Any Avid Readers Here? What are you currently reading?

[emc2018]

I love how you put things into a perspective Matt that helps me to not only understand (myself) better but also that allows me to accept rather than worry about certain things, thank you

I too do a lot of ‘reading’ via audiobooks. I absolutely LOVE listening to memoirs and I look forward to driving long distances when I can really get into whichever I am currently reading. At the moment it’s ‘Over the Influence’ by Joanna ‘JoJo’ Levesque. It’s ok. She does share a lot about her parents struggles with addiction and sobriety as well as her own, and I’m finding that useful to learn/relearn as I listen.

I am often back and forth with my wrestle with social media. I’m always deleting the apps off my phone, but it doesn’t take long before they’re back again! I’m trying to be more conscious of my phone use. I’m happy if it’s constructive, or if it’s a bit of mindless numbing via scrolling just not for too long. I’ve come back to TS for that reason, as an alternative to social media (IG & FB) as I’d much rather spend my phone time here.

Thanks again for sharing, Matt. Do you like to read memoirs? If so, any good recommendations? Hmmmm, might of just had an idea for a thread topic

[SassyRocks]

I have a huge list of mostly recovery memoirs I have read if you’re interested!

[Matt]

I love memoirs. Loooove them.

Here’s a few from my list. Not all are memoirs but all of them use the author’s life experience as a key factor in the writing.

• Who We Are (Murray Sinclair)
• Wordslut (Amanda Montell)
• How to ADHD (Jessica McCabe)
• The Creative Act (Rick Rubin)
• The Making of Biblical Womanhood (Beth Allison Barr)
• Sabbath (Wayne Muller)
• Getting Off (Erica Garza)
• Living a Feminist Life (Sara Ahmed)
• Man’s Search for Meaning (Viktor Frankl)

What are some of your fave memoirs?

[JazzyS]

Reading this now and loving it so far.

[TS66]

I don’t know if there are any David Foster Wallace fans here. His Infinite Jest, a mammoth novel, offers a deep dive into the paradoxes of addiction.
I saw this review from Psychology Today about a new book on DFW and “philosophical therapy”: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/philosophies-in-psychology/202502/the-therapeutic-philosophy-of-david-foster-wallace

[emc2018]

Yes, most definitely! Thanks, Sassy

[emc2018]

Thanks for sharing your list, Matt! I’ll definitely have to look some of these up! I have read (listened to) Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning and loved it. So interesting. I haven’t read Amanda Montell’s Wordslut but, I did read her book Cultish and found it fascinating and very useful knowledge to acquire! I’m fascinated with anything to do with cults/brainwashing; I think because I always want to think critically and, I fear manipulation. Probably why I like memoirs and documentaries so much, too. I love learning from others’ experiences and hope to always be growing wiser, and less vulnerable to “bad” people. And, I’m a massive nerd/teacher/lifelong learner haha.

Other memoirs I’ve read include:
Rambling Man (Billy Connolly) - I absolutely loved this book as I identify as a “rambling man” myself!! Spoke to my soul and my yearning to travel & explore & experience
Long Walk to Freedom (Nelson Mandela) So great! His resilience!!
A Promised Land (Barack Obama)
UnLoveable (Darren Hayes)
An American Story: Everyone’s Invited (Wilmer Valderrama)
The Meaning of Mariah Carey
Dinner for Vampires (Bethany Joy Lenz)
More Myself (Alicia Keys)
Wildflower (Drew Barrymore)
From Under the Truck (Josh Brolin)
Did I Ever Tell You This? (Sam Neill)
The Woman in Me (Britany Spears)
Hippie (Paulo Coelho)
Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing (Matthew Perry) ..so sad
Educated (Tara Westover)
Untamed (Glennon Doyle)
Will (Will Smith)
The Road Less Travelled (Scott Peck)
A lot of Brene Browns books!
Sunset in Spain (Erna Walraven) not a memoir but about the time in her life when her and her husband decided to move from Australia to Spain.

I just love hearing people’s stories

[SassyRocks]

I loved Educated!

