“Sober . . . and Staying That Way” By Susan Powter, Simon & Schuster Audio, Two cassettes, Length: 2 hours, $18, Read by the author

Fitness guru Powter is one angry lady. As she also has an extremely high energy level, she is able to maintain that anger throughout the entirety of this audio. And, yes, she is a bit much. She is not, however, boring.

Powter writes in a conversational and confrontational manner. While you miss out on a few tidbits, such as recipes and resources found in the printed version, you hear this exactly as she wrote it.

Powter offers information that sounds quite sensible, but she claims to be radical from a medical standpoint. She believes, and seemingly proves, that alcoholism should be treated mainly as a medical and nutritional problem, though in conjunction with more traditional self-help programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

This is a woman who never pulls punches, but there is much humor in her anger. She is obviously very bright, even if her dogmatism is a little draining. However, you have to give her credit for publicly pointing a finger at the liquor industry, the medical profession and Madison Avenue. It is not as if doing so will make her any friends.