Top executives share their stories of addiction and recovery By Gary Stromberg and Jane Merrill McGraw Hill, $15.95 During the sixties and seventies Gary Stromberg, a brash Los Angeles press agent and movie producer, toured the world with the likes of the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, the Doors, Three Dog Night and others and shared their appetite for women and dope — mostly heroin, cocaine, pot, and alcohol. Three years ago Stromberg, a recovering alcoholic, wrote a book with Jane Merrill … [Read more...]
How Starbucks Saved My Life
By Michael Gates Gill (Gotham Books, 265 pages $23) It could be the plot off an uplifting movie starring say, Tom Hanks. The fortunes of a man from a privileged background take a sharp downward turn when he loses a high-powered corporate position and destroys his marriage in middle age. Unemployed and unhappy he has a chance encounter with a young black manager at a coffee bar and a job offer follows. The result? Our hero, now in his 60’s, finds happiness while toiling at Starbucks … [Read more...]
Vet Overcomes Addictions, Rides with “Stroker” Wiggs
When “Stroker” Wiggs, the “Bandido” bike rider who became a Christian minister, died in January in Little Rock, Neal Benschoff lost a dear friend and role model. Benschoff, also a former member of an outlaw biker group that terrorized the countryside was, like “Stroker,” a Vietnam War veteran. Thanks to inpatient care at Fort Roots, a Veterans Administration (VA) facility, and regular attendance at 12-Step meetings, Benschoff has been clean and sober for 12 years now. He is also being treated … [Read more...]
