By Christopher Kennedy Lawford William Morrow $25.99 “The morning of February 17, 1986, I woke up, as usual, with that weight in the pit of my stomach, knowing that all I had in front of me was another day of dancing with the 800-pound gorilla of addiction.” And so begins Chris Lawford’s “moment of clarity” as he reports it in his introduction to this great book about how people recover from addictions—in this case 42 well-known people, many of them celebrities. Lawford, whose father was … [Read more...]
Beautiful Boy
A father’s journey through his son’s addiction By David Sheff Houghton Mifflin Company $24 I’ve got a grandson who, at age 22, is drawing social security benefits in the aftermath of two catastrophic drug related accidents that badly damaged him physically and emotionally. And he still smokes pot. I’ve got another grandson, 26, who finally asked to go into treatment following six years of abusing prescription drugs and marijuana and then ran away within a week leaving his father with a … [Read more...]
What it takes to pull me through
Why teenagers get in trouble and how four of them got out. By David Marcus (Houghton Mifflin) “Something began to churn inside Burns. It was a raw mixture of rage and fear and guilt—he didn’t know what to call it, but it was so intense that his heart pounded wildly. He felt dizzy. As he read, he lost count of how many sexual partners Mary Alice had during the month she’d kept the diary. Mary Alice herself couldn’t keep track.” In this illuminating and thoroughly engrossing non-fiction book … [Read more...]
Alcoholism and Addiction Cure
A Holistic Approach to Total Recovery How to heal the underlying causes How to end relapse How to end suffering By Chris Prentiss Power Press, $15.95 Chris Prentiss, who operates a pricey treatment center in Malibu called Passages, has been running numerous spots on TV urging people to buy his book, The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure. Concerned about what seemed to be extravagant claims inherent in the title, I bought the book on Amazon and settled down for a read. My conclusion? It’s … [Read more...]
X-Rated to G-Rated Lifestyle
An autobiography by Kandi Rose Shepherds Rose Publishing The message on my e-mail on a late August morning read in part, “I’m a former stripper and prostitute who had multiple addictions and once owned my own Strip-O-Gram business in the Chicago area.” It sought my public support for her autobiography, “X-Rated to G-Rated Life Style” and concluded, “whatever your answer, I will take as God’s will.” It was signed “Kandi Rose.” Kandi, who operates a Thrift Store in a small Arkansas town, had … [Read more...]
