The author passed away in 2021, so instead of his planned drawings and illustrated panels reminiscent of graphic novels, the book contains his original sketches, giving readers a sense of art in creation. Mary Karr’s memoir about growing up with alcoholic parents in Texas in the 1960s inspired a generation of writers to tell their truth. First published in 1995, the book was reissued 10 years later and forever belongs on any list of best memoirs. Karr’s writing is marked by candor, dry humor and courage as she refuses to let family secrets fester in darkness. No roundup of best memoirs would be complete without a salute to the nonagenarian who passed away in January 2021, days after the book’s publication. The groundbreaking actress defied racial barriers, accepting only roles that presented Black women with realistic dignity.
- Her quest for courage, connection and life’s deepest adventures is not to be missed.
- A great starter book for anyone looking to begin changing their relationship with alcohol.
- Eighteen months before Schultz’s father died after a long battle with cancer, she met the love of her life.
- Quit Like a Woman is a sobriety book that delves into the toxic culture of alcohol in society—and specifically, its impact on women.
- In this post, we’ve put together nine of the best addiction memoirs and quit lit books for you to check out.
- But it’s not all bad; his dad teaches him to love stories as he tells tales of angels and saviors.
As a 15-year-old girl, she was shot in the face by the Taliban on the bus home from school, all because she had the audacity to stand up for her right to an education. Once she recovered, she shared her story far and wide, becoming a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate. American Addiction Centers (AAC) is committed to delivering original, truthful, accurate, unbiased, and medically current information. We strive to create content that is clear, concise, and easy to understand.
Finding North: A Journey from Addict to Advocate
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. 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. Quit Like a Woman takes a groundbreaking look at America’s obsession with alcohol. Blockbuster memoirs by famous people are everywhere, climbing up lists of the best nonfiction books of all time. As inspiring as these books are, some of the best memoirs are written by people you might not have heard of—people whose stories will grab your heart and never let go.
- She manages to turn every detail into poetry while moving her story powerfully forward.
- At age 24, newspaper journalist Susannah Cahalan feared she was going crazy, with uncontrollable violent outbursts and terrifying delusions.
- Unexplained men and bruises the next morning are only a few of the unremembered experiences Sarah Hepola recalls in this honest, raw, poignant memoir.
- This article was written and published in partnership with Monument/Tempest.
- Blackout shows how you can grow into the person you want to be and leave alcohol in the past—no matter where you are now.
A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of
people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book. At the age of forty-nine, driven by an urgent restlessness, Laurie Woodford rents out her house, packs her belongings into two suitcases, and relocates to Asia. What begins as an opportunity to teach college English overseas, evolves into a nomadic adventure as Laurie works and volunteers in South Korea, Ethiopia, Peru, Spain, and Mexico. At the age of forty-nine, Laurie Woodford rents out her house, packs her belongings into two suitcases, and leaves her life in upstate New York to relocate to Seoul, South Korea. What begins as an opportunity to teach college English in Asia evolves into a nomadic adventure. This site has an archive of more than one thousand seven hundred interviews, or eight thousand book recommendations.
High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict’s Double Life
Police records didn’t match his story, and Frey later admitted to embellishing key facts. Eighteen months before Schultz’s father died after a long battle with cancer, she met the love of her life. It’s this painful dichotomy that sets the foundation for Lost & Found, a poignant memoir about how love and loss often coexist.
Spare has been billed as an intimate, honest story of the experiences, losses and adventures that shaped Prince Harry into the man he’s become. Prince Harry’s book will reportedly cover his childhood, service in Afghanistan and more recent experiences, like becoming a husband and father. The title comes from the old saying “an heir and a spare,” a reference to his status as King Charles’s second-born son. No doubt we will discover some fascinating new tidbits about royal life, but his memoir won’t be a rosy retelling.
Oar Health Member Stories: Quitting Alcohol
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. For one kind of author, helping the reader is the whole point of writing an addiction memoir; for another, even to consider doing so would be aesthetically fatal. My guess is that most addiction memoirs involve some kind of compromise between the author’s aesthetic and ethical impulses. This ethical dimension (or an aesthetic impurity) is a distinctive aspect of addiction memoir as a literary form.
In addition to personal stories, many of these books delve deep into the personal and societal psychology of drinking and drug use. Second, they contain sections describing the lurid drama and dreadful effects of addiction in unsparing detail. Unvarnished accounts of the havoc and disaster of addiction, whether played for farce or pathos, are as reliably found in the most artistically ambitious addiction memoirs as in the least. Meanwhile the reader is tacitly licensed to enjoy all this mayhem and calamity with a degree of voyeuristic relish and, equally, to take a vicarious pleasure in the author’s recklessness and transgression. In the literature world, you can find books about addiction and recovery in a genre known as “quit lit.” Quit lit is full of authors sharing their personal experiences and resources to help others who are where they’ve been.
In Pharoah’s Army: Memories of the Lost War by Tobias Wolff
More than anything, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts provides a voice of kind generosity and understanding to anyone who is looking to learn more for themselves or a loved one. 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.
Drinking felt like freedom, part of her birthright as a strong, enlightened twenty-first-century woman. She often blacked out, waking up with a blank space best alcoholic memoirs where four hours should be. She started sneaking sips from her parents’ wine glasses as a kid, and went through adolescence drinking more and more.