Shockaholic

customer reviews

Infused with Carrie Fisher’s trademark incisive wit and on the heels of Wishful Drinking’s instant New York Times bestselling success, Shockaholic takes listeners on another rollicking ride into her crazy life.

There is no shortage of people flocking to hear what Princess Leia has to say. Her previous work, Wishful Drinking, was an instant New York Times bestseller and Carrie was featured everywhere on broadcast media and rave reviews from coast to coast, including People (4 stars; one of their top 10 books of the year), Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, and scores of others.

Told with the same intimate style, brutal honesty, and uproarious wisdom that placed Wishful Drinking on the New York Times bestseller list for months, Shockaholic is the juicy account of Carrie Fisher’s life, focusing more on the Star Wars years and dishing about the various Hollywood relationships she’s formed since she was chosen to play Princess Leia at only nineteen years old. Fisher delves into the gritty details that made the movie—and herself—such a phenomenal success, admitting, “It isn’t all sweetness and light sabers.”

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Book details:

Simon & Schuster Audio |
4 disks |
ISBN 9780743550260 |
November 2011

$28.99 List Price

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Praise

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“Fisher is a girl who knows how to tell a story . . . she can make us laugh, she can make us cringe, but she can also teach a great deal about the power of forgiveness.”

– People (4-star review)

“[Fisher] never lets herself veer into woe-is-me-ism. With charming shamelessness, she conducts a brisk and witty tour of her life, delivering up her tragedies as a nonstop laugh riot.”

– Elle

“Hilarious.”

– Marie Claire

“There's no such thing as TMI in Carrie Fisher's world, and that's why we're hooked on her new memoir, Shockaholic.”

– Ladies' Home Journal

“Fisher's memoir Shockaholic, the follow-up to her successful autobiography and one-woman show, Wishful Drinking, is similarly witty, ramshackle, and outrageous.”

– Washington Post

“Fisher is, at her core, a very good writer who's able to keep us entertained. Fisher deserves praise for being up front about the [electroshock] therapy…If she wants to keep talking, we'll keep listening.”

– Los Angeles Times

“Hollywood's new poor little rich girl . . . continues her tour down the rabbit hole of Crazy Town, sparking us through brightly lit secret corridors while twisting self-deprecation into an art form. Fisher's wordplay is wicked,... ”

– San Francisco Chronicle

“Amazing . . . pretty fascinating stuff.”

– Rosie O'Donnell (Windy City Times interview)

“[Shockaholic] stands out beautifully from what has become the madding memoir crowd.”

– Buffalo News

“Fisher's word choices and comedic rhythm echo such literary comic masters as S.J. Perelman and Woody Allen . . . she proves the ripe adage that comedy really is tragedy plus time. Grade: A-”

– Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Carrie Fisher goes from pathos to punch line with a flick of her wit.”

– Louisville Courier-Journal

“Carrie Fisher is able to deliver a sage, self-deprecating tour of addiction, bipolar disorder, and her experiences with ECT (Electro-Convulsive Therapy) in a way that leaves readers feeling like she's your funny, cynical,... ”

– BUST

“[A] funny and sad memoir . . . tremendous wit, ample self-deprecation, and a thinly veiled and deep-seated anguish.”

– Publishers Weekly

“Fisher is a writer, an observer, and a keen one at that. Her way with words, even though she claims electroshock treatments have made her forget many of them, is raw and raucous.”

– Booklist

“Fisher writes with razor-sharp wit that is acerbic, insightful, and contemplative, all laced with a tenderness that will disarm even the most cynic reader.”

– TucsonCitizen.com

“Princess Leia Amidala Skywalker Solo strikes again . . . The one-liners keep coming and the temptation is to conclude that all this Gemutlichkeit is distancing behavior, but leave that to her army of shrinks and Dr. Feelgoods and... ”

– ShelfAwareness.com

“Shockaholic is shocking, but it's the emotional depths that are charged under the therapy's push that really makes this an interesting read.”

– BookReporter.com

“For those who are partial to Fisher's sharp and acerbic take on things, her sense of the absurd clearly derived from firsthand experience, Shockaholic . . . doesn't disappoint.”

– Blogcritics.org

“Shockaholic is a breeze to read: fast-paced and clever, funny enough to make you laugh aloud, and short enough to be read in one sitting. But the moments of insight, of clarity, of vulnerability that Fisher shares with the reader... ”

– LitReactor.com

“Fisher is a storyteller, very happy to make jokes at her own expense . . . Shockaholic will only enhance her reputation as Hollywood's unofficial amateur therapist.”

– The Guardian (London)

“Plenty more weird episodes are packed into [Carrie Fisher's] latest memoir, Shockaholic. . . . Some of the stories are heartbreakingly sad, yet Fisher makes them laugh-out-loud funny on the page.”

– Sunday Sun (UK)

“Modern American literature has an enviable tradition of wisecracking dames nursing broken hearts or fragile psyches dating back to Dorothy Parker. To that list we can add Carrie Fisher. . . . We are now well used to the kind of... ”

– The Telegraph (Belfast)

“Even if you're not a Star Wars fan, [Carrie Fisher] will have you laughing as she reveals her amazing experiences in Hollywood and beyond.”

– The Journal (UK)

“Fisher’s life certainly provides a wealth of colorful anecdotes. . . . But the real gold of the book comes in Fisher’s ruthlessly self-abnegating sense of humor.”

– AVClub.com

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Read an Excerpt

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