining and delightful as she was zaftig. That is what made the terrain covered by Fisher so shocking in SHOCKAHOLIC, the latest collection, in which she recounts that she was still abusing drugs (Oxy) during that time until agreeing to undergo EST, or "shock therapy." She honestly discusses her manic symptoms as well as the suicidal ideations that lay the groundwork for such a decision and recounts the procedure, as much as she can remember it, with the post-EST feelings. As on this season of MAD MEN, it is explained in an easy-to-understand manner as opposed to the cinematic CUCKOO'S NEST and FRANCES, and the musical NEXT TO NORMAL. After that opening essay she touches on a series of Fisher-related events in her life, including her friendship with Michael Jackson, the negatives of her former stepfather, her pool party with Elizabeth Taylor, and most touching, her father's final days. Of course, much like Edmund White, the fiction and memoir side of the author seem to share an honest history, which makes a full-fledged memoir all the more appealing - from the post-STAR WARS high with the SNL crowd to her job as a ghost writer, even to her appearance on that reality show for filmmakers, she would have a plethora of stories to tell...until then the two (slim) collection of essays will have to suffice. That being said, I loved this collection and definitely look forward to anything else Ms. Fisher chooses to pen.

I love Carrie Fisher's humour. It's very similar to mine - self-deprecating, cynical, and she sure as hell doesn't take herself seriously. If you liked Wishful Drinking you'll like this one, which is a bit more serious than the last one, but it focuses more on her mental health problems and shock treatments (the fact that she gets them regularly blows my mind - uh, no pun intended, really). It's a quick, light read and one of the chapters I particularly liked was the one on Michael Jackson, which not only delves into his life and some of the questionable behaviour of some parents who accused him of molesting their children, but also into the nature of fame, particularly the difference between the brief blazing glory of fame Fisher herself had, the more garden-variety fame she now has, and the blinding long-term superstar fame that Michael Jackson had. Her memories of her father and his twisted ways were also of particular interest. I definitely wouldn't call this another one of those 'boring-ass celebrities with their boring-ass drug problems' bios that all sound alike. Fisher's were a bit different, and because she had a brain she seems to have learned more from her personal tragedies than many of the has-been movie & TV stars who now write about their cookie cutter trials and tribulations.

I laughed out loud several times while reading this funny and very very bitter book. Carrie Fisher definitely could really write and was a truly unique, engaging stylist. My gosh, I wish I had gotten to see her theatrical version of "Wishful Drinking"! It must have been brilliant.

That said, I thought the book could have been fleshed out a bit in places. I found myself wanting to know a lot more about her therapy and Bipolar experiences -- perhaps selfishly because I have known people absolutely destroyed by this terrible disorder and would like to better understand it through the eyes and talent of someone like Carrie.

Yes, I get it, she is an addict and bipolar, but that does not make one a decent writer, in itself. She is disorganized, overly flippant, rather than funny, and although she tries to belittle her celebrity status (about 70 times), she reeks of it. I know this sounds personal. The thing is, I was going for a sample but hit the purchase button myself, so Carrie wins:) She might have a lot of talent in other areas and be a nice person, but this book is punishment.

I was disappointed in this book. I bought it hoping to get a personal story about the use of EST, and instead ended up reading a very boring and egocentric story about Carrie Fisher. I was extremely disappointed.

I loved this book. It had everything I loved about Wishful Drinking. 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 Wishful Drinking.

This book is awful. It is boring; Carrie Fisher is totally self-absorbed. I also do not feel that it is at all helpful in reducing the stigma of mental illness. There could be some value in familiarizing more people with the process of ECT but mostly Carrie Fisher seems to be obsessed with herself and her connection to various other stars. I did not like this book at all.

Hello.

Carrie Fisher is simply the funniest person alive. I started reading this book in the library. And for me, in the silence of a library. I started laughing out loud. Which was very unusual. She is simply the very best humorist alive. This book is funny. It's charming. It's insightful. She's the funniest human being alive. She is becoming forgetful because of the electric shock treatment. Now, she spends most of her time trying to remember what she has forgotten. But, she can now watch old movies over and over again. To show you what a bad writer I am, I'll use a redundency. I'll say it again. Very very funny girl. Top of the pops. Thank you.

I loved this book so much! The way she writes is like how she talked, and I love when writers do that because it really brings you into the story. So many things I did not know about her life...and more proof that she was so much more (and more interesting) than her iconic role. Such a talent taken too soon.