Here are a few of the memoirs (and memoir ish books) I’ve read over the years…

Gifts From The Sea, Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard

Wild, Cheryl Strayed

Beauty Disrupted, Carrie Otis

Thing of Beauty by Stephen Fried

Recovery based…trigger warnings…

The Gilded Razor by Sam Lansky (major trigger warning)

High on Arrival by Mackenzie Phillips

Under the Influence by Joyce Maynard

On Writing by Stephen King

A Drinking Life, Pete Hamill

Dry, Augusten Burroughs

How To Murder Your Life, Cat Marnell

Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt

Sweetbitter, Stephanie Danler

Blame, Michelle Huneven

Goa Freaks, Cleo Odzer

I have a real fondness for rocker memoirs…more trigger warnings…

I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, Warren Zevon

The Dirt, Motley Crue

Long Time Gone, David Crosby

It’s Only Rock n Roll, Jo Woods memoir about life with Ron

Dirty Rocker Boys, Bobbie Brown

Wonderful Tonight, Pattie Boyd

The Road Through Wonderland, Dawn Schiller (look it up…intense!! She is a survivor!!)

[SassyRocks]

My latest read was Binstead’s Safari by Rachel Ingalls. It was highly recommended and did not disappoint. Check it out!!

[Matt]

Love this list I’ve read several of Brene Brown’s books and enjoyed them; they’ve helped me redefine and focus myself. The Nelson Mandela memoir I’ve not read but would love to

[Leveller]

[TS66]

I forgot about Bateson. A few essays in this book apply cybernetics (systems theory) to understanding addiction. Looking forward to diving back in.

[JazzyS]

Ooh…this is need to me..
Let us know what you think of it. I may have to reread 1984 before I read this.

[TS66]

It’s intriguing. Bateson’s essay on cybernetics and AA uses systems theory to look at AA and AA to look at systems theory. One of his points that sticks with me is his observation that the alcoholic doesn’t surrender, but that AA or other sobriety programs reorient the relationship between self and environment. In traditional Western, what Bateson describes as “Occidental” ways of understanding, the self is in control or loses control. [The anthropology terms makes sense; GB was married to Margaret Mead.] The cybernetic view looks at connections. “I” don’t cut down the tree; my self-arm-energy-axe etc. works as a system. As AA and other sobriety programs argue, according to Bateson, the alcoholic needs to reject the Western concept of an isolated self, where the self exists separately from an environment it attempts (and always fails) to control. The cybernetic/systems perspective understands the individual as part of a whole system (in fact, part of many systems). The part exists within but cannot control the whole system.
The essay stresses that this model can apply to alcoholics outside of AA and that there might be other types of alcoholics. Still, I find this dimension of Bateson’s essay pretty interesting.

[Tragicfarinelli]

New author to me, but I have a few of his novels. I’m loving this one. I adore that type of old fashioned American style of writing; glass cola and diners and rural small towns. I just get so sucked into a landscape so unfamiliar to me and unknown.

[Leveller]

My last few audiobooks
Alcohol lied to me
This naked mind
Alcohol explained 2

My initial thoughts on this naked mind were what a load of rubbish this woman is talking. She is just taking parts from other peoples books.
Then I listened to Alcohol explained 2 which i found really helpful but by this time i was already a good few days without alcohol and certain in my mind i would never drink again. And happy about it. This got me thinking was it my unconscious mind that was actually working like this naked mind said it would?
So i gave it another listen and the second time i could relate to it more openly and throughly enjoyed it.
I have Easy way to quit drinking now to listen to but dont actually feel the need for a self help book at the moment.
So Ive listened to the lost bookshop this week and currently on with 1984 JULIA.

Pumkin stew and quilt collecting to send me off to sleep in minutes.

[HolySquid]

I’m more of a fiction kinda Squid, but there are two memoirs I really enjoyed… probably because I am really fond of the authors work in television.

Just ignore him (Alan Davies)
On the edge (Richard Hammond)

[SassyRocks]

I (mostly) love Curtis Sittenfield’s novels, so I am trying her most recent collection of stories. I am not normally a short story person…but lord knows my attention span is lacking lately…so short stories are fitting. So far, I am enjoying it.

Goodreads

[TS66]

A couple recovery books my wife recommended to me and one from my own shelf about the role of the mundane in everyday life.

[Matt]

Refiguring the Ordinary looks interesting! Haven’t seen that one before.

Rational Recovery groups have mostly faded away over the last 25 years but SMART Recovery is a non-profit organization with no fees charged for any program elements, founded by (mostly) former members of Rational Recovery. The core idea - specifically of a non-religious, non-spiritual, psychology-based approach to recovery - is maintained in SMART.