Book Reviews
These are some of the books that we found helpful, we hope they help you as well. Let us know of any books you have found helpful in your journey. As the blog develops book reviews will appeaar in the blog section but we wanted to alert you to these books without delay. Anything can help in recovery when you are ready to see the wisdom in the world.
Hacking of the American Mind by Robert Lustig
Any thing that brings comfort can be an addiction but don't we all need want and deserve comfort? Lustig explains how the brain is wired for rewards and how commerce hopes to make more profit off our habits, anxieties and yes addictions. Read this so you can see clearly the pressures around us all. See blogs Hacking of the American Mind part one and Hacking of My American Mind part two. (ok Re likes this book so much, look for part 3!)
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In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction by Gabor Mate
Like Lustig, Mate shows us the inner workings of the brain in addiction putting it in the context of generational trauma and "our consumerist, acquisition-, action-, and image-mad culture". He is a physician with experience treating drug addiction in Canada. He believes redemption is possible for all, yet can explain how addicts lose the ability to make the right choices. "Addiction is not a choice that anybody makes; it’s not a moral failure. What it actually is: it’s a response to human suffering.”
Prodependence: Moving Beyond Codependency by Robert Weiss and Stefanie Carnes
Humans are interdependent animals, we need each other to survive and to thrive. Codependence and tough love may seem like simple concepts, just have boundaries and do self care! In prodepence the complexity of setting boundaries is acknowledged and the moving target of where to draw the line and how is discussed. I (Grace) felt seen in this book that embraces the complexity of loving someone who is stuggling with addiction or mental illness.
Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World” by Maryanne Wolf,
See Blog "Bibliotherapy, Part One: Reading and Recovery by Re" (and part 2 and part 3 and .... more to come I am sure!
Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke, M.D.
Subtitled "Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence". Made for those in recovery and dealing with those in recovery, or those who should be in recovery. From the very outset, she uses case studies that demonstrate how the severity of the problems cover so many more afflictions and addictions than people often, unfortunately, consider. This is another recent book with the latest brain science on the feeding of addictions and how to begin finding balance in our lives. Also especially good on the feeling of shame, and a healthy side she calls "prosocial" shame
Don't Call It Love by Patrick Carnes, Ph.D.
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Subtitled "Recovery From Sex Addiction," but as the blurb by Melody Beattie (author of Codependent No More) says, this book "should be required reading for anyone in any kind of recovery program..." Read any and all of Carnes' work. They are seminal in the field of addiction recovery. This book is comprehensive and includes worksheets within it "for bringing it home."
The Second Mountain by David Brooks
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Subtitled "The Quest For A Moral Life," this particular book by Brooks is part memoir and part cultural analysis that explores how our culture and personal egos drive us to climb up "the first mountain" of seeking affluence, achievements, appearances, "coolness" and other forms of self-centeredness. This, of course, leads to various forms of "crashing," "hitting bottom," losing relationships, and health before we begin climbing up "the second mountain" of deeper virtuous life which is other-centered. His "Relationist Manifesto" at the end is great for recovery life.
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“In Praise of Love” by Alain Badiou
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​One reviewer captures the essence of this book well by writing: “In a world rife with consumerism, where online dating promises risk-free romance and love is all too often seen only as a variant of desire and hedonism, Alain Badiou believes that love is under threat. Taking to heart Rimbaud’s famous line “love needs reinventing,” In Praise of Love is the celebrated French philosopher’s passionate treatise in defense of love.
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"For Badiou, love is an existential project, a constantly unfolding quest for truth. This quest begins with the chance encounter, an event that forever changes the two individuals, challenging them 'to see the world from the point of view of two rather than one.' This, Badiou believes, is love’s most essential transfiguration…Moving, zealous, and wise, In Praise of Love urges us not to fear love but to see it as an adventure, a magnificent quest that compels us to explore otherness and difference, ultimately leading us away from an obsession with the self.” (thenewpress.com)
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​“I And Thou” by Martin Buber
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​How we see ourselves and how we treat others is the essence of recovery. In this classic book of spirituality and philosophy, Martin Buber helps us to see our choices as damaging relationships and ourselves with objectification through I-It relationships, or growing them and all of life with I-Thou relationships.
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As one reviewer wrote: “I and Thou is Martin Buber’s seminal work and the centerpiece of his groundbreaking philosophy. In it, Buber—one of the greatest Jewish minds of the twentieth century—lays out a view of the world in which human beings can enter into relationships using their innermost and whole being to form true partnerships (an I–Thou attitude). These deep forms of rapport contrast with those that sprang from the Industrial Revolution, namely the treatment of others as objects for our use (an I–It attitude). Buber goes on to demonstrate how these interhuman meetings are a reflection of the human meeting with God.” (simonandschuster.com)
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​“Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling. Why It Matters, and What To Do About It” by Richard V. Reeves
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Addiction and recovery are felt by and affect all. But among the stresses that affect all, and hinder recovery for all, are ones related to our gender no matter where our gender may be. This is a book that focuses on one set of those stresses. It is part of the cultural forces underlying addictions.
Reeves is an author and scholar with the Brookings Institute focusing on culture, family, and economic equality.
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In his latest book, the Institute writes that it is “A positive vision for masculinity in a more equal world. Boys and men are struggling. Profound economic and social changes of recent decades have many losing ground in the classroom, the workplace, and in the family. While the lives of women have changed, the lives of many men have remained the same or even worsened. Our attitudes, our institutions, and our laws have failed to keep up. Conservative and progressive politicians, mired in their own ideological warfare, fail to provide thoughtful solutions.
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"The father of three sons, a journalist, and a Brookings Institution scholar, Richard V. Reeves has spent twenty-five years worrying about boys both at home and work. His new book, Of Boys and Men, tackles the complex and urgent crisis of boyhood and manhood.
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"Reeves looks at the structural challenges that face boys and men and offers fresh and innovative solutions that turn the page on the corrosive narrative that plagues this issue. Of Boys and Men argues that helping the other half of society does not mean giving up on the ideal of gender equality.”
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“Brain Lock: Free Yourself From Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior” by Jeffrey Schwartz, M.D.
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This is a good book for anyone in recovery even if you haven’t been diagnosed as living with OCD because the behaviors are so similar. As Dr. Schwartz’s promotional material puts it for the twentieth anniversary edition:
"An estimated 5 million Americans suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and live diminished lives in which they are compelled to obsess about something or to repeat a similar task over and over. Traditionally, OCD has been treated with Prozac or similar drugs. The problem with medication, aside from its cost, is that 30 percent of people treated don't respond to it, and when the pills stop, the symptoms invariably return.
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In Brain Lock, Jeffrey M. Schwartz presents a simple four-step method for overcoming OCD that is so effective, it's now used in academic treatment centers throughout the world. Proven by brain-imaging tests to actually alter the brain's chemistry, this method doesn't rely on psychopharmaceuticals. Instead, patients use cognitive self-therapy and behavior modification to develop new patterns of response to their obsessions. In essence, they use the mind to fix the brain.
Using the real-life stories of actual patients, Brain Lock explains this revolutionary method and provides readers with the inspiration and tools to free themselves from their psychic prisons and regain control of their lives.”