100 Best Addiction Books of All Time

We've ranked the best addiction books using expert recommendations, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction book cover1

Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction

David Sheff

5.0
What had happened to my beautiful boy? To our family? What did I do wrong? Those are the wrenching questions that haunted every moment of David Sheff’s journey through his son Nic’s addiction to drugs and tentative steps toward recovery. Before Nic Sheff became addicted to crystal meth, he was a charming boy, joyous and funny, a varsity athlete and honor student adored by his two younger siblings.
A Million Little Pieces book cover2

A Million Little Pieces

James Frey

4.9
Intense, unpredictable, and instantly engaging, A Million Little Pieces is a story of drug and alcohol abuse and rehabilitation as it has never been told before. Recounted in visceral, kinetic prose, and crafted with a forthrightness that rejects piety, cynicism, and self-pity, it brings us face-to-face with a provocative new understanding of the nature of addiction and the meaning of recovery.

By
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction book cover3

In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction

Gabor Maté

4.8
Based on Gabor Maté’s two decades of experience as a medical doctor and his groundbreaking work with the severely addicted on Vancouver’s skid row, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts radically reenvisions this much misunderstood field by taking a holistic approach. Dr. Maté presents addiction not as a discrete phenomenon confined to an unfortunate or weak-willed few, but as a continuum that runs throug
Crank (Crank, #1) book cover4

Crank (Crank, #1)

Ellen Hopkins

4.8
In Crank, Ellen Hopkins chronicles the turbulent and often disturbing relationship between Kristina, a character based on her own daughter, and the "monster," the highly addictive drug crystal meth, or "crank." Kristina is introduced to the drug while visiting her largely absent and ne'er-do-well father. While under the influence of the monster, Kristina discovers her sexy alter-ego, Bree: "there
Go Ask Alice book cover5

Go Ask Alice

Anonymous

4.8
It started when she was served a soft drink laced with LSD in a dangerous party game. Within months, she was hooked, trapped in a downward spiral that took her from her comfortable home and loving family to the mean streets of an unforgiving city. It was a journey that would rob her of her innocence, her youth -- and ultimately her life.

Read her diary.

Enter her world.

You will never forget her.


The Glass Castle book cover6

The Glass Castle

Jeannette Walls

4.7
A tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that, despite its profound flaws, gave the author the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Sout
Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines book cover7

Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines

Nic Sheff

4.7
Nic Sheff was drunk for the first time at age eleven. In the years that followed, he would regularly smoke pot, do cocaine and Ecstasy, and develop addictions to crystal meth and heroin. Even so, he felt like he would always be able to quit and put his life together whenever he needed to. It took a violent relapse one summer in California to convince him otherwise. In a voice that is raw and hones
Dry book cover8

Dry

Augusten Burroughs

4.7
You may not know it, but you've met Augusten Burroughs. You've seen him on the street, in bars, on the subway, at restaurants: a twenty-something guy, nice suit, works in advertising. Regular. Ordinary. But when the ordinary person had two drinks, Augusten was circling the drain by having twelve; when the ordinary person went home at midnight, Augusten never went home at all. Loud, distracting tie
Hey, Kiddo book cover9

Hey, Kiddo

Jarrett J. Krosoczka

4.7
A National Book Award Finalist!
In kindergarten, Jarrett Krosoczka's teacher asks him to draw his family, with a mommy and a daddy. But Jarrett's family is much more complicated than that. His mom is an addict, in and out of rehab, and in and out of Jarrett's life. His father is a mystery -- Jarrett doesn't know where to find him, or even what his name is. Jarrett lives with his grandparents -- tw
Alcoholics Anonymous book cover10

Alcoholics Anonymous

AAWS

4.7
It's more than a book. It's a way of life.

Alcoholics Anonymous-The Big Book-has served as a lifeline to millions worldwide. First published in 1939, Alcoholics Anonymous sets forth cornerstone concepts of recovery from alcoholism and tells the stories of men and women who have overcome the disease. With publication of the second edition in 1955, the third edition in 1976, and now the fourth editi

Daisy Jones & The Six book cover11

Daisy Jones & The Six

Taylor Jenkins Reid

4.6
Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six: The band's album Aurora came to define the rock 'n' roll era of the late seventies, and an entire generation of girls wanted to grow up to be Daisy. But no one knows the reason behind the group's split on the night of their final concert at Chicago Stadium on July 12, 1979 . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis book cover12

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

J. D. Vance

4.6
From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class

Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegratin
Glass (Crank, #2) book cover13

Glass (Crank, #2)

Ellen Hopkins

4.6
Crank. Glass. Ice. Crystal. Whatever you call it, it's all the same: a monster. And once it's got hold of you, this monster will never let you go.

Kristina thinks she can control it. Now with a baby to care for, she's determined to be the one deciding when and how much, the one calling the shots. But the monster is too strong, and before she knows it, Kristina is back in its grips. She needs the

Drinking: A Love Story book cover14

Drinking: A Love Story

Caroline Knapp

4.6
The roots of alcoholism in the life of a brilliant daughter of an upper-class family are explored in this stylistic, literary memoir of drinking by a Massachusetts journalist.

