Girly Drinks

 Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol by Mallory O'Meara, 384 pages.

This book is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin, with an emphasis on world history. O'Meara traces the history of women producing, marketing, and drinking alcohol from the dawn of civilization in ancient Mesopotamia to trendy New York bartenders in the present day. Furthermore, she doesn't only concern herself with the standard "western civilization" path covered in many world history classes. This book goes to every continent except Antarctica, and returns to many places multiple times. This is both a good and a bad thing. The book is organized pretty much chronologically, which is great for placing things in a world context, but often jarring when a story in France is interrupted by a ten page unrelated interlude in Africa, before returning to France again. 

That being said Girly Drinks is extremely readable. My only other complaint is that O'Meara is guilty of one of the classic blunders of feminist books, where she feels the need to point out how feminist the book is every few pages instead of just showing us. Aside from this minor quibble, it is very obvious that the author runs a podcast, and her casual intimate style makes this book very approachable and fun.