We're Going to Need More Wine: Stories That Are Funny, Complicated, and True

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Root

Chosen by Emma Straub as a Best New Celebrity Memoir

“A book of essays as raw and honest as anyone has ever produced.” — Lena Dunham, Lenny Letter

In the spirit of Amy Poehler’s Yes Please, Lena Dunham’s Not That Kind of Girl, and Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist, a powerful collection of honest essays about gender, sexuality, race, beauty, Hollywood, and what it means to be a modern woman.

One month before the release of the highly anticipated film The Birth of a Nation, actress Gabrielle Union shook the world with a vulnerable and impassioned editorial in which she urged our society to have compassion for victims of sexual violence. In the wake of rape allegations made against director and actor Nate Parker, Union—a forty-four-year-old Hollywood actress who launched her career with roles in iconic ’90s movies—instantly became the insightful, outspoken voice that Hollywood has been desperately awaiting. With honesty and heartbreaking wisdom, she revealed her own trauma as a victim of sexual assault: "It is for you that I am speaking. This is real. We are real."

In this moving celebrity memoir in essays, infused with her unique wisdom and deep humor, Union uses that same fearlessness to tell astonishingly personal and true stories about power, color, gender, feminism, and fame. Union tackles a range of experiences, including bullying, beauty standards, and competition between women in Hollywood, growing up in white California suburbia and then spending summers with her black relatives in Nebraska, coping with crushes, puberty, and the divorce of her parents. Genuine and perceptive, Union bravely lays herself bare, uncovering a complex and courageous life of self-doubt and self-discovery with incredible poise and brutal honesty as she explores her own journey of Black womanhood. Throughout, she compels us to be ethical and empathetic, and reminds us of the importance of confidence, self-awareness, and the power of sharing truth, laughter, and support.

In this unflinchingly honest book, Gabrielle Union tells the stories she has never shared before.

• On Race and Colorism: From growing up as the ‘chocolate chip in the cookie’ in a white suburb to her summers in Omaha, she tackles the painful realities of racism and the nuances of colorism within the Black community.
• Trauma and Healing: With raw honesty, she shares her own experience as a victim of sexual assault and the difficult, ongoing path to healing and advocacy.
• Hollywood and Competition: A look behind the curtain at the harsh beauty standards, bullying, and intense competition between women in the entertainment industry.
• A Modern Fertility Journey: Union opens up about her deeply personal struggles with IVF and multiple miscarriages, a powerful story of hope and heartbreak that many women face.
• On Modern Womanhood and Feminism: Tackling everything from puberty and divorce to what it means to be a stepmother in a blended family, this is a powerful take on being a woman today.

Things are about to get real . . . Cheers!!

Actress, activist, and one half of a power couple, Gabrielle Union is actually a lot like the rest of us. She’s also navigating today’s world in ways that are all too familiar. In this engaging, provocative, and funny collection of essays about her life and our modern world, Gabrielle reveals the smart, tough woman she really is. From her younger years as one of the very few African Americans in her California high school to the harrowing story of her rape and the aftermath; her navigation of Hollywood to her role as stepmother to her husband Dwyane Wade’s sons, wrestling with self-doubt to reveling in self-discovery, We’re Going to Need More Wine is one dear friend dishing to another. Surprising and special, it will nourish your soul and expand your mind.

“I love this woman and her book.” - Mindy Kaling, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Why Not Me?

“I have gotten the pleasure to know Gabrielle over the years and besides the fact that she loves to drink, I’ve always taken comfort in how much we have in common. The predilection to go from talking about the latest humiliating sexual position to a debate on politics or racism, that’s exactly what this book felt like to me, an honest conversation with Gabrielle about her life. I appreciate her integrity, love her humor and openness about her life. I also love the fact that she’s older than me . . . Go, girl.” - Chelsea Handler, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Uganda Be Kidding Me

“I have gotten the pleasure to know Gabrielle over the years and besides the fact that she loves to drink, I’ve always taken comfort in how much we have in common. The predilection to go from talking about the latest humiliating sexual position to a debate on politics or racism, that’s exactly what this book felt like to me, an honest conversation with Gabrielle about her life. I appreciate her integrity, love her humor and openness about her life. I also love the fact that she’s older than me . . . Go, girl.” - Chelsea Handler, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Uganda Be Kidding Me

“[Gabrielle] Union is warm, outspoken, laugh-out-loud funny…This is sure to be a crowd-pleaser, and deservedly so.”   - Booklist (Starred Review)

“stunning...an affirmation of [Union’s] uncanny insight and profound capacity for empathy.” - Entertainment Weekly

“searing and powerful” - Washington Post

“If you ever thought, ‘I could be friends with Gabrielle Union,’ then We’re Going to Need More Wine is the book for you. It’s honest, raw, and funny. Union’s vulnerability about her flaws and mistakes, and also pride in her triumphs, will not only make you feel as though you’re seeing yourself reflected, but will also inspire you to be your most authentic self. It makes me excited to see where she is going next as a person and as an author. Give me book #2 already, please!” - Phoebe Robinson, New York Times bestselling author of You Can’t Touch My Hair

“We’re Going to Need More Wine is honest, raw, and funny. Union’s vulnerability about her flaws and mistakes, and also pride in her triumphs, will not only make you feel as though you’re seeing yourself reflected, but will also inspire you to be your most authentic self.”

“A hilarious and moving memoir from a natural storyteller. Gabrielle Union explores love, family, trauma and racial identity in a book that somehow manages to be both heartbreakingly honest and laugh-out-loud funny.” - Brit Bennett, New York Times bestselling author of The Mothers

“Union invites readers into her world with honesty, grit, and grace. A much-needed addition to the endless catalog of celebrity memoirs.”

- Library Journal (starred review)

“[A] thought-provoking, funny, tell-it-like-it-is essay collection” - Cosmopolitan

“Moving” - Glamour

“[Gabrielle Union’s] written a book of essays as raw and honest as anyone has ever produced. In this fantastic book, she discusses everything from sexual assault to the complexity of money in relationships to infertility (plus all the extra gossip you crave). Gab has not only excused the demons of her two-decade career, but she’s turned the exercise into primal scream therapy for her fans. As witty, warm, and assured on the page as she is in person, this book lives somewhere between Nora Ephron and Eve Babitz, with a touch of Audre Lorde’s radical awareness.” - Lena Dunham, Lenny Letter

“We’re Going to Need More Wine is a collection of funny and emotional essays...Union gets real about everything” - USA Today

“This sparkling book collects amusing and heartbreaking stories from the life of actress Union...[her] no-holds-barred essays and intimate voice will appeal to her fans as well as those less familiar with her work.” - Publishers Weekly

“With honesty and humor, Union bares her soul and shares her levels of insecurity, the difficulties of being a black woman in Hollywood, and the way fame has changed her life. She embraces many multilayered issues in these intimate essays, giving readers glimpses of insight into her soul.” - Kirkus Reviews