The theme for February's Late Nights at the DMA is Virtues and Vices, and this book explores both. For Sarah Hepola, alcohol was “the gasoline of all adventure.” She spent her evenings at cocktail parties and dark bars where she proudly stayed till last call. To her, drinking felt like the birthright of a strong, enlightened woman. But there was a price. She often blacked out, waking up with a blank space where four hours should be. She apologized for things she couldn’t remember doing, as though she were cleaning up after an evil twin. Publicly, she covered her shame with self-deprecating jokes, and her career flourished; but as the blackouts accumulated, she could no longer avoid a sinking truth. The fuel she thought she needed was draining her spirit instead.

A memoir of unflinching honesty and poignant, laugh-out-loud humor, Sarah Hepola’s Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget tells the story of a woman stumbling into a new kind of adventure—the sober life she never wanted. Shining a light into her blackouts, she discovers the person she buried, as well as the confidence, intimacy, and creativity she once believed came only from a bottle. This is a story about giving up the thing you cherish most—but getting yourself back in return.