Alcoholism Books

The first sentence grabs you and pulls you right into this story of a seventeen year old college girl named Lissa who suddenly finds out she must raise her little sister all by herself in the big city. This novel reads like a screenplay with snappy dialogue between the sisters as they try to carve out a new life for themselves in Chicago. I highly recommend this book!

This book is a very heartwarming book. This is the second book I have read by Julie Reece Deaver, and it is the second best book I have ever read,just falling short of the best which is "Say Goodnitght,Gracie", also by Deaver. Marnie is just a little girl who is forced to live with her older sister, Lissa who is just a child herself, because their mother has a drinking problem. I would reccommend this book to anyone who is looking for a heartwarming story about a little girl and her sister who have everyday struggles and have to survive with just each other.

This is a story of two girls who's mom is having drinking problems. The eldest is asked to take her little sister with her to Chicago. There is only one delima she doesn't want to stay with her, she wants to go home. They are having problems with getting along when suddenly their dad shows up and he is not approved by the eldest. He is always staying out late with her little sister without asking her. Are her problems solved? That's something you'll just have to find out when you read the book. This easy read book catches your attention and you can't put it down once you start!

This is a cool story of a seventeen year old girl who has to raise her little sister alone in the city. I loved seeing how the big sister, a talented art student, had to learn in a hurry how to be a parent a sister who was quite a handful! This is a story for any age! I'm not a teenager, but I loved it!

great fun read. you can sit down and read it in a day really. the story follows some dominican kids who sell the kilos of coke. it is written like a documentary but has a TON of feeling in it. POOR CHILLE!!!!

Great book about the life of 8 young kids in New York whom changes schools and books for sealing drugs.... It tells how they became dealers,families problems and issues of friendshipp.. even thougth the book is great it does not mention in any page how society tried to help them...because they did not get any help or encoragement... any solutions any where??? more programs in such areas would definately improve the way teeneagers chooses to live their life and make their family more aware of such situations..it is not too late. quite interesting..learned more about drugs than what I ever wanted to....

Pretty good book...

A story concerning the lifes of 8 kids deeply involved in cocaine trade in NYC during the 1980's. It is told from the point of view of an outsider looking in, which I would have rather seen it documented from the 'kids' view but what can you do? Bricks of coke, cut, re-rocked, packaged, street level retail, and all the nitty-gritty details involved with the process. If your looking for a book that tells the tale of the route of cocaine from the source, into the nose/arm of a user, and the people that make it happen. This book is for you, I am a sucker for this type of literature [drug-porn] so take my review with that in mind.

http://www.junkylife.com/seedless

That movie was based on this book. I know this is probably promoting illiteracy and the ills of television, but if you like independents it's a good one. I haven't read the book. I DO READ quie a bit, but was inspired to check out the book because of the movie. The movie meanders a bit, so be prepared. Sorry I havent read the book yet but when I do I'll come back and report on what I thought

Courage to Change is an An-Anon sanctioned publication which I found extremely useful in effecting my own personal recovery from my self-inflicted personality abuse. Accepting the need to make lifelong adjustments is necessary if one desires to achieve any semblance of happiness. This daily reader works if one works it.

Speaking as someone from an alcoholic family, this book helps you "detach, with love" as they say in AA. You realize you can live life for yourself and that you deserve to. The courage to change is needed because the old patterns are familiar and comfortable, but they no longer work. The book brings together wisdom from diverse sources, is divided into 365 short sections corresponding to days of the year, and encourages you truthfully, yet warmly, every step of the way. Read this, it's time to stop beating up on yourself!!

This little book is chocked full of inspiration

I've been in recovery for five years, and I use this book to start my day. It's full of helpful recovery reminders that make it a very special source of inspiration for me. My relationship with Jesus Christ, the Bible, and this little book make my recovery possible. I'd recommend it to anyone who struggles with issues of codependency.

Just when you thought literary crit. was doomed to its staid exsistence, Ronell arrives on the scene. A critic (whose name escapes me) once said that while we can pick up a book, books can throw us across the room. I'm still recovering from the flight and trip this little book sent me on...

