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Substance Abuse & Addiction
Fiction and nonfiction that tell of someone's addiction to/abuse of drugs or alcohol.
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A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book.
101 |
Invisible Monsters Remix
by
Chuck Palahniuk (Goodreads Author)
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 149,979 ratings
score: 567,
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6 people voted
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102 |
John Barleycorn: Alcoholic Memoirs
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3.99 avg rating — 3,876 ratings
score: 560,
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6 people voted
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103 |
Fiend
by
Peter Stenson (Goodreads Author)
3.57 avg rating — 3,895 ratings
score: 556,
and
6 people voted
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104 |
Lunar Park
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3.65 avg rating — 30,471 ratings
score: 551,
and
6 people voted
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105 |
Life of the Party
by
C. Erin Anderson (Goodreads Author)
4.19 avg rating — 635 ratings
score: 499,
and
5 people voted
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106 |
Bewilderness
by
Karen Tucker (Goodreads Author)
3.84 avg rating — 1,345 ratings
score: 497,
and
5 people voted
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107 |
The Drug Users Bible [Extended Edition]
by
Dominic Milton Trott (Goodreads Author)
4.42 avg rating — 40 ratings
score: 496,
and
5 people voted
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108 |
Cash
by
4.02 avg rating — 25,143 ratings
score: 493,
and
6 people voted
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109 |
Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia
by
4.03 avg rating — 33,905 ratings
score: 488,
and
5 people voted
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110 |
A Crystal Diary
by
3.73 avg rating — 66 ratings
score: 484,
and
5 people voted
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111 |
Permanent Obscurity: Or a Cautionary Tale of Two Girls and Their Misadventures with Drugs, Pornography and Death
by
Richard Pérez (Goodreads Author)
3.72 avg rating — 167 ratings
score: 481,
and
5 people voted
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112 |
Cathedral
by
4.24 avg rating — 39,336 ratings
score: 479,
and
5 people voted
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113 |
Eating Smoke: One Man's Descent Into Crystal Meth Psychosis in Hong Kong's Triad Heartland
by
Chris Thrall (Goodreads Author)
3.60 avg rating — 771 ratings
score: 468,
and
5 people voted
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114 |
Narcotics Anonymous
by
4.46 avg rating — 2,102 ratings
score: 448,
and
5 people voted
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115 |
Wonderful Tonight
by
3.72 avg rating — 15,866 ratings
score: 442,
and
5 people voted
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116 |
The Shores We Walk
by
Gabriel Rheaume (Goodreads Author)
3.99 avg rating — 79 ratings
score: 400,
and
4 people voted
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116 |
World War D. The Case against prohibitionism, roadmap to controlled re-legalization
by
Jeffrey Dhywood (Goodreads Author)
4.41 avg rating — 22 ratings
score: 400,
and
4 people voted
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116 |
The Falling of Love (Falling, #1)
by
Marisa Oldham (Goodreads Author)
4.13 avg rating — 530 ratings
score: 400,
and
4 people voted
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119 |
Girlbomb: A Halfway Homeless Memoir
by
Janice Erlbaum (Goodreads Author)
3.73 avg rating — 4,217 ratings
score: 395,
and
4 people voted
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120 |
Appetites: Why Women Want
by
4.05 avg rating — 3,343 ratings
score: 390,
and
4 people voted
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121 |
Unholy Ghosts (Downside Ghosts, #1)
by
Stacia Kane (Goodreads Author)
3.66 avg rating — 16,726 ratings
score: 389,
and
4 people voted
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122 |
High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society
by
4.13 avg rating — 3,015 ratings
score: 388,
and
4 people voted
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122 |
The House of Mirth
by
3.97 avg rating — 104,188 ratings
score: 388,
and
4 people voted
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124 |
Ninety Days: A Memoir of Recovery
by
Bill Clegg (Goodreads Author)
3.92 avg rating — 1,251 ratings
score: 387,
and
4 people voted
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125 |
City of Ghosts (Downside Ghosts, #3)
by
Stacia Kane (Goodreads Author)
4.22 avg rating — 9,418 ratings
score: 384,
and
4 people voted
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125 |
Save Me from Myself: How I Found God, Quit Korn, Kicked Drugs, and Lived to Tell My Story
by
4.01 avg rating — 4,590 ratings
score: 384,
and
4 people voted
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125 |
Transmetropolitan, Vol. 1: Back on the Street
by
4.20 avg rating — 47,137 ratings
score: 384,
and
4 people voted
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128 |
The Impostor's Daughter: A True Memoir
by
Laurie Sandell (Goodreads Author)
3.57 avg rating — 2,408 ratings
score: 381,
and
4 people voted
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128 |