Caroline Knapp describes how the distorted world of her well-to-do parents pushed her toward anorexia and alcoholism. Fittingly, it was literature that saved her: she found inspiration in Pete Hamill's 'A Drinking Life' and
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America book cover15

Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America

Beth Macy

4.5
Beth Macy takes us into the epicenter of America's twenty-plus year struggle with opioid addiction. From distressed small communities in Central Appalachia to wealthy suburbs; from disparate cities to once-idyllic farm towns; it's a heartbreaking trajectory that illustrates how this national crisis has persisted for so long and become so firmly entrenched.

Beginning with a single dealer who lands
The Girl on the Train book cover16

The Girl on the Train

Paula Hawkins

4.5
An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy. And t
Recovery: Freedom from Our Addictions book cover17

Recovery: Freedom from Our Addictions

Russell Brand

4.5
This program is read by the author.

A guide to all kinds of addiction from a star who has struggled with heroin, alcohol, sex, fame, food, and eBay, that will help addicts and their loved ones make the first steps into recovery.

"This manual for self-realization comes not from a mountain but from the mud.... My qualification is not that I am better than you but I am worse." (Russell Brand)

With a rar
Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget book cover18

Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget

Sarah Hepola

4.5
Alcohol was "the gasoline of all adventure" for Sarah Hepola. She spent her evenings at cocktail parties and dark bars where she proudly stayed till last call. Drinking felt like freedom, part of her birthright as a strong, enlightened twenty-first-century woman.

But there was a price. She often blacked out, waking up with a blank space where four hours should have been. Mornings became detective
High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life book cover19

High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life

Tiffany Jenkins

4.5
A few years ago, Tiffany Jenkins was detoxing behind bars at a Florida prison, incarcerated on 20 felony charges. Now, she's clean and sober, a married mother of three. As she found her way in her new life, she started sharing on social media as an outlet for her depression and anxiety. She struck a chord, several of her videos went viral (one with 46million views), and in the past year her follow
Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs book cover20

Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs

Johann Hari

4.5
New York Times Bestseller

It is now one hundred years since drugs were first banned in the United States. On the eve of this centenary, journalist Johann Hari set off on an epic three-year, thirty-thousand-mile journey into the war on drugs. What he found is that more and more people all over the world have begun to recognize three startling truths: Drugs are not what we think they are. Addiction i
The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star book cover21

The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star

Nikki Sixx

4.4
In one of the most unique memoirs of addiction ever published, Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx shares mesmerizing diary entries from the year he spiraled out of control in a haze of heroin and cocaine, presented alongside riveting commentary from people who were there at the time, and from Nikki himself. When Mötley Crüe was at the height of its fame, there wasn't any drug Nikki Sixx wouldn't do. He spen
Fallout (Crank, #3) book cover22

Fallout (Crank, #3)

Ellen Hopkins

4.4
Hunter. Autumn. Summer.
Different homes. Different guardians. Different last names.
Different lives.
But there is one person who binds them together.
Kristina.


Nineteen years after Kristina Snow met the monster---crank---her children are reeling from the consequences of her decisions. Instead of one big, happy family, they are a desperate tangle of scattered lives united by anger, doubt, and fear.

A pre
Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic book cover23

Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic

Sam Quinones

4.4
In fascinating detail, Sam Quinones chronicles how, over the past 15 years, enterprising sugar cane farmers in a small county on the west coast of Mexico created a unique distribution system that brought black tar heroin—the cheapest, most addictive form of the opiate, 2 to 3 times purer than its white powder cousin—to the veins of people across the United States. Communities where heroin had neve
Requiem for a Dream book cover24

Requiem for a Dream

Hubert Selby Jr.

4.4
In Coney Island, Brooklyn, Sarah Goldfarb, a lonely widow, wants nothing more than to lose weight and appear on a television game show. She becomes addicted to diet pills in her obsessive quest, while her junkie son, Harry, along with his girlfriend, Marion, and his best friend, Tyrone, have devised an illicit shortcut to wealth and leisure by scoring a pound of uncut heroin. Entranced by the glea
Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction book cover25

Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction

Maia Szalavitz

4.4
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

More people than ever before see themselves as addicted to, or recovering from, addiction, whether it be alcohol or drugs, prescription meds, sex, gambling, porn, or the internet. But despite the unprecedented attention, our understanding of addiction is trapped in unfounded 20th century ideas, addiction as a crime or as brain disease, and in equally outdated treatment.

C
Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself book cover26

Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself

Melody Beattie

4.4
The healing touchstone of millions, this modern classic by one of America's best-loved and most inspirational authors holds the key to understanding codependency and to unlocking its stultifying hold on your life.

