Suggested Reading

Related Literature

A carefully collected list of books and authors whose themes deal with addiction and recovery. Both inspiring and informative, these books help to dispell the stigmas around recovery and empower you through education. 

Book cover Beautiful Boy by David Sheff

beautiful boy

What had happened to my beautiful boy? To our family? What did I do wrong? Those are the wrenching questions that haunted David Sheff’s journey through his son Nic’s addiction to drugs and tentative steps toward recovery. 

Link: www.davidsheff.com/beautiful-boy

Book cover of Broken by William Cope Moyers

Broken

Unlike some popular memoirs that have fictionalized and romanticized the degradations of drug addiction, Broken is a true-life tale of recovery that stuns and inspires with virtually every page. 

Link: Broken – My Story of Addiction

On NPR: William Cope Moyers on Addiction and Redemption

Book cover of Buzzed by Cynthia Kuhn, Scott Swartzwelder, and Wilkie Wilson

Buzzed: The Straight Facts about the Most Used and Abused Drugs from Alcohol to Ecstacy

Fully revised and updated, this no-nonsense handbook includes the most recent discoveries about drugs, including new information on the energy-drinks craze, prescription drugs such as OxyContin and Ambien, the date-rape drug GHB, and the unique effects of some drugs on the adolescent brain. Scientifically accurate and easy to read, Buzzed gives the most balanced, objective information available on the most often used and abused drugs.

Link: Buzzed – The Straight Facts About the Most Used and Abused Drugs from Alcohol to Ecstasy

Book cover of Dopesick by Beth Macy

Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America

An instant New York Times and indie bestseller, Dopesick is the only book to fully chart the devastating opioid crisis in America: "a harrowing, deeply compassionate dispatch from the heart of a national emergency" (New York Times) from a bestselling author and journalist who has lived through it.

Link: Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America

Book cover of Dreamland by Sam Quinones

Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate
Epidemic

In 1929, in the blue-collar city of Portsmouth, Ohio, a company built a swimming pool the size of a football field; named Dreamland, it became the vital center of the community. Now, addiction has devastated Portsmouth, as it has hundreds of small rural towns and suburbs across America–addiction like no other the country has ever faced. How that happened is the riveting story of Dreamland.

Link: Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic

Book cover of High Society by Joseph A. Califano Jr.

High Society: How Substance Abuse Ravages America and What to do About it

An excellent book that provides a call-to-action and provides a practical road map to stem the ravages of substance abuse in America. This book is America's wake-up call and could cause a revolution in the way we battle drugs if we heed the call. 

Link: High Society: How Substance Abuse Ravages America and What to Do About It