Thursday, December 3, 2009

I Want: My Journey From Addiction and Overconsumption To A Simpler, Honest Life - Jane Velez-Mitchell

Host of her own Headline News show, journalist Velez-Mitchell addresses a number of her own issues in this honest but ultimately unremarkable narrative, focusing largely on former addictions to alcohol, cigarettes, food and money: "I've consumed all of those in massive quantities, and they've just made me miserable. Now, I want... the opposite of material. As sappy as it might sound, what I want is spiritual." Velez-Mitchell then recounts a childhood with parents who taught her to shun all authority but their own; a young adulthood in which she nearly drank herself into oblivion; her decision to get sober; how she came to terms with her homosexuality; and her climb to success in the world of television news. Despite these revelations, though, Velez-Mitchell's off-putting, self-righteous tone may make readers feel they're being scolded, rather than invited to understand or sympathize.


**Rate this book 2/5. While I thought that her addiction and recovery from alcohol would be interesting reading, it was not. She did attend AA, but this is briefly mentioned. She spends most of the book acting self-righteous and self-absorbed. She not only had an alcohol addiction that she overcame, she also was a compulsive shopper, became an animal rights crusader and a vegan, hug the trees, save the whales. It is a little bit of a stretch to believe all of her 'good deeds'. I was disappointed in this self-serving book.

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