What’s in it
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24 books with the same feel
Hide books by the same authorInfinite Jest
David Foster Wallace · 1,088 pages
A gargantuan, mind-altering comedy about the Pursuit of Happiness in America Set in an addicts' halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwed-up family to come along in recent fiction, Infinite Jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment affects our need to connec
The Taste of Salt
Martha Southgate · 281 pages
"Josie Henderson is most at home in and around water, and as a senior-level black female scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, she is practically alone in her field. But in building this impressive life for herself, she has tried to shed the one thing she cannot: her family roots back in Cleveland. When Tick, her brother and childhood ally against their alcoholic father, arrives o
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Ocean Vuong · 256 pages
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once
Martyr!
Kaveh Akbar · 352 pages
Cyrus Shams is lost. Ever since his mother’s plane was senselessly shot down over the Persian Gulf when he was just a baby, Cyrus has been grappling with her death. Now, newly sober, he is set to learn the truth of her life. When an encounter with a dying artist leads Cyrus towards the mysteries of his past - an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as an Angel of Death, a haun
Daisy Jones & the Six
Taylor Jenkins Reid · 400 pages
A gripping novel about the whirlwind rise of an iconic 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer, revealing the mystery behind their infamous break up. Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six, but nobody knows the real reason why they split at the absolute height of their popularity…until now. Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset St
The Sun Sister
Lucinda Riley · 848 pages
The Empty Room
Lauren B. Davis · 314 pages
Colleen Kerrigan wakes up sick and bruised, with no clear memory of the night before. She vows to quit drinking. It's Monday morning, and she is late for work again. She's shocked to see the near-empty vodka bottle on her kitchen counter. As she struggles out the door to the bus, she fights the urge to have a sip, just to take the edge off. But no, she's not going to drink today. But today is the
The River Is Waiting
Wally Lamb · 451 pages
Corby Ledbetter is struggling. New fatherhood, the loss of his job, and a growing secret addiction have thrown his marriage to his beloved Emily into a tailspin. And that's before he causes the tragedy that tears the family apart. Sentenced to prison, Corby struggles to survive life on the inside, where he bears witness to frightful acts of brutality but also experiences small acts of kindness
Diary of a Drug Fiend
Aleister Crowley · 368 pages
Diary of a Drug Fiend was Aleister Crowley's first published novel. To the reader of 1922 it presented a shocking look at a little known phenomenon. Today, while we are more familiar with drugs because of their widespread use in our culture, Diary of a Drug Fiend remains one o fthe most intense, detailed and accurate accounts of drug addiction and the drug experience. The book was written by Cr
August: Osage County
Tracy Letts · 112 pages
A portrait of a dysfunctional American family at its finest - and absolute worst. When the patriarch of the Weston clan disappears one hot summer night, the family reunites at the Oklahoma homestead where long-held secrets are unflinchingly and uproariously revealed.
Gather
Kenneth M. Cadow · 325 pages
Publisher Annotation: A resourceful teenager in rural Vermont struggles to hold on to the family home while his mom recovers from addiction in this striking debut novel.
Any Woman's Blues
Erica Jong · 373 pages
Any Woman's Blues, first published in 1990, is a tale of addiction and narcissism-the twin obsessions of ourage. World-famous folk singer Leila Sand emerged from the sixties and seventies with addictions to drugs and booze. Leila's latest addiction is to a younger man who leaves her sexually ecstatic but emotionally bereft. The orgasmic frenzies trump the betrayals, so she keeps coming back for mo
Maya's Notebook
Isabel Allende · 408 pages
After the death of her beloved grandfather, nineteen-year-old Maya Vidal, turning to drugs, alcohol, and petty crimes, becomes trapped in a war between assassins, the police, the FBI, and Interpol, until her grandmother helps her escape to a remote island off the coast of Chile where she tries to make sense of her life. After the death of her grandfather, teenager Maya falls into depression, drug
Trainspotting
Irvine Welsh · 352 pages
Scottish writer Irvine Welsh's first novel, Trainspotting, is a collection of short-stories revolving around a group of friends, their drug use, and struggles in the city of Edinburgh.
Blame
Michelle Huneven · 291 pages
Patsy MacLemoore, a history professor in her late twenties with a brand-new Ph.D. from Berkeley and a wild streak, wakes up in jail--yet again--after another epic alcoholic blackout. However, this time two people are dead, and Patsy had been driving with a revoked license. She will spend the rest of her life in prison, getting sober, finding a new community and husband, and trying to atone for thi
Idiot: Life Stories from the Creator of Help Helen Smash
Laura Clery · 255 pages
Last Night I Sang to the Monster
Benjamin Alire Saenz · 271 pages
Zach is eighteen. He is bright and articulate. He's also an alcoholic and in rehab instead of high school, but he doesn't remember how he got there. He's not sure he wants to remember. Something bad must have happened. Something really, really bad. Remembering sucks and being alive—well, what's up with that?I have it in my head that when we're born, God writes things down on our hearts. See, on so
Under the Influence
Joyce Maynard · 336 pages
"The New York Times bestselling author of Labor Day and After Her returns with a poignant story about the true meaning--and the true price--of friendship. Drinking cost Helen her marriage and custody of her seven-year-old son, Ollie. Once an aspiring art photographer, she now makes ends meet taking portraits of school children and working for a caterer. Recovering from her addiction, she spends lo
The Weir
Conor McPherson · 72 pages
Set in a rural pub in western Ireland, "The weir" is a drama of interwoven stories as told by the locals about how they comfort and distract one another in the midst of desolation and grief.