Is someone else's problem your problem? If, like so many others, you've lost sight of your own life in the drama of tending to someone else's, you may be codependent--and you may find you
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian book cover27

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Sherman Alexie

4.4
Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation, with a foreword from Jaqueline Woodson.
Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully writt
Wishful Drinking book cover28

Wishful Drinking

Carrie Fisher

4.4
In Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher tells the true and intoxicating story of her life with inimitable wit. Born to celebrity parents, she was picked to play a princess in a little movie called Star Wars when only 19 years old. "But it isn't all sweetness and light sabres." Alas, aside from a demanding career and her role as a single mother (not to mention the hyperspace hairdo), Carrie also spends
Tricks (Tricks, #1) book cover29

Tricks (Tricks, #1)

Ellen Hopkins

4.3
Five teenagers from different parts of the country. Three girls. Two guys. Four straight. One gay. Some rich. Some poor. Some from great families. Some with no one at all. All living their lives as best they can, but all searching ... for freedom, safety, community, family, love. What they don't expect, though, is all that can happen when those powerful little words "I love you" are said for all t
Heroine book cover30

Heroine

Mindy McGinnis

4.3
An Amazon Best Book of the Month! A captivating and powerful exploration of the opioid crisis—the deadliest drug epidemic in American history—through the eyes of a college-bound softball star. Edgar Award-winning author Mindy McGinnis delivers a visceral and necessary novel about addiction, family, friendship, and hope.

When a car crash sidelines Mickey just before softball season, she has to find
Lit book cover31

Lit

Mary Karr

4.3
The New York Times bestseller, now available in paperback—Mary Karr’s sequel to the beloved and bestselling The Liars’ Club and Cherry “lassos you, hogties your emotions and won’t let you go” (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times).

Mary Karr’s bestselling, unforgettable sequel to her beloved memoirs The Liars’ Club and Cherry—and one of the most critically acclaimed books of the year—Lit is about getti
Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood book cover32

Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood

Koren Zailckas

4.3
Garnering a vast amount of attention from young people and parents, and from book buyers across the country, Smashed became a media sensation and a New York Times bestseller. Eye-opening and utterly gripping, Koren Zailckas’s story is that of thousands of girls like her who are not alcoholics yet but who routinely use booze as a shortcut to courage and a stand-in for good judgment.

With one stiff s
Junky book cover33

Junky

William S. Burroughs, Oliver Harris, Allen Ginsberg

4.3
Before his 1959 breakthrough, Naked Lunch, an unknown William S. Burroughs wrote Junky, his first novel. It is a candid eye-witness account of times and places that are now long gone, an unvarnished field report from the American post-war underground. Unafraid to portray himself in 1953 as a confirmed member of two socially-despised under classes (a narcotics addict and a homosexual), Burroughs wa
Jesus' Son: Stories book cover34

Jesus' Son: Stories

Denis Johnson

4.3
The unnamed narrator in Jesus' Son lives through a car wreck and a heroin overdose. Is he blessed? He cheats, lies, steals--but possesses a child's (or a mystic's) uncanny way of expressing the bare essence of things around him. In its own strange and luminous way, this linked collection of short fiction does the same. The stories follow characters who are seemingly marginalized beyond hope, drift
Addicted to You (Addicted, #1) book cover35

Addicted to You (Addicted, #1)

Nikki May

4.3
She’s addicted to sex. He’s addicted to booze…the only way out is rock bottom.

No one would suspect shy Lily Calloway’s biggest secret. While everyone is dancing at college bars, Lily stays in the bathroom. To get laid. Her compulsion leads her to one-night stands, steamy hookups and events she shamefully regrets. The only person who knows her secret happens to have one of his own.

Loren Hale’s best
Identical book cover36

Identical

Ellen Hopkins

4.3
Do twins begin in the womb?
Or in a better place?

Kaeleigh and Raeanne are identical down to the dimple. As daughters of a district-court judge father and a politician mother, they are an all-American family—on the surface. Behind the facade each sister has her own dark secret, and that's where their differences begin.

For Kaeleigh, she's the misplaced focus of Daddy's love, intended for a mother who
Choke book cover37

Choke

Chuck Palahniuk

4.3
Victor Mancini, a medical-school dropout, is an antihero for our deranged times. Needing to pay elder care for his mother, Victor has devised an ingenious scam: he pretends to choke on pieces of food while dining in upscale restaurants. He then allows himself to be “saved” by fellow patrons who, feeling responsible for Victor’s life, go on to send checks to support him. When he’s not pulling this
The Seventh Wish book cover38

The Seventh Wish

Kate Messner

4.3
Charlie feels like she's always coming in last. From her Mom's new job to her sister's life at college, everything seems more important than Charlie. Then one day while ice fishing, Charlie makes a discovery that will change everything . . . in the form of a floppy fish offering to grant a wish in exchange for freedom. Charlie can't believe her luck but soon realizes that this fish has a very odd
Addicted for Now (Addicted, #2) book cover39

Addicted for Now (Addicted, #2)

Krista Ritchie and Becca Ritchi

4.3
He's addicted to booze. She's addicted to sex... staying sober is only half the battle.

No. More. Sex.

