Tweak By Nic Sheff

Nic Sheff, who has gone on to write many other books (and his dad has also penned some books about being on the other side of this disease,) is at his best in Tweak. The memoir is raw, emotional, honest and dark. At times his life reads like fiction and at other times his pain is so real, it hurts. When Sheff talks about hating the way he looks, feeling lonely, and not enough is when he speaks to the real heart of addiction. Getting high, wandering the streets, all those other things are really nothing more than a dark filler to propel the reader through the agony of what it means to be an addict.

Drinking: A Love Story

Drinking: A Love Story By Caroline Knapp

Caroline Knapp's memoir chronicles not only her descent into alcoholism but how she got there, where it took her and how she moved on with life after putting down the bottle. With the number of alcoholic women quickly gaining on their male counterparts, Knapp's memoir, despite being written in 1997, is fresh, relevant and worth revisiting. Knapp's bottom did not come from being homeless, or other brutal consequences often associated with alcoholism but from isolation, loneliness and the out-of-control realization that something is very, very wrong. In our "I deserve it" culture, Knapp's story will hit close to home for many.