Carol Weis bares herself (sometimes, literally) in her debut memoir, where she unveils her two lives, before and after, in a collection of alternating chapters that divulge her change. In those chapters, you'll meet a desperate young woman riddled with anger and fear from childhood trauma and an equally desperate sober, single mom struggling to push those feelings aside to care for her young daughter. Like many who abuse alcohol, the author grew up in a world where feelings were never, discussed and were typically resolved by drinking. Her mother was, hospitalized with tuberculosis for 18-months when Carol was three, and being, passed around from family to family left a tenacious fear of abandonment that persisted through her often, reckless life. Alcohol was the salve that soothed the wound and hid her shame. And, for 25-years it ruled over her actions, while she treaded her way through the chaos it created. Starting off on the night of her last drink, Stumbling Home quickly reveals the author's love-hate relationship with the legal drug, then brings the reader along on the sundry adventures she takes under the influence, interspersed with the challenges she faces after she quits, ultimately, on her quest to reinvent herself and find out who she really is.
