Everything I Never Wanted To Be
Everything I Never Wanted to Be by Dina Kucera is the true story of a family's battle with alcoholism and drug addiction. Dina's grandfather and father were alcoholics. Her grandmother was a pill addict. Dina is an alcoholic and pill addict, and all three of her daughters struggle with alcohol and drug addiction – including her youngest daughter, who started using heroin at age fourteen.
Dina’s household also includes her husband and his unemployed identical twin, a mother who has Parkinson's Disease, a grandson who has cerebral palsy, and various other friends and family members who drift in and out of the household depending on their employment situation and rehab status. On top of all that, Dina is trying to make it as a stand-up comic and author so she can quit her crummy job as a grocery store clerk. Through it all, Dina does her best to hold her family together, keep her faith, and maintain her sense of humor.
The story opens with Dina on stage, competing on the “Funniest Mom in America” TV show. She’s performed hundreds of times, but this time she freezes because she’s flashing back to her teenage daughter’s harrowing hospital stay following a suicide attempt. From there, it’s a rollercoaster ride that includes stories of parental neglect, drug overdoses, a priest who masturbates while hearing confessions, a tragic childbirth, a teen who finds out via videotape that she was raped while she was high on crystal meth, a stay in a mental ward, a surprisingly redemptive trip to Disneyland, and more relapses and rehabs than you can keep track of. It’s a story that is brutally honest–shocking at times–yet still funny and full of hope.
In many ways, Everything I Never Wanted to Be is a cross between Mary Karr's The Liar's Club and James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, and as you might imagine, a story filled with alcoholics and drug addicts includes a number of horrific events. But in the end, Everything I Never Wanted to Be is an uplifting story that contains valuable lessons for parents and teens alike, and a strong message about the need to address the epidemic of teen drug addiction in our nation. It’s a book that can change behavior and save lives—and make you laugh along the way.
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Everything I Never Wanted To Be
Everything I Never Wanted to Be by Dina Kucera is the true story of a family's battle with alcoholism and drug addiction. Dina's grandfather and father were alcoholics. Her grandmother was a pill addict. Dina is an alcoholic and pill addict, and all three of her daughters struggle with alcohol and drug addiction – including her youngest daughter, who started using heroin at age fourteen.
Dina’s household also includes her husband and his unemployed identical twin, a mother who has Parkinson's Disease, a grandson who has cerebral palsy, and various other friends and family members who drift in and out of the household depending on their employment situation and rehab status. On top of all that, Dina is trying to make it as a stand-up comic and author so she can quit her crummy job as a grocery store clerk. Through it all, Dina does her best to hold her family together, keep her faith, and maintain her sense of humor.
The story opens with Dina on stage, competing on the “Funniest Mom in America” TV show. She’s performed hundreds of times, but this time she freezes because she’s flashing back to her teenage daughter’s harrowing hospital stay following a suicide attempt. From there, it’s a rollercoaster ride that includes stories of parental neglect, drug overdoses, a priest who masturbates while hearing confessions, a tragic childbirth, a teen who finds out via videotape that she was raped while she was high on crystal meth, a stay in a mental ward, a surprisingly redemptive trip to Disneyland, and more relapses and rehabs than you can keep track of. It’s a story that is brutally honest–shocking at times–yet still funny and full of hope.
In many ways, Everything I Never Wanted to Be is a cross between Mary Karr's The Liar's Club and James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, and as you might imagine, a story filled with alcoholics and drug addicts includes a number of horrific events. But in the end, Everything I Never Wanted to Be is an uplifting story that contains valuable lessons for parents and teens alike, and a strong message about the need to address the epidemic of teen drug addiction in our nation. It’s a book that can change behavior and save lives—and make you laugh along the way.
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Everything I Never Wanted To Be

