Staff Picks
Broader Bookshelf 2024 | Read a book based on the theme of addiction (Memoirs edition)
- Chantal W.
- Monday, January 01
Collection
Looking to complete the 2024 Broader Bookshelf prompt of reading a book based on the theme of addiction? Then think about reading an honest and moving memoir.
Quitter
A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery
Published in 2020
"With remarkably brave and vulnerable writing, Barnett expands on her personal story to confront the dire state of addiction in America, the rise of alcoholism in American women in the last century, and the lack of rehabilitation options available to addicts. At a time when opioid addiction is a national epidemic and one in twelve Americans suffers from alcohol abuse disorder, Quitter is essential reading for our age and an ultimately hopeful story of Barnett's own hard-fought path to sobriety"-- Provided by publisher.
I Should Be Dead
My Life Surviving Politics, TV, and Addiction
Published in 2015
From popular TV personality Bob Beckel, a deeply moving, redemptive memoir about his life as a political operative and diplomat, his long struggle with alcohol and drugs, and his unlikely journey to finding faith. Growing up poor in an abusive home, Bob Beckel learned to be a survivor: to avoid conflict, mask his feelings, and to lie?all skills that served him well in Washington, where he would become the youngest-ever Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and manage Walter Mondale's 1984 presidential campaign. But Beckel was living a double life. On January 20, 2001?George W. Bush' second Inauguration Day?he hit rock bottom, waking up in the psych ward. Written with captivating honesty, Beckel chronicles how his addictions nearly killed him until he found help in an unexpected ally, conservative Cal Thomas, who helped him find faith, get sober, and get his life back on track.
Beautiful Things
A Memoir
Published in 2021
"When he was two years old, Hunter Biden was badly injured in a car accident that killed his mother and baby sister. In 2015, he suffered the devastating loss of his beloved big brother, Beau, who died of brain cancer at the age of forty-six. These hardships were compounded by the collapse of his marriage and a years-long battle with drug and alcohol addiction. In Beautiful Things, Hunter recounts his descent into substance abuse and his tortuous path to sobriety. The story ends with where Hunter is today--a sober married man with a new baby, finally able to appreciate the beautiful things in life."--Amazon.
Blood Orange Night
My Journey to the Edge of Madness
Published in 2022
"From journalist and poet Melissa Bond, a gripping account of the author's addiction to benzodiazepines (a family of drugs that includes Xanax, Valium, Klonopin, Ativan) and the hidden dangers they pose. As Melissa mothers her infant daughter and a special-needs one-year-old son, she suffers from unbearable insomnia, sleeping an hour or less each night. She loses her job as a journalist (a casualty of the 2008 recession), and her relationship with her husband grows distant. Her doctor casually prescribes benzodiazepines with little fanfare, increasing her dosage on a regular basis. Following her doctor's orders, Melissa takes the pills night after night; her body begins to shut down and she collapses while holding her infant daughter. Only then does Melissa learn that her doctor-like many doctors-has over-prescribed the medication, and quitting cold-turkey could lead to psychosis or fatal seizure. Benzodiazepine addiction is not well studied, and few experts know how to help Melissa begin the months-long process of tapering off the pills without suffering debilitating, potentially deadly consequences. Lyrical and immersive, Blood Orange Night shine a light on the dark underside of benzodiazepines. According to the FDA, approximately 92 million benzodiazepine prescriptions were filled in the US in 2019. In 2018, half of all benzodiazepine prescriptions filled were for two months or longer, despite recommended use of no more than 14 days and evidence that physical dependence can occur within a week. Much like the opioid crisis that has rocked the nation, prescription benzodiazepine addiction is an epidemic reaching a crisis point"-- Provided by publisher.
Punch Me Up to the Gods
Published in 2021
"A poetic and raw coming-of-age memoir about blackness, masculinity, and addiction"-- Provided by publisher.
If We Break
A Memoir of Marriage, Addiction, and Healing
Published in 2022
The former wife of Hunter Biden discusses the heartbreaking collapse of her marriage, which ended in 2017 amid his then-secret struggles with addiction, and her own journey of self-discovery to reclaim her identity.
Dry
Published in 2003
"I was addicted to "Bewitched" as a kid. I worshipped Darren Stevens the First. When he'd come home from work and Samantha would say, 'Darren, would you like me to fix you a drink?' He'd always rest his briefcase on the table below the mirror in the foyer, wipe his forehead with a monogrammed handkerchief and say, 'Better make it a double. '" (from Chapter Two) You may not know it, but you've met Augusten Burroughs. You've seen him on the street, in bars, on the subway, at restaurants: a twenty-something guy, nice suit, works in advertising. Regular. Ordinary. But when the ordinary person had two drinks, Augusten was circling the drain by having twelve; when the ordinary person went home at midnight, Augusten never went home at all. Loud, distracting ties, automated wake-up calls and cologne on the tongue could only hide so much for so long. At the request (well, it wasn't really a request) of his employers, Augusten lands in rehab, where his dreams of group therapy with Robert Downey Jr. are immediately dashed by grim reality of fluorescent lighting and paper hospital slippers. But when Augusten is forced to examine himself, something actually starts to click and that's when he finds himself in the worst trouble of all. Because when his thirty days are up, he has to return to his same drunken Manhattan life?and live it sober. What follows is a memoir that's as moving as it is funny, as heartbreaking as it is true. Dry is the story of love, loss, and Starbucks as a Higher Power.
