Some Melbournians might remember The Age article back in 2011 that sparked this book. Health reporter Jill Stark shared her experiences of giving up alcohol for three months as part of the Hello Sunday Morning initiative. Now, this book extends her experiment to a year.

Turning a clear, though not unforgiving, eye to our nation’s love affair with alcohol, Stark poses questions such as ‘Is it un-Australian to not drink?’ (or ‘un-Scottish’ even) and faces challenges such as ‘sober blind dating’ and ‘football without beer’. Her approach to the year is fresh and funny, artlessly open, and most importantly, accessible. She’s not interested in preaching to the masses but rather is on a mission to decipher her own complicated feelings. I was surprised how affecting I found it.

High Sobriety touches on topics I was hardly aware of, such as the specifics of the relationship between alcohol advertising and sport, and the correlation between alcohol and breast cancer. There are places where the momentum drags due to repetition of key points but, despite this, I was completely engaged with the content. I spoke about it with my friends, housemates and family, and even with people I’d just met. Having never thought much about alcohol before, it suddenly seemed imperative that I do so immediately.

Since finishing the book I’ve continued thinking on it, and particularly about our casual prejudice against non-drinkers, one I imagine we’ve all experienced in some way or another, and one that crops up frequently in Stark’s book. For example, a fellow guest at a wedding is quick in his response to her book: ‘“That would be a really short book,” he says. “Fucking boring. The end.” I laugh politely, but secretly I want to stab him in the eye with my entrée fork.’ While Stark does get tired of these reactions, she also admits that she may have said similar things once herself, and it is this candidness, which comes up again and again, that makes her book so enjoyable.

Bronte Coates is the online and Readings Monthly assistant at Readings.