Those are the three words Lily Calloway fears the most. But Loren Hale is determined to be with Lily without enabling her dangerous compulsions. With their new living situation—sleeping in the same bed, for real, together—Lily has new battles. Like not jumping Lo’s bones every night. Not being con
Infinite Jest book cover40

Infinite Jest

David Foster Wallace

4.2
Infinite Jest is the name of a movie said to be so entertaining that anyone who watches it loses all desire to do anything but watch. People die happily, viewing it in endless repetition. The novel Infinite Jest is the story of this addictive entertainment, and in particular how it affects a Boston halfway house for recovering addicts and a nearby tennis academy, whose students have many budding a
Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction book cover41

Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction

Judith Grisel

4.2
From a renowned behavioral neuroscientist and recovered drug addict, an authoritative and accessible guide to understanding drug addiction: clearly explained brain science and vivid personal stories reveal how addiction happens, show why specific drugs--from opioids to alcohol to coke and more--are so hard to kick, and illuminate the path to recovery for addicts, loved ones, caregivers, and crafte
Sunny Side Up (Sunny, #1) book cover42

Sunny Side Up (Sunny, #1)

Jennifer L. Holm, Matthew Holm

4.2
Sunny Lewin has been packed off to Florida to live with her grandfather for the summer. At first she thought Florida might be fun -- it is the home of Disney World, after all. But the place where Gramps lives is no amusement park. It's full of . . . old people. Really old people.

Luckily, Sunny isn't the only kid around. She meets Buzz, a boy who is completely obsessed with comic books, and soon th
Lead (Stage Dive, #3) book cover43

Lead (Stage Dive, #3)

Kylie Scott

4.2
Stay up all night with the sexy rockers in Stage Dive, the epic New Adult series from New York Times bestselling author Kylie Scott, author of Lick and Play.

As the lead singer of Stage Dive, Jimmy is used to getting whatever he wants, whenever he wants it, whether it's booze, drugs, or women. However, when a PR disaster serves as a wake-up call about his life and lands him in rehab, he finds himse
The Goldfinch book cover44

The Goldfinch

Donna Tartt

4.2
A young New Yorker grieving his mother's death is pulled into a gritty underworld of art and wealth in this "extraordinary" and beloved Pulitzer Prize winner that "connects with the heart as well as the mind" (Stephen King, New York Times Book Review).

Theo Decker, a 13-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the fam
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail book cover45

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Cheryl Strayed

4.2
An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here.

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas book cover46

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Hunter S. Thompson

4.2
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken.
Impulse (Impulse, #1) book cover47

Impulse (Impulse, #1)

Ellen Hopkins

4.2
Sometimes you don't wake up. But if you happen to, you know things will never be the same.

Three lives, three different paths to the same destination: Aspen Springs, a psychiatric hospital for those who have attempted the ultimate act—suicide.

Vanessa is beautiful and smart, but her secrets keep her answering the call of the blade.

Tony, after suffering a painful childhood, can only find peace throug
The Shining book cover48

The Shining

Stephen King

4.2
Jack Torrance's new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he'll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote...and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible force
Addicted After All (Addicted, #3) book cover49

Addicted After All (Addicted, #3)

Krista Ritchie and Becca Ritchi

4.2
Two addicts. One epic love story.

Prepare for the worst.

That’s what Lily and Lo try to do when Jonathan Hale schedules an “important” meeting. The problem: after being swept into the public eye and battling their addictions, they’re not sure what the worst is anymore.

In a sea of many changes—including Ryke & Daisy living with them—Lily realizes that the best part of her fluctuating hormones might
The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath book cover50

The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath

Leslie Jamison

4.2
By the New York Times bestselling author of The Empathy Exams, an exploration of addiction, and the stories we tell about it, that reinvents the traditional recovery memoir.

With its deeply personal and seamless blend of memoir, cultural history, literary criticism, and journalistic reportage, The Recovering turns our understanding of the traditional addiction narrative on its head, demonstrating t
Trainspotting book cover51

Trainspotting

Irvine Welsh

4.2
The bestselling novel by Irvine Welsh that provided the inspiration for Danny Boyle’s hit film Choose us. Choose life. Choose mortgage payments; choose washing machines; choose cars; choose sitting oan a couch watching mind-numbing and spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fuckin junk food intae yir mooth. Choose rotting away, pishing and shiteing yersel in a home, a total fuckin embarrassment tae
Midnight Blue book cover52

Midnight Blue

L.J. Shen

4.2
It should have been easy.
I needed the money. He needed a babysitter to keep him from snorting himself to death.
I was cherry-picked especially for him. Responsible. Optimistic. Warm. Innocent.
The worst part is that I should have known better.
Alex Winslow. British rock star. Serial heartbreaker. Casanova with whiskey eyes.
“Don’t get near the devil in a leather jacket. He’ll chew you up and spit you
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions book cover53