Junky
The Definitive Text of Junk
Published in 2012
Junk is not, like alcohol or a weed, a means to increased enjoyment of life. Junk is not a kick. It is a way of life. In his debut novel, Junky, Burroughs fictionalized his experiences using and peddling heroin and other drugs in the 1950s into a work that reads like a field report from the underworld of post-war America. The Burroughs-like protagonist of the novel, Bill Lee, see-saws between periods of addiction and rehab, using a panoply of substances including heroin, cocaine, marijuana, paregoric (a weak tincture of opium) and goof balls (barbiturate), amongst others. For this definitive edition, renowned Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris has gone back to archival typescripts to re-created the author's original text word by word. From the tenements of New York to the queer bars of New Orleans, Junky takes the reader into a world at once long-forgotten and still with us today. Burroughs's first novel is a cult classic and a critical part of his oeuvre.
Junky
Published in 2013
Burroughs' first novel, a largely autobiographical account of the constant cycle of drug dependency, cures and relapses, remains the most unflinching, unsentimental account of addiction ever written. Through time spent kicking and time spent dealing, through junk sickness and a sanatorium, Junky is a field report from the American post-war drug underground. It has influenced generations of writers with its raw, sparse and unapologetic tone.
The Night of the Gun
A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life, His Own
Published in 2008
Stash
My Life in Hiding
Published in 2023
"A voice-driven, gripping, and propulsive addiction memoir about a wealthy Black woman on a journey to becoming whole while grappling with issues of substance abuse, race, class, self-sabotage, and love, by the host of the popular podcast, The Only One in the Room"-- Provided by publisher.
Cravings
How I Conquered Food
Published in 2017
This is folk legend Judy Collins' no-holds-barred account of her harrowing struggle with compulsive overeating and her journey to understanding that she suffers from an addiction. In alternating chapters on her life and on the many diet gurus she encountered along the way, Judy shares what she's learned to spare others her heart-rending path to recovery.
Cravings
How I Conquered Food
Published in 2017
"A candid memoir by folk legend Judy Collins of her lifelong struggle with compulsive overeating and the spiritual solution that saved her. Since childhood, Judy Collins has been preoccupied, haunted, seduced, and taunted by food, a problem that nearly cost her her career and her life. For decades she thought her food issues were moral issues--lack of self-will, lack of discipline--and she worked hard at controlling what she thought of as her shameful inclinations, employing measures that led to serious health complications. Today she knows she was born with an addiction to sugar and grains, flour and wheat. The discovery of a solution to her problem prompted the desire to share what she has learned, which has brought her peace of mind, a clean food plan, years of maintaining the same weight, and a glow of joy and health. Alternating between chapters on her life and those of the many diet gurus she has come to know (from Lord Byron to Atkins, Jean Nidetch of Weight Watchers, and Andrew Weil), Cravings is the story of the mountains Collins has climbed and the monsters she has encountered on the path to recovery"-- Provided by publisher.
Reborn on the Run
My Journey from Addiction to Ultramarathons
Published in 2018
"Aside from her rock star looks, Catra Corbett is a standout in the running world on her accomplishments alone. Catra is the first American woman to run over one hundred miles or more on more than one hundred occasions and the first to run one hundred and two hundred miles in the Ohlone Wilderness, and she holds the fastest known double time for the 425-miles long John Muir Trail, completing it in twelve days, four hours, and fifty-seven minutes. And, unbelievably, she's also a former meth addict. After two years of addiction, Catra is busted while selling, and a night in jail is enough to set her straight. She gives up drugs and moves back home with her mother, abandoning her friends, her boyfriend, and the lifestyle that she came to depend on. Her only clean friend pushes her to train for a 10K with him, and surprisingly, she likes it?and decides to run her first marathon after that. In Reborn on the Run, the reader keeps pace with Catra as she runs through difficult terrain and extreme weather, is stalked by animals in the wilderness, and nearly dies on a training run but continues on, smashing running records and becoming one of the world's best ultrarunners. Along the way she attempts suicide, loses loved ones, falls in love, has her heartbroken, meets lifelong friends including her running partner and dachshund TruMan, and finally faces the past that led to her addiction."--Publisher's description.
Nothing Good Can Come from This
Essays
Published in 2018
Kristi Coulter inspired and incensed the internet when she wrote about what happened when she stopped drinking. Nothing Good Can Come from This is her debut--a frank, funny, and feminist essay collection by a keen-eyed observer no longer numbed into complacency. When Kristi stopped drinking, she started noticing things. Like when you give up a debilitating habit, it leaves a space, one that can't easily be filled by mocktails or ice cream or sex or crafting. And when you cancel Rosé Season for yourself, you're left with just Summer, and that's when you notice that the women around you are tanked--that alcohol is the oil in the motors that keeps them purring when they could be making other kinds of noise. In her sharp, incisive debut essay collection, Coulter reveals a portrait of a life in transition. By turns hilarious and heartrending, Nothing Good Can Come from This introduces a fierce new voice to fans of Sloane Crosley, David Sedaris, and Cheryl Strayed--perfect for anyone who has ever stood in the middle of a so-called perfect life and looked for an escape hatch.
