Now, those transcripts have been streamlined into this honest and unvarnished memoir, in which the actor speaks openly about his traumatic childhood, his lifelong struggle with alcoholism, and his tormenting self-doubt. Probably the least-known work of the Brontë sisters, by the least-known sister, Anne’s second and last novel was published to great success in 1848. 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. The book was so upsetting to her sister Charlotte that, after Anne’s death she passed on the chance to have it reprinted, and the book was neglected for a really long time. Today it is widely considered to be a landmark in early feminist literature, but its frank depictions of addiction within marriage are just as deserving of acclaim. The second major problem for anyone writing an addiction memoir—and it’s often connected to the first—is how to conclude it.
This combination makes her story heartening, funny, and thought-provoking at the same time. Coulter shares her struggles with alcohol use and also the challenges of getting sober. One of the first of its kind, Drink opens our eyes to the connection between drinking, trauma and the impossible quest to ‘have it all’ that many women experience.
“The Body Keeps The Score” by Bessel van der Kolk
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. This popular subgenre is filled with timeless, brilliant entries. We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview. I’ll mention some more in relation to the books I’ve chosen, but these are, I think, the four most fundamental ones.
She’s brilliant in writing and shares many actionable tips and strategies. This book serves as a guide for anyone starting their journey with a 30 day sobriety challenge. https://ecosoberhouse.com/ 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.
Riverhead Books, 2017
With humor and honesty, Jacob Tobia reflects on the trauma and healing of their “coming-of-gender” story. This collection of stories blends memoir and investigative reporting to expose ingrained and pervasive societal messages that deeply affect young women, giving listeners permission to break free from restrictive narratives. The author brilliantly illuminates the night of her assault, its aftermath, the tumultuous legal process, and the pursuit of healing. Kiese Laymon’s performance, like his gorgeous lyrical writing, bares his heart and soul to the listener in this fearless, provocative glimpse at family, weight, and identity. Join Elizabeth Gilbert on her globe-spanning journey of discovery, following a succession of earth-shattering life changes that included divorce and depression in a memoir that’s part travelogue, part open self-reflection.
- This is a must read for anyone passionate about exploring their relationship with alcohol and the role a patriarchal system has played in rising rates of unhealthy substance use in America.
- For readers who’ve followed her over three searingly honest books, where survival let alone redemption often seemed unlikely, her final discovery of a bruised and hard-won peace feels like an instance of what can only be called grace.
- Ms. Kearns, co-host of “The Weekend Sober” podcast, credits the book with helping her quit.
- It’s a deep meditation on something like growing up poor, or having a debilitating mental illness, or living in a racist America.
- The marketing strategies employed to sell booze to women are as alarming as the skyrocketing number of women who qualify as having alcohol use disorders.
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 best alcoholic memoirs 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. She discovers in Catholicism a spirituality that makes sense to her and seems to keep her sober, but she doesn’t proselytise or become too holy for irony.
Girl Walks Out of a Bar: A Memoir by Lisa F. Smith
It removes the psychological dependence; allowing you to easily drink less (or stop drinking entirely). Ann Dowsett Johnston brilliantly weaves her own story of recovery with in-depth research on the alarming rise of risky drinking among women. The marketing strategies employed to sell booze to women are as alarming as the skyrocketing number of women who qualify as having alcohol use disorders. Ann’s book is such a unique and insightful combination of personal experience and scientific research. Cynnie vows she’ll never be an alcoholic–-she’s sees the damage alcohol can cause in her mother every day. The stress of being the real adult of the house gets to be tough, though and Cynnie has an idea about what might numb the pain.
The Books That Helped Me Get Sober – Refinery29 Australia
The Books That Helped Me Get Sober.
Posted: Sun, 10 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
How do you craft an ending that makes narrative sense but which feels complex and inconclusive in the way life so often is? Many addiction memoirs evince a desire to repay the reader for all the dark places the story has taken them with a thumpingly joyous ending. For these reasons, in many addiction memoirs the end is the weakest part. In this post, we’ve put together nine of the best addiction memoirs and quit lit books for you to check out. From painfully honest stories to science-based tips, there’s a title on this list that’s sure to inspire and motivate you or someone in your life. The writers who have poured their souls into these memoirs about drinking are, for the most part, on the road to recovery.
