Six Addiction and Recovery Books You Can Relate To

Electricliterature.com recently shared a list of six books its says inspired them to live the “life earned by one’s ability to overcome hurdles associated with addiction.” In these stories, both fiction and non-fiction, inspiration comes in the form of heroes confronting their demons, struggling through the muck and mire of addiction and beating the odds. For somewhere to escape that will give your spirit a little guidance, perhaps even a laugh, get lost in these pages.

Up first on its list: Black Out

Sarah Hepola shares her memoir on her descent into alcoholism. Her story of drowning in drinking and finding her way to the surface again are both funny, relatable, heartbreaking and real.

Graceland

Set in post-colonial Nigeria, Graceland, is the tale by writer Chris Abani, of Elvis, an Elvis impersonator, who longs to make it to Graceland, but his path is a complex one, filled with crime, an alcoholic father and recklessness. His journey is one that will inspire.

Gun, Needle, Spoon

Patrick O’Neil knows first-hand what it is to be an addict. Here, he shares about heroin, prison, recovery and the struggle and quest to stay as far away from that life as possible.

Delicious Foods

This fiction story by James Hannaham tells the story of Eddie, a boy with no hands and the life that surrounds him. With a grieving mother who drowns her sorrows in crack cocaine, the story becomes one of desperate measures taken during desperate times, as well as an exploration in drug addiction.

How to Grow Up

Michelle Tea’s memoir, as electricliterature.com points out, is as “astute observations about classism, low self-esteem and struggling as an artist in San Francisco coincide with the harsh realities of being poor and her desperate reach for alcohol to soften the blow.” She was the kid who never fit in, the young adult who still didn’t fit in and the adult who found sometimes its not about fitting in but making the most of the hand in which you were dealt. This book serves as an actual how to book on growing up and becoming something more.

Permanent Midnight

This memoir by Jerry Stahl is described by electricliterature.com as such: “If heroin addiction is its own kind of death, then Permanent Midnight is Stahl’s beautiful, green, sky-high view resurrection.” It is both funny, witty and full of life and color.

For more reviews on these books, check out the full story on electricliterature.com.