Falling with Wings
A Mother's Story
Published in 2018
The mother of global superstar Demi Lovato describes how her own musical ambitions were challenged by an eating disorder, addictions, and unhealthy relationships, sharing perspectives on her daughters' fame and the ways their family has endured adversity through faith.
Ordinary Girls
A Memoir
Published in 2019
"Jaquira Díaz writes an unflinching account of growing up as a queer biracial girl searching for home as her family splits apart and her mother struggles with mental illness and addiction. From her own struggles with depression and drug abuse to her experiences of violence to Puerto Rico's history of colonialism, every page vibrates with music and lyricism"-- Provided by publisher.
Ordinary Girls
A Memoir
Published in 2019
In this searing memoir, Jaquira Díaz writes fiercely and eloquently of her challenging girlhood and triumphant coming of age. While growing up in housing projects in Puerto Rico and Miami Beach, Díaz found herself caught between extremes. As her family split apart and her mother battled schizophrenia, she was supported by the love of her friends. As she longed for a family and home, her life was upended by violence. As she celebrated her Puerto Rican culture, she couldn't find support for her burgeoning sexual identity. From her own struggles with depression and sexual assault to Puerto Rico's history of colonialism, every page of "Ordinary Girls" vibrates with music and lyricism. Díaz writes with raw and refreshing honesty, triumphantly mapping a way out of despair toward love and hope to become her version of the girl she always wanted to be. Jaquira Díaz's memoir provides a vivid portrait of a life lived in (and beyond) the borders of Puerto Rico and its complicated history and reads as electrically as a novel.
United States of Grace
A Memoir of Homelessness, Addiction, Incarceration, and Hope
Published in 2021
Lenny Duncan's memoir about growing up Black and queer in the United States. He recounts his experiences hitchhiking across the country, spending time in solitary confinement, battling addiction, and discovering a deep faith.
The Urge
Our History of Addiction
Published in 2022
"An authoritative, illuminating, and deeply humane history of addiction-a phenomenon that remains baffling and deeply misunderstood despite having touched countless lives-by an addiction psychiatrist striving to understand his own family and himself"-- Provided by publisher.
Wishful Drinking
Published in 2009
Carrie Fisher reads her New York Times Bestselling Memoir! Finally, after four hit novels, Carrie Fisher comes clean (well, sort of) with the crazy truth that is her life in her first-ever memoir. In Wishful Drinking, adapted from her one-woman stage show, Fisher reveals what it was really like to grow up a product of "Hollywood in-breeding," coming-of-age on the set of a little movie called Star Wars, and becoming a cultural icon and bestselling action figure at the age of nineteen. Intimate, hilarious, and sobering, Wishful Drinking is Fisher, looking at her life as she best remembers it (what do you expect after electroshock therapy?). It's an incredible tale: the child of Hollywood royalty -- Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher -- homewrecked by Elizabeth Taylor, marrying (then divorcing, then dating) Paul Simon, having her likeness merchandized on everything from Princess Leia shampoo to PEZ dispensers, learning the father of her daughter forgot to tell her he was gay, and ultimately waking up one morning and finding a friend dead beside her in bed. Wishful Drinking, the show, has been a runaway success, Entertainment Weekly declared it "drolly hysterical" and the Los Angeles Times called it a "Beverly Hills yard sale of juicy anecdotes." This is Carrie Fisher at her best -- revealing her worst. She tells her true and outrageous story of her bizarre reality with her inimitable wit, unabashed self-deprecation, and buoyant, infectious humor.
Wishful Drinking
Published in 2009
Carrie Fisher, forever immortalized by her role as Princess Leia in Star Wars, reveals her turbulent life, from her superficial Hollywood upbringing to her addiction to alcohol. With scathing humor, Fisher chronicles her declining acting career and subsequent tribulations, including mothering the child of a gay man.
Coming Clean
A True Story of Love, Addiction and Recovery
Published in 2021
When her partner fell into a catastrophic vortex of depression and alcoholism, Liz Fraser found herself in a relentless hailstorm of lies, loneliness and fear, looking after their young child on her own, heartbroken, mentally shattered and with no idea what was happening or what to do. As she and her family moved between Cambridge, Venice and Oxford, she kept the often shocking truth entirely to herself for a long time, trying in vain to help her partner find a path to sobriety. Finally Liz herself broke from the trauma and started to speak out--only to find she was one of hundreds experiencing similar things, also living in silence and fear. Part diary, part travel journal and part love letter, Coming Clean is the true story of addiction of many kinds, mental collapse and heartbreak. Above all, it offers a voice of deep human compassion, strength and hope for recovery. -- From dustjacket.
Getting off
One Woman's Journey Through Sex and Porn Addiction
Published in 2018
An unflinching account of the author's journey through sex and pornography addiction describes the childhood factors that contributed to her sexual fixations and her international travels in search of a loving relationship and healing, recounting the difficult process that led to her marriage and newfound sense of self-acceptance.