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Anonymous

4.2
Alternate-cover edition for ISBN 0916856011 / 9780916856014 can be found here

Originally published in 1952, this classic book is used by A.A. members and groups around the world. Bill W.'s 24 essays on the Steps and the Traditions discuss the principles by which A.A. members recover and by which the fellowship functions. The basic text clarifies the Steps which constitute the A.A. way of life and t
My Friend Leonard book cover54

My Friend Leonard

James Frey

4.2
The New York Times bestselling follow-up to the #1 New York Times bestseller A Million Little Pieces-the heartrending story of a friendship between a newly-sober James and the charismatic, high-living mobster he met in rehab, Leonard.

A Million Little Pieces was the first Oprah Book Club pick by a living author in over two years. It instantly became a #1 New York Times bestseller, a #1 USA Today b
Ricochet (Addicted, #1.5) book cover55

Ricochet (Addicted, #1.5)

Krista Ritchie and Becca Ritchi

4.2
As a sex addict, Lily Calloway must do the impossible. Stay celibate for 90 days.

Cravings and fantasies become her new routine, but while Loren Hale recovers from his alcohol addiction, Lily wonders if he’ll realize what a monster she really is. After all, her sexual compulsions begin to rule her life the longer she stays faithful to him.

Progress. That’s what Lily’s striving for. But by trying t
Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man: A Memoir book cover56

Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man: A Memoir

Bill Clegg

4.2
Bill Clegg had a thriving business as a literary agent, a supportive partner, trusting colleagues, and loving friends when he walked away from his world and embarked on a two-month crack binge. He had been released from rehab nine months earlier, and his relapse would cost him his home, his money, his career, and very nearly his life.

What is it that leads an exceptional young mind want to disappea
Last Night I Sang to the Monster book cover57

Last Night I Sang to the Monster

Benjamin Alire Sáenz

4.2
Zach is eighteen. He is bright and articulate. He's also an alcoholic and in rehab instead of high school, but he doesn't remember how he got there. He's not sure he wants to remember. Something bad must have happened. Something really, really bad. Remembering sucks and being alive - well, what's up with that?

I have it in my head that when we're born, God writes things down on our hearts. See, on
A Scanner Darkly book cover58

A Scanner Darkly

Philip K. Dick

4.2
Substance D is not known as Death for nothing. It is the most toxic drug ever to find its way on to the streets of LA. It destroys the links between the brain's two hemispheres, causing, first, disorientation and then complete and irreversible brain damage.

The undercover narcotics agent who calls himself Bob Arctor is desperate to discover the ultimate source of supply. But to find any kind of lea
The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction Is Not a Disease book cover59

The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction Is Not a Disease

Marc Lewis

4.2
Through the vivid, true stories of five people who journeyed into and out of addiction, a renowned neuroscientist explains why the "disease model" of addiction is wrong and illuminates the path to recovery.The psychiatric establishment and rehab industry in the Western world have branded addiction a brain disease. But in The Biology of Desire, cognitive neuroscientist and former addict Marc Lewis
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City book cover60

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

Matthew Desmond

4.2
In Evicted, Princeton sociologist and MacArthur "Genius" Matthew Desmond follows eight families in Milwaukee as they struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Evicted transforms our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving one of 21st-century America's most devastating problems. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality
Sharp Objects book cover61

Sharp Objects

Gillian Flynn

4.2
Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her fa
Everything is Horrible and Wonderful: A Tragicomic Memoir of Genius, Heroin, Love and Loss book cover62

Everything is Horrible and Wonderful: A Tragicomic Memoir of Genius, Heroin, Love and Loss

Stephanie Wittels Wachs, Aziz Ansari

4.2
The space between life and death is a moment.
But it will remain alive in me for hundreds of thousands of future moments.

One phone call. That's all it took to change Stephanie Wittels Wachs' life forever..

Her younger brother Harris, a star in the comedy world known for his work on shows like Parks and Recreation, had died of a heroin overdose. How do you make sense of such a tragic end to a life of
More, Now, Again: A Memoir of Addiction book cover63

More, Now, Again: A Memoir of Addiction

Elizabeth Wurtzel

4.2
Elizabeth Wurtzel published her memoir of depression, Prozac Nation, to astonishing literary acclaim. A cultural phenomenon by age twenty-six, she had fame, money, respecteverything she had always wanted except that one, true thing: happiness.
For all of her professional success, Wurtzel felt like a failure. She had lost friends and lovers, every magazine job she'd held, and way too much weight.
A Piece of Cake book cover64

A Piece of Cake

Cupcake Brown

4.2
This is the heart-wrenching true story of a girl named Cupcake and it begins when, aged eleven, she is orphaned and placed in the 'care' of sadistic foster parents. But there comes a point in her preteen years - maybe it's the night she first tries to run away and is exposed to drugs, alcohol, and sex all at once - when Cupcake's story shifts from a tear-jerking tragedy to a dark, deeply disturbin
Long Bright River book cover65

Long Bright River

Liz Moore

4.2
Two sisters travel the same streets, though their lives couldn't be more different. Then, one of them goes missing.

In a Philadelphia neighborhood rocked by the opioid crisis, two once-inseparable sisters find themselves at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets in the vise of addiction. The other, Mickey, walks those same blocks on her police beat. They don't speak anymore, but Mickey never stops
The Night of the Gun: A reporter investigates the darkest story of his life. His own. book cover66

The Night of the Gun: A reporter investigates the darkest story of his life. His own.

