Twelve-Step Programs Books - Page 5

Understanding the Twelve Steps: An Interpretation and Guide for Recovering

Terence T. Gorski

Amazon Price: $11.05 List Price: $13.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Fireside Amazon Marketplace: 64 new & used starting at $2.28

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Recovery -> Substance Abuse
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Recovery -> Twelve-Step Programs
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Recovery -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Millions of people have transformed their lives by working the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Their success has come from their ability to truly understand these principles and to apply them in their daily lives. Yet for many embarking on the road to recovery, the Steps can seem vague, even confusing.

This practical, no-nonsense guide takes the mystery out of the Twelve Steps, presenting a straightforward explanation of what each step means, as well as examples of how it translates to real life. Written by a certified alcoholism and drug abuse counselor with more than twenty years of experience, it offers a wealth of wisdom, knowledge, and genuine support for anyone in recovery.

Understanding the Twelve Steps features:

Clear, easy-to-understand interpretation of the Twelve Steps -- the vital building blocks of recovery
Checklists that summarize the tasks and objectives of each step
The Twelve Promises -- the positive changes you can expect in your life if you follow the Twelve Steps
What happens at Twelve Step meetings and why it is important to have a sponsor
The experiences, strength, and hope of other recovering people

Carry This Message

Joe McQ

Amazon Price: $10.36 List Price: $12.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: August House Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $6.98

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General AAS
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Recovery -> Alcoholism

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

CARRY THIS MESSAGE 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

CARRY THIS MESSAGE IS AN EXCELLENT BOOK FOR ANY ONE WANTING TO EXPAND ON THE PROGRAM OFA.A.THE BIG BOOK OF A.A.IS STILL THE BASIC TEXT.ANOTHER GREAT BOOK BY JOE McQ IS "THE STEPS WE TOOK".

excellent source 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Joe McQ. is fantastic at helping understand the Alcoholics Anonymous book and the 12 steps. In this book, he has been a great help to me. To carry this message is one of the corner stones of recovery, and Joe writes about how to do just that.

Outstanding Insight and Experience 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Joe McQ's guide for sponsorship is an invaluable aid to both experienced 12-Step sponsors and new sponsors just linking up with a person in recovery. There's no fluff or dross here; Joe tells it like it is and he speaks from many years of experience, both his own and that of others. Joe McQ is a fundamentalist, Big Book fellow, as his many workshops and recordings testify. His modesty and humility mask a deep understanding of human nature. You'll get more than you bargain for in this deceptively slim paperback.

Editorial Review:

As an internationally respected teacher and lecturer on the Twelve Step method introduced by Alcoholics Anonymous, Joe McQ knows that sponsorship is a key construct for the success of the program because it involves moving a person through the Twelve Step process to recovery. In the early days of AA, sponsors would come to the alcoholicf_(tm)s home and talk him through Steps 1 and 2, and when they were thoroughly convinced he was ready, they would start him on the program. Step 12 is the foundation ....

Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations For Women

Karen Casey

Amazon Price: $11.16 List Price: $13.95 In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served. By: Hazelden Publishing & Educational Services Amazon Marketplace: 6 new & used starting at $11.15

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Alternative Medicine -> Meditation
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Motivation
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Each Day a New Beginning: Daily Meditations for Women 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a good book for someone in alcohol recovery. I am a non-drinker and didn't like the references to "see your sponsor, etc." I recommend it for someone trying to go straight.

Great Delivery!!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I have been looking for this book for 2 years. I had one that is 17 years old. I was very surprised to fine one that was nice and new. I purchased and then bam, it was here by mail.

Thanks so much,.

Editorial Review:

Millions of people around the world spend a few moments each day in quiet reflection with a Karen Casey meditation book. The author's signature work, Each Day a New Beginning, was the first daily meditation book for recovering alcoholic women. When published in 1982, the book had no competition, yet many wondered whether a market existed for such a work. Twenty-five years and more than three million copies later, what became known as the little green book continues to sustain old and new readers alike. This limited edition features a new introduction by Casey, the original text, and original cover art. While many daily meditation books have been modeled after Each Day a New Beginning, no author can match Casey's reassuring guidance and gentle wisdom for sustaining lifelong recovery.

Hope and Recovery: A Twelve Step Guide for Healing From Compulsive Sexual Behavior

Anonymous

Amazon Price: $12.89 List Price: $18.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Hazelden Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $0.49

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Mental Illness
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Recovery -> Substance Abuse
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Recovery -> Twelve-Step Programs

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A very in-depth tool book of recovery for sexual addiction. 5 out of 5 stars.
71 of 77 people found this review helpful.

Hope & Recovery is the current basic text of SAA (Sex Addicts Anomyous, a twelve-step group for sexually recovering people). The book is designed for individuals who feel that they are sexually compusive and are looking for information on the addictive disease and "tools" to use to become and remain free from sexual addiction. Each of the twelve steps is explained in detail on how they can be lived daily for sexual recovery. A number of individuals tell their own experiences of how they lived their disease, discovered the hope of the program, and how they are currently living a life of recovery. The book is well written, sensitive, hopeful, and a continual must read through the journey of recovery. Definately Hope & Recovery.

It's not the basic text of SAA 4 out of 5 stars.
15 of 15 people found this review helpful.

I was checking out some recovery books on Amazon and noticed this review about "Hope and Recovery". I'm a member of Sex Addicts Anonymous and "Hope and Reovery" IS NOT the basic text of that fellowship. It is read, but it's not the basic text. If you read the Steps and Traditions in the book, and really the rest of the book, nowhere is Sex Addicts Anonymous ever mentioned in those pages. I'm not saying "don't read Hope and Recovery," I just want to make it clear that it's not the basic text of SAA.

"Hope and Recovery" is a good read especially if you're a sex addict seeking recovery. It's a great book to "identify" with the problem of sex addiction. What has helped me in my recovery program with sex addiction, however, is reading the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous and the AA "Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions"--the start of all 12-Step recovery programs. Though not an alcoholic, I can translate the problem as well as the solution to my sex addiction and my recovery from it, one day at a time. I use these two books more than I use "Hope and Recovery."

Editorial Review:

The classic guide by and for those recovering from sexual addiction examines each of the twelve steps of recovery. The personal stories of other recovering people highlight each step.

The Pathwork of Self-Transformation

Eva Pierrakos

Amazon Price: $10.88 List Price: $16.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Bantam Amazon Marketplace: 81 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General AAS
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Recovery -> Twelve-Step Programs
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Recovery -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Best book ever 5 out of 5 stars.
18 of 19 people found this review helpful.

I bought this book 20 years ago and even now when I read it I come to new realizations about myself. The material present in the lectures goes so deep that you can read the lectures again and again and continue to get insight from them. It is the best guidebook for life and for understanding our shadow selves that I have ever seen. If you want a true change of self and freedom from your compulsions this is the best place to start. Mind you, it is a slow process but the book is just the thing to turn to when you feel stuck and hopeless. It has the keys that will lead you to just the understanding you need to free your mind.

Editorial Review:

For more than twenty years, noted therapist Eva Pierrakos was the channel for a spirit entity known only as the Guide. Combining rare psychological depth and insight with an inspiring vision of human possibility, the Guide's teachings, known as the Pathwork, have influenced many New Age thinkers. Now the core teachings of the Guide have been collected in one volume synthesizing its essential wisdom.

Getting Up, Getting Over, Getting On: A Twelve Step Guide to Divorce Recovery

Micki McWade

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Sourcebooks, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 30 new & used starting at $4.97

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Recovery -> Twelve-Step Programs
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Self-Help -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Self-Help -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Living Life after the Facade of Fantasy Fades 5 out of 5 stars.
24 of 26 people found this review helpful.

My hope for you is that you will find strength and comfort within these steps. They offer practical suggestions for getting through the tumult and minimizing long-term damage to you and your family. ~Micki McWade

Micki McWade was thrown into an extremely precarious and vulnerable position when she and her husband separated in the fall of 1990. Through overwhelming grief, she struggled through a breakup that was more trying than she had ever anticipated.

At that time she was a member of Al-Anon (a support group for families of alcoholics) and was practicing the Twelve Steps. This helped her to clarify what she was going through, reduced her inner turmoil and helped to create some semblance of peace. After experiencing divorce first-hand, she decided to create a support group for separated and divorced individuals who needed advice, friendship and hope.

In the first chapter, Micki presents a basic understanding of the divorce situation. For women, this can often mean a loss of income, immense grief and the loss of major support systems present when you marry into another family. She explains how she felt, how others feel and what you might be experiencing. This chapter also briefly delves into the are of spirituality (a higher power) and then concludes with the serenity prayer.

Chapter two explains the Twelve Step Recovery Program and lists the steps. Chapter Three takes each step and explains it in depth.

Throughout this book, you will find prayers, inspirational quotes, a deep understanding of the issues at hand and an immense helping of encouragement. Women are especially vulnerable in divorce situations and Micki's story is all too typical of what happens to many women when they have stayed home to take care of their children and been a support to their husbands. If she could survive her divorce, I think anyone could as long as they were patient with themselves. So, this book can give women hope.

