I Quit Everything

Praise for Freda Love Smith's I Quit Everything:

“Reading I Quit Everything is like having a heart-to-heart with your smartest friend—cups of spearmint tea steaming as the conversation goes from personal disclosure to pop-culture analysis to philosophical inquiry and back. Freda Love Smith writes at one point that this is an "anti-self-help" book, and it does offer much more than your average bullet-pointed guide past a midlife crisis. But it helped me, because as a sometimes impulsive, often self-critical, always curious woman at midlife, I related so much to Smith's desire to both reset her life and celebrate all she's lived through. Heartening and challenging.” —Ann Powers, author of Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music

“To what extent are our habits addictions? What would it take for us to give them up? What would be left of us without them? Freda Love Smith asks these questions and many more and takes action to answer them. She quits alcohol. She quits sugar. She quits weed. She quits caffeine. She quits social media. What does the withdrawal feel like? Does their absence amount to addition or subtraction? Is this a temporary experiment or new life direction? Smith is such an engaging, probing writer that you’re hanging on tight for this brisk ride, as each question begets a bigger question that she investigates as well as lives. Should she quit drumming too? What about her academic job? Where’s the healthy balance among quitting, moderating, and starting over? The one thing you can’t quit is reading I Quit Everything.” —Mark Caro, author of The Foie Gras Wars and host of the Caropop podcast

“Searching for the sweet spot between excess and deprivation, I Quit Everything explores the challenges of our immoderate times. Quitting can be revelatory, Smith concludes, even when it’s temporary.” —Eula Biss, author of Having and Being Had

“In general, quitting things has a negative connotation. But for Freda Love Smith, the decision to cut out alcohol, sugar, caffeine, cannabis, and social media ended up being a positive. Full of illuminating insights and unsparing self-reflection, I Quit Everything celebrates the personal liberation that comes after shedding detrimental habits. Smith examines the roots of her reliance on unhealthy substances, and then uses disparate secondary sources (scientific studies, Greek mythology, the sociology book Getting Loose: Lifestyle Consumption in the 1970s, Gregory Bateson’s influential article about Alcoholics Anonymous) to draw conclusions about her behavior. By the end of the book, quitting has emboldened Smith to carve out new life paths and embrace different dreams. A classic example of addition by subtraction, I Quit Everything provides an abundance of helpful advice—and hope—to anyone feeling stuck in their ways and looking for a change.” —Annie Zaleski, author of a 33 1/3 book on Duran Duran’s Rio, and illustrated biographies of Lady Gaga and Pink

“I’ve said it a thousand times. So have you: I’m going to take care of myself. Smith actually does it, with clarity, humor, and deep interrogation into the societal complexities and personal histories of alcohol, weed, caffeine, food, and social media—the things that save us and, at the same time, drain us dry. I Quit Everything doesn’t ask us to quit; it asks us to pay attention, to listen to our bodies, to find what serves us and hold on like the holy goddamn grail. I loved it.” —Megan Stielstra, author of The Wrong Way to Save Your Life

"A humorous, insightful memoir of self-improvement." —Kirkus Reviews

"More thoughtful than one expects from a chronicle of a midlife crisis, this personal reckoning makes for compulsive reading, providing much food for thought and spurring considerable discussion." —Booklist, starred review

"Fun." —Publishers Weekly

"Written with both poignancy and humor, the work could be considered part memoir, part self-help manual, and part sociological study in that it looks at the origins of her addictions while contextualizing them." —Forbes

"Freda Love Smith's memoir I Quit Everything is powerful and wise, a book as insightful as it is entertaining." —Largehearted Boy

"The book is far from a 12-step manual or even a how-to guide on recovery. . . But the memoir explores the power of quitting everyday habits." —Axios Chicago

Praise for Freda Love Smith's Red Velvet Underground:

"These are sweet, unsentimental scenes from the ever-evolving life of a woman of many shifting and balancing roles: mother, wife, drummer, student, teacher, friend, daughter, food enthusiast. It’s all tied together with tantalizing recipes that have been lovingly improvised and tweaked into a life-affirming doneness." —Juliana Hatfield, musician

