Sunshine Warm Sober: Unexpected sober joy that lasts by Catherine Gray

Sunshine Warm Sober: Unexpected sober joy that lasts Reviews

• 
  Franki Webb

  Absolutely brilliant, especially for those in recovery and want to know what a sober future would be like. I love her style of writing, very familiar as if your best friend is chatting with you. I'm glad she released another book as there are only so many times I can read unexpected joy! Thanks Catherine!
• 
  Emma

  I probably should have started with the authors first book - The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober - as felt this one was sometimes too much of a personal reflection. Was a good read and worth the 99p kindle offer price - however based on other reviews should have read them in order.
• 
  Eve Dangerfield

  I got quoted in this! I feel like such a celebrity! I was the Ava that talked about an unexpected drinking trigger being big event sex (yeah not on-brand for me at all)
  Anyway, enough about me. I'm such a CG fan. Her writing on this subject is unparalleled and warm and cute as heck. Anyone sober or sober curious should definitely check it out!
• 
  Siobhan Jackson

  I loved the combination of author anecdotes, facts, reader comments, Dr opinions. I love the humour. But my favourite bit was the end when Catherine talks about DISCOVERY rather than RECOVERY. I wouldn't say I was an alcoholic (although my personal opinion is that most people are somewhere on the "alcoholic scale" if you catch my drift, but that's a whole other conversation!), but I just feel this line of thinking of it as discovery is so true. Until thinking of it like that I hadn't truly realised that I was drinking to numb my depression and anxiety, to give me confidence, albeit fake! Now though, it's like I have a new lease of life! Thank you Catherine for making me realise because until now I weirdly hadn't noticed!
• 
  Anna

  I liked the first book as it was a structured narrative and offered me a lot of insight as a newly sober person back in 2018. I’m really grateful to the writer for sharing her story as I found so much of it relatable. In the new book, some of the information was interesting but I was expecting to learn more about the joys of growth in her long term sobriety but it felt instead like an unstructured scrapbook of ‘alcohol sucks’ info. Preaching to the Choir.
  
  I found the twee writing style so distracting it tired me out to read.
• 
  Hannah Powell

  Catherine deserves a huge thank you for the books she writes which will help so many people battling alcohol addiction. Having drunk far too much in my teens and twenties I found her first book - The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober - a useful and informative read. It helped me to be more confident in attending social events and not drinking, or sticking to one or two.
  
  This book was less helpful for me personally, but I'm sure it will be brilliant for others. It's written with honesty and compassion and the stories she includes from her community helped me to walk in their shoes.
  
  I agree with Catherine that heavy drinking and a culture of encouraging alcoholic misbehaviour is pervasive in the UK. This book is a helpful warning of what can happen when people get sucked in too far. It will encourage anyone who reads it to examine their own relationship with the bottle, whether they are an alcoholic themselves, or an active participant in the problem culture.
• 
  Jayme

  I read Catherine Gray's book
  The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober two years ago when I realized that alcohol had become a problem in my life and I needed guidance and support from other people who had successfully "made the switch" to an alcohol free life. It contained current research, data and great stories which were very helpful.
  
  Sunshine Warm Sober is a reflective follow-up on living alcohol free eight years later. In this book she compares the drinking Catherine to the sober Catherine in her stories and sprinkles in new information from leading doctors in the fields of neuroscience and recovery. This is really an important book to read if you are years into your recovery. For me I had started to forget the reasons I decided to stop drinking (distance can be dimming) and this book helped me to remember and reflect on where my life was, why I decided to quit drinking and how wonderful my life is today. Thanks, Catherine.
• 
  Nicola Wyllie

  I enjoyed lots of this book, particularly the sections putting ‘stone cold drunk’ and ‘sunshine warm sober’ experiences side by side. It was so powerful and worth the price of the book for those. But a little disappointed there wasn’t more of that.
  This book is like a series of articles or blog posts about drinking, including research and ‘readers’ experiences. I gave it 2 stars because I just found the way it was laid out very jarring. One section didn’t flow into the next. Also I don’t necessarily think the title of the book it a good representation of most of the content. I do think that it helps to have read ‘The Unexpected Joy of being Sober’ and which I loved, because I think Catherine Gray is a good writer, and I look forward to seeing where she takes her writing next.
• 
  Trevor Twohig

  I like Catherine gray. There is a sexy confidence to her and her writing even when she was a hot drunk mess. I do relate to her and glad I never met her in a dark Brixton bar when I too was a terrible drunk!
  The first 50 percent of this book is very interesting and incredibly well written. She has a penchant for cordial chatty prose that occasionally throws a blinding idiom at ya.
  However the down with the kidz dialogue (see above) grates slightly, and the book drags towards the end. She goes into niche topics and I found myself skim reading about pregnancy etc.
  