In the second section there are tools for recovery that include information on how to create a support group. Chapter five gives four main slogans and explanations for how these can be used in the support group setting for discussion. Chapter seven is filled with personal stories of women who experienced divorce and Susan had an interesting idea about "the person who emotionally leaves the relationship is the initiator."

If you are looking for support during a very difficult time in your life, this book can help you free yourself from your past and encourage spiritual growth. I can also recommend "Daily Meditations: For Surviving a Breakup, Separation or Divorce."

~The Rebecca Review

Editorial Review:

For 20 million Americans the long process of healing after the devastation of divorce began with a single step. Most found their way alone, making mistakes and trying to reinvent their lives through trial and error. Now, borrowing the wisdom gained in the development of 12 Step Programs, Getting Up, Getting Over, Getting On offers learned and proven support. Author Micki McWade adapts the best techniques, information and life lessons of long established recovery programs to provide a concise and comprehensive pathway to a fulfilling life after divorce. Whether during the painful days of the divorce itself or in the adaptive weeks and months that follow, McWade offers valuable ideas that work in relationships with children and with (ex) spouses. Readers are also provided with step-by-step encouragement for forming their own support groups.

A Skeptic's Guide to the 12 Steps

Phillip Z.

Amazon Price: $11.16 List Price: $13.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Hazelden Amazon Marketplace: 41 new & used starting at $6.60

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Recovery -> Substance Abuse
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Recovery -> Twelve-Step Programs

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Theistic v. Spiritual v. Cognitive 3 out of 5 stars.
23 of 33 people found this review helpful.

The book was a bit too "warm fuzzy" for me (with its heavy emphasis on the spiritual v. the cognitive); so I give it a 3-stars. Those of us who have not experienced an anthropomorphic God (i.e., one who intervenes in human affairs) have an uphill battle with the religionists. And those of us who experience "spirit" as a biochemical function of the brain, have had better success with a cognitive-behavioral approach to recovery. For 18-years, my Higher Power was my Home Group and the Big Book.
.
As an alternative, the following is a non-theistic summary of the 12-Step Program:
.
The Principles of the 12-Steps:
1. Honesty
2. Hope
3. Faith
4. Courage
5. Integrity
6. Willingness
7. Humility
8. Empathy
9. Justice
10. Perseverance
11. Spirituality
12. Service
.
Three Cardinal Rules of Sobriety:
1. Stay Sober NO MATTER WHAT !!
2. Change the Brain from Stinking Thinking !!
.....(using cognitive therapy if necessary)
3. Help Others Stay Sober !!
.
How to Work a 12-Step Program:
1. For the 1st 90-days, Be Quiet (except to ask questions).
2. For the 1st year, LISTEN and LEARN.
3. From Day-1, PRACTICE What You Learn.
4. Teach Others the Program (when you sponsor someone).
.
In the mean time, I will keep researching other books to find a more complete, cognitive approach to the 12-Step Program. This best workbook using the cognitive approach (CBT) to recovery that I have read so far is "The Tao of Sobriety: Helping You to Recover from Alcohol and Drug Addiction." This little book is outstanding, and easy to comprehend.

Editorial Review:

What do people do if they want to recover but are not certain about the existence or role of a higher power? Phillip Z. has created an excellent resource that encourages readers to trust the twelve steps and to follow the spiritual journey of recovery despite such skepticism.

Emotions Anonymous

Emotion Anonymous

Amazon Price: $15.95 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Emotions Anonymous Ltd Amazon Marketplace: 34 new & used starting at $6.46

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> Emotions
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Recovery -> Twelve-Step Programs
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Recovery -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Allow Yourself to Get Help 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 15 people found this review helpful.

Most people always try to keep everything to themselves and I read about them blowing themselves away or taking others with them,just because they had to much pride to ask for help.
The twelve steps suggested in this book saved my life in another program 12 step program and have saved millions more.No body ever forced me to believe in anything,but if you actually and TRUELY work the steps as they are layed out in this text,it's hard not to believe in a Higher Power.I've seen too many big ego people blow their heads off,overdose,or what have you.I found following the book much easier.

12-step brainwashing at its most extreme 1 out of 5 stars.
10 of 41 people found this review helpful.

I made the mistake of getting caught up in the 12-Step Borg years ago, before authors such as Chas Bufe and Stanton Peele confirmed my suspicions that the entire movement is religious, and specifically evangelical -- rather than "spiritual" -- in nature, and that the fact it didn't work for me, no matter how hard I tried, did not mean there was anything wrong with me.

