I’m sober for over 21 years after struggling with addiction and alcoholism and I thought my life would end—I would never have fun again—if I got sober. I found the opposite to be true and have devoted a large part of my career and life to helping those who are struggling with addiction. I want them to see the hilarious moments in recovery and how much it’s the beginning, and not the end, of life. Books that can do this do more than any one person talking about recovery since they can really start a domino effect and a movement. My company has published nearly a dozen recovery memoirs and I look forward to publishing more.
This book blew my mind when I first read it because I had no idea there could be such a thing as a hilarious novel about addiction. I will never forget this line she has in it about how recovery groups will be comprised of “middle-aged men in sweaters.” It was also the first time I realized that people in recovery outside of the US were just as hilarious as those here. The story is a fun sort of Bridget Jones romp if Bridget loved cocaine and men in leather pants but it’s the voice—self-deprecating, self-aware, and funny AF—that’s always stuck with me.
Here's Rachel Walsh, twenty-seven and the miserable owner of size 8 feet. She has regular congress with Luke Costello, a man who wears his leather trousers tight. And she's fond - some might say too fond - of recreational drugs. Until she finds herself being frogmarched to the Cloisters - Dublin's answer to the Betty Ford Clinic. She's outraged. Surely she's not thin enough to be an addict? Heartsick and Luke-sick, she seeks redemption in the shape of Chris, a man with a past. A man who might be more trouble than he's worth.
This gave me a story that I had no personal experience with—walking around as a successful person during the day (in her case, a lawyer) while managing a secret life of addiction. It’s great storytelling combined with insightful commentary on addiction and I believe was responsible for opening many people to the idea of being high-functioning while also struggling with addiction.
"Lisa Smith gives us a darkly comic, honest, and completely relatable inside look at high-functioning addiction in the world of corporate law-a sort of 'Sex and the Psych Ward.' It's inspiring, informative, and impossible to put down."
--Jennifer Belle, best-selling author of High Maintenance and The Seven Year Bitch
"Whether she's telling the town car driver to turn around so she can ditch showing up for her niece's birth and meet her coke dealer, or staging her own semi-intervention, Smith takes us into the mind of someone who's completely in control while being radically out of control. This girl may…
A traditional mystery with a touch of cozy, The Alchemy Fire Murder is for those who like feisty women sleuths, Oxford Colleges, alchemy, strong characters, and real concerns like trafficking, wildfires, racism, and climate change. This book especially works for those fascinated by myth and witches in history. Read for…
This is the Holy Grail of addiction memoirs, as far as I’m concerned. It came out years before memoirs about addiction became a “thing” and remains the darkest and funniest addiction memoir in existence. I read it years before I was able to face my own issues with addiction and it did the perfect job of entertaining me so that I didn’t even consciously realize it was teaching me lessons that would save my life.
Jerry Stahl's seminal memoir of drug addiction and a career in Hollywood, Permanent Midnight is a classic along the lines of Hubert Selby, Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn. Illuminating the self-loathing and self-destruction of an addict's inner life, Permanent Midnight follows Stahl through the dregs of addiction and into sobriety. In 1998, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, and Maria Bello starred in a film version of Permanent Midnight to much acclaim. Nic Sheff, author of Tweak, writes the introduction to this edition.
While technically not a book about addiction, Money is actually 100% a book about addiction. It’s also my favorite book ever written—one I re-read often. There’s simply no living writer with a skill for language like Martin Amis. I mean lines like “Unless I specifically inform you otherwise, I am always smoking a cigarette”? Genius. Saying his apartment smells like “batch” (for bachelor)? Referring to his teeth problems as a pain on his Upper East Side, while walking around Manhattan? I could go on forever about how much I love this novel; what other novelist would include a character named Martin Amis who annoys the protagonist—and also, a bit, the reader? The lead character—John Self—bottoms out not just on addiction but also on life and the fact that the humor keeps you laughing throughout combined with the utter darkness of the story makes it one of the best books in existence.
One of Time's 100 best novels in the English language-by the acclaimed author of Lionel Asbo: State of England and London Fields
Part of Martin Amis's "London Trilogy," along with the novel London Fields and The Information, Money was hailed as "a sprawling, fierce, vulgar display" (The New Republic) and "exhilarating, skillful, savvy" (The Times Literary Supplement) when it made its first appearance in the mid-1980s. Amis's shocking, funny, and on-target portraits of life in the fast lane form a bold and frightening portrait of Ronald Reagan's America and Margaret Thatcher's England.
Pete West, a political columnist, travels to Prague to find a missing diplomat, later found murdered. He attempts to discover more about a cryptic note received from the diplomat and is immediately entangled in the secret Bilderberg Club’s strategy to form a world federation.
Veronica is one of the original voices out there talking about addiction and recovery—and it shows in this book. While the book shares personal experience, it also calls on her years as a psychotherapist and recovery coach. And yet, unlike most addiction and recovery books out there, it references many of the other leaders in the recovery movement—everyone from Gabor Mate to movies that touch on recovery.
"No thanks-I'm not drinking tonight." In a culture that equates alcohol with enjoyment and social acceptance, making this simple statement can make us feel like we're depriving or even punishing ourselves. "When we realize we can no longer drink safely, it can feel like the only choices are to spiral out of control or embrace a joyless life," says sobriety expert Veronica Valli. "But it's not true! Sobriety can be a path filled with fun, excitement, belonging, relaxation, and romance."
Soberful offers a practical and straightforward program on how we can get sober and stay sober by increasing our self-worth,…
FROM THE New York Times bestselling author comes the relaunch of the book that started the "Quit Lit" movement. With over 180 positive reviews and coverage on Today and CNN's Showbiz Tonight and in the pages of the New York Post, Cosmo, Redbook and more, the book that started it all is now in the development as a feature film. It's also back to entertain audiences with a story that shows the surprising hilarity of a sober life.
Celebrity journalist Amelia Stone is the quintessential Hollywood party girl: she stays out late, rubs shoulders (and occasionally more) with celebrities and ingests copious amounts of cocaine.
But after losing her job, her friends and much of her mind, Amelia makes the drastic decision to end her drug abuse. Once sober, she's hired by a big-name magazine to write a column detailing her wild adventures and she starts seeing the man who could be her Mr. Right.
There's just one problem. Overnight, Amelia has become the new face of Hollywood nightlife, and her editors—who don't know she's come clean—want her to play the part. As the lure of her former fast-and-furious lifestyle begins to pull at her, she must decide whether to save herself or salvage her reputation as the ultimate party girl.
Katie's Gamble is an unexpected, unique story about a young woman who's trying to support her younger siblings by keeping her family's confectionery shop open.
In order to do that, she has to take on her older brother, who's a notorious gambler in Louisiana. Additionally, she has to outsmart Rowdy…