Sentence
Ten Years and a Thousand Books in Prison
Published in 2022
"A memoir of a decade in prison by a well-educated young addict known as the "Apologetic Bandit" In 2003, fresh out of NYU, Daniel Genis was working in publishing as his writer father had always expected. But he was also hiding a serious heroin addiction that led him into debt and burglary. After he was arrested for robbing people at knifepoint in 2003, Daniel Genis was nicknamed the "apologetic bandit" in the press, given his habit of apologizing to his victims as he took their cash. He was sentenced to twelve years (ten with good behavior), surviving the decade by reading 1,046 books, weightlifting, having philosophical discussions with various inmates, encountering violence on a daily basis, working at a serious of prison jobs, and in general observing an existence for which nothing in his life had prepared him. Sentence is one of the most striking prison memoirs--and memoirs in general--in recent years--written with intelligence, wit, empathy, and remarkable style. Genis is the son of a famous Soviet émigré writer, broadcaster, and culture critic in Russia. He grew up in a home whose visitors included Mikhail Baryshnikov; Russian nuclear physicist Andrei Sakharov; authors Kurt Vonnegut, Umberto Eco and Norman Mailer; and Czech film director Milos Forman. The education and culture so prized by his family were his lifeline during his decade in prison, and he describes in unsparing and vivid detail the realities of daily life in the New York penal system, from Rikers Island through a series of upstate institutions. He learns about the social strata of gangs, the "court" system that sets geographic boundaries in prison yards, how sex was obtained, the black market of drugs and more practical goods, the inventiveness required for everyday tasks such as cooking, and how debilitating solitary confinement actually is--all while trying to preserve his relationship with his recently married wife"-- Provided by publisher.
You'd Be Home Now
Published in 2021
After a fatal car accident that reveals Emory's brother Joey's opioid addiction, Emory struggles to help him on his road to recovery and make herself heard in a town that insists on not listening.
Free Refills
A Doctor Confronts His Addiction
Published in 2016
"Free Refills is the harrowing tale of a Harvard-trained medical doctor run horribly amok through his addiction to prescription medication, and his recovery. Dr. Peter Grinspoon seemed to be a total success: a Harvard-educated M.D. with a thriving practice; married with two great kids and a gorgeous wife; a pillar of his community. But lurking beneath the thin veneer of having it all was an addict fueled on a daily boatload of prescription meds. When the police finally came calling--after a tip from a sharp-eyed pharmacist--Grinspoon's house of cards came tumbling down fast. His professional ego turned out to be an impediment to getting clean as he cycled through recovery to relapse, his reputation, family life, and lifestyle in ruins. What finally moves him to recover and reclaim life--including working with other physicians who themselves are addicts--makes for inspiring reading"-- Provided by publisher.
The Many Lives of Mama Love
A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing
Published in 2023
"New York Times bestselling author Lara Love Hardin recounts her slide from soccer mom to opioid addict to jailhouse shot-caller and her unlikely comeback as a highly successful ghostwriter in this harrowing, hilarious, no-holds-barred memoir"-- Provided by publisher.
Blackout
Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget
Published in 2015
A memoir of unblinking honesty and poignant, laugh-out-loud humor, BLACKOUT is the story of a woman stumbling into a new kind of adventure--the sober life she never wanted. Shining a light into her blackouts, she discovers the person she buried, as well as the confidence, intimacy, and creativity she once believed came only from a bottle. Her tale will resonate with anyone who has been forced to reinvent or struggled in the face of necessary change. It's about giving up the thing you cherish most--but getting yourself back in return.
Mother Noise
Published in 2022
Told in essays and graphic-narrative shorts, this memoir illustrates the author's struggles with addiction and motherhood and her ongoing efforts to reconcile the two, capturing the desire to look hopefully forward, while acknowledging the darkness of the past.
You Ought to Do a Story About Me
Addiction, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Endless Quest for Redemption
Published in 2020
"The heartbreaking, timeless, and redemptive story of the transformative friendship binding a fallen-from-grace NFL player and a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist who meet on the streets of New Orleans, offering a rare glimpse into the precarious world of homelessness and the lingering impact of systemic racism and poverty on the lives of NOLA's citizens"-- Provided by publisher.
The Recovering
Intoxication and Its Aftermath
Published in 2018
Presents an exploration of addiction that blends memoir, cultural history, literary criticism, and journalistic reportage to analyze the role of stories in conveying the addiction experience, sharing insights based on the lives of artists whose achievements were shaped by addiction.
High Achiever
The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life
Published in 2019
"Beloved for her complete authenticity, raw honesty, and lovable humor, Tiffany Jenkins is the human voice of the opioid epidemic. This is her gripping true story, from her life as an addict, 27 felony charges, and six months in a Florida prison to her eventual sobriety and new life as a mom, wife, and inspiration to millions. A few years ago, Tiffany Jenkins was detoxing behind bars at a Florida prison, incarcerated on 27 felony charges. Now, she's clean and sober, a married mother of three. As she found her way in her new life, she started sharing on social media as an outlet for her depression and anxiety. She struck a chord, several of her videos went viral (one with 46million views), and in the past year her following exploded from a few hundred thousand to more than 3 million. Raw and juicy, compulsively readable and ultimately inspirational, the memoir opens in the Florida women's prison where Tiffany was incarcerated for 180 days. The memoir flashes back in time to the events that led to Tiffany's imprisonment (during the time of her active addiction, Tiffany was dating and living with a cop), and moves forward to her eventual sobriety"-- Provided by publisher.
Kasher in the Rye
The True Tale of a White Boy from Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient, and then Turned 16
Published in 2012
A rising comedian describes with humor the absurdity of his troubled youth in Oakland, California, where his mother walked him on a leash until he chewed through it and ran away and started taking drugs at age twelve.