"EA" is the most ridiculous permutation of the Borg. Okay, in AA they want to give up alcohol and in NA they want to give up narcotics. Those goals at least make sense.

But in EA, the goal is to get rid of those pesky negative emotions, because there could *never* be any valid reason to feel sad or angry, unless one were willfully (will is bad, you see) rejecting one's "Higher Power." One achieves this dubious nirvana by repeating those annoying mantras like "One Day at a Time" over and over until one has managed to shut down one's thought processes. After all, in 12-Step Borg circles, not using one's brain is a *plus*. (Ever heard their expression "stinking thinking"?)

The worst "survivor testimony" in this entire book is by a woman named Jackie. When she was a young girl, her parents (and I use that term loosely) prostituted her out to strange men, which included making her dance with them.

Now, every day, she works toward earning the "forgiveness" of her "higher power."

Excuse me, but what *forgiveness" does anyone who's been put through that sort of atrocity by those who should have been the first to protect her have to earn?! Jackie's "parents" should be on their knees begging HER forgiveness. At the very least, they should be in prison for the rest of their lives -- getting from their fellow inmates, I hope, what their daughter got from their customers.

This reminds me of the Catholic Church's self-righteous proclamations that it was going to "try to forgive" those who speak up about having been raped by priests, and that the victims should "try to forgive" those priests, too. As if those priests deserve anything other than to be beaten to death in prison, as John Geoghan was.

The 12-Step Borg: not interested in right or wrong, unable to admit that it doesn't work for everyone -- the loudmouths who can't stop proselytizing it to the uninterested and the vulnerable are a minority, just as all loudmouths are.

No. The Borg's only concern is to "spread the message," just as a virus's only concern is to propagate its DNA. You Will Be Assimilated. Resistance is Futile ... and is a sign of "willfulness," too, because your "Higher Power" should be in control. Running one's own life? What ... blasphemy!!

I'm glad I threw this pernicious and mind-damaging book into the trash.

Ebby: The Man Who Sponsored Bill W.

Mel B.

Amazon Price: $9.56 List Price: $11.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Hazelden Amazon Marketplace: 31 new & used starting at $6.70

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Specific Groups -> Special Needs
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Recovery -> Alcoholism
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Recovery -> Substance Abuse

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

AA is a Cult 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 22 people found this review helpful.

1. The Twelve Steps do not work as a program of recovery from drug or alcohol problems.
o The A.A. failure rate ranges from 95% to 100%. Sometimes, the A.A. success rate is actually less than zero, which means that A.A. indoctrination is positively harmful to people, and prevents recovery. Some tests have shown that even receiving no treatment at all for alcoholism is much better than receiving A.A. treatment:
o One of the most enthusiastic boosters of Alcoholics Anonymous, Professor George Vaillant of Harvard University, who is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (AAWS), showed by his own 8 years of testing of A.A. that A.A. was worse than useless -- that it didn't help the alcoholics any more than no treatment at all, and it had the highest death rate of any treatment program tested -- a death rate that Professor Vaillant himself described as "appalling". While trying to prove that A.A. treatment works, Professor Vaillant actually proved that A.A. kills. After 8 years of A.A. treatment, the score with Dr. Vaillant's first 100 alcoholic patients was: 5 sober, 29 dead, and 66 still drinking.
(Nevertheless, Vaillant is still a Trustee of Alcoholics Anonymous, and he still wants to send all alcoholics to A.A. anyway, to "get an attitude change by confessing their sins to a high-status healer." That is cult religion, not a treatment program for alcoholism.)
o The A.A. dropout rate is terrible. Most people who come to A.A. looking for help in quitting drinking are appalled by the narrow-minded atmosphere of fundamentalist religion and faith-healing. The A.A. meeting room has a revolving door. The therapists, judges, and parole officers (many of whom are themselves hidden members of A.A. or N.A.) continually send new people to A.A., but those newcomers vote with their feet once they see what A.A. really is. Even A.A.'s own triennial surveys, conducted by the A.A. headquarters (the GSO), say that:
81% of the newcomers are gone within 30 days,
90% are gone in 3 months, and
95% are gone at the end of a year.
That automatically gives A.A. a failure rate of at least 95%. But the GSO does not count all of those people who only attend a few meetings before quitting -- they don't qualify as "members". (That amounts to "cherry-picking".) If we included them, then the numbers would be much worse.