SHOCKAHOLIC is Carrie Fisher's second memoir, following WISHFUL DRINKING. Whereas WISHFUL DRINKING was a memoir of Carrie's life from birth to the present, SHOCKAHOLIC touches on various topics in Carrie's life. Although not as entertaining as the first, it's still quite insightful and humorous, featuring Carrie's sharp wit. In SHOCKAHOLIC, Carrie discusses her experiences with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), formerly known as electroshock, to help her deal with her drug addiction and depression, speaking highly of it.

In subsequent chapters, she dishes about her date with Senator Chris Dodd, and meeting Ted Kennedy who proceeded to ask her inappropriate questions about sex.

She then provides some insight into Michael Jackson, spending Christmas at his house, and even discussing MJ's child molestation case because she knew the players. How random is all that?

Carrie winds up the book with a long dedication to her father, Eddie Fisher, who passed away in 2010, two years after WISHFUL DRINKING was published. She has kinder words to say of him this time around.

All in all, SHOCKAHOLIC was a great read, and I love Carrie's writing style. I look forward to many more books on her thoughts and observations.

Some 3-4 years ago, Carrie Fisher published "Wishful Driking", which first was a one-woman stand-up show, and then became a memoir about her upbringing, fame with Star Wars, and subsequent struggles. The book became a bestseller. Now comes yet another book from Carrie, a sequel of sorts to "Wishful Drinking".

"Shockaholoic" (162 pages) starts off with Carrie's reflections on her decicion to get electric shock treatment (ECT) to deal with her seemingly never-ending struggle with depression. Carrie discusses all of it in her usual, frank and open style, and we are spared no details ("What I've found is that, at least for the moment, most of my old memories remain intact, but I totally lose the months before and after the treatment"). Next up are chapters in which Cariie discusses why she became so overweight (and how Jenny Craig came to save the day), and a very memorable retelling of a dinner evening in 1985 spent (as the date of then-Senator Chris Todd) with then-Senator Ted Kennedy and a few others. Not surprisingly, Kennedy comes across as an incrediblly rude and sexist pig. But the biggest part of the book is devoted to reminiscing about her dad Eddie Fisher, from whom she was estranged for many years, yet she become very close to him in the last few years of his life. It is in here that we get the kinder, gentler Carrie Fisher. Carrie describes how it happens that she is one of those people who has a natural knack for spending time with/bringing comfort to people who are about to pass on. I admit that several of these episodes described in the book moved me to tears.

In all, this is a pleasant and very quick read, although not quite as good as "Wishful Drinking". By complete happenstance, I was in New York on a business trip some years ago and noticed that Cariie was performing her one woman show of "Wishful Drinking", so I went to see it, and I was quite blown away (and very entertained). Don't be surprised if Carrie turns "Shockaholic" into another one woman stand-up show as well.

I'm normally a huge fan of anything Carrie Fisher writes. Most of which are hysterical and autobiographical. However, Shocaholic was not my favorite. A lot of the novel stresses around the fact that ECT has affected her short term memory.

Parts of this book were funny. But it is slightly repetitive of some of her earlier works. I did enjoy the "new" stories involving Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor, but there wasn't enough newness about this book to make it really stand out.

I think that people who have never read anything by Carrie Fisher will enjoy this selection greatly. Other works of hers worth notable mention for fans of fiction The Best Awful. If you would like to stick to a memoir, Wishful Drinking had me laughing until I had tears in my eyes.

In a sense, and I think Ms. Fisher might agree with this statement: Enjoying this book is similar to when you pass a really interesting car wreck. The amazingness of it outweighs the horror (like when the entire cargo of a truck hauling tractors accidentally collapses onto the car following behind, but somehow, no one was hurt. You slow down and look; you talk about it for days!).

This book is full of awful wrecks: drug addiction, alcohol use, neglectful parents, mental illness, predatory people circling the stars. Having said that, Ms. Fisher is just so darned entertaining about it, that you have to love it.

This woman is so talented, and so completely smart, that it was a joy to read this book. I had never read any of her work before, but I will certainly do so now.

I especially enjoyed her story about dinner with the senators (condescending *#$%s that they were). But really the best is that she clearly has done the right thing by her parents. Not that she owed her father anything, as she says. But taking care of him in his last days was so truly good of her. I hope her karmic reward is huge.

I also found her comments on Michael Jackson interesting. I was never a particular fan of his, but he was clearly very talented. It is nice to think that he had a supportive friend.

This is just good reading. I hope any reader enjoys it as much as I did.