This book is revolutionary. If you've ever wondered what an artist (Avital Ronnell is a former performance artist) might be capable of coming up with if they became an academic (a professor) but were still devoted to the idea of performance, this is the answer. Think Kitaj and how his paintings is a form of interpretation of other artists' work in referencing them in the theme of his own work. In other words, Avital Ronnel's "Crack Wars" and its "analysis" of Madame Bovary is possible because it is from a field of study that is unique in that it is devoted to the study of an artform (literary arts) while itself operating in the same medium as that artform (words). The creativity exhibited in "Crack Wars", which is its most powerful proposition, shows that an interpretive "analysis" can be offered on a work of art ("Madame Bovery") without even wanting to answer the question, "What does is mean?". Much of the creative thrust seems to come from the way in which Ronnell re-metaphorizes certain elements or metaphors related to (current) drug use and applies them in the exploration of other facets of society that alters or simulates (ex. taking a "hit" or "scoring" of literature). What this does is to expand the reading of "Madame Bovery" to a whole crop of metaphors and their current exploration whose consideration in language may not have been in circulation at the time of its writing. And though this work may be on the edge of "literary studies", Ronnell is by no means a marginal figure. As head of NYU's dept of Germanic Languages, Ronnell co-lectured a graduate seminar last fall with Derrida (she is in the "Derrida" documentary with multi-colored bobby-pins relaying an interaction with Derrida's mother). Consider the language of the extensive quote below.

"Madame Bovary I daresay is about bad drugs. Equally, it is about thinking we have properly understood them. But if the novel matches its reputation for rendering its epoch- our modernity - intelligible, then we would do well to recall that epoch also means interruption, arrest, suspension and, above all, suspension of judgement. Madame Bovary travels the razor's edge of understanding/reading protocols. In this context understanding is given as something that happens when you are no longer reading. It is not the open-ended Nietzschean echo, "Have I been understood?" but rather the "I understand" that means you have suspended judgement over a chasm of the real. Out of this collapse of judgement no genuine decision can be allowed to emerge. Madame Bovary understood too much; she understood what things were supposed to be like and suffered a series of ethical injuries for this certitude. Her understanding made her legislate closure at every step of the way. She was her own police force, finally turning herself in to the authorities. She understood when the time had come to an end [...] for Madame Bovary opens herself to an altogether different history of intelligibility, in fact, to another suicide pact, cosigned by a world that longer limits its rotting to a singular locality of the unjust."

Ronell's book is a tour-de-force on many levels: for its lucid and startling close-reading of -Madame Bovary-, for the densely glittering energy (and humor) of her prose, and above all for its insight -- never before so comprehensively and convincingly argued -- into addiction as a symptomatic structure of the modern condition. (The addict, she points out, embodies a peculiar challenge for thinking about the inside/outside, mind/body relation. Emma Bovary takes us farther into questions of expenditure and circulation.) This is a must-read not only for those interested in Flaubert's novel, but in the history of subjectivity more generally. Even in its craziest moments, the book is provocative and perceptive.

Avital Ronell examines drugs addiction & mania in this amazingly well written and concisely beautiful book. A book-as-object, containing installations, special sections and poetic-philosophic passages, Crack Wars is sure to please the patient reader. Draws from Flaubert, Heidegger and Derrida...contends that this "culture inspires and supports destructive play only to punish it." A must read!

I couldn't put this book down! I rarely read adventure books, but I picked this book up while waiting for an appointment. Once I started reading it, I couldn't stop. I had to borrow it from the office where my appointment was. I usually read family type or historical novels, but I found this book very entertaining. Just thought I should post this since it surprised me so. I guess you can't judge a book by its cover!

Great book for a vacation! If you like adventure and reading about life in medieval times, this book is a great diversion. Take it to the beach and escape the complex and technical times we live in today. Go back to when the most valuable thing a man owned was his honor. There's plenty of swordplay, tilting (jousting), and combat to satisfy your sense of action along with drama, romance and even alcoholism. It's a believable story and not an over-the-top fantasy book. I enjoyed it!

I liked this book immensely, which surprised me since I don't normally read books about knights or medieval times. It's got plenty of action and adventure besides the drama and a bit of romance.



It's basically about a young nobleman trying to fight off the demons of alcoholism while living on the run as a fugitive. His exciting and challenging journey eventually brings him back home to his village where he tries to finally conquer his worst fears and his worst enemy. I won't spoil it for you, but it's very engaging right up to the last page. Terrific story!

Whether you like knights of old or not, this book is a satisfying adventure and makes you feel as though you're traveling along with the main character. You feel his pains and applaud in his triumphs.

Besides trying to avenge his father's murder and avoid being arrested for the crime, Winston has to deal with his want for drink. His alcoholism has controlled him since boyhood and it has nearly destroyed him. Now he's on the run and he meets an old knight who teaches him a novel way to fight with a sword. Unfortunately, Winston's alcoholism brings an end to this relationship and he again is on his own. For Winston, the future holds romance, fights with thieves, a tilting match, all-out battles and more, yet Winston's hardest and never ending battle may be his fight against his unquenchable want for alcohol.