Leave out the Tragic Parts
A Grandfather's Search for a Boy Lost to Addiction
Published in 2021
"Dave Kindred's extraordinary investigation of the death of his grandson yields a powerful memoir of addiction, grief, and the stories we choose to tell our families and ourselves. Jared Kindred left his home and family at the age of eighteen, choosing a life of riding train cars and making friends on the street. He was an addict for most of his short life, drinking far too much and lying about it he was ultimately killed by an overdose. Yet he inspired the deepest love of Dave Kindred's life. Leave Out the Tragic Parts is not merely a reflection on love and addiction and loss. It is a hard-won, and remarkably fair-minded, account of the life Jared chose for himself and the colorful people around him--people with names like Puzzles, Stray, and Booze Cop people with stories to tell. Kindred asks painful but important questions about the lies we tell to get along, and what binds families together or allows them to fracture. Jared's story ended in tragedy, but the act of telling it is an act of healing and redemption. This is an important book on how to love your family, from a great writer who has lived its lessons"-- Provided by publisher.
Parched
A Memoir
Published in 2006
Heather King's Parched is a powerful memoir of her life nearly on the lam, telling how she became her drinking self, spending over twenty years in a cycle of drinking and self-loathing. From highly functioning alcoholic to living in dive bars, King's painful and poignant story tells how she evolved, and how, suddenly and dramatically, she stopped, and changed her life.
The Not Good Enough Mother
Published in 2019
"A psychologist tasked with removing children from dangerous homes begins to question methodology and her own mothering skills when her son becomes a victim of the opioid crisis. Psychologist and expert witness Sharon Lamb takes children away from their parents. A trained forensic evaluator for child welfare services, she is as qualified as anybody could be to do so. But when her son's struggle with opioid addiction comes to light, she starts to doubt her right to make judgments about other mothers. Lamb introduces readers to the forensic evaluation of parenting, particularly in high stakes cases on termination of parental rights. She details for us the tools of her trade, including tests and observation techniques. She describes vividly the plight of parents--largely single women--struggling to make stable homes for their kids amidst economic and emotional turmoil, as well as an epidemic of opioids. In her field work and in child custody court, we meet the parents waiting anxiously for Lamb's verdict: are they good enough? Lamb turns that question on herself as she comes to terms with her son's disease. Powerless in the face of addiction in her own family, Lamb confronts her power to cut other families apart and bring new ones together. With millions of Americans affected by economic hardships, job loss, and the opioid epidemic Dr. Lamb's book gives voice to the impossible standards we attach to the concept of motherhood"-- Provided by publisher.
Heavy
An American Memoir
Published in 2019
In this stylish and complex memoir, Laymon, an English professor at the University of Mississippi and novelist (Long Division), presents bittersweet episodes of being a chubby outsider in 1980s Mississippi. He worships his long-suffering, resourceful grandmother, who loves the land her relatives farmed for generations and has resigned herself to the fact of commonplace bigotry. Laymon laces the memoir with clever, ironic observations about secrets, sexual trauma, self-deception, and pure terror related to his family, race, Mississippi, friends, and a country that refuses to love him and his community. He becomes an educator and acknowledges the inadequacies in his own education, noting that his teachers "weren't being paid right. I knew they were expected to do work they were unprepared to start or finish." He also writes about living among white people, including a family for whom his grandmother did the laundry: "It ain't about making white folk feel what you feel," he quotes his grandmother. "It's about not feeling what they want you to feel." His evolution is remarkable, from a "hard-headed" troubled teen to an intellectually curious youth battling a college suspension for a pilfering a library book to finally journeying to New York to become a much-admired professor and accomplished writer.
Heavy
An American Memoir
Published in 2018
"Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about the physical manifestations of violence, grief, trauma, and abuse on his own body. He writes of his own eating disorder and gambling addiction as well as similar issues that run throughout his family. Through self-exploration, storytelling, and honest conversation with family and friends, Heavy seeks to bring what has been hidden into the light and to reckon with all of its myriad sources, from the most intimate--a mother-child relationship--to the most universal--a society that has undervalued and abused black bodies for centuries"-- Provided by publisher.
Drinking Games
A Memoir
Published in 2023
"Part memoir and part social critique, Drinking Games is about how one woman drank and lived- and how, for her, the last drink was just the beginning. On paper, Sarah Levy's life was on track. She was 28, living in New York City, working a great job, and socializing every weekend. But Sarah had a secret: her relationship with alcohol was becoming toxic. And only she could save herself. Drinking Games explores the role alcohol has in our formative years, and what it means to opt out of a culture completely enmeshed in drinking. It's an examination of what our short-term choices about alcohol do to our long-term selves and how they challenge our ability to be vulnerable enough to discover what we really want in life. Candid and dynamic, this book speaks to the all-consuming cycle of working hard, playing harder, and trying to look perfect while you're at it. Sarah takes us by the hand through her personal journey with blackouts, dating, relationships, wellness culture, startups, social media, friendship, and self-discovery. In this intimate and darkly funny memoir, she stumbles through her twenties, explores the impact alcohol has on relationships and identity, and shows us how life's messiest moments can end up being the most profound"-- Provided by publisher.