Who would Carrie have been without Leia. A bipolar drug addicted alcoholic...without the privileges of Hollywood. Sad commentary on the spoils of wealth. Hope she found peace in the hereafter. And kept her sense of humor. A good read.

Carrie Fisher's writings are bi-polar manic hilarious! This one doesn't let you down either! She was such a Hollywood brat and knew it! It makes for great reading! I will always cherish the horrific close encounters of the 3rd kind that I experienced more than once in her presence. I still think we would have been GREAT friends, if she had just been on (or off) her meds when I was around her. She is a GREAT writer! So witty and her true stories will make you feel "normal" no matter who you are. Fisher is a life that shows us all, "It's not always what it seems to be" and "don't judge a book by it's cover." She had it ALL. This is what you get when "Hollywood Royalty" procreate. SPOILED! Yet, she was crazy as a hoot owl and a REAL B*^@*, we will always love her and her films....well some of them anyways.

Nora Ephron. Dorothy Parker. Carrie Fisher. Three women who can turn a phrase on a dime and turn tragedy into laughter before the reader even knows they're supposed to be feeling tragic. Carrie Fisher's "Surrender The Pink" hooked me a million years ago. I've been a fan since. Shockaholic reminded me why I fell in love with her in the first place.

Carrie Fisher narrates her own writing for SHOCKAHOLIC, which is an intimate look inside her life. From her relationships with Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Gabriel and Michael Jackson, to her ups and downs along the road to and from recovery from addiction, bi-polar disorder and depression, Carrie Fisher holds nothing back. She even discusses her successful treatments of ECT - Electroconvulsive Therapy - or Shock Treatment.

Intimate. This is the perfect word to describe this book, especially if you choose to listen to the audio. I felt like I was sitting in Carrie Fisher's kitchen, and she was telling me stories about her life until the wee hours of the morning. I admire someone who has that kind of courage, especially someone who has made the mistakes that she has made.

Carrie Fisher is funny, but not in the same way that Tina Fey is funny in Bossypants. They are both honest, but Fisher has lived more, suffered more, and her story is at once hilarious and incredibly sad. She acknowledges this, though, and shares the wisdom she has picked up along the way.

Do I agree with Carrie Fisher on politics, parenting style, or Michael Jackson? No, but she wouldn't care either way. She did, however, remind me not to judge a person until I have walked a mile in her shoes.

As someone who has always known who Carrie Fisher was, I wouldn't consider myself a fan...until now. She is the kind of person with whom I would love to hang out, have a (non alcoholic) drink with, and laugh...even if she couldn't remember my name.

I enjoyed this book, and recommend it to anyone who is looking for an entertaining memoir of sorts.

I'm not gonna lie it wasn't bad but wasnt accurate to the description. This book I felt on how she really spent her childhood, She doesn't talk about Star Wars really at all. Its a great audiobook to play with your aunt or grandma who aren't offended by occasional swearing. Its funny and she reads it and she is really funny

Apparently when one undergoes ECT treatment, it gives one the illusion that one can write an interesting book. Not so much. Of course, the joke is on me because I purchased the book! Just a mess of stream of consciousness ramblings with some potty humor thrown in that did not make a bit of sense to me.

It's pretty hard to read about the troubles of someone who has everything in the world (Fame, money the best health care, best food, a house in Beverly Hills) and yet the book is a good read. It boils down to mental illness can strike anyone. BUT there is a big difference. while some of her behavior is called eccentric, the rest of us with mental issues are called just plain nuts.

Carrie's book was a big disappointment for me. As a bipolar patient myself, I found precious little about the effects of bipolar disorder on her life and about the use and effects of Electro-convulsive Therapy (ECT) as found in her book's title. I was looking more for insights into the ravages of bipolar disorder in her life rather than mere entertainment. Her tale is more a Hollywood name-dropping, friends and family, political, and generalized story rather than a litany of the progression and management of her disease. I was also put off by the use of "F-bombs" used throughout her story. A good storyteller needn't resort to obscenity to relate his or his or her story.

I really liked this book. I've read all but one of Carrie Fisher's books and I find her to be uproariously funny, terrifically smart, and adorably self-deprecating.
This book, told in her singular voice, is slight but packed with surprising emotion and feeling. Ranging from such disparate subjects as ECT (or "shock treatment"-hence the title), to Michael Jackson, to her complicated relationship with her father, Shockaholic is a quick, but greatly satisfying, read.