David Carr

4.1
From David Carr (1956–2015), the “undeniably brilliant and dogged journalist” (Entertainment Weekly) and author of the instant New York Times bestseller that the Chicago Sun-Times called “a compelling tale of drug abuse, despair, and, finally, hope.”

Do we remember only the stories we can live with? The ones that make us look good in the rearview mirror? In The Night of the Gun, David Carr redefine
The Woman in the Window book cover67

The Woman in the Window

A. J Finn

4.1
For readers of Gillian Flynn and Tana French comes one of the decade's most anticipated debuts, to be published in thirty-five languages around the world and already in development as a major film from Fox: a twisty, powerful Hitchcockian thriller about an agoraphobic woman who believes she witnessed a crime in a neighboring house. It isn't paranoia if it's really happening . . .

Anna Fox lives a
All Fall Down book cover68

All Fall Down

Jennifer Weiner

4.1
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner

Allison Weiss got her happy ending—a handsome husband, adorable daughter, a job she loves, and the big house in the suburbs. But while waiting in the pediatrician’s office, she opens a magazine to a quiz about addiction and starts to wonder…Is a Percocet at the end of the day really different from a glass of wine? Is it such a bad thing to p
Smack book cover69

Smack

Melvin Burgess

4.1
Two teens fall in love with each other and heroin. Tar has reasons for running away from home that run deep and sour, whereas Gemma, with her middle-class roots firmly on show, has a deep-rooted lust for adventure. Their first hit brings bliss, the next despair.
Scar Tissue book cover70

Scar Tissue

Anthony Kiedis

4.1
Now in paperback, the New York Times bestseller by one of rock's most provocative figures Scar Tissue is Anthony Kiedis's searingly honest memoir of a life spent in the fast lane.

In 1983, four self-described "knuckleheads" burst out of the mosh-pitted mosaic of the neo-punk rock scene in L.A. with their own unique brand of cosmic hardcore mayhem funk. Over twenty years later, the Red Hot Chili Pe
Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending America's Greatest Tragedy book cover71

Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending America's Greatest Tragedy

David Sheff

4.1
A myth-shattering look at drug abuse and addiction treatment, based on cutting-edge research
Addiction is a preventable, treatable disease, not a moral failing. As with other illnesses, the approaches most likely to work are based on science — not on faith, tradition, contrition, or wishful thinking. These facts are the foundation of Clean. The existing addiction treatments, including Twelve Step p
Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard book cover72

Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard

Liz Murray

4.1
In the vein of The Glass Castle, Breaking Night is the stunning memoir of a young woman who at age fifteen was living on the streets, and who eventually made it into Harvard.

Liz Murray was born to loving but drug-addicted parents in the Bronx. In school she was taunted for her dirty clothing and lice-infested hair, eventually skipping so many classes that she was put into a girls' home. At age fi
A Little Life book cover73

A Little Life

Hanya Yanagihara

4.1
When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude,
Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption book cover74

Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption

William Cope Moyers and Katherine Ketcham

4.1
Candid, shocking, and unforgettable, Broken is a haunting and clear-eyed tale that offers hope for all those wrestling with addiction

Unlike some popular memoirs that have fictionalized and romanticized the degradations of drug addiction, Broken is a true-life tale of recovery that stuns and inspires with virtually every page. The eldest son of journalist Bill Moyers, William Cope Moyers relates wi
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine book cover75

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

Gail Honeyman

4.1
No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding unnecessary human contact, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond,
Far From You book cover76

Far From You

Tess Sharpe

4.1
Nine months. Two weeks. Six days.

That's how long recovering addict Sophie's been drug-free. Four months ago her best friend, Mina, died in what everyone believes was a drug deal gone wrong - a deal they think Sophie set up. Only Sophie knows the truth. She and Mina shared a secret, but there was no drug deal. Mina was deliberately murdered.

Forced into rehab for an addiction she'd already beaten, S
We All Fall Down: Living with Addiction book cover77

We All Fall Down: Living with Addiction

Nic Sheff

4.1
In his follow-up to his bestselling memoir Tweak: Growing Up On Methamphetamines, Nic Sheff reveals a brutally honest account of a young person's struggles with relapse and rehab.

