Recovery Memoirs

Beloved former ABC 20/20 anchor Elizabeth Vargas share the truth about her alcohol addiction and anxiety disorder in this honest and emotional memoir. From the moment she uttered the brave and honest words, "I am an alcoholic," to interviewer George Stephanopoulos, Elizabeth Vargas began writing...

The aftermath of a single event or repeated trauma can profoundly shape how we experience the rest of our lives. Whether it occurred in childhood, a recent relationship, a catastrophe, or other situation, trauma can have lifelong effects. Yet, as impossible as it may seem now, says Dr. Arielle Schwartz, you can return to wholeness. This pioneering psychotherapist, a survivor of complex trauma herself, has helped thousands. With Trauma Recovery, she brings us a compassionate and practice-oriented audio resource for transformation and growth.

In One Last Hit, Austin Rampt lays bare a life torn apart by addiction, where the pursuit of one more high led him from a troubled childhood in Tampa to fleeing the country and living in the dangerous underbelly of the Sinaloa Cartel. With unflinching honesty, he recounts the chaos of eight rehabs, jail cells, and a shattered family, each step deeper into the abyss threatening to consume him entirely. Yet, as Austin's world burns—literally and figuratively—a flicker of hope emerges, pulling him toward a truth he never expected to find.

Called the Jane Goodall of wolves, world-renowned wildlife biologist Diane Boyd has spent four decades studying and advocating for wolves in the wilds of Montana near Glacier National Park. When she started in the 1970s, she was the only female biologist in the United States researching and radio-collaring wild wolves. With her two dogs for company, she faced the rigors of the Montana winter in an isolated cabin.

In 2015, Barbara Lipska - a leading expert on the neuroscience of mental illness - was diagnosed with melanoma that had spread to her brain. Within months, her frontal lobe, the seat of cognition, began shutting down. She descended into madness, exhibiting dementia- and schizophrenia-like symptoms that terrified her family and coworkers. But miraculously, the immunotherapy her doctors had prescribed worked quickly. Just eight weeks after her nightmare began, Lipska returned to normal. With one difference: she remembered her brush with madness with exquisite clarity.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “I come from a family forged by tragedies and bound by a remarkable, unbreakable love,” Hunter Biden writes in this deeply moving and “unflinchingly honest” (Entertainment Weekly) memoir of addiction, loss, and survival. When he was two years old, Hunter Biden...

In February 2005, more than 10,000 people in Bakersfield, California, watched as Brian “Head” Welch—the former lead guitarist of the controversial rock band Korn—was saved by Jesus Christ. The event set off a media frenzy as observers from around the world sought to understand what led this rock star out of the darkness and into the light.

Unlike some popular memoirs that have fictionalized and romanticized the degradations of drug addiction, Broken is a true-life tale of recovery that stuns and inspires with virtually every page. The eldest son of journalist Bill Moyers, William Cope Moyers relates with unforgettable clarity the...

Fans of Fourteen: A Daughter’s Memoir will love this follow-up title. Here is what happened next. In the mid-1970s, Leslie Nack’s family returned from sailing to French Polynesia and began the integration process into American life again, which included being tossed back and forth between an alcoholic, mentally ill mother and an abusive, overbearing father. To find love and acceptance, Leslie chases a myth that throws her into the path of nefarious older men, where she eventually falls into drug and alcohol addiction.

When her horse bucked her off at a rodeo, professional barrel racer Marci Powell shattered her neck and back in two places — injuries so severe doctors warned she might never walk again, let alone ride. But Marci’s story didn’t end in that arena. Through pain, fear, and the silent battles of PTSD, she learned that standing again isn’t about perfection — it’s about persistence. This book is for anyone who’s been broken — by trauma, by loss, by life itself — and is trying to find their way back.

Perhaps the most unconventional and literally breathtaking father-son story you'll ever read, My Friend Leonard pulls you immediately and deeply into a relationship as unusual as it is inspiring. The father figure is Leonard, the high-living, recovering coke addict, "West Coast Director of a large Italian-American finance firm" (read: mobster) who helped to keep James Frey clean in A Million Little Pieces.

This audiobook is Nick Carter's autobiography and self-help hybrid, in which he chronicles his struggles with a dysfunctional family and the unimaginable rigors of becoming an internationally successful pop-star at the age of 12. From his battle with addiction to serious health complications and the pain of his younger sister's tragic death, Nick leaves nothing to the imagination and offers true and heartfelt advice to help listeners overcome obstacles in their own lives.

While his wife and two-year-old daughter watched TV in the living room, David Poses was in the kitchen, measuring the distance from his index finger to his armpit. He needed to be sure he could pull the trigger with a shotgun barrel in his mouth. Twenty-six inches. Thirty-two years old. More than a decade in a double life fueled by depression and heroin.

When Kerry Cohen reached her early 40s, she realized she had a drinking problem - just enough to blur the edges of her life that had become a monotony of working, carpooling the kids to school, and everyday distractions. What she also realized was that she wasn't the only one. Lush is a gripping memoir that examines Kerry's struggles with alcohol, a struggle that a rising number of middle-aged women are facing. Wonderfully poignant and relatable, Lush follows Kerry as she attempts to rediscover the awe in her life, leaving mistakes, regrets, and the bottle behind her.

Following the success of his New York Times bestselling memoir Stories I Only Tell My Friends, acclaimed actor Rob Lowe returns with Love Life—a funny, heartfelt, and deeply personal collection of stories that “invites readers into his world with easy charm and disarming frankness” (Kirkus...

“Mark Henick is a powerful storyteller.” —Rosie O’Donnell “So-Called Normal is a call to arms, yes, but it’s also a call to care, highlighting the power of kindness. Required reading for anyone working with children and teens.” —The Globe and Mail A vital and triumphant story of...

At seven, Brandon was a skateboard prodigy. By the time he was fourteen, he was living the dream. Discovered by skate legends Bucky Lasek and Tony Hawk. Touring the US with the elite Powell-Peralta team. Signing autographs and appearing in films and magazines. Brandon had it all. Then he got hooked on heroin. Soon he was living a down-and-out life in a garage, begging for change, and hustling to score his next fix. He stole from his family and friends. He pushed the fantasy that everything was okay, that he was going to rehab, getting help, and getting better. But it was all a lie.

"A refreshingly raw, contrasting perspective on the foolproof idea of motherhood." -- POPSUGAR "By turns painful and funny... A searingly candid memoir." -- Kirkus "Far from your cookie-cutter story of addiction . . . [I'm Just Happy to Be Here] describes Hanchett's journey to recovery and...

**NATIONAL BESTSELLER** An eye-opening memoir of family drama, stardom, despair, and resilience from the wildly popular wrestling superstar. Saraya-Jade Bevis, formerly WWE’s Paige, is one of the biggest names in the wrestling world. She is the youngest two-time WWE Divas Champion and was...

In Scars for Future Wars, the listener is brought inside the volatile psychology of an alcoholic in full acceleration — the rage, the impulsivity, the ruptured relationships, and the mounting damage inflicted both inward and outward. The suffering is deafening. It is a chronicle of unchecked force, where emotion and addiction merge into something dangerously unpredictable.