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Staff Pick
Frustrated by years of complicated pill regimens designed to make her less anxious, moody, and depressed, Waldman turns to the experimental practice of microdosing with LSD. A Really Good Day is her hilarious and thoughtful response to 30 days on the not-so-wild side. Recommended By Rhianna W., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
"A highly engaging combination of research and self-discovery, laced with some endearingly honest comic moments." — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
A revealing, courageous, fascinating, and funny account of the author's experiment with microdoses of LSD in an effort to treat a debilitating mood disorder, of her quest to understand a misunderstood drug, and of her search for a really good day.
When a small vial arrives in her mailbox from "Lewis Carroll," Ayelet Waldman is at a low point. Her mood storms have become intolerably severe; she has tried nearly every medication possible; her husband and children are suffering with her. So she opens the vial, places two drops on her tongue, and joins the ranks of an underground but increasingly vocal group of scientists and civilians successfully using therapeutic microdoses of LSD. As Waldman charts her experience over the course of a month — bursts of productivity, sleepless nights, a newfound sense of equanimity — she also explores the history and mythology of LSD, the cutting-edge research into the drug, and the byzantine policies that control it. Drawing on her experience as a federal public defender, and as the mother of teenagers, and her research into the therapeutic value of psychedelics, Waldman has produced a book that is eye-opening, often hilarious, and utterly enthralling.
Review
"Smart, outspoken, provoking, and funny.… Poignant, sometimes hilarious.… Her intensely personal revelations are balanced by a clarion history in the psychedelic…. Buoyed by the benefits of microdosing, Waldman calls for renewed research and drug-law reform in this informative, candid, altogether irresistible quest." Donna Seaman, Booklist
Review
"Honest and intelligent… A humane, well-reasoned, and absolutely necessary argument for a major overhaul of America’s drug policy. The book triumphantly coheres in a lucid manifesto of how and why the racist, immoral undertaking called the War on Drugs has failed… Passionate, persuasive." Claire Vaye Watkins, The New Republic
Review
"Engrossing… Candidly written with vivid detail, Waldman’s thirty-day diary is compelling and eye-opening from both a medical and an observational perspective… Frank, revealing… bravely honest… Thirty days on LSD therapy makes for a fascinating trip, indeed." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"[The last book that made me laugh] may have been Ayelet Waldman’s A Really Good Day in manuscript. It’s a nonfiction book about combating depression by way of a daily micro-dose of LSD, and it’s Ayelet, so you can imagine." Zadie Smith, in the column "By the Book," The New York Times Book Review
Review
"A wildly brilliant, radically candid, and rigorous daybook of [Waldman’s] life-changing, last-resort journey." Lisa Shea, Elle
About the Author
Ayelet Waldman is the author of the novels Love and Treasure, Red Hook Road, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, and Daughter’s Keeper, as well as of the essay collection Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace, and the Mommy-Track Mystery series. She was a federal public defender and taught a course on the legal implications of the War on Drugs at the UC Berkeley law school. She lives in Berkeley, California, with her husband, Michael Chabon, and their four children.
Ayelet Waldman on PowellsBooks.Blog
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