I won't tell you who wins any of the above clashes, you'll have to find out for yourself, but I'll tell you that it's a good read.

Excellent for beginning CD counselors. Has a vast amount of useful information for the beginning and the seasoned counselor.

This is the best text for a course in Chemical Dependency Counseling that is available. It a great deal of information that a beginning counselor needs to work in the field. It even includes a chapter on how to deal with the reluctant to recover and one on how to servive in a chemical dependency agency, most useful!

This is an essential book for anyone in the chemical dependency field or who is treating individuals with chemical dependency. It is the best one I have read yet.

Covers (exhaustively) the 12 core competencies specified by the ATTC and required for certification by any state. It is excellent.

THis book is all that I was looking for. The info is sooooo understanding and has enlightened me as to where my Brother is at with his alcoholism and drug use, as well as, his recovery.

It has also helped me as to identify my feelings and emotions while living with his addiction.

I am ordering two more books for my Mom and other Brother today!

This is too good to be true. Even Al Anon doesn't clarify as well as this book. Good luck

Most books I read on drug and alcohol abuse are either too technical or oversimplified (like the reader doesn't have a working brain and has to have everything explained at the fifth grade level). This book is the exception. It's written for adults who are experiencing real life problems and real life situations. I found it the most helpful of the many books i read when I was having problems with my daughter. I followed a lot of what the book said and it was right on.

As the parent of a wonderful adult son who became addicted to a narcotic, I have read countless books and materials on this topic. This is the single most helpful source I have found. The advice is both hard-hitting and compassionate, and the way in which it is presented is very readable and accessible (I read it in two nights in two sittings). If someone you love is addicted to alcohol or a drug, this is the book for you. Don't give up. Read this and get started. Good luck to you and your loved person.

This book helped me when I organized an intervention with the help of a counselor. I read several books at the time and this one was the best. I recommend the book and I wish you well.

Heard the taped version of GETTING BETTER by
Nan Robertson, an inside look at Alcoholics
Anonymous . . . I've often wondered about this
group, but had seen little ever written about it--in
part because of the anonymity factor.

Somehow, Robertson (a Pulitzer Prize-winning
reporter for THE NEW YORK TIMES) got permission
to write the book . . . in it, she tells the story of how a failed
stockbroker and a surgeon together found a way to stay
sober--one day at a time.

She also describes what happens at the actual meetings . . . and
that is what I perhaps liked best about the book: its
behind-the scenes view of these gatherings . . . the
fact that Robertson actually attended many of these as
a recovering alcoholic made her reporting all the more believable.

I also liked how she summarized the message of message
of AAA into these three key points: Be honest, change
yourself and help others.

GETTING BETTER was made even more enjoyable by Michael
Learned's excellent narration.

This book is well researched (including interviews with the widow of Bill W, co-founder of AA) and well written. It gives an honest history of the origins of AA without the trappings of saintliness often given to Bill Wilson from the works published by the AA general services office and some other sources. For examples, Bill's infidelities, neglecting family responsibilities to help fellow drunks, and "post-sobriety" experiments with LSD and other chemicals are mentioned. The history sections on AA are excellent as a result of this objectivity. The author also gives an excellent account of typical experience in in-patient rehab.

The author's personal story is equally compelling, and touches on issues chemically dependant individuals face, including how alcohol addiction relates to other facets of life, including depression and physical illness.

All in all, one of the better works on AA and the disease of alcoholism. As a well qualified member of AA, I have one message for other AA members concerned with the author "violating" the 11th tradition on anonimity: "get over it!". Bill Wilson was (and is) hardly "anonymous". If his widow didn't have a problem with this work neither should we.

Ms. Robertson's book is a comprehensive review of Alcoholics Anonymous and it's co-founder Bill Wilson. She gives a surprisingly objective history of Bill W.'s life, his joining with Bob Smith, the other co-founder of AA, and AA's evolution into, perhaps, the most sigificant spiritual program of the 20th century. The only negative aspect of the book is Ms. Robertson's compromising of the 12th Tradition of AA which is maintaining personal anonimity in press, radio and films. I strongly urge anyone in recovery from substance dependence as well as mental health professionals to read this book for greater knowledge of the famous founder of AA.

Nan Robertson's book is the most accurate I have ever read concerning Alcoholics Anonymous. She is devoted to AA, but more so to her research and her honest in writing. If I had to read one book concerning AA, this would be the one. Robert F. Hale

In my opinion, there are four post-12-step classics: Marlatt's "Harm Reduction," Peele's "Diseasing of America," Miller & Rollnick's "Motivational Interviewing," and Tatarsky's "Harm Reduction Psychotherapy." My suggestion - buy all four, read all four.

