The Best New Books to Read in May 2024

Although she makes faltering progress in building a simulacrum of grown-up life, her relationship with alcohol—“I had an appetite for drink, a taste for it, a talent”—steadily overtakes everything. By the end of her drinking she is reduced to crouching on a stairwell outside her apartment, glugging whisky with her one-year-old son and failing marriage inside. But even more than how it captures the bleakness of alcoholism, what I most value in this book is how she narrates her recovery with such brutal honesty. She keeps showing up to 12-step meetings, even when they do nothing for her. Her breakthrough arrives as much through exhaustion as some kind of epiphany.

Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir

Michael Pond has treated people with addiction for years as a psychotherapist but finds himself homeless, broke and alone when he succumbs to his own battle with alcohol use disorder. Raw and real, Pond’s bok shows best alcoholic memoirs how he uncovers a new path to recovery outside the traditional abstinence-based programs with the help of his partner, Maureen Palmer. The result is a new, science-based approach to treating and managing addiction.

best memoirs about alcoholism

Drunk Mom by Jowita Bydlowska

best memoirs about alcoholism

Ria Health is a smartphone-based program that assists people in reaching their unique alcohol-related goals, whether that means cutting back or quitting for good. All in all, this is an excellent quit lit story for those interested in an eye-opening perspective on alcohol’s role in our society today. Sometimes the best way to understand mental illness or addiction is through the eyes of someone who lived it. When people start to evaluate their relationship with alcohol, they often “collect different prompts and data points,” said Aaron Weiner, a clinical psychologist practicing in Chicago. “Books are one of these data points” that help people realize they might have a problem, he said.

substance abuse,

  • The acclaimed author of Prozac Nation goes from depression to addiction with this equally devastating personal account.
  • Beck is a loving husband, father, and respected business owner who drinks two bottles of wine a night.
  • “Books are one of these data points” that help people realize they might have a problem, he said.
  • The story follows Carr’s unbelievable arc through addiction, recovery, cancer, and life as a single parent to come to an understanding of what those dark years meant.
  • 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.

In Thomas Grattan’s rollicking sophomore release, In Tongues, the charming if naive Gordon moves from Minnesota to New York City where he gets a job walking the dogs of Manhattan’s elite, including gallery owners Phillip and Nicola. Soon he is hobnobbing and bed-hopping with the high-powered couple, turning their lives upside down with little regard for the consequences of his actions. In this delightfully modern comedy of manners, Gordon wonders if he has the ability to change his ways as he begins to understand the damage his impulses have caused. Hari Kunzru’s seventh novel, Blue Ruin, is a provocative portrait of a once-promising artist as a disillusioned man of a certain age.

The One Where Matthew Perry Writes an Addiction Memoir (Published 2022) – The New York Times

The One Where Matthew Perry Writes an Addiction Memoir (Published .

Posted: Tue, 20 Jun 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

  • Although both are worth reading, it’s the first I find myself returning to, marvelling at its ability to conjure the insanity of addiction from inside its diabolical reality.
  • And the reader roots for Machado fiercely as she finds her way out.
  • Kwon’s sensual followup to her 2018 best-seller The Incendiaries is sure to keep readers on their toes, while scholar Deborah Paredez’s tribute to America’s finest divas offers an important lesson in pop-culture etymology.
  • Funny, informative, and authentic, Poole has a welcoming light-hearted voice on the very serious topic of substance use.

10,000+ authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them.Browse their picks for the best books aboutalcoholism,substance abuse,androck music. Drawing on neuroscience, she explains why other self-destructive behaviours – such as eating disorders, compulsive buying and high-risk sex – are interchangeable with problematic substance use. From her childhood in suburban Slough to her chaotic formative years in the London music scene, we follow her journey to Australia, where she experiences firsthand treatment facilities and AA groups,…show more.

  • Joseph Naus beats the odds by overcoming a difficult childhood and becoming a successful civil trial lawyer.
  • This powerful memoir follows Cain’s life as she navigates a substance use disorder, incarceration, and sex work over the course of 19 years.
  • In and out of rehab, he falls into relapse, engaging in toxic relationships and other self-destructive behaviors that threaten to undo the hard-won progress he’s made.

Best Books Related to Healing and Mental Health

Although this book isn’t specifically about alcohol recovery, it has become a go-to guide in many recovery circles. (And for good reason!) Atomic Habits offers practical strategies for making meaningful changes to your habits and routines, one tiny step at a time. It includes research and quotable nuggets on how to immediately take steps toward behavior change. Punch Me Up to the Gods is a beautifully written series of personal essays that describe Brian Broome’s experience growing up Black and queer in Ohio, and the effect early substance use had on his upbringing. This book tells an incredible story of not only recovery, but also how it connects to race and sexual identity. Hepola spends hungover mornings piecing together the missing hours of the nights before and frequently wakes up with unrecognizable men in unfamiliar places.

  • It was the beginning of using externals to fix an internal problem.A 74-year old Native American found me at ten months in recovery.
  • Employing an integrative, 7-step program for addiction, The Addiction Recovery Skills Workbook helps readers to better understand the roots of their substance misuse issues.
  • This is the kind of myopic or unreliable narrator we encounter frequently in novels – conspicuously naïve or self-delusive, and unchaperoned by a consolingly wise authorial presence—but almost never in memoir.
  • Some new habits and practices have had to be built from the ground up.
  • Admitting you have a problem — not to mention actually getting sober — is no small feat.
  • It is the heartbreaking and astute account of Sheff’s experience of his son, Nic’s, addiction and eventual recovery.
  • Well, of course I tried my best to steal from them whatever I could.

The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober: Discovering a Happy, Healthy, Wealthy Alcohol-Free Life by Catherine Gray

Gripping Books About Alcoholism and Recovery

The Big Chill: How to Tell People You’re Not Drinking