I tried to be as brutally unsparing of my faults as both those writers. I’d like to think Jerry Stahl’s Permanent best alcoholic memoirs Midnight influenced me, too, particularly by encouraging me to try and be harrowing and funny at once. Known more for his books on Mayas, Aztecs, and Spanish conquistadors, historian Matthew Restall’s latest book takes his deepest dive yet into the history of pop music. In 1992, Mishka Shubaly survived a mass shooting at his school, his parents divorced, his father abandoned him, and he swore he would right all the wrongs for his mother. Instead, he began a love affair with the bottle and barely crawled out, but he did, and we cheer him on at each twist and turn in his journey. It was the beginning of using externals to fix an internal problem.

What did I love about each book?

He viscerally paints the picture of the hope-tainted despair, anguish, and havoc that addiction wreaks on an entire family. Sarah’s writing is sharp and relatable; a more recent, modern voice in the recovery space. So many of us look at “blacking out” as benign, or normal—an indicator of a “successful” night of drinking. In Blackout, Sarah clearly explains why there’s nothing benign about it and describes what is actually happening to the brain when we reach that point of alcohol-induced amnesia. I love her perspective on drinking as an act of counter-feminism—that in reality it actually dismantles our power, our pride, and our dignity as women, though we intended the opposite.

• This book is highly recommended for anyone who, like me, is or was terrified of living a boring life.
• Pooley walks us through a year of her life spent battling alcohol addiction and a recent breast cancer diagnosis, two battles — spoiler alert!
• Whether you’re well-versed in the subject or totally new to it, here are nine of the smartest and most moving examples.
• Get ready to be moved and inspired by these powerful narratives that shed light on the complexities of alcoholism.

This Naked Mind by Annie Grace

• White thoughtfully explores boundaries, emotional regulation, body image, shame, and self-care in a way that’s actionable and accessible.
• When she’s a child, we’re presented with the world as a child might see it.
• Drunk Mom by Jowita BydlowskaThis author’s writing style is so unusual, I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first, only to discover that it perfectly suited the genre.
• There’s no award for “Most Sobriety Memoirs Read,” so read them for yourself — let their wisdom be its own award (I can feel your eye rolls. I’m sorry.).

Bad boy, Tim, has struggled with drinking and now is a member of AA and is trying to start his life over. He and my character, Christopher, could attend AA meetings together and I am always happy to find a young adult character who is a reformed bad boy and trying to stay sober with AA and this story does not disappoint. The Sober Diaries follows the narrative of author Clare Pool’s journey in quitting drinking. The book covers her whole first-year experience of sobriety, as well as the unexpected challenges she faced along the way. Blackout by Sarah Hepola is a brutally honest quit lit memoir of living through blackout after blackout—something that many who’ve struggled with heavy alcohol use can relate to.

The Best Hard Science Fiction Books

By the time she was an adult in a big city, all she did was drink. Blackout is her poignant story of alcoholism and those many missing hours that disappeared when she had just enough to drink to wipe out her memory. Hepola gets through the darkest parts of her story with self-deprecating humor and a keen eye on what she was burying by drinking.

By addressing causes rather than symptoms, it is framed as a permanent solution rather than lifetime struggle. It removes the psychological dependence; allowing you to easily drink less (or stop drinking entirely). Before his death in 2015, Carr was a beloved New York Times journalist. Calling on his skills as a reporter, Carr used 60 videotaped interviews, legal and medical records and three years of research and reporting to share his journey from crack-house regular to lauded columnist. Fact-checking his own past, Carr’s investigation of his own life dives deep into his experiences with addiction, recovery, cancer and life as a single parent.

• Authors Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham explore the universal struggle for perfection and the acceptance of imperfection, drawing from the wisdom of various cultures and traditions.
• Jerry Stahl was a writer with significant and successful screenwriting credits — Dr. Caligari, Twin Peaks, Moonlighting, and more.
• I graduated from California State University in Long Beach, CA, with a major in Film.
• Funny, informative, and authentic, Poole has a welcoming light-hearted voice on the very serious topic of substance use.
• You can learn more about addiction and relate to authors through their stories, reminding yourself that you aren’t alone in your journey.

The 15 most powerful memoirs about addiction and recovery

All these books might have been published as memoir in a less stigmatising age. For more books what is Oxford House about alcoholism and addiction, check out this list of 100 must-read books about addiction. Ann Dowsett Johnston combines in-depth research and her own story of recovery in this important book about the relationship between women and alcohol.

• This Naked Mind by Annie Grace is one of the most loved sobriety books ever written.
• As her marriage dissolved and she struggled to find a reason to stay clean, Karr turned to Catholicism as a light at the end of the tunnel.
• But she was also reckless, often finding herself soberly apologizing for things she didn’t remember doing, waking up next to men she didn’t remember meeting and caring for bruises she didn’t remember getting.
• Early recovery has the quality of vigorous exercise, as though each repetition of a painful moment… serves to build up emotional muscle.

Meanwhile successful writing always surprises and challenges us, perhaps by defying the conventions of the form to which it belongs or simply by refreshing them in some way. Only a handful of the addiction memoirs of recent decades are also, in my view, singular works of art. A New York lawyer, Lisa F. Smith, spirals downward while her friends reach new heights in their careers, life, and relationships.