In his bestselling memoir Tweak, Nic Sheff took readers on an emotionally gripping roller-coaster ride through his days as an addict. In this powerful follow-up about his continued efforts to stay clean, Nic writes candi
How to Murder Your Life book cover78

How to Murder Your Life

Cat Marnell

4.1
At the age of 15, Cat Marnell unknowingly set out to murder her life. After a privileged yet emotionally-starved childhood in Washington, she became hooked on ADHD medication provided by her psychiatrist father. This led to a dependence on Xanax and other prescription drugs at boarding school, and she experimented with cocaine, ecstasy… whatever came her way. By 26 she was a talented ‘doctor shopp
How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence book cover79

How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence

Michael Pollan

4.1
Could psychedelic drugs change our worldview? One of America's most admired writers takes us on a mind-altering journey to the frontiers of human consciousness

When LSD was first discovered in the 1940s, it seemed to researchers, scientists and doctors as if the world might be on the cusp of psychological revolution. It promised to shed light on the deep mysteries of consciousness, as well as offer
Clean book cover80

Clean

Amy Reed

4.1
You’re probably wondering how I ended up here. I’m still wondering the same thing.

Olivia, Kelly, Christopher, Jason, and Eva have one thing in common: They’re addicts. Addicts who have hit rock bottom and been stuck together in rehab to face their problems, face sobriety, and face themselves. None of them wants to be there. None of them wants to confront the truths about their pasts. And they cert
Valley of the Dolls book cover81

Valley of the Dolls

Jacqueline Susann

4.1
Dolls: red or black; capsules or tablets; washed down with vodka or swallowed straight-for Anne, Neely, and Jennifer, it doesn't matter, as long as the pill bottle is within easy reach. These three women become best friends when they are young and struggling in New York City and then climb to the top of the entertainment industry-only to find that there is no place left to go but down-into the Val
This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol, Find Freedom, Discover Happiness & Change Your Life book cover82

This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol, Find Freedom, Discover Happiness & Change Your Life

Annie Grace

4.1
This Naked Mind has ignited a movement across the country, helping thousands of people forever change their relationship with alcohol.

Many people question whether drinking has become too big a part of their lives, and worry that it may even be affecting their health. But, they resist change because they fear losing the pleasure and stress-relief associated with alcohol, and assume giving it up wil
The Liars' Club book cover83

The Liars' Club

Mary Karr

4.0
When it was published in 1995, Mary Karr's The Liars Club took the world by storm and raised the art of the memoir to an entirely new level, as well as bringing about a dramatic revival of the form. Karr's comic childhood in an east Texas oil town brings us characters as darkly hilarious as any of J. D. Salinger's—a hard-drinking daddy, a sister who can talk down the sheriff at twelve, and an oft-
Thrive (Addicted, #2.5) book cover84

Thrive (Addicted, #2.5)

Krista Ritchie and Becca Ritchi

4.0
Two years will change them forever.

When rumors spread like wildfire—like having three-ways with her boyfriend’s rock climbing brother—Lily Calloway spirals into a dark place. Her bedroom. Loren Hale is more confident and determined to keep their sex life private, even from their friends, and he helps Lily in the only way he knows how. But how much love is too much?

Their lives are filmed, watched,
The Forever Fight: On Drugs, Alcohol and the Cycle of Addiction book cover85

The Forever Fight: On Drugs, Alcohol and the Cycle of Addiction

K.J. Gordo

4.0
"The Forever Fight: On Drugs, Alcohol, and the Cycle of Addiction" is a straightforward guide that examines the top abused drugs in the United States, and the consequences associated with their misuse.

The daily life of an addict is ongoing self torture - a continuous craving, seeking, obtaining and using of substances to self medicate, that only make things worst, not better. Addiction is a diseas
Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America book cover86

Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America

Elizabeth Wurtzel

4.0
Elizabeth Wurtzel's New York Times best-selling memoir, with a new afterword

"Sparkling, luminescent prose . . . A powerful portrait of one girl's journey through the purgatory of depression and back." —New York Times

"A book that became a cultural touchstone." —New Yorker


Elizabeth Wurtzel writes with her finger on the faint pulse of an overdiagnosed generation whose ruling icons are Kurt Cobain,
Naked Lunch book cover87

Naked Lunch

william s. burroughs

4.0
The book is structured as a series of loosely connected vignettes. Burroughs stated that the chapters are intended to be read in any order. The reader follows the narration of junkie William Lee, who takes on various aliases, from the U.S. to Mexico, eventually to Tangier and the dreamlike Interzone.

The vignettes are drawn from Burroughs' own experiences in these places and his addiction to drugs
Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town book cover88

Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town

Nick Reding

4.0
The dramatic story of the methamphetamine epidemic as it sweeps the American heartland a timely, moving, very human account of one community s attempt to battle its way to a brighter future.