Everything I Never Wanted To Be

by Dina Kucera
Everything I Never Wanted To Be

Everything I Never Wanted To Be

by Dina Kucera

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Overview

Everything I Never Wanted to Be by Dina Kucera is the true story of a family's battle with alcoholism and drug addiction. Dina's grandfather and father were alcoholics. Her grandmother was a pill addict. Dina is an alcoholic and pill addict, and all three of her daughters struggle with alcohol and drug addiction – including her youngest daughter, who started using heroin at age fourteen.
Dina’s household also includes her husband and his unemployed identical twin, a mother who has Parkinson's Disease, a grandson who has cerebral palsy, and various other friends and family members who drift in and out of the household depending on their employment situation and rehab status. On top of all that, Dina is trying to make it as a stand-up comic and author so she can quit her crummy job as a grocery store clerk. Through it all, Dina does her best to hold her family together, keep her faith, and maintain her sense of humor.
The story opens with Dina on stage, competing on the “Funniest Mom in America” TV show. She’s performed hundreds of times, but this time she freezes because she’s flashing back to her teenage daughter’s harrowing hospital stay following a suicide attempt. From there, it’s a rollercoaster ride that includes stories of parental neglect, drug overdoses, a priest who masturbates while hearing confessions, a tragic childbirth, a teen who finds out via videotape that she was raped while she was high on crystal meth, a stay in a mental ward, a surprisingly redemptive trip to Disneyland, and more relapses and rehabs than you can keep track of. It’s a story that is brutally honest–shocking at times–yet still funny and full of hope.
In many ways, Everything I Never Wanted to Be is a cross between Mary Karr's The Liar's Club and James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, and as you might imagine, a story filled with alcoholics and drug addicts includes a number of horrific events. But in the end, Everything I Never Wanted to Be is an uplifting story that contains valuable lessons for parents and teens alike, and a strong message about the need to address the epidemic of teen drug addiction in our nation. It’s a book that can change behavior and save lives—and make you laugh along the way.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780982579435
Publisher: Dream of Things
Publication date: 10/01/2010
Pages: 218
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.46(d)

About the Author

Dina Kucera was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After completing a project to collect and identify fifty insects, she graduated from the ninth grade and left school for good. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Her first job was a paper route, and she has worked as a maid, bartender, waitress, and grocery store checker. She recently left her job as a checker to become a writer.

She has also been a stand-up comic for twenty years, for which she receives payment ranging from a small amount of money to a very, very small amount of money. When it comes to awards and recognition, she was once nominated for a Girl Scout sugar cookie award, but she never actually received the award because her father decided to stop at a bar instead of going to the award ceremony. Dina waited on the curb outside the bar, repeatedly saying to panhandlers, "Sorry. I don't have any money. I'm seven." Dina is married with three daughters, one stepson, and one grandson. She currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

What People are Saying About This

Charline Ratcliff

A brutally open and honest look into the heart of a family beset by drug and alcohol abuse. [Kucera's] heart, soul, and humor shine forth from the book's pages and…will make a lasting impression on those who read her memoir.
—Charline Ratcliff (Rebecca's Reads Oct. 20, 2010)

Stein Stein

How come people who have experienced such trauma write so well? Everything I Never Wanted To Be is so raw and funny that it almost makes me want to have horrible things happen to me so my writing will improve. Until I can orchestrate that, I can enjoy reading about Dina Kucera's horrible life.
—Joel Stein, Time Magazine columnist, author of Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity

Jenny Mounfield

Malcolm in the Middle meets Cops. What makes this memoir so special? As with fiction, it's all about voice: the fairy dust that brings words to life, gives them a heartbeat. Dina has a voice many authors would cheerfully give a limb for. Everything I Never Wanted to Be will tie your heart in knots, it will have you howling in frustration and it will make you laugh out loud. I strongly urge everyone to read Dina's story.
—Jenny Mounfield (The Compulsive Reader Sept. 2010)

Mark Shelmerdine

I started reading Everything I Never Wanted to Be and couldn't put it down. It is terrific! It is a very visceral description of the lives of the author and her family, full of side-busting humor and moments of incredible drama and emotion. I don't think there is anything like it in this genre. It deserves the attention of reviewers and the media, and I can see it becoming a hilarious movie in the vein of 'The Hangover' or the original 'Death at a Funeral.
—Mark Shelmerdine (CEO Jeffers Press)

RehabAlert.com

This book will appeal to people who have suffered from a family member who is hooked on illegal drugs or to a drug-dependent person who has compassion for his family's hardships caused by his addiction. The book tells the story of the author who has been dealing with addiction along with her family members. This is an uplifting story that shows a brighter side is coming provided that an addict has the will to change.
—RehabAlert.com (Top 50 Drug Rehab Books)

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