pick3.5 ⭐
I found Sebatindra's essays on addiction & recovery moving & challenging, & those parts I'd have rated 4 or 5 stars. The sections on Christianity dragged for me, due, no doubt, to my atheism. As a person with a culturally christian upbringing, I know that many of my values derive from that tradition and, while I can find useful meaning and guidance in religious texts, I also find that I don't need a belief in a transcendant spiritual being.
"I am sitting upright in bed. I have been awake for less than two minutes. I am looking at my hands and they are shaking."
#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl
With apologies for taking liberties with the "First-Line" part of the tag (well, and the "Fridays" part, too, actually), but it just felt like it needed that bit more ?
I said this would be a short, quick read, but it turns out it's one of those books I read half a page of then spend the next 30 minutes thinking & reflecting about.
The bit I'm up to has me reflecting on received assumptions about success & failure in social & personal contexts, & what the unspoken agendas might be of recovery programmes that prioritise re-entry into socio-political environments from which substance use may have been a refuge.
#BookMail
This unexpectedly arrived today from my #HajarPress subscription 💛💙💛 I like their distinctive cover designs, which alternate between yellow with dark blue designs and vice versa.
This one is a series of essays and diary entries by the author about their recovery from addiction, and how that intersects with capitalism. Despite my other reading commitments, as this one is relatively short - 113 pages - I'm going to start on into it. ⬇️
Through an Addicts Looking-Glass | 
Overall, I am glad I read this: it's enlightening to be confronted by my own attitudes and assumptions towards those who hold strong religious beliefs, and that's something I will reflect upon further. 2y