Former First Lady, Michelle Obama’s memoir, Becoming, broke all kinds of records within weeks of its release in 2018 and is one of the most best-selling memoirs of all time. Sebold’s Lucky made headlines last year when the man she accused of the rape at the center of her story was exonerated after 40 years in prison. An executive producer adapting the memoir to film noticed that the book and the script didn’t line up, so he hired a private investigator to look at the evidence. The story surrounding the trial, and the young Black man she accused, felt flimsy.
I often think about what it took to publish this when she did, in the 90’s, as a female and a journalist in Boston. The Sober Lush by Jardine Libaire and Amanda Eyre WardMust I retire all my old indulgences? We think as we’re getting sober, in spite of the fact that by the time we quit drinking, we’re not typically leading very glamorous lives. The reminder that sober life need not be ascetic or dull is welcome to seasoned veterans of recovery and newcomers alike, but I think the blueprint here for an abundant life of pleasure could be useful for anyone.
Books to Help You Drink Less, or Quit Altogether
Growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, Marjane Satrapi experienced the effects of war and political repression first-hand. Her clothes, her music, and her interests were policed by her parents in order to avoid trouble. Persepolis is told in black-and-white comics, which makes this memoir even more iconic. It’s popularly assigned in English classes and also has been banned several times in schools. A New York lawyer, Lisa F. Smith, spirals downward while her friends reach new heights in their careers, life, and relationships.
This is a very refreshing book in the world of recovery memoirs. For more books about alcoholism and addiction, check out this list of 100 must-read books about addiction. Have you noticed that our world is increasingly obsessed with drinking? Work https://ecosoberhouse.com/ events, brunch, baby showers, book club, hair salons—the list of where to find booze is endless. Holly Whitaker, in her own path to recovery, discovered the insidious ways the alcohol industry targets women and the patriarchal methods of recovery.
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A person of extraordinary intellect, Heather King is a lawyer and writer/commentator for NPR — as well as a recovering alcoholic who spent years descending from functional alcoholism to barely functioning at all. From graduating cum laude from law school despite her excessive drinking to languishing in dive bars, King presents a clear-eyed look at her past and what brought her out of the haze of addiction. Although previous literary history had portrayed a number of addicts, only a very small number could be found outside fiction—although some well known examples were only fictional in a nominal sense. The eponymous hero of novel John Barleycorn (1913) is really its author, Jack London. Don Birnam in The Lost Weekend (1944) is really its creator, Charles R. Jackson. One hint that the author and protagonist of A Fan’s Notes (1968) are really the same person is that they are both called Frederick Exley.
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. The notion that when she was drinking, she was really “living” — living large, in an adventurous, sexy, outsize fashion with great highs and dark lows and travel to cool places — comes up repeatedly. In her early 20s, writer Jamison (The Empathy Exams) started drinking daily to ease her chronic shyness and deal with the stress of getting her master’s degree at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp
She’s focusing on her schoolwork and is on track to finish high school at the top of her class. But then she falls for Booker, and her aunt Charlene—who has been in and out of treatment for alcoholism for decades—moves into the apartment above her family’s hair salon. The Revolution of Birdie Randolph is a beautiful look at the best alcoholic memoirs effects of alcoholism on friends and family members in the touching way only Brandy Colbert can master. Cupcake Brown was 11 when she was orphaned and placed into foster care. She grew up with a tragic journey, running away and becoming exposed to alcohol, drugs, and sex at a young age, and leaning on those vices to get by.
Annie’s book is so important (and she’s a wonderful human to boot). She brilliantly weaves psychological, neurological, cultural, social and industry factors with her own journey. Without scare tactics, pain, or rules, she offers a strategy to give you freedom from alcohol.