We Are the Luckiest is a life-changing memoir about recovery—without any sugarcoating. She started sneaking sips from her parents’ wine glasses as a kid, and went through adolescence drinking more and more. By the time she was an adult in a big city, all she did was drink. Blackout is her poignant story of alcoholism and those many missing hours that disappeared when she had just enough to drink to wipe out her memory. Hepola gets through the darkest parts of her story with self-deprecating humor and a keen eye on what she was burying by drinking.
- It is easy to use addiction as a crutch, a way to build plot or signal “here’s a bad dude,” but it is much harder to accurately and humanely depict the life-warping pain of struggling with alcoholism.
- There’s no award for “Most Sobriety Memoirs Read,” so read them for yourself — let their wisdom be its own award (I can feel your eye rolls. I’m sorry.).
Best Quit Lit Books and Sobriety Memoirs to Inspire Your Recovery
Desperate to regain her place in the limelight, she agrees to a low-budget tour of Southern venues, starting with her 35th high school reunion. Historical fiction inspired by the story of Mary Leakey, who carved her own path to become one of the world’s most distinguished paleoanthropologists. In 1992, Mishka Shubaly survived a mass shooting at his school, his parents divorced, his father abandoned him, and he swore he would right all the wrongs for his mother. Instead, he began a love affair with the bottle and barely crawled out, but he did, and we cheer him on at each twist and turn in his journey.
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction by Gabor Maté
They find it a great read with an excellent balance of amphetamine addiction treatment personal stories and research. Customers describe the author as candid, thoughtful, and brave. The book provides inspirational content that is relatable and insightful. Journalist Jenny Valentish knows treatment, AA, and the pathways to addiction and recovery.
“Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol”
The following are a smattering of the books about alcoholism I’ve found meaningful. Reading these books about alcoholism (memoirs, nonfiction, and fiction) and recommending them to you is part of my personal therapy. I am not sure I’d be sober today if it weren’t for Tired of Thinking About Drinking. Belle’s consistent messaging on our faulty thinking led to a major mindset shift for me. She provides actionable steps for anyone looking to drink less or none at all.
- A life of recovery is an awakened life of purpose, service, and meaning.
- Wondering if you need a drink to live a rich, colorful life?
- I learned a lot from Clegg—or I hope I did—about how to convey the terrifying experience of a runaway binge.
Ann Dowsett Johnston masterfully weaves personal story, interviews, and sociological research together to create a compelling, informative, and even heartbreaking reality about drinking and womanhood. Written with courage and candor this book leaves you ready to push against a society suggesting alcohol is the solution to women’s problems. Karr arrived with a unique literary voice that combined rich Texan and burst of lyricism. And she had an almost miraculous ability to portray her broken family with wit and love, without ever flinching from pain.
The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday
I tried to be as brutally unsparing of my faults as both those writers. I’d like to think Jerry Stahl’s Permanent Midnight influenced me, too, particularly by encouraging me to try and be harrowing and funny at once. Next we have Mary Karr’s Lit, alcoholic memoirs which is also the third book in a trilogy; it followed The Liars’ Club and Cherry. It’s a memoir of her addiction to alcohol, and her subsequent recovery, and her conversion to Catholicism. They say it’s about real-life struggles and trying to figure out how to live. The book is written so that you can see the situations as they arise, leading to new beginnings and a deeper understanding of oneself.
- Check out our picks for the best addiction and recovery memoirs.
- When I arrived, reeking of booze from the evening before and makeup strewn down my face, I was confronted by two of my female roommates.
- Survival Math is an incredible look at race and class, gangs and guns, addiction and masculinity.
- We look forward to putting the resources of the Library towards this invaluable project, and hope that it provides as many insights to people in need as it has to us already.
Even the uninitiated know that AA meetings involve members sharing stories with one another, urged not to compare but to connect. Addiction narratives are tragic in the everyday sense, but for the purposes of recovery they operate by a logic somewhat different from the traditional definition of tragedy. The therapeutic ideal, on the other hand, involves a fundamentally different relationship. It https://ecosoberhouse.com/ passes slowly when times are tough and moves too quickly when life is smooth.