Crystal methamphetamine is widely considered to be the most dangerous drug in the world, and nowhere is that more true than in the small towns of the American heartland. Methland tells the story of Oelwein, Iow
Steadfast (True North, #2) book cover89

Steadfast (True North, #2)

Sarina Bowe

4.0
She’s the only one who ever loved him—and the only one he can never have.

Jude lost everything one spring day when he crashed his car into an apple tree on the side of the road. A man is dead, and there's no way he can ever right that wrong. He’d steer clear of Colebury, Vermont forever if he could. But an ex-con in recovery for his drug addiction can’t find a job just anywhere.

For Sophie Haines, c
On the Come Up book cover90

On the Come Up

Angie Thomas

4.0
Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least make it out of her neighborhood one day. As the daughter of an underground rap legend who died before he hit big, Bri’s got big shoes to fill. But now that her mom has unexpectedly lost her job, food banks and shutoff notices are as much a part of Bri’s life as beats and rhymes. With bills piling up and homelessn
Comeback: A Mother and Daughter's Journey Through Hell and Back book cover91

Comeback: A Mother and Daughter's Journey Through Hell and Back

Claire Fontaine, Mia Fontaine

4.0

How does an honor student at one of Los Angeles's finest prep schools--a nice girl from a happy, loving home--trade school uniforms and afternoons at the mall for speedballs in the back of a truck in rural Indiana? How does her devoted mother emerge from the shock of finding that her daughter has not only disappeared but had been living a secret life for more than a year?

Mother and daughter tell

Perfect (Impulse, #2) book cover92

Perfect (Impulse, #2)

Ellen Hopkins

4.0
Everyone has something, someone, somewhere else that they’d rather be. For four high-school seniors, their goals of perfection are just as different as the paths they take to get there.
Cara’s parents’ unrealistic expectations have already sent her twin brother Conner spiraling toward suicide. For her, perfect means rejecting their ideals to take a chance on a new kind of love. Kendra covets the pe
Beneath a Meth Moon book cover93

Beneath a Meth Moon

Jacqueline Woodson

4.0
Laurel Daneau has moved on to a new life, in a new town, but inside she’s still reeling from the loss of her beloved mother and grandmother after Hurricane Katrina washed away their home. Laurel’s new life is going well, with a new best friend, a place on the cheerleading squad and T-Boom, co-captain of the basketball team, for a boyfriend. Yet Laurel is haunted by voices and memories from her pas
Sing, Unburied, Sing book cover94

Sing, Unburied, Sing

Jesmyn Ward

4.0
A searing and profound Southern odyssey by National Book Award–winner Jesmyn Ward.

In Jesmyn Ward’s first novel since her National Book Award–winning Salvage the Bones, this singular American writer brings the archetypal road novel into rural twenty-first-century America. Drawing on Morrison and Faulkner, The Odyssey and the Old Testament, Ward gives us an epochal story, a journey through Mississip
Broken Knight (All Saints High, #2) book cover95

Broken Knight (All Saints High, #2)

L.J. She

4.0
Not all love stories are written the same way. Ours had torn chapters, missing paragraphs, and a bittersweet ending.

Luna Rexroth is everyone’s favorite wallflower.

Sweet.
Caring.
Charitable.
Quiet.
Fake.
Underneath the meek, tomboy exterior everyone loves (yet pities) is a girl who knows exactly what, and who, she wants—namely, the boy from the treehouse who taught her how to curse in sign language.
Who
The Addiction Recovery Workbook: Powerful Skills for Preventing Relapse Every Day book cover96

The Addiction Recovery Workbook: Powerful Skills for Preventing Relapse Every Day

Paula A. Freedman Psy.D.

4.0
Sadie book cover97

Sadie

Courtney Summers

4.0
A missing girl on a journey of revenge. A Serial―like podcast following the clues she's left behind. And an ending you won't be able to stop talking about.

Sadie hasn't had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she's been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie's entire world c
Addiction Recovery DIY: Do it Yourself - Conquer Your Drug or Alcohol Addiction at Home (Addiction DIY) book cover98

Addiction Recovery DIY: Do it Yourself - Conquer Your Drug or Alcohol Addiction at Home (Addiction DIY)

K.J. Gordo

4.0
Girl Walks Out of a Bar: A Memoir book cover99

Girl Walks Out of a Bar: A Memoir

Lisa F. Smith

4.0
Lisa Smith was a bright young lawyer at a prestigious law firm in NYC when alcoholism and drug addiction took over her life. What was once a way she escaped her insecurity and negativity as a teenager became a means of coping with the anxiety and stress of an impossible workload.

Girl Walks Out of a Bar explores Smith’s formative years, her decade of alcohol and drug abuse, divorce, and her road to
No Tomorrow book cover100

No Tomorrow

Carian Cole, Jillian Macie, et al

4.0
The people we love are thieves.
They steal our hearts. They steal our breath.
They steal our sanity.
And we let them.
Over and over and over again.

* • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • *

They say you never forget your first love.

Mine was a homeless musician who wandered straight into my soul.

He was my first everything. And fourteen years later, I still can't get him out of my head.

He broke all my rules