Alcoholic Anonymous Popular Books
Alcoholic Anonymous Biography & Facts
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a global peer-led mutual aid fellowship begun in the United States dedicated to abstinence-based recovery from alcoholism through its spiritually inclined twelve-step program. AA's twelve traditions, besides stressing anonymity, establish it as non-professional, unaffiliated, non-denominational and apolitical with a public relations policy of attraction rather than promotion. In 2020 AA estimated a worldwide membership of over two million, with 75% of those in the US and Canada. AA dates its founding to 1935 with Bill Wilson’s (Bill W.) and Bob Smith’s (Dr. Bob) first commiseration alcoholic-to-alcoholic. Meeting through AA's immediate precursor the Christian revivalist Oxford Group, they and other alcoholics there helped each other until forming in 1937 what became AA. The new fellowship—at first only white and male, though this was neither intentional or for long—published in 1939 Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Known as “the Big Book", it is also the origin of AA's name. The Big Book debuted AA's suggested—but not required—twelve steps as a continuing sobriety program of prayer, reflection, admission, better conduct and atonement, all to produce a "spiritual awakening" followed by taking others—usually sponsees—through the steps. For taking the steps, divining and following the will of an undefined God "as we understood Him" or as “a higher power" is integral, but differing practices and beliefs, including those of atheists, are accommodated. To keep sobriety as its primary purpose, and to remain what Wilson called a “benign anarchy”, AA instituted its twelve traditions in 1950 to ensure membership to all wishing to stop drinking with no dues or fees required. They urge all memberships be kept anonymous, especially in public media, but for broken anonymity, no consequences are prescribed. The traditions have AA steering clear of hierarchies, dogma, public controversies, while other outside entanglements, or acquisition of property are to be avoided. Additionally, members are advised not to use AA for material gain or to increase public prestige. To stay independent and self-supporting, the traditions would have no AA entity accepting outside contributions. For all demographics, a 2020 scientific review found clinical treatments increasing AA participation via AA twelve step facilitation (AA/TSF) had sustained remission rates 20-60% above other well-established treatments. Additionally, 4 of the 5 economic studies in the review found that AA/TSF lowered healthcare costs considerably. Regarding the disease model of alcoholism, an otherwise receptive AA has not endorsed it though many AA members have promoted it towards wider acceptance. With AA’s permission other recovery fellowships such as Narcotics Anonymous and Al-Anon have adopted and adapted the twelve steps and traditions. History AA was founded on 10 June 1935 but AA's origins are said to have begun when the renowned psychotherapist Carl Jung inspired Rowland H., an otherwise hopeless drunk, to seek a spiritual solution by sending him to the Oxford Group— a non-denominational, altruistic Christian movement modeled after first-century Christianity. Ebby Thacher got sober in that same Oxford Group and reached out to help his drinking buddy Bill Wilson. Thacher approached Wilson saying that he had "got religion", was sober, and that Wilson could do the same if he set aside objections and instead formed a personal idea of God, "another power" or "higher power". Feeling a "kinship of common suffering", Wilson attended his first group gathering, although he was drunk. Within days, Wilson admitted himself to the Charles B. Towns Hospital after drinking four beers on the way—the last alcohol he ever drank. Under the care of Dr. William Duncan Silkworth (an early benefactor of AA), Wilson's detox included the deliriant belladonna. At the hospital, a despairing Wilson experienced a bright flash of light, which he felt to be God revealing himself. This "spiritual awakening" may have been brought on by belladonna hallucinations and delirium tremens. Following his hospital discharge, Wilson joined the Oxford Group and tried to recruit other alcoholics to the group. These early efforts to help others kept him sober, but were ineffective in getting anyone else to join the group and get sober. Dr. Silkworth suggested that Wilson place less stress on religion (as required by The Oxford Group) and more on the science of treating alcoholism. Wilson's first success came during a business trip to Akron, Ohio, where he was introduced to Robert Smith, a surgeon and Oxford Group member who was unable to stay sober. After thirty days of working with Wilson, Smith drank his last drink on 10 June 1935, the date marked by AA for its anniversaries. The first female member, Florence Rankin, joined AA in March 1937, and the first non-Protestant member, a Roman Catholic, joined in 1939. The first black AA group commenced in 1945 in Washington D.C., and was founded by Jim S., an African-American physician from Virginia. While writing the Big Book in the several years after 1935, Wilson developed the Twelve Steps, which were influenced by the Oxford Group's 6 steps and various readings, including William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience. The Big Book, the Twelve Steps, and the Twelve Traditions To share their method, Wilson and other members wrote the initially-titled book, Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism, from which AA drew its name. Informally known as "The Big Book" (with its first 164 pages virtually unchanged since the 1939 edition), it suggests a twelve-step program in which members admit that they are powerless over alcohol and need help from a "higher power". They seek guidance and strength through prayer and meditation from God or a higher power of their own understanding; take a moral inventory with care to include resentments; list and become ready to remove character defects; list and make amends to those harmed; continue to take a moral inventory, pray, meditate, and try to help other alcoholics recover. The second half of the book, "Personal Stories" (subject to additions, removal, and retitling in subsequent editions), is made of AA members' redemptive autobiographical sketches. In 1941, interviews on American radio and favorable articles in US magazines, including a piece by Jack Alexander in The Saturday Evening Post, led to increased book sales and membership. By 1946, as the growing fellowship quarreled over structure, purpose, authority, finances and publicity, Wilson began to form and promote what became known as AA's "Twelve Traditions", which are guidelines for an altruistic, unaffiliated, non-coercive, and non-hierarchical structure that limited AA's purpose to only helping alcoholics on a non-professional level while shunning publicit.... Discover the Alcoholic Anonymous popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Alcoholic Anonymous books.
