For careful readers, Lowry offers a rich buffet of symbolism and allusions to the work of writers from Dante to Shakespeare. Set in Quauhnahuac, now Cuernavaca, it follows the surreal last day in the life of bleakly alcoholic former British consul Geoffrey Firmin. I loved this book because it told the inner story of Southeast Alaska, a place where I grew up, a story I had never truly known. Tragic yet also easily relatable, the book tells of a family both deeply injured by and standing up against institutionalized racism. This is the Alaska that tourists do not see but that is powerfully, achingly real.
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Through vivid and haunting prose, Jackson paints a vivid portrait of the mind of an alcoholic, capturing the desperation and despair that comes with the disease. The Lost Weekend is a compelling and unflinching exploration of the depths of addiction, https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/do-you-genuinely-like-the-feeling-of-being-drunk/ and a must-read for anyone seeking insight into the tumultuous world of alcoholism. I had my first drink at 12 and my first shot of heroin at 14. My brother and sister were also alcoholics and ended up taking their own lives.
Best Books Related to Healing and Mental Health
- In addition to authoring two books (her second comes out March 2023), McKowen hosts the Tell Me Something True podcast.
- Lit Up by David Denby is a captivating exploration of the impact of literature on the lives of high school students.
- For careful readers, Lowry offers a rich buffet of symbolism and allusions to the work of writers from Dante to Shakespeare.
- Therapist Beverly Berg offers tools for the partners of recovering addicts, who often struggle with reestablishing trust, closeness, and compatibility.
- Walls recounts her experiences growing up in a dysfunctional family with deeply flawed parents who struggle with alcoholism and erratic behavior.
As an avid freelance writer, I decided to add to this sparse genre by sharing our struggles, setbacks, and successes en route to a happy, secure marriage. When Laura McKowen quit drinking, she kicked and screamed. She thought the normal people who could drink casually were lucky. She wasn’t self-medicating and was able to truly feel her feelings and live honestly. We Are the Luckiest is a life-changing memoir about recovery—without any sugarcoating.
The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction Is Not a Disease by Marc Lewis
Our Spring Book Preview will help you choose the right titles for your reading life right now. My prompts will help you dig deep and sustain change from the inside out. From jaw-dropping revelations and stranger-than-fiction anecdotes, to quieter moments of reflection, pain, and joy that we can all best alcohol recovery books relate to, there are few books more captivating or edifying than a good memoir.
The Best Addiction Memoirs
She highlights not only her relationship to alcohol, but also key takeaways from her many attempts to get sober. Reading her book is like sharing a cup of coffee with your wise best friend. She’s brilliant in writing and shares many actionable tips and strategies.
- It’s brutally honest, and her story reads like so many others – some who didn’t make it to recovery.
- For more books about alcoholism and addiction, check out this list of 100 must-read books about addiction.
- Drink is not an addiction memoir so much as an investigative look into why women, specifically, drink and despite my mindset at the time of reading it, I did find it fascinating.
- This book serves as a guide for anyone starting their journey with a 30 day sobriety challenge.
- I love her perspective on drinking as an act of counter-feminism—that in reality it actually dismantles our power, our pride, and our dignity as women, though we intended the opposite.
- Learning how to socialize without drinking is like learning a whole new language, say Spanish.
Gripping Books About Alcoholism and Recovery
Reading these books about alcoholism (memoirs, nonfiction, and fiction) and recommending them to you is part of Alcoholics Anonymous my personal therapy. 2009’s Lit is the volume that deals with Karr’s alcoholism and desperate search for recovery. It can be read alone, but why would you want to miss out on reading all three in order? Although the first two volumes aren’t overtly about Karr’s addiction, they show its makings in her traumatic home life and a lost adolescence. This book is a guide on how to literally be a sober lush. They encourage you to embrace the sober “Irish exit,” leaving the party early to enjoy a starlit stroll home.
But then she falls for Booker, and her aunt Charlene—who has been in and out of treatment for alcoholism for decades—moves into the apartment above her family’s hair salon. The Revolution of Birdie Randolph is a beautiful look at the effects of alcoholism on friends and family members in the touching way only Brandy Colbert can master. Chile is a country of extremes says travel writer and translator Natascha Scott-Stokes, who has lived there for nearly two decades. She chooses five books that give a good sense of the country, from a novel by one of Chile’s great writers, to the biography of the folk singer who was brutally murdered after the 1973 military coup. Well, of course I tried my best to steal from them whatever I could. I very consciously looked to Karr for inspiration in how to write candidly yet lovingly about an imperfect family.
If this book resonates with you, be sure to check out Grace’s podcast of the same name, This Naked Mind, where she and guests continue to dissect alcohol’s grasp on our lives and culture. Jerry Stahl was a writer with significant and successful screenwriting credits — Dr. Caligari, Twin Peaks, Moonlighting, and more. But despite that success, Stahl’s heroin habit began to consume him, derailing his career and destroying his health until one final, intense crisis inspired him to get clean. Ahead, see the 15 stories of struggle, failure, recovery, and grace that have moved us the most. Memoirs are both intimate and all-encompassing; in telling their own story, the author is often speaking to a vast audience.
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