Drink

September 15, 2013
Award-winning Canadian journalist Johnston expands on her 14-part Toronto Star series on women and alcohol. "Has alcohol become the modern woman's steroid, enabling her to do the heavy lifting necessary in an endlessly complex world?" asks the author. Coming of age in the 1970s, Johnston was part of the first wave of women inspired by Gloria Steinem. As both a devoted mother and an editor at Maclean's, she played her part in closing the gender gap. Like other women of her generation--and to a greater degree, the young women who followed her--she also fell into the trap of using alcohol as a crutch to ease the stress of balancing career and motherhood. She uses her own experience of increasing dependency on drinking to illustrate a broader, worsening trend among young Canadian and American women of out-of-control, binge drinking. "One in five high-school girls binge drinks," writes Johnson. Among women of childbearing age, the number is higher. If they drink while pregnant, they put their babies at risk for fetal alcohol syndrome. Johnston explains how young women are not only vulnerable to sexual abuse when they drink to excess, but they also endanger themselves physiologically (for metabolic and hormonal reasons) when they try to match men drink for drink. In the author's opinion, a misplaced idea of female entitlement is partially responsible, but the alcohol industry also plays a significant role through the marketing of new brands of trendy wines for women with names such as "French Rabbit" and "MommyJuice." There are also "Skinnygirl Cocktails" packaged for the calorie-conscious drinker. Today, Johnston is a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and an advocate on public policy. A compelling sociological study and memoir.

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October 15, 2013
Veteran journalist Johnston combines her powerful personal story with strong reporting to show that alcohol harms women even more than men. She grew up with a mother who was an alcoholic and a father who became one in retirement, and she wound up in rehab herself. Johnston includes many examples of alcohol wreaking havoc on women's lives, including a mom driving drunk who crashes and kills her child passengers, and a high-school class president and prom queen who died of alcohol poisoning. Women are more likely than men to binge drink, which increases their risk of breast cancer, heart disease, and sexually transmitted diseases. Johnston convincingly argues that alcohol is the new tobacco, and, as such, needs a similar public-health response. Just as Virginia Slims boosted cigarettes' appeal to women, products such as Bethenny Frankel's Skinnygirl Cocktails and Fergie's low-calorie, fruit-flavored vodkaVolimake booze seem alluring. Also cause for concern: drunkorexia (also known as drinking without dining) and fetal alcohol syndrome (the leading developmental disorder in the world). A powerful case for drinking water, not wine.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

April 1, 2013

Along with huge strides in education, employment, and basic rights, women worldwide are experiencing strides of another, less fortunate sort: risky drink that has increased to epidemic proportions. Five-time National Magazine Award winner Dowsett Johnston offers the facts while also disclosing her own struggle with alcohol. With a 40,000-copy first printing.

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