Falling For Me by Anna David • HarperCollins Publishers
Anna David, executive editor of website The Fix, and author of novels Party Girl and Bought, takes readers on her own Eat, Pray, Love journey in Falling for Me. Using Sex & the Single Girl by Helen Gurley Brown as a guide, David takes an honest look into her wardrobe, kitchen, dating habits, hobbies and deep within herself in the pursuit of meeting the perfect man. What she discovers, however, is that getting to know herself in an entirely new way is really the best prize.
Finding Your Moral Compass by Craig Nakken • Hazelden
Renew Advisory Board member Craig Nakken challenges readers to be “a force for good” in the world. Using 41 principles, Nakken gives us the model and tools to make positive life decisions. As a former addict turned counselor, Nakken knows how hard it was to find his moral compass. Now he shares with us his journey and guidance to live well, one day at a time.
In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction by Gabor Maté • North Atlantic Books
Canadian physician Gabor Maté has written books about attention deficit disorder, healthy parenting and the effects of stress on health, but it is his latest book about addiction that has shot him to international prominence. In this book, Maté brings the reader into close contact with addicts and addiction itself, and he also provides a clinician’s insight into possibilities for recovery.
Leave the Light On by Jennifer Storm • Central Recovery Press
In this anticipated follow-up to Blackout Girl, her first book, Storm takes us through her compelling journey as a successful and functional individual after her fight to reclaim her life from alcohol. She also explores her own sexuality and her discovery of a deep and considered passion for activism. This inspirational work reminds us of how deep and effective a life of recovery can be. Storm recently received the 2011 Pathfinder Award for Excellence in Victims Services in Pennsylvania for the effective social work she engaged in after recovering from addiction.
The Anatomy of Addiction by Morteza Khaleghi & Karen Khaleghi • Palgrave Macmillan
Two leading addiction experts get to the heart of the problem, drawing on the latest research to identify the roots of relapse and contextual reasons why addiction manifests in a person's life. Readers will determine what drives their addiction, where their addiction stems from and how to end the cycle of addiction. By guiding addicts step-by-step through their life’s trajectory, the authors provide a foundation for a confident and lifelong recovery.
Almost Alcoholic: Is My (or My Loved One’s) Drinking a Problem • Hazelden Publishing
“Is My (or My Loved One’s) Drinking a Problem” is the first book in a series titled “The Almost Effect.” In a joint effort between Hazelden Publishing and Harvard Medical School, doctors Robert Doyle and Joseph Nowinski address high-functioning alcoholics. According to the authors, more than 30 percent of social drinkers are negatively affected by their alcohol consumption. Defined as “someone who drinks more often than occasionally or socially,” these “almost alcoholics,” can be spotted, stopped and helped. This debut title will help you determine if your drinking is a problem and present strategies for changing your substance use—or abuse.
Six Essentials to Achieve Lasting Recovery • Hazelden Publishing
Once you’ve gotten clean, you can’t just sit back and relax. It’s hard work staying sober, and it takes constant vigilance. In “Six Essentials to Achieve Lasting Recovery,” authors Sterling Shumway and Thomas Kimball have pinpointed six principles to help you stay focused in your new life in recovery. Through research, personal stories, guided journals and exercises, the authors address the challenges of early recovery and illustrate how hope, healthy coping skills, a sense of achievement and accomplishment, meaningful relationships, developing your unique identity and reclaiming agency can be applied to what eventually will become your long-term recovery.
Lies My Mother Never Told Me • William Morrow Publishing
Kaylie Jones, 51, has spent much of her life trying to come to terms with two legacies she inherited from her parents: literary fame and addiction. In “Lies My Mother Never Told Me,” Jones focuses on the alcoholism of her mother, Gloria, a beautiful socialite who cussed like a sailor and boasted a scandalous sense of humor, a strong preoccupation with sex and little interest in motherhood. Jones also examines her own alcoholism. As she begins to recover, finds a loving husband and has a child of her own, her narcissistic mother descends ever deeper into vicious alcoholic rages and attempts to turn Jones’ daughter against her. Jones tries to reconcile with her mother and, failing that, to placate her wrath. But eventually she is forced to admit to some stark truths.
Love Addict: Sex, Romance and other Dangerous Drugs by Ethlie Ann Vare • HCI
Ethlie Ann Vare has been through it all: four marriages, drug addiction and a stint in jail. When she read a neuroscience study that reported that love affects our brains in the same way that snorting a line of cocaine does, she wasn’t surprised. What was surprising to her was that giving to others activates the same part of our brains. In Vare’s attempt to take an inner look at her own addictions (in both a hilarious and humbling way), she sheds light—through her experiences and documented research—that recovery is possible and you can still be excited about love and life.