My fifth novel, Invisible As Air is about addiction on the heels of grief. It’s about how destructive unvoiced pain can be, and how important it is to acknowledge, both privately and publicly, one’s pain. It can eat you alive if you let it, as well as everyone around you – especially when it morphs into an addiction. It’s through my writing that I’m able to address and dissect my own pain and grief. I often wonder what would happen to me without such an outlet and am moved by books depicting the alternative.
I love this book about addiction and a return to life post-rehab. It’s also everything about Hollywood you love to hate and a mother/daughter relationship for the ages. Carrie Fisher is funny, vulnerable, and real.
What value did you get from this book? Addiction is often the result of trauma and Fisher navigates the cause and effect in a disarming way. Her writing is authentic and funny. especially set against the Hollywood backdrop. I laughed and I cried, and best of all I related to her struggle despite the differences in our experiences.
** THE NEW YORK TIMES-BESTSELLING CULT CLASSIC NOVEL ** ** In a new edition introduced by Stephen Fry **
'I don't think you can even call this a drug. This is just a response to the conditions we live in.'
Suzanne Vale, formerly acclaimed actress, is in rehab, feeling like 'something on the bottom of someone's shoe, and not even someone interesting'. Immersed in the sometimes harrowing, often hilarious goings-on of the drug hospital and wondering how she'll cope - and find work - back on the outside, she meets new patient Alex. Ambitious, good-looking in a Heathcliffish way and…
This book became infamous when Oprah outed Frey on her show – what he had published as a memoir was actually a work of fiction. That said, there’s no denying that this book is unputdownable; a wild ride of addiction from the addict’s point of view. The highs, literal and figurative are written in sharp contrast with the lows. Frey has a way of making the reader empathize with an inherently unlikable character, which is very hard to do as a writer.
At the age of 23, James Frey woke up on a plane to find his front teeth knocked out and his nose broken. He had no idea where the plane was headed nor any recollection of the past two weeks. An alcoholic for ten years and a crack addict for three, he checked into a treatment facility shortly after landing. There he was told he could either stop using or die before he reached age 24. This is Frey’s acclaimed account of his six weeks in rehab.
Knapp dazzled me with her honesty about her addiction and her battle with its hold on her. The courage it takes for her to admit she has a problem and her journey to recovery are both astounding and relatable. I was also so glad to read about a female struggle with trauma and addiction.
Fifteen million Americans a year are plagued with alcoholism. Five million of them are women. Many of them, like Caroline Knapp, started in their early teens and began to use alcohol as "liquid armor," a way to protect themselves against the difficult realities of life. In this extraordinarily candid and revealing memoir, Knapp offers important insights not only about alcoholism, but about life itself and how we learn to cope with it.
It was love at first sight. The beads of moisture on a chilled bottle. The way the glasses clinked and the conversation flowed. Then it became obsession. The…
This is an unforgettable heroine who’s addicted to food. We follow her through her adolescence to womanhood; struggling to untether herself from pain. Heartbreaking and hilarious at the same time: my favorite mix. It also tackles food addiction, which is often overlooked in fiction despite the fact that it’s likely the most relatable one of all.
Dolores Price is the wry and overweight, sensitive and pained, cynical heroine of this novel. The story follows her from four to 40, from her shattered family life through the hellish circles of sexual and food abuse to her gradual recovery and her fight to love again.
This is the most unlikely origin story I’ve ever read – I laughed, cried, and cringed on this boy’s journey to adulthood after being given away by his mother to her absolutely unqualified psychiatrist. Everyone is nuts. Highly entertaining and inspiring.
This is the true story of a boy who wanted to grow up with the Brady Bunch, but ended up living with the Addams Family. Augusten Burroughs's mother gave him away to be raised by her psychiatrist, a dead ringer for Santa Claus and a certifiable lunatic into the bargain. The doctor's bizarre family, a few patients and a sinister man living in the garden shed completed the tableau. The perfect squalor of their dilapidated Victorian house, there were no…
Sylvie Snow knows the pressures of expectations: a woman is supposed to work hard, but never be tired; age gracefully, but always be beautiful; fix the family problems, but always be carefree. For three years, Sylvie has repressed her grief about the heartbreaking stillbirth of her newborn daughter, Delilah. On the morning of the anniversary of her death, when she just can’t face doing one…more…thing: she takes one—just one—of her husband’s discarded pain pills. And suddenly she feels patient, kinder, and miraculously relaxed.
She tells herself that the pills are temporary, just a gift, and that when the supply runs out she’ll go back to her regularly scheduled programming. But days turn into weeks, and Sylvie slips slowly into a nightmare.
From the time I was a girl, I’ve loved stories that put a lump in my throat even as I’m laughing. As a fiction writer, that funny-sad tone is the one I go for in my own work. I gravitate toward female protagonists of all ages who break the mold—women who are intelligent and strong but who also have unconventional, quirky personalities. Women who can be hilarious, infuriating, and heartbreaking—sometimes all at once. Because they are complex and unique, these women tend to struggle with life’s challenges more than their contemporaries. That’s what makes their stories so interesting, and why I have chosen the books on this list.
When Mar’s husband divorces her, she reacts by abandoning everything in her past: her home, her friends, even her name. Though it's not easy starting over, she’s ready for new adventures—as long as she can keep things casual. Each month, Mar goes from one acquaintance to the next: a fellow gym member down on her luck, a flirty hip-hop instructor, a bossy but comical consultant. . . and a handsome novelist who wants more than she can give. Mar learns from each encounter. But can she open herself up to true connection?
Surrounded by quirky, endearing characters, Mar navigates her…
"A fun, entertaining novel! I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't enjoy this book as much as I did." -Leslie A. Rasmussen, award-winning author
When Mar Meyer's husband divorces her for another woman, she reacts by abandoning everything in her past: her home, her friends, even her name. Though it's not easy to start over, Mar is young-looking, fit, and ready for new adventures-as long as she can keep things casual.
With each passing month, Mar goes from one acquaintance to the next. Among them: a fellow gym member down on her luck, a flirty hip-hop instructor, a bossy but comical…
