Guest Post by Leslie Johansen Nack

Leslie Johansen Nack is the author of two award-winning books: her debut memoir, Fourteen, and her historical novel, The Blue Butterfly. Her forthcoming sequel, Nineteen: A Daughter’s Memoir of Reckoning and Recovery, concludes her raw and deeply personal story that chronicles her path to sobriety and a renewed sense of hope. You can find more about Leslie and her work at www.lesliejohansennack.com.

Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Me too! 

I was raised with too many rules and not enough boundaries, often living in survival mode through most of my childhood. It’s truly remarkable what children can endure. And I’m not claiming I have the worst story ever — because there’s no competition here. But I did survive, and if you’re reading this, you survived too. Congratulations! Now, what are you going to do? 

In my forthcoming memoir, Nineteen: A Daughter’s Memoir of Reckoning and Recovery (She Writes Press, October 2025), I revisit the girl I used to be—the one searching for safety, but stubborn and defiant and belonging in all the wrong places. After returning from a years-long sailing trip with my family, I found myself tossed between an alcoholic, mentally ill mother and an abusive, domineering father. By the age of nineteen, when my authoritarian father died suddenly in a plane crash, I was navigating not the sea, but the treacherous world of older men, addiction, trauma, and the aching hunger to be loved.

This book is a sequel to Fourteen, and like that earlier memoir, Nineteen is about surviving—and then choosing to live. I wrote it for the girls who grew up too fast, for the women still trying to make sense of their pasts, and for anyone who knows what it means to fall apart and begin again.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

In that spirit, here are seven memoirs by women who’ve walked through the fire of addiction and come out with stories that don’t just survive—they shine.

Lit by Mary Karr

With her signature wit and poetic grit, Karr chronicles her descent into alcoholism, her reluctant embrace of sobriety, and her surprising relationship with faith. Lit is about motherhood, creativity, and the hard-won hope of healing.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Strung Out: One Last Hit and Other Lies That Nearly Killed Me by Erin Khar

A raw, compassionate account of heroin addiction that began at thirteen, Khar’s memoir exposes the emotional wounds that fuel substance use. Set largely in Los Angeles, it’s a bold, intimate book about learning to mother herself.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget by Sarah Hepola

Part essay, part confessional, Hepola writes with fierce intelligence about the freedom she chased in drinking—and the liberation she found in sobriety. A modern classic on addiction, memory, and reclaiming your narrative.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Parched by Heather King

King delivers a stark and luminous account of her life as a successful attorney lost in alcoholism. Her prose is meditative and unsparing, as she charts a spiritual path through darkness toward grace.

Buy the book now:  Amazon

Drunk Mom by Jowita Bydlowska

This bracingly honest memoir about postpartum relapse pulls no punches. Bydlowska examines motherhood, shame, and the cycles of self-destruction with clear-eyed intensity and emotional precision.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Girl Walks Out of a Bar by Lisa F. Smith

High-functioning and high on everything—Smith’s double life as a corporate lawyer in Manhattan and a nightly drinker and drug user is laid bare in this fast-paced, riveting memoir. A wake-up call in every sense.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp

One of the most beloved memoirs of addiction, Knapp’s story of a seemingly “together” woman undone by alcohol is quiet, literary, and unforgettable. Her reflections on control, perfectionism, and loss still resonate deeply.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble