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Rating: 
Summary: In Agreement with Marianne
Review: I believe that this book expresses the sentiments I have about AA. These are sentiments and emotions that I have not been able to express or define. I have been to numerous AA meetings and I found that the fellowship is grand while in the meetings but that I feel alone as I step out the door to go home. I agee with Gilliam that the AA program is based on fear and I have not been able to find that Higher Power where it can effectively help in my battle against my addiction. How can one find spirituality when the fear mongering is omnipresent? I was in a treatment centre back in the latter part of 1999 and it was the worst experience in my life. I had to live my life according to the dictates of that institution. I had to become someone I was not really not. I found the true meaning of the statement, "Fake it til you make it." The treatment program is largely based on the AA. I was not ready for discharge until my counsellor thought I "healed"! Marianne Gilliam tells it like it is and I agree with her wholeheartedly! The only Higher Power is within oneself. I tried so hard to find spirituality within the confines of AA teachings but it was frustrating! I don't think I will ever attend to another treatment centre because it doesn't work for me. I'm glad that Gilliam has offered an alternative. I do not promote Gilliam's book because if one seeks hard and long enough for answers, one will find it. I learned about Gilliam's book while watching a talk show and I ordered the book as soom as I could (1998) and I'm glad I did!
Rating: 
Summary: it opened my eyes to the simplest truths
Review: I would be ashamed to have written this book. Perhaps if she were trying to get sober instead of criticizing for personal profit she would actually understand. She obviously doesn't and then you writes a book...great...Further evidence that crack does not smoke itself.
Rating: 
Summary: Ignorance
Review: I'll start off by saying that I once felt as the author does. I felt AA failed me. I've since started going to meetings that focus on working the 12 steps exactly the way the book Alcoholics Anonymous outlines, not through Hazleton, the 12&12, some rehab's idea other the multitude of other misguided approachs that leave WAY too much room for interpretation. I actually did what the book Alcoholics Anonymous says and have since recovered. I used to the same way she did; confused, discouraged and resentful. Unfortunately most people are unaware that the directions on how to work the 12 steps are outlined in the "big book" so they buy supplemental guides etc.. which fail many people. I feel sad that the message of AA is construed and that people like the author become misinformed and fail then air their resentments and add to the problem of misinforming others about the program and AA's fellowship.
Rating:
Summary: Courageous and Inspiring
Review: Not many authors would have the courage to write a book entitled "How Alcoholics Anonymous Failed Me." Marianne Gilliam has the nerve to attack one of the world's sacred cows and I applaud her for doing so. The fact that this book is incredibly hard to find shows just how intolerant the corporate world is towards 12 step alternatives. The author has given me hope and inspiration that I am not alone in my disillusionment with AA, Alanon and other spiritually based support groups. I particularly found the section on 'when your 12 step program stops working" very helpful. Especially her story about the backlash she recieved upon criticizing AA. I could relate 100% and its nice to see these thoughts in print. My only fault with the book is that it tends to wander a bit and is overly apologetic for its controversial views. Even still, I give it 4 stars simply for its original subject matter. Thanks you Mariann for writing the book I've always wanted to read.
Rating:
Summary: The title suckered me in/New Age baloney
Review: Putting AA in the title here is akin to the author's losing weight by eating less and exercising more and then writing a book called "How the South Beach Diet Failed Me." Because AA is so well known, people will fall for the bait-and-switch Gilliam uses. A more forthcoming title would have been "I Couldn't Stand AA (Not that I Can Come Out and Say It Like That Because I'm Trying to Sound Like a New Age Celebrity) so this is How I Stopped Drinking (for However Many Years Its Been Now)." I assume Gilliam has not used since the publication of the book (I have no idea, and would be curious to know, since it is relevant to how useful her book would be to a new reader who really wanted to find a workable way to stop drinking "forever".)
I've been sober in AA for a few years, but I know it well enough to know that there are lots of varying (and sometimes conflicting)opinions about getting and keeping sobriety held by various people claiming membership in that organization, but nobody speaks "for AA", only for themselves. Go to enough meetings and you'll hear stuff you may never agree with, as well as stuff you may eventually come to agree with. That doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with your sobriety.
Some AAs do seem to take a fear based approach; maybe that's what *they* need. The AA's I chose to hang with (and they are not hard to find if you look for them)were content, productive people who enjoyed life and had succeeded in staying sober for a long time - people who had pretty much mastered the "live and let live" philosophy espoused by AA.
But then again, AA's a program of attraction, and clearly Gilliam wasn't sufficiently attracted in the long run. The rest of the book, I am sorry to say, is New Agey B.S., a lot of baloney about Love this and Fear that. I remember that there was a time I used to buy this stuff, and what a waste of time and money it was for me.
Gilliam's entitled to write whatever she wishes, but setting up AA as a straw man against which to contrast her "alternative" way seems more than a little disingenous to me.
I don't think AA is the only game in town, but when push came to shove it's the only thing that worked for me. Gilliam doesn't provide a workable practical alternative to a serious problem, in my opinion.
I would like to have my money back, but that's life.
If you've never read the Big Book and have an interest, read it for yourself. Better yet, read Living Sober, which is AA-published literature and which was my introduction to AA.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe there are 2 versions of AA
Review: The version Ms. Gillian attending and the version I attend. Either Ms. Gillian wasn't paying attention when she stepped through the door or she just peaked in for a moment and then left. The founders of AA never claimed that it is the only way to recover or that any of the information provided is original. The 12 steps of AA are all about looking within oneself for the answers, taking responsibilty for our actions and our lives and living WITHOUT fear (I can't possibly be the only one who noticed!). The belief in a Higher Power is for the strength and guidance to do this. Hey, taking a good, hard, honest look in the mirror isn't usually pleasant for someone battle an addiction (or several). Having a little "outside" help never hurts. Let's face it, AA did not fail Marianne Gillian or anyone else. It didn't work for her bcause of the word "powerless". One little word (I'm sure that reference to God didn't help either).
Take a drink, then let me know how much power you have. She found a different way, as many do, AA doesn't have sole ownership of recovery. There was no need to blame AA because she had to find a different road to recovery. Maybe we could write a book title "How Marianne Gillian failed AA".
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