Recovery Memoirs

John Walker was a Miami undercover narcotics agent in the 1970s. Ten years later, he was in prison for smuggling 12,000 pounds of marijuana. In prison, he connected with a South American drug lord who was still running the family operation from inside the federal pen. Within months of being paroled, John began smuggling again—this time uncut Colombian cocaine. And this time, he put everything on the line: his freedom, his family and, ultimately, his life.

The Daughter of a Junkie: A True Love Story narrates a firsthand account of an extraordinary young girl who escaped the ghetto trappings and trickery of the underserved and impoverished communities in which she lived. With sheer determination, Terrinee realized her childhood dream of becoming a lawyer and a judge. She takes you through the slums of the Deep South with appalling near-death experiences that started in kindergarten and continued to "The Promise Land" on the college campus of Clark Atlanta University.

Lauren’s life story is a raw and gripping journey through the darker side of human experience. With the false freedom of quick cash and the harsh reality of hitting rock bottom, Lauren's quest for independence and survival is both intense and inspiring. When adversity strikes, she reaches out for help but encounters predators at every turn, each encounter shaping her understanding of herself and the world. Reflecting on her troubled childhood in a small town, Lauren's narrative captures the delicate balance between innocence and exploitation, strength and vulnerability. Through vivid and ...

The ultimate front-row seat to the rise, fall, and rebirth of a band that was - for a time - the biggest in the world, Hootie & the Blowfish, and Jim Sonefeld’s shattering and redeeming spiritual path from addiction to recovery and a more fruitful life.

Jordan Jongema nearly died in a January snowstorm—not from the cold outside, but from the internal collapse of a system poisoned by alcohol and years of silent self-destruction. What followed was a descent into the most violent hell a human body can endure: full-blown Delirium Tremens. Hallucinations, disintegration of the mind, and a soul clawing to stay in the fight. It wasn’t just detox. It was an exorcism. And it almost killed him.

One phone call. That's all it took to change Stephanie Wittels Wachs's life forever.... Her younger brother Harris, a star in the comedy world known for his work on shows like Parks and Recreation, had died of a heroin overdose. How do you make sense of such a tragic end to a life of so much hilarious brilliance? In beautiful, unsentimental, and surprisingly funny prose, Stephanie Wittels Wachs alternates between her brother's struggle with addiction, which she learned about three days before her wedding, and the first year after his death, in all its emotional devastation.

As chronicled in his hit memoir Straight Pepper Diet, one fateful summer night, Joseph Naus, a young LA lawyer, went out to have just a couple of drinks. He awoke the next morning handcuffed to a hospital bed and charged with attempted murder. And then it got worse. The Palsgraf Revelation begins where Straight Pepper Diet left off. Joseph survived the initial blast of the nuclear bomb he dropped on his own life, but if he wants to become more than a shocking cautionary tale, he must now learn to live with the devastating fallout.

Lynn grew up the carefree daughter of a Miami undercover narcotics agent—until her dad snuck out of the house in the dark of night without a glance back. She never knew what happened to her father until she was in high school, and he was in prison for drug smuggling. By then, Lynn had developed a dangerous drug and alcohol habit of her own. It was the perfect setup for her to latch onto the only connection to her dad that remained when he was paroled from prison—cocaine.

When two bombs exploded at the densely crowded finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, the whole world watched in shock as the story unfolded. First, the death toll and life-altering injuries. Next, the identification of the suspects - Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev - and the tense manhunt that brought Boston to a standstill. And, finally, the courageous and inspiring recovery of a wounded American city. Long Mile Home is the riveting tale of that tragic, surreal, and ultimately inspiring week.

William didn't know something was missing until it happened. He'd been in recovery for alcohol and drugs for years. He was a recovery activist and a spokesperson for the gold standard of treatment and recovery organizations. He was a model leader and follower of Twelve Step programs. But, still, he slipped. Privately, he was addicted to painkillers while publicly saying he was in recovery from alcohol and drug use. How did it go so wrong? With brutal honesty and introspection, William shares what happened after sobriety—after he'd published his memoir.

