I started reading addiction memoirs in college, well before I admitted to having an alcohol use disorder. I think I subconsciously https://ecosoberhouse.com/ knew it, but was in total denial. Why else would I have been mesmerized by When a Man Loves a Woman or 28 Days in my early 20s?
“We Are the Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life”
During his days as a young Manhattanite working in advertising, he tried everything to hide his constant drinking, including spraying cologne on his tongue. — early into her sobriety, she realized that she was actually the lucky one. Thanks to an alcohol- and drug-free life, McKowen now feels all of her feelings, no longer has to balance multiple lies, and is fully present with her daughter.
- 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.
- The fact that, in so doing, she effectively obeyed a formal convention of addiction memoir helps explain how many of those conventions arose.
- I said this convention concerned reading more directly than writing, but—since all good writing involves deep sensitivity to the reader’s experience—the two things are ultimately inseparable.
- These insights can introduce a whole new dimension of healing while on a sobriety or moderation journey.
Coffee Table & Recipe Books
Some celebrity memoirs are tell-alls filled with juicy gossip. And still others are life-changing books filled with success stories about overcoming adversity. But the best celebrity memoirs combine all three to be a little gossipy, sometimes funny and open enough to be vulnerable. Some of these memoirs are inspiring books, while others make great beach reads. But they all promise an intimate look behind the public image famous celebrities portray — and you may never see them the same way again.
“Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol”
There’s a long, beautiful history of writers chronicling how they’ve dealt with alcoholism and addiction. In this powerful memoir, Viola Davis reflects on overcoming the challenges of trauma, racism and poverty to find her inner strength. Packed with insight, it offers discussions on the forces of colorism, misogyny and racism that still shape the entertainment industry today. A great chef turned writer, Anthony Bourdain delves into 25 years of “drugs, sex, and haute cuisine,” offering an unsparing look into what happens in fine-dining restaurants and sharing plenty of unsavory tales along the way.
She’s an iconic, witty literary voice, an engrossing storyteller, and this book too is a great study in memoir. Neither are you the author of the story that, according to Jamison and millions of others, may set you free—nor, evidently, is anyone else. “Alcoholics Anonymous,” better known as the best alcoholic memoirs Big Book, lists no author on its title page, and it is written in the first person plural, as if by a management committee. This is a lesser known series of essays on the intersection of alcohol and womanhood. The author, Kristi Coulter, engages the reader with her deep insight and quick wit.
Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family by Mitchell S. Jackson
Between Breaths: A Memoir of Panic and Addiction by Elizabeth Vargas
