Sunshine Warm Sober: The unexpected joy of being sober – forever

by Catherine Gray

The long-awaited sequel to THE UNEXPECTED JOY OF BEING SOBER - the Sunday Times bestseller 'Exquisite' - Fearne Cotton, Happy Place'A paean to the longer-term pleasures of staying booze-free' - The Guardian'The kind of book that changes lives, and very possibly saves them' - The Lancet Psychiatry'A reflective, raw and riveting read. A beautiful book on what it takes to root for yourself' - Emma Gannon, Ctrl Alt Delete'No other author writes about sober living with as much warmth or emotional range as Catherine Gray. Her deep insight into the subtle psychologies of drinking, and of life, means that everything she writes is both utterly relatable and stretches our minds. Hers is a rare wisdom.' - Dr Richard Piper, CEO, Alcohol Change UKWhat's it like to give up drinking forever?We know now that being teetotal for one, three, even twelve months brings surprising joys and a recharged body... but nothing has been written about going years deep into being alcohol-free.As Catherine Gray, author of runaway bestseller The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober, streaks towards a decade sober, she explores this uncharted territory in her trademark funny, disruptive and warm way. This is a must-read for anyone sober-curious, whether they've put down the bottle yet or not. Praise for The Unexpected Joy of Being - Bryony Gordon 'Truthful, modern and real' - Stylist'Brave, witty and brilliantly written' - Marie Claire'Gray's tale of going sober is uplifting and inspiring' - Evening Standard 'Not remotely preachy' - Sunday Times 'Jaunty, shrewd and convincing' - Sunday Telegraph 'Admirably honest, light, bubbly and remarkably rarely annoying' - Guardian 'An empathetic, warm and hilarious tale from a hugely likeable human' - The Lancet Psychiatry

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Memoir, Health, Audiobook, Addiction, Alcohol

306 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 10, 2021

Reviews

[Franki Webb · Rating 5 out of 5]

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!

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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!

[Breanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely loved her first book, and now this one, on her journey and experience of getting sober.

Always grateful I never had an addiction to alcohol, but I did decide to stop drinking a couple years ago. It just stopped having any pros for me! Reading memoirs like this, and learning more about just how harmful alcohol truly is for the brain and body, helps me feel informed and proud of myself for making that decision.

I would definitely recommend her books to anyone curious about going alcohol free.

[Siobhan Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

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!

[Jordan Parkington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another really great book for the sober curious. Catherine is so real and vulnerable. She speaks like a friend and in between the jokes and truthful stories, she shines a light on drinking culture and what it means to abstain. Enjoyed reading this and all her other books!

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed her stories and all the resources. It's uplifting to see someone shit-canning booze and embracing her best life!

[Ciara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another one of my absolute favourites from Catherine Gray! I preferred this to TUJOBS as there was more perspectives and less anecdotes. Such an uplifting read

[Svenja Bunte · Rating 5 out of 5]

5* for Cath as always for writing the book that needs to exist. She puts her heart and shame all of the page for people to read and feels like she’s holding your hand as you go. Thanks Cath as per!

[Hannah Powell · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Eleanor · Rating 1 out of 5]

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.

[Johanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another brilliant book from Catherine Gray. I found this one even more fascinating a read for me especially with being over 3 years sober/alcohol-free.

[Jayme · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Nic · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m from the generation who grew up around alcohol and for who the culture of drinking was expected, it was “normal” (“a wasted weekend is not a weekend wasted” kind of mentality).
Having been sober now for just under a year, I was already awakened and aligned with a lot of what the author was saying, its deeply reflective and made me think back to all those incredibly awkward & embarrassing situations in my life where drink was involved.

It really spoke to me when Catherine talked about the term “alcohol abuse” and how damaging this narrative is.
I really like the style of writing too, i found myself laughing out loud at points and nodding my head in agreement.

Definitely a recommended and worthwhile read for anyone who is either sober curious or who is already on their path to sobriety or even someone who wants to look into the triggers that might push them crave a drink.
*This book is the follow up to her first The Unexpected Joy of being Sober, which I didn’t read first, it probably
worth reading them in order*

[Nicola Wyllie · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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!

[Hem · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is beautiful. The author was giving her perspective on long term sobriety. It not only consisted scripts from her experience (before and after) but also included research, studies, government and big alcohol companies corruption along with experiences from other people who abused alcohol or came under the pressure of it. And from different societies and perspectives too. I was so gripped by everything. What I loved is that it was such a well rounded book on the topic. As someone who quit alcohol very recently and was not an addict, there were elements that I couldn’t relate with but still managed to understand it.

[Katy O. · Rating 4 out of 5]

🎧 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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was vulnerable and also she is such a funny writer and I loved how it focused on not just the hard parts of getting sober, but on the beautiful parts of living life without alcohol. Clearer head, enjoying moments fully and entirely, not waking up with hangovers, feeling all the feelings, better health overall, better mental health, etc etc. It also had some crazy research and scary info on the way that alcohol is marketed and portrayed in media. I want to read her first book!

[Gemma Stockham · Rating 3 out of 5]

🌞I have been meaning to read this book for a couple of years now.
Although not having read the 1st of Catherine's books (The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober), I felt this was the point I needed to start at as it was similar to my point in time.
My sober journey has been relatively tame compared to others.
We are so conditioned by society that you cannot have a good time unless you drink alcohol, so I felt I was just drinking to fit into the role of being an adult.
Now 5 years down the line, I have already battled my reasons why I wanted to give up (the hangover being longer than the actual drinking and not actually liking the taste of it), and I definitely feel the better for not having it.
In this story, Catherine talks about her more deeply rooted addiction to drinking, which to me had some similarities but would probably resonate with others who had a higher dependency on it more.

🌞Still a very insightful read and questions the culture surrounding casual and dependent drinking in everyday life.

🌞🌞🌞/5

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Sara Gentry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stars: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


Another of Catherine's books I loved. Again, I've been enjoying reading these books about being sober- while I don't think I need to be completely sober, it's not an addiction for me. It does shed a light on drinking at home or drinking to dull a sense or feeling like you NEED a drink.