Lord Fear
A Memoir
Published in 2015
"Lucas Mann's stepbrother Josh died of a heroin overdose when Lucas was only thirteen years old. Charismatic, ambitious, cruel and sadistic, violent and vulnerable, possibly schizophrenic, Josh's brief life was ultimately unknowable. Yet, Josh is both a presence and absence in the author's life that will not remain unclaimed. Told in kaleidoscopic shards of memories assembled from interviews with Josh's friends and family and the raw material of the Josh's own journals, a revealing, startling portrait unfolds. At the same time, Mann pulls back to question and examine his own complicated feelings about and motives for recovering memories of his brother's life, searching for a balance between the tension of the inevitability of Josh's life and the 'what-ifs' that beg to be asked"-- Provided by publisher.
How to Murder Your Life
A Memoir
Published in 2017
"From Cat Marnell, 'New York's enfant terrible' (The Telegraph), a candid and darkly humorous memoir of prescription drug addiction and self-sabotage, set in the glamorous world of fashion magazines and downtown nightclubs. At twenty-six, Cat Marnell was an associate beauty editor at Lucky, one of the top fashion magazines in America--and that's all most people knew about her. But she hid a secret life. She was a prescription drug addict. She was also a 'doctor shopper' who manipulated Upper East Side psychiatrists for pills, pills, and more pills; a lonely bulimic who spent hundreds of dollars a week on binge foods; a promiscuous party girl who danced barefoot on banquets; a weepy and hallucination-prone insomniac who would take anything--anything--to sleep. This is a tale of self-loathing, self-sabotage, and yes, self-tanner. It begins at a posh New England prep school--and with a prescription for Attention Deficit Disorder medication Ritalin. It continues to New York, where we follow Marnell's amphetamine-fueled rise from intern to editor through the beauty departments of NYLON, Teen Vogue, Glamour, and Lucky. We see her fight between ambition and addiction and how, inevitably, her disease threatens everything she worked so hard to achieve. From the Conde Nast building (where she rides the elevator alongside Anna Wintour) to seedy nightclubs, from doctors' offices and mental hospitals, Marnell shows--like no one else can--what it is like to live in the wild, chaotic, often sinister world of a young female addict who can't say no. Combining lightning-rod subject matter and bold literary aspirations, How to Murder Your Life is mesmerizing, revelatory, and necessary"-- Provided by publisher.
We Are the Luckiest
The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life
Published in 2020
""A memoir of alcohol addiction and recovery, written by a successful career woman who describes the joys and challenges of staying sober in a culture permeated by drinking."--Provided by publisher"-- Provided by publisher.
We Are the Luckiest
Published in 2020
What could possibly be 'lucky' about addiction? Absolutely nothing, thought Laura McKowen when drinking brought her to her knees. As she puts it, she 'kicked and screamed . . . wishing for something - anything - else' to be her issue. The people who got to drink normally, she thought, were so damn lucky. But in the midst of early sobriety, when no longer able to anesthetize her pain and anxiety, she realized that she was actually the lucky one. Lucky to feel her feelings, live honestly, really be with her daughter, change her legacy. She recognized that 'those of us who answer the invitation to wake up, whatever our invitation, are really the luckiest of all.' Here, in straight-talking chapters filled with personal stories, McKowen addresses issues such as facing facts, the question of AA, and other people's drinking. Without sugarcoating the struggles of sobriety, she relentlessly emphasizes the many blessings of an honest life, one without secrets and debilitating shame.
We Are the Luckiest
Published in 2022
What could possibly be "lucky" about addiction? Absolutely nothing, thought Laura McKowen when drinking brought her to her knees. As she puts it, she "kicked and screamed... wishing for something - anything - else" to be her issue. The people who got to drink normally, she thought, were so damn lucky. But in the midst of early sobriety, when no longer able to anesthetize her pain and anxiety, she realized that she was actually the lucky one. Lucky to feel her feelings, live honestly, really be with her daughter, change her legacy. She recognized that "those of us who answer the invitation to wake up, whatever our invitation, are really the luckiest of all." Here, in straight-talking chapters filled with personal stories, McKowen addresses issues such as facing facts, the question of AA, and other people's drinking. Without sugarcoating the struggles of sobriety, she relentlessly emphasizes the many blessings of an honest life, one without secrets and debilitating shame.
A Quantum Life
My Unlikely Journey from the Street to the Stars
Published in 2021
This memoir of the renowned astrophysicist tells the story of how he overcame his personal demons, including an impoverished childhood and life of crime as well as an addiction to crack cocaine and entrenched racism.
Air Traffic
A Memoir of Ambition and Manhood in America
Published in 2018
"From the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, his first work of prose: a deeply felt memoir of a family's bonds and a meditation on race, addiction, fatherhood, ambition, and American culture The Pardlos were an average, middle-class African American family living in a New Jersey Levittown: charismatic Gregory Sr., an air traffic controller, his wife, and their two sons, bookish Greg Jr. and musical-talent Robbie. But when "Big Greg" loses his job after participating in the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Strike of 1981, he becomes a disillusioned, toxic, looming presence in the household--and a powerful rival for young Greg. While Big Greg succumbs to addiction and exhausts the family's money, Greg Jr. rebels--he joins a boot camp for prospective Marines, follows a woman to Denmark, drops out of college again and again, and yields to alcoholism. Years later, he falls for a beautiful, no-nonsense woman named Ginger and becomes a parent himself. Then, he finally grapples with the irresistible yet ruinous legacy of masculinity he inherited from his father. In chronicling his path to recovery and adulthood--Gregory Pardlo gives us a compassionate, loving ode to his father, to fatherhood, and to the frustrating-yet-redemptive ties of family, as well as a scrupulous, searing examination of how African American manhood is shaped by contemporary American life"-- Provided by publisher.
