The ‘sober curious‘ movement has spawned non-alcoholic bars in cities as different as Nashville and New York, zero-proof liquors and a whole lot of memoirs written by addicts in recovery. Reading a few chapters of a recovery-related book each day can help weave your sobriety or moderation goals into your everyday life. It can provide ongoing reminders of why you’re making a change, and give you new tools to incorporate as best alcoholic memoirs you continue on your journey.
“Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol” by Ann Dowsett Johnston
When she marries and becomes a mother, she finds that with so much to lose, she still cannot control her drive to drink. A car accident, the slow and painful unraveling of her marriage, a stay in a mental hospital and an eventual spiritual awakening finally free Karr from the substance that nearly took her life. For more books about alcoholism and addiction, check out this list of 100 must-read books about addiction.
Coffee Table & Recipe Books
Once his 30 days are up, he has to figure out how to return to his New York City lifestyle sans alcohol. Burroughs’ story is one of triumph and loss, professional success and personal failure, finding your way to sobriety, falling into relapse, and starting all over again. This book provides an eye-opening perspective on and insight into how racism and white supremacy can lead to intergenerational trauma. Resmaa Menakem shares the latest research on body trauma and neuroscience, as well as provides actionable steps towards healing as a collective.
I’m Black and I’m Sober: The Timeless Story of a Woman’s Journey Back to Sanity by Chaney Allen
With a reputation for hilarious honesty, as read in previous memoirs detailing her struggles with everything from mental illness to single life, Bryony Gordon is true to form in this detailed account of her alcohol-fueled downward spiral. Bryony puts her family, career and future at risk before a stint in rehab, loads of AA meetings and self-discovery help her to become a mother, partner and person she can be proud of. Sober celebrities, reality stars in rehab and the sudden ubiquity of mocktail recipes… the culture is shifting, and abstinence is in. Peak Covid saw people giving into excess where alcohol was concerned, and the rise of sobriety following the pandemic seems straight out of a ‘nature is healing’ meme.
Stash: My Life in Hiding
Gilbert helps us understand the noisy voice in our head, which can often be our greatest critic. She offers generous vulnerability in her lessons and encourages you to find your gift within. A life of recovery is an awakened life of purpose, service, and meaning. I chose Atlas of the Heart because it touches on the important theme of second chances.
- The various accidental similarities between these books began, before long, to harden into a blueprint, which countless books have faithfully reproduced.
- Helen ultimately escapes her marriage and pretends to be a widow, earning a living as an artist to care for herself and her young son.
- It would be really easy to simply gloss over the pivotal, seeping role of alcoholism in this book, being as it is, a truly gripping murder story.
- This book will inspire anyone looking for fun and adventure to create incredible memories while living alcohol-free.
- Coulter shares her struggles with alcohol use and also the challenges of getting sober.
- Finally, at the behest of his coworkers and boss, he ends up in a rehab that specifically caters to gay and lesbian patients.
Three years sober, Jowita Bydlowska celebrates the birth of her first child with a glass of champagne, and just like that, she is spiraling back into the life of drinking she thought she had escaped. Bydlowska depicts life as a new mom while under the influence with honesty and humility, discovering she can overcome the seemingly impossible for her child. Burroughs thought he was managing to keep it all together as a suit-wearing, hard-partying Manhattanite until he landed in rehab at the bequest of his employers. With the same wit and candor found in https://ecosoberhouse.com/ his other popular works, we follow the writer from a rehab reality check back to the bustling city, where he must learn to navigate life on the wagon. Cupcake Brown was 11 when she was orphaned and placed into foster care.
- Don Birnam in The Lost Weekend (1944) is really its creator, Charles R. Jackson.
- Ann’s book is such a unique and insightful combination of personal experience and scientific research.
- Early sobriety forces, like giving birth, a quick and complete break with a former life in order to make way for a new, sometimes ambiguously desired one.
- As a wildly famous celebrity, he struggled with more than just alcohol.
- And yet, the psychological terror of the book is informed by the dual psychosis of its main characters, one of whom is a young man, an alcoholic who seems intent on destroying his organs as quickly as possible.
- The Dry Challenge can be especially helpful for people who drink socially, and are looking to take a structured step back to re-evaluate their habits.
These insights can introduce a whole new dimension of healing while on a sobriety or moderation journey. This is one of the most compelling books on recovery and humanity ever written. Dr. Maté shares the powerful insight that substance use is, in many cases, a survival mechanism. When something awful happens to us, our way to cope is to turn off and even turn against ourselves, as a method of resilience. The book discusses drug policies, substance use treatment, and the root causes of substance use.
Lit by Mary Karr
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. I learned a lot from Clegg—or I hope I did—about how to convey the terrifying experience of a runaway binge.