The Story of Junk
by
3.82 avg rating — 439 ratings
score: 381,
and
4 people voted
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130 |
User
by
3.66 avg rating — 114 ratings
score: 378,
and
4 people voted
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131 |
Sophie’s Choice
by
4.17 avg rating — 93,847 ratings
score: 377,
and
4 people voted
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132 |
The Beautiful and Damned
by
3.73 avg rating — 64,094 ratings
score: 376,
and
4 people voted
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133 |
unSweetined
by
3.74 avg rating — 8,666 ratings
score: 375,
and
4 people voted
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134 |
Cocaine Papers
by
3.44 avg rating — 250 ratings
score: 374,
and
4 people voted
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135 |
Factotum
by
3.92 avg rating — 74,822 ratings
score: 371,
and
4 people voted
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136 |
Wonderland Avenue: Tales of Glamour and Excess
by
4.25 avg rating — 2,778 ratings
score: 369,
and
4 people voted
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136 |
The Cider House Rules
by
John Irving (Goodreads Author)
4.17 avg rating — 193,491 ratings
score: 369,
and
4 people voted
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138 |
Babylon Revisited and Other Stories
by
3.98 avg rating — 5,803 ratings
score: 368,
and
4 people voted
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139 |
Lithium for Medea
by
3.98 avg rating — 509 ratings
score: 367,
and
4 people voted
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140 |
It's So Easy: And Other Lies
by
Duff McKagan (Goodreads Author)
4.24 avg rating — 12,325 ratings
score: 361,
and
4 people voted
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140 |
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
by
Cheryl Strayed (Goodreads Author)
4.07 avg rating — 855,103 ratings
score: 361,
and
4 people voted
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142 |
The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band
by
4.14 avg rating — 48,517 ratings
score: 358,
and
4 people voted
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143 |
Godspeed
by
3.82 avg rating — 583 ratings
score: 357,
and
4 people voted
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144 |
City of Night
by
3.94 avg rating — 4,949 ratings
score: 354,
and
4 people voted
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145 |
MY BOOKY WOOK
by
3.43 avg rating — 24,325 ratings
score: 344,
and
4 people voted
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146 |
"My Dad Loves Me, My Dad Has a Disease" A Child's View: Living with Addiction
by
4.16 avg rating — 38 ratings
score: 336,
and
4 people voted
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147 |
I Am Ozzy
by
Ozzy Osbourne (author)
4.14 avg rating — 32,691 ratings
score: 335,
and
4 people voted
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148 |
Mommie Dearest
by
Christina Crawford (Goodreads Author)
3.67 avg rating — 11,425 ratings
score: 328,
and
4 people voted
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149 |
alt.punk
by
Lavinia Ludlow (Goodreads Author)
3.85 avg rating — 79 ratings
score: 300,
and
3 people voted
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149 |
In Ecstasy
by
Kate McCaffrey (Goodreads Author)
3.98 avg rating — 1,010 ratings
score: 300,
and
3 people voted
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149 |
Memoirs Aren't Fairytales: A Story of Addiction (The Memoir #1)
by
Marni Mann (Goodreads Author)
4.16 avg rating — 2,413 ratings
score: 300,
and
3 people voted
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149 |
Surreal Ecstasy
by
Chrissy Moon (Goodreads Author)
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 8 ratings
score: 300,
and
3 people voted
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149 |
Opiate Addiction - The Painkiller Addiction Epidemic, Heroin Addiction and the Way Out
by
Taite Adams (Goodreads Author)
3.95 avg rating — 128 ratings
score: 300,
and
3 people voted
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149 |
Addictarium
by
Nicole D'Settēmi (Goodreads Author)
4.28 avg rating — 110 ratings
score: 300,
and
3 people voted
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149 |
The Honest Drug Book: A Chemical & Botanical Journey Through The Legal High Years
by
Dominic Milton Trott (Goodreads Author)
4.33 avg rating — 51 ratings
score: 300,
and
3 people voted
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149 |
Before Familiar Woods
by
Ian Pisarcik (Goodreads Author)
3.70 avg rating — 1,839 ratings
score: 300,
and
3 people voted
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149 |
The Bench
by
4.44 avg rating — 16 ratings
score: 300,
and
3 people voted
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149 |
The Weight of Air: A Story of the Lies about Addiction and the Truth about Recovery
by
4.19 avg rating — 2,326 ratings
score: 300,
and
3 people voted
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159 |
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction
by
4.48 avg rating — 22,716 ratings
score: 299,
and
3 people voted
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159 |
Godspeed: The Kurt Cobain Graphic
by
3.70 avg rating — 576 ratings
score: 299,
and
3 people voted
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159 |
A Walk In His Shoes: One family's struggle. A son's battle with addiction.