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
A Memoir
Published in 2022
"The beloved star of Friends takes us behind the scenes of the hit sitcom and his struggles with addiction in this candid, funny, and revelatory memoir that delivers a powerful message of hope and persistence In an extraordinary story that only he could tell, Matthew Perry takes readers onto the soundstage of the most successful sitcom of all time while opening up about his private struggles with addiction. Candid, self-aware, and told with his trademark humor, Perry vividly details his lifelong battle with the disease and what fueled it despite seemingly having it all. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is an unforgettable memoir that shares the most intimate details of the love Perry lost, his darkest days, and his greatest friends. Unflinchingly honest, moving, and hilarious: this is the book fans have been waiting for"-- Provided by publisher.
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
A Memoir
Published in 2022
Perry takes readers behind the scenes of the sitcom Friends-- and into his struggles with addiction. Vividly detailing his lifelong battle with alcoholism and drugs, he examines what fueled it despite seemingly having it all: the desire for recognition that drove him, the void inside him that could not be filled, and the peace he's found in sobriety. -- adapted from back cover
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
A Memoir
Published in 2022
Matthew Perry takes readers onto the soundstage of the most successful sitcom of all time while opening up about his private struggles with addiction.
The Forgotten Girls
A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America
Published in 2023
"Growing up gifted and poor in small-town Arkansas, Monica and Darci became fast friends. The girls bonded over a shared love of reading and learning, even as they navigated the challenges of their declining town and tumultuous family lives--broken marriages, alcohol abuse, and shuttered stores and factories. They pored over the giant map in their middle school classroom, tracing their fingers over the world that awaited them, vowing to escape. In the end, Monica got out, but Darci, along with the rest oftheir circle of friends, did not. Years later, working as a journalist covering poverty, Monica discovered what she already intuitively knew about the women in Arkansas: Their life expectancy had steeply declined--the sharpest such fall in a century. Most painfully, her once talented and ambitious best friend was now a single mother of two, addicted to meth and prescription drugs, jobless and nearly homeless. What had happened in the years since Monica had left? Why had she escaped while Darci hurtled toward what Monica fears will be a tragic end? What was killing poor white women--and would Darci survive her own life"-- Provided by publisher.
Tweak
(growing Up on Methamphetamines)
Published in 2009
Nic Sheff was drunk for the first time at age eleven. In the years that followed, he would regularly smoke pot, do cocaine and Ecstasy, and develop addictions to crystal meth and heroin. Even so, he felt like he would always be able to quit and put his life together whenever he needed to. It took a violent relapse one summer in California to convince him otherwise. In a voice that is raw and honest, Nic spares no detail in telling us the compelling, heartbreaking, and true story of his relapse and the road to recovery. As we watch Nic plunge the mental and physical depths of drug addiction, he paints a picture for us of a person at odds with his past, with his family, with his substances, and with himself. It's a harrowing portrait--but not one without hope.
Higher Sobriety
My Years Without Booze
Published in 2023
"Booze had dominated Jill Stark's social life ever since she had her first sip of beer, at 13. She thought nothing could curb her love of big nights. And then came the hangover that changed everything. In the shadow of her 35th year, Jill made a decision: she would give up alcohol. But what would it mean to stop drinking in a world awash with booze? This lively memoir charts Jill's tumultuous year on the wagon, as she copes with the stress of the newsroom sober, tackles the dating scene on soda water, learns to watch the footy minus beer, and deals with censure from friends and colleagues, who tell her that a year without booze is "a year with no friends." Now ten years later, Jill looks at how a global pandemic tested her sobriety and shone a spotlight on the way alcohol has been sold as the panacea for all our troubles. At the same time, it helped accelerate a seismic change in our drinking habits, with the rise of the sober-curious movement and a booming non-alcoholic drinks trend. Now she feels prompted to ask the question, has sobriety become cool?"--Amazon.com.
From Harvard to Hell...and Back
A Doctor's Journey Through Addiction to Recovery
Published in 2013
A Harvard doctor loses everything but his life, which he now spends bringing the message of recovery to other addicts.
From the Ashes
My Story of Being Indigenous, Homeless, and Finding My Way
Published in 2021
In his memoir, Jesse Thistle writes about his experiences as a child abandoned by his parents and placed in foster care, his self-destructive cycle of drug addiction, petty crime and homelessness, and how he managed to turn his life around through education and perseverance.
Between Breaths
A Memoir of Panic and Addiction
Published in 2016
"From the moment she uttered the brave and honest words, "I am an alcoholic," to interviewer George Stephanopoulos, Elizabeth Vargas began writing her story, as her experiences were still raw. Now, in BETWEEN BREATHS, Vargas discusses her accounts of growing up with anxiety-which began suddenly at the age of six when her father served in Vietnam-and how she dealt with this anxiety as she came of age, to her eventually turning to alcohol for relief. She tells of how she found herself living in denial, about the extent of her addiction and keeping her dependency a secret for so long. She addresses her time in rehab, her first year of sobriety, and the guilt she felt as a working mother who had never found the right balance. Honest and hopeful, BETWEEN BREATHS is an inspiring read"-- Provided by publisher.
