Sarah’s Bookshelves Live

Hosted BySarah Dickinson

Sarah’s Bookshelves Live is a weekly show featuring real talk about books and book recommendations from a featured guest. Each week, Sarah of the blog Sarah’s Bookshelves will talk with her guest about:

- 2 OLD BOOKS THEY LOVE
- 2 NEW BOOKS THEY LOVE
- 1 BOOK THEY DON’T LOVE
- AND 1 NEW RELEASE THEY’RE EXCITED ABOUT

I’m getting real about all things books and serving you up a bit of snark on the side.

Ep. 68: Eilene Zimmerman (Author of Smacked: A Story of White-Collar Ambition, Addiction, and Tragedy)

In Episode 68, Eilene Zimmerman (author of Smacked) shares how she decided to go public with her experience discovering her ex-husband was addicted to drugs, her research into addiction in the legal profession, and how Peter’s death shaped Eilene’s life now.

This post contains affiliate links, through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!).

Highlights

  • How Eilene went from not divulging the real reason Peter died beyond a very small circle of friends and family to writing a memoir about her experience.
  • How her kids have been doing since Smacked was published.
  • How Peter’s law firm reacted to the NYT article and the book’s publication.
  • When Eilene believes Peter first started using.
  • What it was like for Eilene to go through this as Peter’s ex-wife (rather than as his wife).
  • Why she started missing Peter after he passed away (even though they’d been split up for quite awhile).
  • Addiction in the legal profession and the toxic culture of BigLaw.
  • Eilene’s journalism career and how Peter’s addiction and death shaped her journalism career moving forward.
  • Smacked being optioned for film by Elisabeth Moss’ production company.

Eilene’s Book Recommendations [30:38]

Two OLD Books She Loves

Two NEW Books She Loves

One Book She DIDN’T LOVE

One NEW RELEASE She’s Excited About

Last 5 Star Book Eilene Read [46:54]

Other Books Mentioned

Other Links

About Eilene

Website | Instagram

Eilene Zimmerman is a journalist and social worker. For three decades, she has written about business, technology and social issues for a wide array of national magazines and newspapers. She was a columnist for The New York Times Sunday Business section for six years and since 2004 has been a regular contributor to the newspaper. In September 2020, Zimmerman completed a masters degree in social work.

Next Episode

There will not be a new episode next week since the podcast is on a bi-weekly schedule.

The following week, there will be a full length episode featuring Peace Adzo Medie, author of His Only Wife (airing October 28).

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