This one was alright, but really pales in comparison to Wishful Drinking. This book was very rambling and didn't seem to have a thread holding the story together. There were funny and insightful parts, but they were few and far between. I feel like Fisher wanted to write about her more recent relationships with Liz Taylor and her father, most of which was developed post-WD, and needed more stories to supplement enough to write a follow-up book. It wasn't terrible, but maybe check it out at the library.

Very Disappointing. Humor is obvious, stories are not interesting, storyline is fractured and pointless.

Stories are often presented through Carrie's point of view, (which tends to be immature and self-centered). Her impressions do not provide insight into the other characters/people and they are one-dimensional and biased.

I am amazed that anyone would rate this beyond mediocre.

Don't waste your money or your time.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Carrie Fisher, but this book was a throw-away. By the cover, you'd think it was about her Star Wars experience - but it wasn't. After reading the first chapter, you'd think it was about her trials with mental illness - but it wasn't. Instead it skipped all over the place, like she had a pile of half-finished magazine articles on file & decided to just put them all in a book and make a buck. There's not much here, so take my recommendation & just move on. You can read all that's in here without spending a dime by googling Carrie & the following: Electroshock therapy, Chris Dodd, Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor & Eddie Fisher.

I was reading her mother's recent book and when she said that Carrie is bipolar, I felt it would help me understand my sister, who is bipolar too, to read this book. NOT! It is a pitiful self-wallow in filth. I feel she wrote it just to name-drop and make money. There is very little about ECT or therapy. After reading the little bit about ECT in the beginning, I skimmed thru half and threw in the towel. It's hard to believe she is Debbie Reynolds' daughter with such a filthy mouth and self-indulgence triumphant in her life. I feel sorry for her mother.

The teaser for this book is misleading; this book has very little information about Carrie Fisher's experiences with Star Wars. Instead, it is a rehash of stories she told in Wishful Drinking, which I quite enjoyed. But I didn't get this book to read that one again. Sure there is more detailed information about her father and a chapter about Michael Jackson, but the presentation is lacking. Wishful Drinking had some semblance of structure and tended to finish a thought before another was begun. This book lacks that, and it suffers because much of the content is a regurgitation from the old book (Fisher does talk about her electroshock therapy and memory loss--again. Maybe that's why she wrote it again. She forgot about the first time.)

Overall, this book makes Fisher come off as flippant and much less amusing than in Wishful Drinking.

After watching her HBO special I really started to appreciate her sense of humor. I also love the fact that she makes fun of so many things that happened to her that would have make other people crawl into hole. Very funny with her usual darkness.

I hate how some people just pounce on Carrie Fisher's work just simply because they don't seem to like HER, and won't even give any of it a chance. I think she is hilarious and fascinating and I loved this book.

Funny. Cute. Easy read, but a bit like potato chips, though. Once you pick it up you can't put it down, but for all the wrong reasons. It's not like I didn't know that going in. Bless her heart, everybody's gotta make a living, I guess.

If I could give zero stars I would. After reading her "dedicated to" page to Barack and slamming conservatives, I immediately wanted refund, as I stopped reading at this point. I do not care to read the ravings of her liberal politics. No thanks. If I would've know she was ranting crazy liberal, I never would've spent money on this garbage. REFUND PLEASE!

There is no doubt, Fisher enjoys a quick wit and great turn of phrase, regardless of how much accumulative voltage her poor body has endured. What is beginning to glaze me is not just Fisher but all actors and their prattlings, rantings, musings, and political inclinations. For those voyeurs who insist on barging in on the lives of abject total strangers this will undoubtedly be read candy. Sadly (no reflection on Fisher, her life, experiences or political leanings), this pushed me over the edge. I wish actors would stick to what they are best at: acting. I disliked this book and lost interest to the point that I simply did not bother to finish it. If there were a "no star" option I would have chosen it.

The first chapter of this book is about ECT, but the remaining 3/4 of the book is about other stuff and ECT never comes up at all. No fair.

As an ECT survivor, I wanted to see what Fisher (who is a very good writer) would say about the treatment, how it affected her life, how it affected her relationships, how ECT compared with medications, etc. In-depth stuff about ECT.

I had no interest in reading about her relationship with Michael Jackson or any of the other unrelated topics she went on and on about.

The book's title and cover are false -- this is not the book promised.

Carrie Fisher's level of fame deserves to be taken seriously and explored with class and insight. Shockaholic is a disturbing view and an unsettling collection of miserable moments in a checkered life. The disrespectful, lazy way she speaks in itentionally sickening tones left a residue. I placed Shockaholic in the trash and let it be forgotten.