Libations of Life: A Girl's Guide to Life One Cocktail at a Time.

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Cocktail recipes mixed liberally with cynicism and stirred with attitude comprise this irreverent little collection. The recipes for mixed alcoholic drinks are presented against a running commentary on Sex and the City–style relationships. Specifics include what to drink when dating, dieting, trolling, or breaking off a relationship. The commentary comes in short snippets of painfully over-precious text, each promoting a reason for indulging in that page’s cocktail. The tone is sophomoric, suggestive of the rants usually penned by self-conscious teens under the legal drinking age. As an aid to deciphering this in-grown vocabulary, there’s a seven-page glossary, decoding terms such as wingman (girlfriend), sillies (breasts), and poe (poor).

The 62 recipes are for cocktails such as manhattans, mojitos, shandies, stingers, and spritzers. There are several variations for cosmopolitans, daiquiris, martinis, slings, and shooters. Some of the variations are slight, such as using a different fruit juice or substituting gin for vodka. Each recipe comes with a descriptive name integral to the style of the book, such as Butt Cleavage Cosmopolitan, He Had His Shot, I’ll Call You Colada, and My Relationship Has Expired Bloody Mary.

The layout is modern, cheerful, and colourful, plus there is an index. As a source of cocktail recipes it has merit. The text’s shallow bling and sheen—not so much.