Best Seller Alcoholic Anonymous Books of 2024
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Healing the Shame That Binds You
John BradshawIn an emotionally revealing way John Bradshaw shows us how toxic shame is the core problem in our compulsions, codependencies, addictions and the drive to superachieve. The result ...
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Keep It Simple
AnonymousA dependable companion for people in all stages of recovery, Keep It Simple’s meditations bring you back to the basics of living a Twelve Step program. The recovery wisdom in each ...
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Seven Weeks to Sobriety
Joan Mathews Larson, PhD"Comprehensive, rational and personal. It suppplies much of what is missing in traditional approaches to alcoholic rehabilitation. I believe that this book can save lives." Leo Gal...
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Came to Believe
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.Gathered in this booklet are the heartfelt stories of more than 75 A.A. members from around the world who share what the phrases "Higher Power” and "God as we understood Him" mean ...
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Addiction and Grace
Gerald G. MayAddiction and Grace offers an inspiring and hope–filled vision for those who desire to explore the mystery of who and what they really are. May examines the "processes of attachmen...
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Rob Delaney
Rob DelaneyFrom a Deadpool 2 fan favorite comes a “hilarious, raw” (Rolling Stone) memoir about love, sex, parenthood, work, substance abuse, and everything else that makes lif...
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The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly
Matt McCarthyA scorchingly frank look at how doctors are made, bringing readers into the critical care unit to see one burgeoning physician's journey from ineptitude to competence.In medical sc...
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This Naked Mind
Annie GraceA groundbreaking and inspiring book that challenges our relationship with alcohol by exploring the psychological factors behind alcohol use and the cultural inf...
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A Beautiful, Terrible Thing
Jen WaiteA woman discovers her marriage is built on an illusion in this harrowing and ultimately inspiring memoir.“Be forewarned: You won’t sleep until you finish the last page.”Caroline Le...
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Alcoholics Anonymous
Charles BufeThis well researched, painstakingly documented book provides detailed information on the rightwing evangelical organization (Oxford Group Movement) that gave birth to AA; the relat...
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Daily Reflections
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.This collection of readings moves through the calendar year one day and one page at a time. For every day, a favorite quotation from the literature of Alcoholics Anonymous is fol...
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Drop the Rock--The Ripple Effect
Fred H.Drop the RockThe Ripple Effect provides multiple perspectives from people successfully working a Twelve Step Program, showing Step 10 as a key to a sober life free of fear and rese...
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Twenty-Four Hours a Day
AnonymousThis bestselling meditation book for those in recovery offers daily thoughts, meditations, and prayers for living a clean and sober life.Since 1954, TwentyFour Hours a Day has beco...
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Alcoholics Anonymous
The Anonymous PressThe basic text of the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. Often referred to as "The Big Book." Published by The Anonymous Press a registered nonprofit dedicated to AA servic...
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The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholic AnonymousALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism (generally known as The Big Book) is a 1939 basic text, describing how to reco...
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Alcoholics Anonymous
Bill W.A 75th anniversary ebook version of the most important and practical selfhelp book ever written, Alcoholics Anonymous. Here is a special deluxe edition of a book that has changed m...
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My Fair Junkie
Amy DresnerIn the tradition of Blackout and Permanent Midnight, a darkly funny and revealing debut memoir of one woman's twentyyear battle with sex, drugs, and alcohol addiction, and what hap...
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Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.Commonly referred to as the “Twelve and Twelve,” Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions comprises 24 foundational essays by Alcoholics Anonymous cofounder Bill W. that have helped mill...
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Ruthless River
Holly FitzGeraldA stunning debut; a Departures original publication. The ultimate survival story; a wild ridethe wildestdown a South American river in the thick of the Amazon Basin; a true and thr...
