The Joy of Drinking

With characteristic elegance and delicious wit, Barbara Holland, ("a national treasure,"-Philadelphia Inquirer) celebrates the age-old act of drinking in this gimlet-eyed survey of man's relationship with booze, since the joyful discovery, ten thousand years ago, of fermented fruits and grains. In this spirited paean to alcohol, two parts cultural history, one part personal meditation, Holland takes readers on a bacchanalian romp through the Fertile Crescent, the Mermaid Tavern, Plymouth Rock, and Capitol Hill and reveals, as Faulkner famously once said, how civilization indeed begins with fermentation. Filled with tasty tidbits about distillers, bootleggers, taverns, hangovers, and Alcoholics Anonymous, The Joy of Drinking is a fascinating portrait of the world of pleasures fermented and distilled. PRAISE: "Impressive...Holland has a light, winsome touch and is always funny."-New York Times "With a style as witty, practical and Triple Sec as M.F.K. Fisher's, Holland's "The Joy of Drinking" grows from a hilarious ancient-history lesson into a compulsively readable mini-mosaic of humans and our various fermented tipples." -Los Angeles Times "Holland, a prolific and wide-ranging writer, distills a considerable tonnage of fact and trivia into this casual, shot-sized volume...She has a breezy, whimsical style, perfectly suited to her swift romp across the histories and cultures of alcohol down through the ages." -Publishers Weekly "Mixing fact, fable, anecdote, and personal opinion with irresistible panache, cultural historian Barbara Holland's The Joy of Drinking distills thousands of years of humankind's lusty relationship with alcohol-made from fermented honey, hops, grapes, grains, and even mare's milk-into a slim, sparkling history that covers all manner of blithe spirits, from lowly beer, 'the cornerstone of civilization,' to the vaunted martini, aka 'Fred Astaire in a glass.'" -Elle The critically acclaimed author of When All the World Was Young tells the remarkable, idiosyncratic story of the world's love affair with drinking.