Nothing Good Can Come from This

Essays

By: Kristi Coulter

Narrated by: Kristi Coulter

This program is read by the author.

Kristi Coulter inspired and incensed the Internet when she wrote about what happened when she stopped drinking. Nothing Good Can Come from This is her debut audiobook - a frank, funny, and feminist essay collection by a keen-eyed observer no longer numbed into complacency.

When Kristi stopped drinking, she started noticing things. Like when you give up a debilitating habit, it leaves a space, one that can’t easily be filled by mocktails or ice cream or sex or crafting. And when you cancel Rosé Season for yourself, you’re left with just summer, and that’s when you notice that the women around you are tanked - that alcohol is the oil in the motors that keeps them purring when they could be making other kinds of noise.

In her sharp, incisive debut essay collection, Coulter reveals a portrait of a life in transition. By turns hilarious and heartrending, Nothing Good Can Come from This introduces a fierce new voice to fans of Sloane Crosley, David Sedaris, and Cheryl Strayed - perfect for anyone who has ever stood in the middle of a so-called perfect life and looked for an escape hatch.

©2018 Kristi Coulter (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Kristi Coulter charts the raw, unvarnished, and quietly riveting terrain of new sobriety with wit and warmth. Nothing Good Can Come from This is a book about generative discomfort, surprising sources of beauty, and the odd, often hilarious, business of being human." (Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams and The Recovering)

"Brave, whip-smart, and laugh-out-loud funny.... Although this is framed as a book about drinking, it’s ultimately about so much more: the insidious reasons why so many of us might polish off an entire bottle of Chardonnay in the first place - and how we might better serve ourselves in the end. Coulter herself is addictive to read. She’s a fresh, uncensored voice, offering up more than a drop of insight and hope." (New York Times best-selling author Susan Jane Gilman)

"What’s the opposite of disappointment? Oh right, pure joy. That’s what I felt reading Nothing Good Can Come from This. I was dazzled by Kristi Coulter’s honesty, her humor, and above all her beautiful, perfectly tuned sentences. Rarely do formal invention and real emotion coexist so comfortably; in other words, both intelligence and heart are on full display here. It’s difficult to imagine a more, well, joyous reading experience." (Claire Dederer, author of Love and Trouble)

Light and fun as a sitcom and profound as an exist

By the title, this book may seem just another self-help book about alcohol addiction. It’s much more than this. Actually, it's about existentialism and the reasons one wants to escape the pain of being. Beautifully written, with an unvulgar sense of esthetics and high standards of a profound literature academics, it’s at the same time light, fun and compelling as a sitcom. Many people are afraid from being sober as it seems to adhere to a cliché, throwing off all the revolutionary dreams and sophisticated thoughts for a down to earth day-to-day and a median religiosity. As if this very human, courageous and real woman teaches us how to report our addictions, why one drinks, as a teenager and even more as a successful adult professional. She describes what is to live, love and suffer with the anesthetic aid of alcohol, which helps to choose unwisely and live superficially, and how deep and profound is to live a drama without it, in a beautiful description of an extra conjugal romance where nothing real happens and yet has all the emotional elements of a novella. John, her lovable husband is described with such love and seems to be so sweet and dedicated himself that we almost miss the couple as long as the book ends. We conclude that the decision not to drink is indeed an existential decision, a daily decision to live, fully and deeply, all emotions life puts in our plate.

Love this

I am so glad I read this book and would recommend especially for a women’s book club!

Insightful and entertaining

Open hearted and honest, underpinned by beautiful writing, a sense of humor and insight. Reading this and Exit Interview has expanded my vocabulary understanding and empathy.

Dry humor

Good, quick book for those in the sobriety journey. Jumps back and forth in time connecting different times in life.

An engrossing inward journey

Kristi Coulter is a new favorite writer. Part way through this Audible version, I had to buy the book itself. It’s going to get dog-eared and consumed because this memoir is so many things at once. Kristi is an engaging reader with a great voice and timing so the hours flew by listening, but I found myself going back to revisit what I found moving, surprising, especially poignant or interesting. Her prose is smooth, each sentence is packed with meaning, it’s just enjoyable, witty, sardonic and self-aware — with no dead spaces. She’s also lyrical, raw, vulnerable, and open — without overt sentimentality — and unapologetic. I self-reflected based on her revelations and insights. I like knowing her through her memoir and will now read her second book. She’s confident and highly entertaining.