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A Million Little Pieces
James FreyNATIONAL BESTSELLER A gripping memoir about the nature of addiction and the meaning of recovery from a bold and talented literary voice. “Anyone who has ever felt broken and wishe...
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Beginning Alcoholics Anonymous. You Can Do This Even If You Failed Before.
John BarleykornThere is a solution. There is a systematic way to get sober and stay sober in a 12Step program. You do not have to suffer anymore! After all, if you read the history of AA, it’s cl...
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An Anatomy of Addiction
Howard MarkelAcclaimed medical historian Howard Markel traces the careers of two brilliant young doctorsSigmund Freud, neurologist, and William Halsted, surgeonshowing how their powerful addict...
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Quit Like a Woman
Holly WhitakerNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “An unflinching examination of how our drinking culture hurts women and a gorgeous memoir of how one woman healed herself.”Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Tim...
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Adult Children of Alcoholics
Janet G. WoititzIn the 1980's, Janet Woititz broke new ground in our understanding of what it is to be an Adult Child of an Alcoholic. In this updated edition of her bestseller she reexamines the ...
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As Bill Sees It
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.Alcoholics Anonymous cofounder Bill W. once wrote that this collection of excerpts from his writings was “meant to serve as an aid to individual meditation and a stimulant for grou...
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Drinking Games
Sarah LevyNamed Most Anticipated by: Good Morning America ・ New York Post・Pure Wow ・BuzzFeed ・ Los Angeles Times ・ Book Riot・ Apple BooksPart memoir and part social critique, Drinkin...
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Drunk Mom
Jowita Bydlowska“An intense, complex and disturbing story, bravely and beautifully told. I read Drunk Mom with my jaw on the floor, which doesn’t happen to me that often.” Lena Dunh...
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Alcoholics Anonymous - Big Book
AA World ServicesAlcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to reco...
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Drop the Rock
Bill P., Todd W. & Sara S.A practical guide to letting go of the character defects that get in the way of true and joyful recovery.Resentment. Fear. SelfPity. Intolerance. Anger. As Bill P. explains, these ...
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Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.Alcoholics Anonymous, by its very nature, could not have been founded by one person: its essence is sharing. Bill W. and Dr. Bob are always referred to within A.A. as “cofounders.”...
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The Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous
Dick B.The definitive work on Frank Buchman's Oxford Group and its links to Alcoholics Anonymous in New York and Akron. The 28 spiritual Oxford Group principles that impacted on A.A. are,...
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Living Sober
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.A.A.’s howto manual for staying sober in everyday situations, this widely read booklet demonstrates through simple examples how A.A. members throughout the world live their lives t...
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The Gifts of Imperfection
Brené BrownNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER This tenthanniversary edition of the gamechanging #1 New York Times bestseller features a new foreword and new tools to make the work...
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In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts
Gabor Maté, M.D.A “thoughtprovoking and powerful” study that reframes everything you’ve been taught about addiction and recoveryfrom the New York Times–bestselling author of The Myth of Normal (Br...
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Under the Influence
James Robert Milam & Katherine KetchamThe nowclassic guide to alcoholism returns with new, enlightening research that confirms the revolutionary ideas first trailblazed by this book in a time when such theories were un...
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Alcoholics Anonymous
Bill W.Many thousands have benefited from "The Big Book" and its simple but profound explanation of the doctrines behind Alcoholics Anonymous, which was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and...
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Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.A.A. cofounder Bill W. tells the story of the growth of Alcoholics Anonymous from its makeorbreak beginnings in New York and Akron in the early 1930s to its spread across the count...
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Alcoholics Anonymous, Fourth Edition
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.Known as the "Big Book," the basic text of Alcoholics Anonymous has helped millions of people worldwide get and stay sober since the first edition appeared in 1939. Opening chapter...
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Alcoholics Anonymous with Reference
The Anonymous PressIncludes: The main text: pages 1164 of the AA "Big Book" The original Foreword The Dr.'s Opinion Spiritual Experience The First Edition stories 29 personal stories The Secon...
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Blackout
Sarah HepolaA memoir of unblinking honesty and poignant, laughoutloud humor, Blackout is the story of a woman stumbling into a new kind of adventure the sober life she never wanted.For Sarah ...
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High Achiever
Tiffany JenkinsNATIONAL BESTSELLER An upclose portrait of the mind of an addict and a life unraveled by narcoticsa memoir of captivating urgency and surprising humor that puts a human face on th...
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Once We Were Sisters
Sheila KohlerONE OF PEOPLE MAGAZINE’S BEST NEW BOOKS“A searing and intimate memoir about love turned deadly.” The BBC“An intimate illumination of sisterhood and loss.” Peopl...