First there is the propaganda technique of "everybody's doing it": "AA or a similar Twelve-Step program is an integral part of almost all successful recoveries".
That is a complete falsehood. The vast majority of the successful people recover without A.A. or any "support group". It's what "everybody" is doing.
Then they use the propaganda techniques of use of the passive voice and vague suggestions: "It is widely believed that not including a Twelve-Step program in a treatment plan can put a recovering addict on the road to relapse."
It is widely believed by whom? And what do those unnamed people know? What are their qualifications? Are they doctors? Medical school professors? Or salesmen for a 12-Step treatment center? Why should we care what some unnamed invisible fools allegedly believe, anyway?
The authors also use the propaganda technique of fear-mongering: you will be "on the road to relapse" -- you will probably die -- unless you practice Bill Wilson's Twelve Step cult religion.
And then the fluff-headed Pollyanna attitude is outrageous: Just going to the wonderful A.A. meetings is supposedly all that is needed to fix some alcoholics.
But since A.A. has a zero-percent success rate above and beyond the normal rate of spontaneous remission, that cannot possibly be true.

Editorial Review:

In 1934, Ebby Thatcher called an old drinking buddy to tell him about the happiness he was finding in sobriety. His friend's name was Bill Wilson, and this book is the story of their life-long friendship. It is both a fascinating history of the formative years of Alcoholics Anonymous, as well as the bitter-sweet tale of the troubled man Bill W. always referred to as "my sponsor."

"Deeply informative and moving, a valuable contribution to the history of A.A. A 'must' reading for anyone interested in one of the more fascinating chapters in A.A.'s history."
--Nell Wing, Retired A.A. Archivist and Bill Wilson's Secretary

Get Up: A 12-step Guide to Recovery for Misfits, Freaks, and Weirdos

Bucky Sinister

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Conari Press Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $6.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Memoirs
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

As an atheist with a background in fundamentalism, Bucky Sinister was skeptical of 12-step groups when the time came for him to get sober. He was afraid of losing his artistic abilities and had big problems with the higher power concept. In spite of his hesitations, he stuck with the program and it rewarded him greatly. In Get Up, he shares the knowledge he gained on his journey, from being afraid of the 12-step philosophies to embracing them, motivating others to join him in their own efforts to get clean.
Sinister, a spoken word artist, poet, and performer, well-known on the West Coast for his grabbing, truthful, funny performances, puts out his own story, no frills, no excuses, and no holds barred. He offers a tough-love approach to recovery for all those, like him, who are turned off by traditional recovery books.
Sinister got sober using the 12-step program, has stayed sober, and now he leads the very group he joined on his path to recovery. In Get Up, he shares the stories and the steps that come from the self-identified scum bags who just might save your life. He talks straight to readers about how to make it work if they can't buy into the program right away. For example, Higher Power can be a whole lot of things-Thor and metaphor among them. He helps readers to accept the group in spite of their differences, rather than walking away.
Get Up is the book that Sinister would have bought for himself, with the advice he wanted to hear when he first ventured into recovery.
“[Sinister s] iconoclastic approach to addiction recovery will make a valuable addition to the growing works in this field. Highly recommended for university libraries supporting the helping professions and larger public libraries.” -Library Journal Starred Review
“Our generation, Generation X, is a generation that doesn't like to be marketed to. We don't like to join groups and we're very suspicious of trends. In a lot of ways Get Up is a 12-step book for people that remember Kurt Cobain on the cover of Rolling Stone wearing a t-shirt that says, 'Corporate Magazines Still Suck.' People who think Dolittle is the best album ever made...The book's very funny.” -Stephen Elliott, Huffington Post
“Move over Dr. Phil and Dr. Drew and every other faux-folksy TV platitude-puss. Mr. Sinister has the kind of wisdom-and writing skills that only come from experience.” -G. Martinez Cabrera, San Francisco Bay Guardian
“. . . refreshingly un-preachy . . . Get Up will strike a nerve in the recovery movement, which has heretofore had to convince certain people that it wasn't as lame as it seemed.” -Katy St. Clair, SF Weekly
“Get Up is not your mother's coffee table recovery book. Bucky peels away the layers of fluff and sticks it right in your face. His use of comedy and colorful language will conjure up some laugh-out-loud moments...This release is perfect for the patient or counselor looking for a light-hearted, entertaining read. It combines recovery first-hand accounts, useful suggestions and scenarios and offers the reader an uplifting feeling without becoming over-powered by religious weights or flowery prose that often read like a real snooze on a page.” -Jenna Bensoussan, Counselor Magazine
“Every single person should own Bucky Sinister's 12 step book. Addict or not. It is an incredibly funny and interesting guide on how to successfully unpack one's mind when it's overpacked. Simply put, this book should replace every magazine in every plastic surgeon's office and every bible in every motel.” - Amber Tamblyn, Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated actress and poet
”This book is rad.” -Michelle Tea, author of Rent