Cocaine-Abuse Books

Great story!! This book is very captivating, you won't want to put it down.Regina is a wonderful woman!!(Love u Auntie!)

This is the true story of a woman named Regina. Her mother was her best friend, she was always on the honor role at any school she attended, she went to church every Sunday, and even sang in the choir. It was during her early college years with a roommate that Regina first sampled any type of drug. This is where and when this book begins, in 1977.

"Kryptonite" is street slang for crack cocaine. Now do not go thinking that Regina jumped into drug use with crack. On the contrary, it was a gradual process that began with weed. Her excuse was simply to try it because it could not hurt and she wanted to be nice to her roommate. But the excuses changed often throughout her twenty year addiction. Regina liked the way drugs made her feel. It helped Regina concentrate on her studies or jobs. It helped her stay awake and live on three hours of sleep daily so she could work two full time jobs. It helped Regina cope during hard times. Everyone was doing it. She was not hurting anyone else...The list of excuses go on and on.

**** The editing for the book is not well done. However, the mistakes are not so bad that they detract from Regina's story. And what a story it is! Regina holds back no punches of how bad her life became. Better yet, she blames no one else for her errors of judgement. She takes full responsibility for her actions. I wish that the book told more of what became of Eddie Hall and what happened to James ("the custodian") after he snapped. But the main focus is Regina and her drug life. Through her story, there is hope that others with their lives lost in drugs may read it and decide to change their lives for the better. Or perhaps, a friend or family member will read it to understand and perhaps help. After all, those HARD on drugs have no time or urge to read anything themselves.

All-in-all, this book is a real eye-opener. It gives a real look at the cold, hard, and dark life that drug users go through. Highly recommended reading! ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

When writing "The Night of the Gun," his memoir of substance abuse, New York Times reporter David Carr interviewed people in his life who witnessed his descent. Good idea. Even before James Frey's very public dressing down for fabricating the events in his memoir, "A Million Little Pieces," I think most perceptive readers questioned the truthfulness of the genre. Far too many people have written "memoirs" in which they triumphantly survive the most horrific circumstances to be believed. Frankly, I'm stumped by their appeal. Unless a memoir is the work of someone who has accomplished something that already brought them into the public eye, my interest in their troubles is minimal.

My interest in Carr's troubles is minimal too, although I have heard of him, read him too, in the online edition of the New York Times. His writing skills go a long way in making "Night of the Gun" interesting, and thanks to the documentation he provides, its more believable than most of the titles in this genre. It's certainly riveting, but it could also have benefitted from more editing. It's too long and too repetitive for my tastes, but for those interested in the catharsis (or whatever) they seek from these memoirs, it has more merit than most.

Brian W. Fairbanks

The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of his Life--His OwnAn eye-openning account of an addict's thought processes and behaviors by a funny, knowledgable, and interesting journalist. The book Night of the Gun is easy to read and the story is difficult to hear. I laughed and suffered as I read about Carr's life as an addict. I have recommended this book to my therapist friends to increase their understanding of and effectiveness with their clients, their friends, and their family members.

To avoid comparisons with James Frey (the addict who fictionalized parts of his life story in "A Million Little Pieces"), author David Carr takes a different approach to truth-telling in his own story of addiction in "The Night of the Gun." Carr gets to the facts the way any good journalist (like Carr himself) would ferret out the truth--by returning to the scene of the crime and interviewing the witnesses.

Carr begins this journey with what he imagines to be the worse night of his life (the night of the gun in the title) and discovers memory is a tricky thing. While talking over this horrible event with his best friend, he learns that his recollection of the events is not exactly what occurred. In fact, the truth is even more bleak than he had recalled. So, too, is much of the rest of the story.

It's not a pretty tale, and while the brutal honesty of his examination is admirable, Carr is not an easy man to like. His self-centered view, his utter disregard for others, his brutality and violent behavior all make for some hard-going in this story. Even when Carr appears to have weathered the worst of life (conquering his addiction to cocaine, gaining control of parental responsibility for his daughters, becoming a successful journalist), there is still more horror to reveal.

The way Carr reaches the truth about all of this is to interview the people who populated his life, from famous comedians to streetwise addicts. Over a period of time, he reconstructed his past via videotaped interviews, medical records, police files, and a variety of other documentation. It's all compelling, but perhaps in the way you would rubberneck at an accident along the side of the road. It takes a strong stomach for the journey, but there are rewards along the way.

The book will surely be most interesting to recovered and recovering addicts or those who have a loved one who has gone down the same road as Carr. For the rest of us, the book still contains some interesting ideas and lessons about life, but it's a dark slog through the underside to get there, a journey not everyone will want to take. Perhaps most profound in this story is that what turned out to be the impetus for overcoming the overwhelming odds of addiction was a family and a willingness to work hard...and a desire for the truth about it all.

I saw David Carr on the Charlie Rose show, and based on his intriguing story there rushed to my local library to reserve his book, Night of the Gun. Weeks later and many dollars paid in overdue fines, I am only on page 68. This book is f****** boring. I did cheat and read later pages concerning his two daughters all grown up, and his assessments of them were boring as well. There is no depth to this book, and his escapades so far as I've read sound tame compared with some of my friends', whose early life stories keep my interest no matter how many times told. I find this a self-indulgent book, a grabbing at straws to gain the reader's attention book. So what? Who cares? The various escapades presented so far are sparsely described and no different from those of thousands of others. I normally love reading true stories of addiction and chaos, but the writing here is uninspiring and dull. Plus, I find the author's badgering of former friends and acquaintances to recall dim recollections of common youthful pitfalls annoying. The time frames seem off as well. How could he be talking to a psychiatrist at age twenty or twenty-one about his terrible addiction and the mistake of his marriage when he didn't get married until age 23? And since this all occurred at a very early time in his life, why is he writing about it now? Along with others, I don't see the point. For those fascinated with stories of addiction written in a way one can relate to or ooh and ahh about, I would point them toward Drinking, A Love Story, by Caroline Knapp; The Tender Bar, by someone or other (also a New York Times reporter), and another story whose title I can't remember, by a former New York Times fashion writer, Maryann somebody. These three I was riveted to and read more than once, both because of their intriguing stories and because of their excellent storytelling. The names didn't matter; the stories did.

Reading this book was a quasi-stroll down memory lane in some ways. I bartended through the early eighties and met many David Carrs during that time. His memories are a lot like many of ours, skewed to fit our own warped perception of the past. The steps he took to find out the truth were fearless. Who would like to sit down with every person they met while partying and addicted? Hearing how you affected them and their own memories of what you thought was the past must be painful. Carr does tend to go on and on a bit about his partying days and the book could have been a tad shorter. I've passed it on to many friends who (hopefully) remember their pasts a little better than he did.

William Cope Moyers is an alcoholic and crack addict. It doesn't matter that he comes from a good family, that he earned a college degree, and that he was a writer for CNN. What matters is that after many attempts he is now a sober, contributing member of society.

Growing up, William always felt as if he was in the shadows of his famous father Bill Moyers, one of the most well-known and respected journalists in the nation. The senior Moyers was the former White House press secretary during Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency. From that role he moved to several before he began his own production company, which produced documentaries.

William went from a young boy with no cares in Wilmer, Texas to a boy with no faith after a severe thunderstorm stole his faith and his innocence. He began high school during which he started his love affair with drinking and experimenting with drugs. College, the ever-present endorsement for drinking and recreational drugs, was comfortable and allowed William's drinking problem to flourish. Upon graduating, he began working as a newspaper reporter. During this time, several incidents occurred that demonstrated lack of control where drink and drugs were concerned. And several times William, unable to cope with life on life's terms, moved to a new city with a new job.

Finally, William hit bottom and ended up in a detox and mental hospital in New York City. His wife, father, and mother were bewildered when he shared the truth about his addiction. An alcohol and drug rehab in Minnesota called Hazelden was the next stop. It was in St. Paul that William was introduced to recovery and was taught the tools or `medication' that would help alleviate his disease - one day at a time. However, as evidenced by the progressive nature of this disease, if someone is not ready to get sober, they will not. William was able to resist sobriety until he was flat on his back in an Atlanta crack house several years later.

Until the younger Moyers was able to be rigorously honest about his disease and where the disease had taken him, he was unable to get and stay sober. Similarly, when he was not only honest about his disease, but also accepted it, he was able to step out of the shadows of his famous father, let go of the resentments, and walk with purpose.

Today, William is a husband, father, son, brother, and friend because he remembers that he is an alcoholic and addict. Without rigorous honesty in his life he is unable to be a husband, father, son, brother, and friend. Without rigorous honesty, he'll end up back into the shadows. And without rigorous honesty, William is unable to walk with purpose.

Moyer's memoir of addiction is compelling and gritty -- right up until the end, when it turns preachy. It's nice for Moyers that he was able to use religion to help him get clean and sober, but his narrative would have been far better if he had simply told the story and not tried to convert readers.

The purchase I made was everything listed when I bought it. It was in perfect conditon, and look forward to doing business with them in the future! Thank you!

Any compulsive should read William's journey to sobriety. I really believe it could help especially those who keep failing. Also a must read for family members and friends. Understanding how much they lie and hide is such an important part of their healing. William is so honest about what he did in those terrible years, it can't help but help others be honest. Midge

This is a very good book and highly recommended for family members and others dealing with addiction. Also good for addicts to read. Very informative and I have recommended it to many others. Good insight to what the addict goes through and the effects on family etc.

Blow is a classic smuggling tale and one of the first of this genre that I ever read. The book offers more insight than the movie. I recommend this book to anyone wanting a fast easy read.

Ive seen the movie and read the book about this story, and the book is much better. The movie isn't that bad and is played well by Johnny Depp, however, the book just goes into greater detail of which the movie doesn't and leaves some important things out. It is a good book and I highly recommend it. Other great works on cocaine cartels are Mark Bowden's "Killing Pablo" and Gus Gugliota and Jeff Lean's "Kings of Cocaine".

This book drags all the way through. I was hoping to hear more of the 'horrors' of the times in prison and the nastiness of the creeps that George Jung had to deal with (including himself) in the drug business. This book falls flat.

I loved the Movie, and finally read the book. The book is great! Better than the movie, partly because it's so much more in-depth. The characters are captivating (especially the star, George Jung), the story flows nicely. I learned so much about the cocaine business and what goes on in the underground world of cocaine dealing. George Jung was an incredibly risky guy. A strong-willed personality who decided he was going to make it happen. And he did just that!

If you enjoyed the movie, you will love the book!

If you want to understand George Jung this is the book to read. After you read this you'll have a new appreciation for how cleverly the movie was made. Sadly, the real George had some sexual habits discussed in the book that would of been better left unsaid, that don't add to the story and only tend make him sound bad. Never the less, it gives you a clear picture of how he was used as an example and given a much harsher sentence than was warrented. George Jung should be a free man today. He's more than payed his debt to society!!!!!

Even though I read the whole book, the main character's homosexuality did not interest me at all. I was hoping that it would be relevant to the story. I was thinking that Donald and his wife would try to use this feature of his character to achieve something through him for the US State Dept; but it turned out as far as I could determine that the American characters were not needed for the story. In other words, if there had been an aspect of intrigue in the story due to his homosexuality, I would have found it interesting and perhaps well written.

I just finished the book and in general enjoyed it. The setting of Argentina during the Falklands war was a unique setting for a gay themed novel. I thought the characters were well developed and they evolved in ways that I was not expecting. The basic tale held my interest and toward the end it caught me my surprise. But, I do have to say the ending was a bit of a disappointment and rather left me hanging in the middle of a very dramatic situation. Nonetheless it is in the upper 10 percent of gay novels that I have read and I think that is high praise. I think few will be disappointed.

The story of the night is a very interesting story set in Argentina post-Peron. There are many wonderful review on this site that will cover the plot and I encourage you to read them. To add to the already existing review I would like to discuss the way Toibin, the author, managed information regarding the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. Many are familiar with at least some aspect of the beginning of this epidemic in America and the frustrations and difficulties with the lack of available information. What is unique about this book is how the author treats the dissemination of this information to Argentina. The reader is placed in a position of understanding that information regarding AIDS in Argentina was scarce and treatment even less available. The author provides a looking glass from which we can view the beginning of the AIDS epidemic from a perspective other than our own. If this intrigues you at all, I encourage you to look at some further reviews of this novel.

Colm Toibin is one of my favorite Irish authors writing today. Among his books that I've read to date ("The South", "The Heather Blazing", "The Blackwater Lightship", "Mothers and Sons" and this one - I haven't read "The Master" yet), "The Story of the Night" is my favorite.

Set in Buenos Aires during the Falklands war and its aftermath, the novel tracks the development of Richard Garay, a gay schoolteacher, the son of an Argentine father and English mother. At the novel's opening, the generals are still in power, and Garay is closeted and emotionally stunted. Toibin, who covered the trial of General Gualtieri as a reporter, is extraordinarily effective in conveying the sense of menace that prevails, and the way people are forced to hold their emotions in check in order to survive.

The Falklands are lost, the generals lose their hold on power, and the story traces Richard's gradual emotional development in parallel with the opening of Argentine society. The aspect of Toibin's writing that I like best is his extraordinary emotional intelligence, which he deploys here to full effect, in a sensitive and moving account of Richard's story. Richard is a complex, and not entirely sympathetic, character, but Toibin draws us in to his story, and makes us care deeply about his fate.

An evocative and moving story, which I highly recommend.

The only other of Toibin's books that I have read was "The Master", which I thoroughly enjoyed. It is brilliantly subtle; my slight and confusing attraction to Henry James has, probably, more than something to do with my reaction. My thought was that such a profound writer should have a few more equally enjoyable books under his belt. I was, at least as concerns this work, horribly mistaken. I did try to like this book. I kept waiting for some depth or maybe some honest emotion. What I got was intolerably lackluster 1st person in short 7 word sentences that drove me /batty/, and a 'love' that is more based on lust than anything else. There is not one drop of feeling anywhere, and this includes the protagonist's reactions to his political situation since he doesn't actually /care/ at all. I skimmed to the end of the book to see if maybe I might be missing something worthwhile, but found nothing that would have made this book worth having bought in the 1st place.

This is a fascinating book on its own merits, but also because of the challenges it raises regarding its use. Is it a children's book about crack? Yes. Does it glorify or preach? No. Is it corny? No. Does it shock? On some levels. How would you present the issue of drugs to a child? This book attempts to give that answer and it does so admirably.

I'd be hard pressed to recommend it for school usage, but not because I think it's inapproriate but because most schools would (unfortunately). It delivers a message and it does it without turning off its audience.

I would recommend heavily for family and public libraries. I would recommend it to schools if I thought they wouldn't get uptight about acknowledging that their students already know what crack is.

I have the book, The House That Crack Built. I have not used it with my elementary students. But I would if I felt the situation was right and I would get approval from my school counselor first. I can definitely see how students need to understand the ravages drug abuse can cause on families and society at an early age.
I lean towards younger education. Literature is so powerful and reading helps a child realize they are not alone. I think that if we are cautious and careful with the themes in the books we choose we can still use the written work to do one of the things it was written for: to help others with difficult situations.

This book should certainly not be in the Children's Book section. Children have their entire adolescent and adult lives to learn of the perils of crack-cocaine, and should not be subjected to such material before bedtime. Ridiculous.

The book does what it intended. It makes you think and stimulates conversation.

I use this book as part of a unit on drugs, alcohol, and tobacco for my 6th grade health class. I teach in a suburban school, Grades K-6 where 6th grade students are building on the what they learned in 4th and 5th grade on the topic.
The House That Crack Built provokes student into serious discussion of illegal drug trade, sale, and use. Through these discussions students look at the various people in the book and how the production, distribution and use of crack may affect each of the characters differently. The man who lives in the house, needs round the clock protection from police and predators. He may be wealthy and have control over the town but he must live in isolation and fear. The farmers who would rather grow plants for the people to eat work in the man's fields because of their own desperate circumstances are being forced to grow illegal crops for their own survival. The people in the ghetto have struggled against the illegal drug production and trade as well as the control of the man in the house only to succumb to the crack in an effort to ease the pain they live with on a daily basis.

Perhaps their neighborhood wasn't always a ghetto until the drug trade and the man took hold and threatened the people who objected to it.

Did the girl have any real choices in her town? Did the people who were able to, abandon the town rather than fight the man in the house and help the girl? What about the baby?

I don't see this as a book about "the Ghetto" but rather as a book about society. Rich over poor. Options vs desperation. Choice and consequence. Supportive social policies vs no social policy.

It shows what can happen when people turn a blind eye to what begins as something small yet powerful. It shows the inequities that exist, not only in third world countries and in the ghetto but globally. I would recommend this to anyone! It is well written, dramatically illustrated and very thought provoking!

The Scientific Method has alluded the author. Without it, the "Gracer Method" is no different than snake oil.

This book is very informative and forward thinking. It goes beyond the 12 Step Program which is not effective for most people. Once you read the book, I suggest you contact Dr Gracer in San Ramon for a personal interview. Prometa has been a gift to our family.

This is an excellent book with facts on addiction and drugs that cause addiction. I would recommend this book to anyone that knows or has an addiction to drugs or alcohol.

This book seems more like an info-mercial for a licensed drug protocol than a researched-based factual presentation.

Dr. Gracer clearly explains how addiction happens and why it is a medical condition that REQUIRES medical treament. Written in laymen's terms, it is easy reading and the diagrams and analogies are a great help! If you know someone suffering from addiction, the best way to help might BEGIN with reading this book and SHARING it with that person, as well as family members, friends, and physicians.

although is isnt as good as "the cocaine kids", williams has managed to put a very realistic face on the crack problem killing america. my only real complaint with the book is that it dosent go into the lives of the books subjects enough... it seems more like a short over-view instead of being intensly focused. i did enjoy the read and i will probably re read it again in the future.

Terry Williams does a very good job in introducing the reader to this little known and forgotten subset of our society. The story focuses on his experiences and observations of a small group of crack and free-base cocaine users. His prose is devoid of moral undertones and is non-judgemental allowing the reading to form his own opinions and motivations.

Crackhouse: Notes from the End of the Line does not sensationalize or exploit the travails of these people in this lifestyle. This book does not shock anywhere near as much as it educates. Mr. Williams does not sugar coat anything, but he refrains from overstating the obvious.

Mr. Williams has also included a nice glossary of terms at the end of the book concerning the crackhouse vernacular.

I wish the book could have detailed the lives of the inhabitants outside of the actual crackhouse or smoking room with more detail. How were these people contributing to society when they weren't "seeing Scotty" (a phrase that Williams' group would sometimes use when getting high)? Perhaps, this was not the focus that Williams was aiming for.

In any case, I strongly recommend this book for anybody with an interest in the ethnology of crack cocaine users. I found the book educational. I look forward to reading more about this subject in the future.

This book is pretty much what its title says it is: a book about people in a crackhouse. It's incredibly sad at times, and the characters are depicted in good detail, but the author's dedicated quest to make this book something for everyone and not just for anthropologists sometimes backfires, and the story comes across as oversimplified and dumbed down.
I would have liked more about the author's experiences spending time in this crackhouse, and about what sort of moral stance he had to take when he found himself in rooms with young girls trading oral sex for drugs, and that sort of thing. The author's effort to minimize his own presence in the book just makes his character more mysterious, and made me wonder about him: did he try crack? Was he ever tempted by these promiscuous young girls? He raises a lot of questions--and not just about himself--but he gives a lot fewer answers, and doesn't leave the reader with much hope at all for any of the book's human subjects.
Maybe that's about right, though.

If you've ever wondered what really goes on in a crackhouse, or what kind of people inhabit such a place-this is the book for you. I very much enjoyed Terry Williams writing style-simple and straightforward, not preachy or judgemental. I enjoyed this book so much I ordered his other book-Cocaine Kids. This is an excellent read, although it's pretty gritty. I was surprised to see it in the "Youth" section.

This is a great book if you are looking for a very general background as to what American authorities deem to be money laundering. The book has some interesting recounts of some of the methods deployed by former narcotic syndicates and how they attempted to launder their many millions of illict proceeds. (Beware; most of the examples of former schemes deployed (ie the Andonian Brothers-La Mina) are well dated, pre-FINCEN and internet self-banking). In sum, the book discusses everything from a broad overview of the bank secrecy act, other revelant U.S.C. statutory provisions with respect to money laundering, specific form documents (ie CTRs,), and the use of foreign exchanges(legal and black market) to launder illict narco proceeds. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the money laundering aspect of the illict drug business. However, if its current money laundering issues and techniques you seek, you maybe a little disappointed.

Obviously the other fellow who "reviewed" this book did not read it. Rather, he used this forum to rant like an angry child about Michael Savage(Michael Weiner). Regardless of what you think of Savage's current politics, one cannot help but give him some credit for offering a thoughtful and natural route to recovering from cocaine addiction. This book is not a sure-fire way for every addict to kick a blow habit, but it just might work for you, and will definately cost alot less than rehab!!! Check it out if this issue pertains to your life, and never forget that regardless of Savage's politics he is a PhD and a prolific scientist. Please leave your pathetic leftist rhetoric out of discussions involving Weiner's non-political writings!!! If you hate him so much, call his talk show "The Savage Nation" and tell him!!!