Saturday, August 13, 2022

Ten of the best books about addiction

Matt Rowland Hill was born in 1984 in Pontypridd, South Wales, and grew up in Wales and England. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, the Independent, New Statesman, the Telegraph and other outlets. He now lives in London.

Original Sins: A Memoir is his first book.

At Publishers Weekly he tagged ten of his favorite books about addiction, including:
Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari

Subtitled “The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs,” Hari’s blazing work is the best analysis of the politics and sociology of addiction there is. It exposes the ruinous way drug prohibition policies have led to epidemics of addiction in western countries—and is a clarion call for a new approach that treats addiction not as a crime but as a medical problem. But the real beauty of the book is in Hari’s irresistible storytelling, in which he relates the personal stories of the people he encounters during his research with novelistic verve.
Read about another entry on the list.

Also see Nina Renata Aron's top ten books about recovery, Leslie Jamison's six notable books about addiction, Lisa Levy's seventeen top addiction books, Jeff Somers's ten notable fictional detectives marked by their addictions, Mary Kate Carr and David Canfield's fifteen most powerful memoirs about addiction and recovery, and SJ Watson's top ten books about addiction.

--Marshal Zeringue