In the Shadow of the Mountain
A Memoir of Courage
Published in 2022
"When Silvia's mother called her home to Peru, she knew something finally had to give. A Latinx hero in the elite macho tech world of Silicon Valley, privately, she was hanging by a thread. She was deep in the throes of alcoholism, hiding her sexuality from her family, and repressing the abuse she'd suffered as a child. Her visit to Peru would become a turning point in her life. Silvia started climbing. Something about the brute force required for the ascent-the restricted oxygen at altitude, the vast expanse of emptiness around her, the risk and spirit and sheer size of the mountains, the nearness of death-woke her up. And then, she took her biggest pain to the biggest mountain: Everest. "The Mother of the World," as it's known in Nepal, allows few to reach her summit, but Silvia didn't go alone. She gathered a group of young female survivors and led them to base camp alongside her, their strength and community propelling her forward. In the Shadow of the Mountain is a remarkable story of heroism, one which awakens in all of us a lust for adventure, gratitude for the strong women in our lives, and faith in our own resilience"-- Provided by publisher.
Quit Like a Woman
The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol
Published in 2019
"For years, Holly Whitaker wore her workaholic-party-girl persona as a badge of honor, while privately feeling increasingly miserable. She believed that if she could just eat cleaner, save more money, and be more perfect, her life would finally snap into place. Yet all of her attempts to fix herself just added up to more chaos and the chaos added up to more pain and so she added more wine. When she finally had enough and started looking around for help, she was shocked to find that the only systems in place to support her quitting drinking were archaic, patriarchal, and ineffective for the unique needs of women. The Alcoholics Anonymous model focused on strict anonymity, making the ego the enemy, and surrendering power, voice, and agency to a male concept of God. But Holly instinctively knew that what she needed was a deeper understanding of her own identity, the courage to take control of her own life, and to be embraced by a supportive and vocal community. What's more, she could not ignore the ways that alcohol companies were targeting women, just as the tobacco industry had successfully done generations before. Holly became resolute--not only did she have to find her way out of her own addiction, she felt a calling to create something bigger, so that women anywhere on the drinking continuum might find their way as well. The result is her company, Tempest, which provides the education to address the root cause of addiction, the tools to break the cycle of addiction, and the community necessary to build a life free from alcohol. Written in a unique voice that is relatable, honest, and witty, Quit Like a Woman is a groundbreaking look at the insidious role alcohol plays in our lives. Holly offers up a clear-eyed recovery model that banishes the punitive approach to quitting espoused by male-centric programs like AA and provides a positive alternative to living our best lives without the crutch of intoxication. Holly details what makes us sick, keeps us out of our power, and what is possible when we remove alcohol and destroy our belief system around it"-- Provided by publisher.
Scenes from My Life
A Memoir
Published in 2022
"A moving, unflinching memoir of hard-won success, struggles with addiction, and a lifelong mission to give back-from the late iconic actor beloved for his roles in The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, and Lovecraft Country. When Michael K. Williams died on September 6, 2021, he left behind a career as one of the most electrifying actors of his generation. From his star turn as Omar Little in The Wire to Chalky White in Boardwalk Empire to Emmy-nominated roles in HBO's The Night Of and Lovecraft Country, Williams inhabited a slew of indelible roles that he portrayed with a rawness and vulnerability that leapt off the screen. Beyond the nominations and acclaim, Williams played characters who connected, whose humanity couldn't be denied, whose stories were too often left out of the main narrative. At the time of his death, Williams had nearly finished a memoir that tells the story of his past while looking to the future, a book that merges his life and his life's work. Mike, as his friends knew him, was so much more than an actor. In Scenes from My Life, he traces his life in whole, from his childhood in East Flatbush and his early years as a dancer to his battles with addiction and the bar fight that left his face with his distinguishing scar. He was a committed Brooklyn resident and activist who dedicated his life to working with social justice organizations and his community, especially in helping at-risk youth find their voice and carve out their future. Williams worked to keep the spotlight on those he fought for and with, whom he believed in with his whole heart. Imbued with poignance and raw honesty, Scenes from My Life is the story of a performer who gave his all to everything he did-in his own voice, in his own words, as only he could"-- Provided by publisher.
Smacked
A Story of White-collar Ambition, Addiction, and Tragedy
Published in 2020
"Eilene Zimmerman's ex-husband, Peter, had it all: He was a partner at a prestigious law firm, lived in a $2 million house by the beach, and had two great kids. Maintaining a friendly relationship, Eilene and Peter talked and saw each other frequently. But a few years after their divorce she started noticing erratic behavior: absenteeism, weight loss, constant exhaustion and sickness. Peter explained it away as stress from the pressures of his job, but Eilene couldn't shake the feeling that something elsewas wrong. Months later, when she finds him dead, she goes on a journey to investigate how a man she thought she knew had become a drug addict. Zimmerman also takes a wider look at other cases of white-collar drug use and the devastation it leaves behind, showing that addiction can strike anyone. The result is a moving, intimate, and revealing look at both Peter's downward spiral and the drug epidemic among high-powered professionals, its impact on his family, and how a woman reconceives her life in thewake of loss"-- Provided by publisher.