Marlatt's "Harm Reduction" is a historically first (if I am not mistaken) overview of harm reduction paradigm. Peele's "Diseasing of America" is an intense but poignant critique of the 12-step "recovery industry." Miller & Rollnick's "Motivational Interviwing" is a primer on harnessing pseudo-resistance and leveraging motivation for change. Tatarsky's "Harm Reduction Psychotherapy" is a straight-forward harm reduction application book that starts its chapters from a panoramic bird's-eye view and then clinically bomb-dives into the application specifics.

The book consists of 10 chapters, each consists of a nuanced analysis of the issues at hand with a relevant and indepth case study. Like all harm-reduction literature the book bristles with humanistic courage: it meets the clients "really" where they are, it validates the existential and adaptive valence of substance use, it encourages a clinically "libertarian" stance of respecting clients' goals, it bridges harm reduction with psychoanalysis and cognitive-behavioral schools of thought, it humanizes the substance use population by debunking the preconceived notions and assumptions that still bias so many of the front-line substance use providers, and most importantly the book reminds us that harm reduction is nothing new, that, in essence, it is not a new paradigm but a return to the good ol' humanistic, non-reductionistic, non-oversimplifying, client-centered clinical stance.

I remember one of my first practicum sites. I was sharing - no, not an office wall, - a hallway with a Certified Addiction Counselor. This counselor, bless his good intentions, literally yelled and screamed at his clients loud enough for my own clients - across the hallway and behind the tightly shut door - to raise their brows. I don't mean to say that all CACs are like that. But this one - with Orwellian orthodoxy - was toeing a party line of abstinence with the cheer-leading vigor of the Volga bargemen, intoxicated with his own rightseousness...

Tatarsky's book offers the dichotomizing "preachers" of the 12 Steps a humanistic out - by recognizing a whole spectrum of grey in between the black and white extremes of Abuse-Abstinence continuum, substance use clinicians no longer have to yell - in frustration - that anything that isn't white must be therefore black. Tatarsky's book reminds us not to over-simplify the meaning of substance use and illustrates this point particularly well in Ch. 5: "Complex Problems Require Complex Solutions."

Tatarsky's "Harm Reduction Psychotherapy" is about that client-centered therapeutic silence that allows the clinician to tune in to the subtle winds of change that draft in between clients' pseudo-resistence responses.

As such, Tatarsky's book is a rehab for those who run rehabs!


Pavel Somov, Ph.D.
Author of "Eating the Moment: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time" (New Harbinger, Nov. 2008) - a harm-reduction application to emotional eating; and author of "Recovery Equation: Motivational Enhancement/Choice Awareness/Use Prevention: an Innovative Clinical Curriculum for Susbstance Use Treatment (Booksurge, 2003).


http://www.eatingthemoment.com/logotherapy-addiction/
http://www.eatingthemoment.com/psychodrama-addiction/
www.drsomov.com

Those of us who struggle to control our own alcohol or drug use, or who live with someone who is trying to cut down or quit, may greet the harm reduction approach, persuasively presented by Dr. Andrew Tatarsky, as good news indeed. A practicing psychotherapist, Tatarsky is concerned with meeting clients "where they live": In the context of drug and alcohol abuse, this entails exploring the meanings these substances hold for the individual user and grounding the therapy in the process of self-discovery---rather than requiring abstinence from the outset, which is the traditional "one-size-fits-all" approach to counseling.

The book describes ten cases, each from a different therapist who practiced "harm reduction" in treating his or her client. Many readers will be both riveted and moved by the experience of peering into these intimate sessions. The stories are well told (if somewhat unevenly written), and their subjects come across as real people. Even more compelling is Tatarsky's framing commentary, which draws out the significance of each case: the complex interaction of personal and social factors that led this particular individual to seek meaning (liberation, escape, validation) in drug use.

As to alcohol abuse, which is a component in most of these case studies, the harm reduction approach is controversial in not prescribing an outcome from the start. It flies in the face of conventional wisdom, which holds that "problem drinkers" (read, alcoholics-in-the-making) lose control after just one or two drinks. The individuals portrayed so appealingly in this book are empowered by their therapists to explore the space between quitting altogether and drinking to excess. About half of them achieve stable moderation; the others discover for themselves that abstinence is the more comfortable and successful route to reducing the harm in their lives.