by
Dustin John (Goodreads Author)
4.30 avg rating — 133 ratings
score: 299,
and
3 people voted
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162 |
The Unfinished Symphony of You and Me
by
Lucy Robinson (Goodreads Author)
3.97 avg rating — 1,336 ratings
score: 298,
and
3 people voted
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163 |
L'Assommoir
by
4.08 avg rating — 18,934 ratings
score: 297,
and
3 people voted
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164 |
Kasher in the Rye: The True Tale of a White Boy from Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient, and Then Turned 16
by
3.80 avg rating — 12,443 ratings
score: 296,
and
3 people voted
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165 |
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
by
4.52 avg rating — 115,626 ratings
score: 295,
and
3 people voted
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166 |
Vida: Memorias
by
3.89 avg rating — 97,523 ratings
score: 294,
and
3 people voted
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167 |
Diary of a Drug Fiend
by
3.79 avg rating — 3,412 ratings
score: 292,
and
3 people voted
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168 |
Ivy
by
3.36 avg rating — 1,570 ratings
score: 291,
and
3 people voted
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169 |
Morphine
by
4.07 avg rating — 11,049 ratings
score: 290,
and
3 people voted
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170 |
A Day Without Pain
by
3.65 avg rating — 31 ratings
score: 288,
and
3 people voted
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171 |
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
by
4.01 avg rating — 75,599 ratings
score: 287,
and
3 people voted
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172 |
Fallout (Crank, #3)
by
Ellen Hopkins (Goodreads Author)
4.25 avg rating — 39,434 ratings
score: 284,
and
3 people voted
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173 |
Drugstore Cowboy: A Novel
by
3.93 avg rating — 473 ratings
score: 283,
and
3 people voted
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174 |
Rachel's Holiday (Walsh Family, #2)
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 88,117 ratings
score: 281,
and
3 people voted
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175 |
Gun, With Occasional Music
by
3.76 avg rating — 11,544 ratings
score: 278,
and
3 people voted
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176 |
Speed & Kentucky Ham
by
3.83 avg rating — 618 ratings
score: 277,
and
3 people voted
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176 |
Cost
by
3.68 avg rating — 2,083 ratings
score: 277,
and
3 people voted
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176 |
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America
by
Beth Macy (Goodreads Author)
4.07 avg rating — 44,489 ratings
score: 277,
and
3 people voted
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179 |
Fall to Pieces: A Memoir of Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll, and Mental Illness
by
3.92 avg rating — 2,670 ratings
score: 275,
and
3 people voted
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180 |
Lover Enshrined (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #6)
by
J.R. Ward (Goodreads Author)
4.11 avg rating — 122,020 ratings
score: 273,
and
3 people voted
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180 |
Full Force
by
4.17 avg rating — 24 ratings
score: 273,
and
3 people voted
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182 |
The Gargoyle
by
Andrew Davidson (Goodreads Author)
3.97 avg rating — 50,521 ratings
score: 272,
and
3 people voted
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183 |
The Man with the Golden Arm
by
3.87 avg rating — 3,234 ratings
score: 271,
and
3 people voted
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183 |
The Sun Also Rises
by
3.79 avg rating — 485,303 ratings
score: 271,
and
3 people voted
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185 |
I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can
by
3.75 avg rating — 1,370 ratings
score: 269,
and
3 people voted
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185 |
Running with Scissors
by
Augusten Burroughs (Goodreads Author)
3.77 avg rating — 401,406 ratings
score: 269,
and
3 people voted
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187 |
How to Live with an Alcoholic and Survive
by
Carol Mills (Goodreads Author)
3.75 avg rating — 4 ratings
score: 265,
and
3 people voted
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187 |
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
by
Stephen King (Goodreads Author)
4.34 avg rating — 312,241 ratings
score: 265,
and
3 people voted
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189 |
Corpse Delectable
by
4.33 avg rating — 12 ratings
score: 264,
and
3 people voted
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189 |
We All Fall Down: Living with Addiction
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 4,716 ratings
score: 264,
and
3 people voted
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191 |
Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients
by
4.10 avg rating — 9,167 ratings
score: 263,
and
3 people voted
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192 |
Continental Drift
by
3.87 avg rating — 3,989 ratings
score: 262,
and
3 people voted
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193 |
Caresses Soft as Sandpaper
by
4.05 avg rating — 21 ratings
score: 260,
and
3 people voted
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194 |
Ironweed
by
3.87 avg rating — 17,496 ratings
score: 253,
and
3 people voted
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195 |
Dogs in Lingerie
by
4.30 avg rating — 56 ratings
score: 241,
and
3 people voted
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196 |
Tales of Ordinary Madness
by
3.85 avg rating — 30,354 ratings
score: 221,
and
3 people voted
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197 |
Sherry and Narcotics
by
Nina-Marie Gardner (Goodreads Author)
3.88 avg rating — 136 ratings
score: 200,
and
2 people voted
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197 |
Running Away From Me
by
4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings
score: 200,
and
2 people voted
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197 |
Glasshopper
by
Isabel Ashdown (Goodreads Author)
3.97 avg rating — 702 ratings
score: 200,
and
2 people voted
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197 |
Dopefiend
by
4.33 avg rating — 2,833 ratings
score: 200,
and
2 people voted
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711 books ·
1,311 voters ·
list created August 7th, 2008
by Jessica Haider (votes) .
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Fitzgerald is an easy author to sensationalize for addiction, however much of it is circuited by the jazz age culture - I'd argue the American Dream is an allegory for an addictive mindset one that traps pursuers into something that devours them completely.

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Dave Carr's memoir, The Gun in the Night, both excellent. Also the MOYERS book, forget the title...