"Red Velvet Underground is not only a rock memoir and recipe book but also a poignant work of personal self-discovery and the challenges yet joys of parenting." —David Chiu, Huffington Post

"This memoir is filled with twists and turns, rises and falls—all chronicled with Freda’s characteristic charm and seductive wit. You might call it Eat, Play, Love. . . a wealth of road stories and recipes to share." —Anthony DeCurtis, contributing editor at Rolling Stone

"Thoughtful and wry, [Smith]'s a storyteller who doesn't scrub out blemishes but reminds readers just how much being an individual still matters, even in adulthood." —Mark Guarino, Chicago Tribune

"Freda Love Smith and I share three great passions: music, writing, and food. She deftly combines them here, adding an incisive view of motherhood, an inspiring capacity for joy, and a winning dash of Midwest humility. Love and deliciousness suffuse every page of this tender, delightful book." —Ira Robbins, music journalist and cofounder of Trouser Press

“Freda Love Smith titled her memoir Red Velvet Underground: A Rock Memoir, with Recipes, and it’s hard to imagine a better one for this rock musician who became a mother and dedicated home cook.” —The Boston Globe

“In the quietly compelling Red Velvet Underground, Freda weaves together stories of her salad days as a musician, reflections on raising her two sons, and meditations on how the act of cooking can heal and nurture. Anyone who can come off with such lovable sincerity while describing searing and eating her own placenta is a winner in our book.” —Paste Magazine

"The book is a surprisingly heady mix of omnivorous backstory and refreshingly unfussy recipes that managed to bring me out of a serious pre-empty nest cooking funk." —Lisa Bralts Kelly, Innocent Words

"You will find yourself literally and figuratively hungry for more after every chapter." —Len Kasper, broadcast announcer for the Chicago Cubs

"Red Velvet Underground covers a lot of ground. . . in a poignant and elegant voice. It’s just another example of how food not only sustains us but also finds a way to weave into our lives and connects us with other people." —David Chiu, Brooklyn Based

"Freda manages to elevate the personal to the universal with deeply relatable stories. Themes of food, family, and music are woven artfully together with wisdom, warmth, and humor. I found myself alternately (and sometimes simultaneously) inspired to cook, play guitar, kiss my kids, and call my friends. And eat!" —Tanya Donelly, musician

"The former Blake Babies drummer's stories of food, music, and family resonate with warmth and humility." —largehearted boy

"This book has a lot of heart, capturing what it’s like to be caught between the nostalgia for the life you led in your 20s and the sobering responsibilities of being a parent of a kid now reaching that same golden age.” —Bill Janovitz, musician and author of Rocks Off: 50 Tracks That Tell the Story of the Rolling Stones

"A gritty rock club and a modest home kitchen might seem like opposite ends of the earth. But in Freda Love Smith’s new book, Red Velvet Underground, the two are deliciously twined." —Susannah Felts, Chapter 16

"An appealing choice for readers who are looking for a humorous take on parenthood and food." —Derek Sanderson, Library Journal

“Her book deftly stitches together family life, stories from her stints as the drummer in The Blake Babies, Antenna and The Mysteries of Life, and personal food-related memories.” —InsideToronto.com

"Smith shares her own story with honesty and integrity." —Frank Valish, Under the Radar

"Just like flavors in a recipe, this book is an interesting fusion of ingredients that make up the life of [Freda Love Smith]." —WGN-TV Lunchbreak

"We're digging Freda Love Smith's Red Velvet Underground super hard." —Emily Taylor, NUVO

"Freda Love Smith writes an honest and moving memoir about the very food of life—the music, meals, and mistakes we make; the roads we do and don't take; the lessons we give and receive; the people we love, lose, find, and become along the way. Both on the page and behind her drum kit, Love Smith is a subtle yet powerful keeper of the time.” —Chrissie Dickinson, music journalist and former editor of The Journal of Country Music