Readers who are not clinicians but worry about these matters will find fresh insights in this accessible introduction to harm reduction. Personal change is an intensely emotional journey best undertaken in the company of a wise therapist or caring support group. The book should be read by every psychotherapist, social worker, and counselor who deals with problems of substance abuse, directly or indirectly---that would be just about all of them. Then, they might wish to recommend the book to those of their clients who are ready for it. This layperson was able to identify with both clients and clinicians, engaged together in life-changing work.

Andrew Tatarsky and his contributors have brought the honesty, the sympathy, and the efficacy of harm reduction into the treatment of substance users, and it's about time!

"Just Say No" has failed 95% of drug users who seek treatment to have better control over their life and their substance use. It has failed them because drug use is not a disease, and abstinence is not a cure. Men and women (and young men and young women) use drugs for their benefits, although drugs, of all kinds --licit and illicit-- are not without their risks.

However the risk of developing a drug (and/or alcohol) problem does not derive solely from the drug. Tens of millions of people have had positive experiences with alcohol, marijuana, opiates, and psychydelic substances. Doesn't it make sense to identify what internal and what external factors cause a particular individual to suffer from a drug problem, rather than proclaiming drug use itself as a sickness.

Standard abstinence therapies and their institutions function by glorifying guilt, helplessness, and continuous self degradation. Standard abstinence therapy fails the overwhelming majority of people.

Tatarsky's book demonstrates, through well written and sympathetic case studies, another way to help people who have problems with their drug use, and it seems to be a better way. This book can make a huge difference in the lives of millions of people.

This book is wonderful. It gives me a new way to understand my clients struggling with abstinence from using substances. I love the case examples.

Anyone interested in how people in a stigmatized or marginalized position can empower themselves and change institutions should find this book fascinating. Audrey Borden has collected a rich set of moving narratives from people who were at the forefront as Gays and Lesbians made AA work for them, and in the process helped AA live up to its traditions. The selflessness, generosity and modesty of many of her sources make these stories all the more touching, given the struggles they faced and the lives they have saved. Well written by an insightful author. A wonderful contribution!

Wonderful. A real must for anyone interested in AA.

The focus on 'Gay AA' history does not narrow the book; rather, the Gay focus provides a window through which AA tradition, practice, and history can be traced concisely.

Anyone interested in AA, or alcoholism, let alone Gay history, should have this volume.

As a history of recovery programs, Borden has provided unique insight into the development and application of governing principles for AA. This kept recovery from alcoholism first and foremost when it came to highly politicized and culturally-polarizing topics.

As a GLBT history text, I consider this a must-read, alcoholic or not. My experience has been that one can't go far in AA without encountering openly GLBT people with a long history of strong sobriety, and this is their story. GLBT's active in recovery seem to make up *far* more than the 5% one would expect within the general recovering population.

I consider myself somewhat well-read in GLBT history texts, but few captivated me as this has. The personal details of the lives of these people provided one of the most personalized exploration of the practical lives of GLBTs in the mid-20th century I have found. In many ways, this is a soberly (ha!) narrowed application of Ian Young's "Stonewall Experiment" with the existential input needed to really do that kind of work.

One can't go far in AA without encountering openly GLBT people with a long history of strong sobriety. With the incredibly personal nature of individual recovery openly described, I was able to feel proud of these people, I praised their successes and empathized with their struggles as my own.

I can't stress how important I believe this work to be. Because many GLBT people do not bear children, our cultural heritage often is often forgotten between generations. The unique personal experience of surviving homophobia, discrimination, and queer experience is unfortunately gone with the elders. I loved being able to relate to these people, and consinder it of grave importance for younger generations to seek past lessons.

I did want for more. There was little descriptions of early gay AA in Chicago, and I've had the personal experience to know several GLBT people with very long term sobriety in or from Chicago. Maybe there will be a part two ;)

There is a lot more of this history to do...

Ms. Borden has brought together a fascinating and important collection of "insider's history" regarding GLBT people in Alcoholics Anonymous. Organized in a straightforward (no pun intended) and very readable manner, the book conveys through first-hand accounts the place and significance gay and lesbian people have had in the development of this remarkable recovery program.

The only criticism this reader has is that there are so many more stories that should have been gathered, particularly from areas of the country (especially the Midwest) where equally important developments took place. The book is a bit "bicoastal" in this regard; there are amazing stories yet to be gathered and told from the middle of the country as well as the two coasts. (I know--I am here, and have been out and part of it since this 1970s in Iowa and Minnesota!)

Nonetheless: this history is a must-read for anyone interested in A.A. history--GLBT and straight alike. Thank you Ms. Borden, and Haworth Press.