  However I like catherine gray and her bold honest approach.
• 
  Aimée Bell

  Another great book from Catherine Gray! I so enjoyed 'The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober' so I was keen to read this when it was released. It was always going to be hard to live up to the first one and sadly it wasn't as good, but was still decent. It seemed to flit randomly to different time periods, different conversations etc and didn't flow as well as the first book. There weren't as many light hearted stories in this either but she did still have me chuckling in places. I was going to rate this 3.5 stars but the last few pages were really touching and had me nodding the whole time and I figured I'd give it a 4!
• 
  Kate Olson

  🎧 I listened to this book well into my sobriety journey and greatly appreciated the author’s style and nonjudgmental approach to the topic. I didn’t love it quite as much as I loved “Quit Like a Woman” or “We Are the Luckiest” but as a trio, these three books are the perfect way to explore sobriety for any woman today. I especially appreciated the look at alcohol and the fitness industry and all of the stories and anecdotes from readers. There is an essay at the end that addresses the isolation BIPOC women feel at recovery meetings that is very impactful.
• 
  Nick Traynor

  As the author herself writes, one of the benefits of books on sobriety is to give a counter-narrative to that of the alcohol industry (and that of our own internalised self-talk) about drinking and its place in our lives. I found Catherine Gray’s first book to be useful in this way and this one was no less so. The disclosures about the negative experiences accompanying drinking were useful reminders, as was the fact that going without alcohol doesn’t have to mean going without joy, which is a lesson that bears repeating.
• 
  Elise

  Fabulous follow-up to The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober! That was the book I read that first inspired me to stop drinking. I read this one at about 14 months AF. It resonated with being out of early sobriety and thinking about "what comes next." Catherine's writing is funny, relatable, intimate, smart and she brings a ton of facts and research to the table. She offers lots of stories from her own life, both in her drinking days and into her now several years of sobriety.
• 
  Katherine

  Laugh out loud funny in places. Truly sobering (ahem - intended) in others, this book is the companion you didn’t know you needed, once “you’ve totally gotten used to not feeling like an extra from Walking Dead on a Saturday morning”
  
  Witty, wise - and invaluable. And so very much food for thought. A brilliant sequel to ‘Unexpected Joy’ and a book to treasure and revisit, again and again.
  
• 
  Ashleigh

  I absolutely loved this book! A fantastic book for anyone that is already sober. Most books on sobriety can say a lot of the same things, and if you're already sober they can be a bit unrevolutionary but this book was fantastic and very much aimed at those deep into their sobriety.
  
  Highly recommend for everyone though!
• 
  Rachel Mccredie

  Decent read but one of those sequels that you feel is just stretching some more life out of the first book to make a fat wedge of cash. Fair play though. I enjoyed the list of celebrities who are sober and the brief few pages on the relationship between alcohol and drugs. Could have been a blog post
• 
  Jessica Macdonald

  Going sober can be lonely, especially if you don’t have anybody in your life taking the same journey - this book feels like a friend, taking my hand and understanding the process. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I’d have read The Unexpected Joy first but still a really useful book for anybody sober or sober-curious.
• 
  Kelsey Jones

  I’ve read several ‘sober’ books lately so while I definitely learned a few things and find Catherine very inspirational and relatable, there was a lot of crossover with books I’ve already read. Really like Catherine though and think she’s a warrior so will continue to read any more books she publishes.
• 
  Ginny Hogan

  I absolutely adored this book. As a more newly sober person, Gray offers so much to look forward to. It's insightful, warm, and hilarious. No matter how you feel about alcohol, this book offers something for you. I'd recommend it to everyone.
• 
  Nik

  Absolutely brilliant, the perfect follow up to TUJOBS, a book which I read just at the start of my sober journey. Both books found me at the perfect time & Catherine’s writing strikes the perfect balance between well researched facts & bloody hilarious commentary.
• 
  Eleanor

  Utterly obnoxious and disappointing. I've read many sobriety memoirs and this is my least favorite by a long shot. I was hoping this would be about JOY (often overlooked in the genre), but it focused heavily on the negative aspects of drinking.
• 
  Amanzi

  A sort of 'sequel' to 'The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober' (which I have re-read at least four times!), I loved this further exploration into the dangers of alcohol and the benefits and reasons of becoming sober. Catherine Gray is unabashedly honest, raw, funny, and blunt.
• 
  Abigail Walker

  Another great book from Catherine Gray. This one in particular was a perfect balance of personal anecdotes, psychology, and science. Would 100% recommend to anyone who is sober curious/newly sober or a long time sober.
• 
  Lord Barrold Ainsley

  “The Unexpected joy of being sober” was a massive help in my earlier sobriety and this follow up book has been useful in terms of reaffirming the decisions I’ve made. I’m much earlier in my abstinence than Cath is in hers but the book is still relatable. Her use of humour is there too :)
• 
  Elin Meredydd

  Nice refresher if you've read her other books but not as groundbreaking. The writing does feel a little like reading Cosmo magazine but I'm forever grateful to this writer for helping me change my life.
• 
  Kate K

  Really enjoyed this book - especially towards the end. I’m currently 15 months alcohol free & so much of this book resonated. Thanks Catherine for being such an honest, vulnerable, funny & engaging writer!
• 
  Carrie-anne Miles

  Amazing! For anyone newly sober, sober curious and beyond! For a girl in recovery like me, this is like the Bible! Catherine Gray rocks it xx
• 
  Steve Wilson

  Good update for continuing on the booze free path. I preferred the first installment, as it contained more raw intensity.