Annie Liontas suffered multiple concussions in her thirties. In Sex with a Brain Injury, she writes about what it means to be one of the “walking wounded,” facing her fear, her rage, her physical suffering, and the effects of head trauma on her marriage and other relationships. Forced to reckon with her own queer mother’s battle with addiction, Liontas finds echoes in their pain. Liontas weaves history, philosophy, and personal accounts to interrogate and expand representations of mental health, ability, and disability—particularly in relation to women and the LGBT community.

Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands chronicles the turbulent years Roosevelt spent as a rancher in the Badlands of Dakota Territory, following the sudden deaths on February 14, 1884, of his wife, two days after giving birth, and of his mother. Grief-stricken - and driven by doubts about his career after failed attempts as a reformer fighting political corruption -the young, Harvard-educated New York politician left his infant daughter in his sister's care and went to live on a Badlands ranch he had bought a year earlier.

When Madeleine Dean discovered that her son Harry was stealing from the family to feed a painkiller addiction, she was days away from taking the biggest risk of her life: running for statewide office in Pennsylvania. For years, she had sensed something was wrong. Harry was losing weight and losing friends. He had lost the brightness in his eyes and voice, changing from a young boy with boundless enthusiasm to a shadow of himself, chasing something she could not see. Now her worst fears had come to light.

In Coming Clean, Seth Haines writes a raw account of his first 90 days of sobriety, illuminating how to face the pain we’d rather avoid, and even more importantly, how an abiding God meets us in that pain. Seth shows us that true wholeness is found in facing our pain and anxieties with the tenacity and tenderness of Jesus, and only through Christ's passion can we truly come clean.

Ever promised ‘never again’ only to find yourself raising a glass the very next week? Have an ‘all or nothing’ approach to drinking? You are not alone. If you are stuck in the loop of failed moderation attempts but shudder at the thought of saying no to alcohol forever, then the 99% Sober approach is for you. Stop tying yourself in knots while Googling ‘Am I an alcoholic?’ or ‘Do I have a drink problem?’ Let this book show you how to flip this around and find out how much better your life can be with less alcohol in it.

Sixteen years ago Vin Baker was an NBA All-Star, an Olympic Gold medalist, and a multimillionaire. While he excelled on the court, Vin harbored a dark secret: a dependency on drugs and alcohol that began after the clean-cut preacher's son turned pro. Eventually becoming a full-blown yet functional alcoholic, Vin convinced himself he played better under the influence - until his addiction cost him his basketball career, his fortune, and his health. But Vin's story isn't a tragic fall from grace. It is a joyous tale of salvation.

A Story of Unwavering Love, Unthinkable Loss, and Unshakable Faith For 25 years, Pastor John E. Miller and his wife, Carla, devoted their lives to caring for their son, Peter Flint Miller—a child with special needs who depended on them for everything. Every four hours, every single day, their love took the form of feeding, bathing, dressing, and comforting their son. But on March 8, 2025, Peter took his final breath, and their world changed forever. In Grace in the Hard Places, John and Carla share their raw, personal journey through caregiving, grief, and the faith that sustained them. ...

When Deb Brandon discovered that cavernous angiomas - tangles of malformed blood vessels in her brain - were behind the terrifying symptoms she'd been experiencing, she underwent one brain surgery. And then another. And then another. And that was just the beginning. The book also includes an introduction by Connie Lee, founder and president of the Angioma Alliance. Unlike other memoirs that focus on injury crisis and acute recovery, But My Brain Had Other Ideas follows Brandon’s story all the way through to long-term recovery, revealing without sugarcoating or sentimentality Brandon’s struggles - and ultimate triumph.

Una impactante historia personal sobre la lucha de una madre por vencer su codependencia y desarrollar la fortaleza necesaria para liberar a su hijo de las drogas. Te voy a contar una historia, que me pide ser contada. Una historia verdadera sobre drogas, sufrimiento, y redención. Sobre el infierno y el cielo; sobre el tormento y la culpa; sobre la fe y los milagros; sobre el poder del amor.

From the outside looking in, the young life of Mia Döring seemed unremarkable, as she pursued her studies at a prominent Dublin art college. Unbeknownst to those around her, however, Mia's life was anything but ordinary. At age 16, she had been sexually exploited by an older man, which carved a direct path into the Irish sex trade, where she remained for several years until finally leaving it behind over a decade ago, at age 24. In her literary memoir, Mia excavates her difficult history as she sets about integrating her past with her present-day life.