Nothing Good Can Come from This: Essays

Kristi Coulter

Aug 2018 · Macmillan Audio · Narrated by Kristi Coulter

About this audiobook

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 is perfect for anyone who has ever stood in the middle of a so-called perfect life and looked for an escape hatch.

Ratings and reviews

I loved this book. I listened to the whole darn thing without realizing it was actually the author reading it! That was a nice surprise at the end (that I probably missed at the beginning). Coulter's winding tales take us through her life before drinking, when it revolved around drinking or thinking about drinking, and her days after quitting alcohol. The essays are carefully constructed and when put together, she bares her soul to the reader/listener in artfully crafted prose. I am currently reading all the "I quit drinking" lit I can find, but this book surprised me. It's so much more than that. Because life is so much more complex than whether we drink or don't drink. I think this is a very brave memoir written by a person we'd all like to hang out with and not drink.

About the author

Kristi Coulter holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan. She is a former Ragdale Foundation resident and the recipient of a grant from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. Her work has appeared in The Awl, Marie Claire, Vox, Quartz, and elsewhere. Nothing Good Can Come from This is her debut book. She lives in Seattle, Washington.