Best 12 Step Recovery Books 2024-2025: New Sober Living Literature for AA Newcomers

Victoria’s journey toward believing in something greater than herself (Step 2) unfolds through her work with a psychologist and her growing connection to the sober curious community. The book’s approach to Steps 8 and 9 (making amends) is particularly valuable for couples, as it addresses the complex dynamics of making amends to someone with whom you’re in active recovery. Dr. Nowinski provides concrete guidance on timing, approach, and maintaining boundaries while still being accountable for past harm. He shows how couples can work Step 10 (continued personal inventory) together, creating daily check-ins that promote honesty without becoming group therapy sessions. Remember, if you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, seek help.

Speed Dating: Sober & In Recovery

I found this book on a list of addiction-themed novels, but it is not what I would categorize as “addiction fiction,” since the main character isn’t an addict or alcoholic, and addiction is not a central theme. Chappie (later Bone) smokes a lot of weed, has a birth father and friends who are drug addicts and a stepfather who is an alcoholic, best books for addiction recovery commits tons of crimes, was abused as a child, yet he never develops anything resembling an addiction. I kept waiting for it to happen, and was my primary motivation at times to keep reading, but instead this turned out to be just a garden variety coming-of-age novel.

• For the first hundred-plus pages, Chappie lives on the edges of society and ends up going on the run with his best friend.
• She is a courageous woman in recovery and someone I enjoy following on social media.
• Shortly after accepting she had a problem with alcohol, she thought a lot about how some people are lucky enough to be able to drink normally without it controlling their life.
• Addiction is a complex and challenging disease that affects millions of people around the world.
• Most notably, it’s a brutally honest — and hilarious — reflection on the late writer’s path to sobriety.

Sober Celebrities: 4 Hollywood Stars Who Overcame Addiction

Luckily, there’s a whole genre of books that prove you are not the only one who has battled addiction. Prolific, brilliant memoirist Mary Karr shines a light on the dark years she spent descending into alcoholism and drug use as a young writer, wife, and mother. As her marriage dissolved and she struggled to find a reason to stay clean, Karr turned to Catholicism as a light at the end of the tunnel. Although not a book about sobriety, this book helped me deal with emotional triggers in the early days of sobriety.

“In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction” by Gabor Maté

The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions is a collection of 24 foundational essays by Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill W. The first 12 essays expand upon the Twelve Steps and explain how spiritual principles such as anonymity, humility and self-support serve to safeguard the unity of Alcoholics Anonymous and shield it from internal and external challenges. The book has been approved by the General Service Conference and is a valuable resource https://ecosoberhouse.com/ for those seeking a deeper understanding of the Steps and Traditions. Russell Brand is a comedian and movie star who has been in recovery for 14 years. He speaks to those suffering from addiction, from drugs, alcohol, caffeine, and sugar addictions to work, stress, bad relationships, digital media, and fame.

Knapp was a writer by trade, which makes her story all the more captivating. She’s a successful, privileged woman and, at the same time, fundamentally flawed and messy. The list below is not exhaustive, but it includes all the quit lit I’ve read since getting sober in 2022. All you need to stop smoking is this classic instruction to the most effective stop smoking technique in the world. There are no fear tactics, you won’t put on weight, and quitting won’t make you feel deprived.

Maybe none of these things apply to you when it comes to alcohol, but there’s something else in your life that’s not a positive force. A person of extraordinary intellect, Heather King is a lawyer and writer/commentator for NPR — as heroin addiction well as a recovering alcoholic who spent years descending from functional alcoholism to barely functioning at all. From graduating cum laude from law school despite her excessive drinking to languishing in dive bars, King presents a clear-eyed look at her past and what brought her out of the haze of addiction. That’s actually a perfect segue into what sets Jamison’s book apart from most recovery memoirs and books about addiction. I read recovery memoirs to help make sense of what was going on with my life.

This is the second addiction book I read at the beginning of my sobriety, and I loved it for vastly different reasons. There were successful, smart people out there who shared these same struggles. I felt so much shame towards the end of my drinking and couldn’t talk to anyone about it.