Texas Flood by Alan Paul and Andy Aledort

ZZ Top, Stevie Wonder, Bonnie Raitt and Buddy Guy were among the mourners at the 1990 funeral for Stevie Ray Vaughan – a fitting tribute for the man often called one of the greatest guitar players of all time. The newly released biography called TEXAS FLOOD is “The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan” written by Alan Paul and Andy Aledort. The authors were clearly inspired by Stevie Ray Vaughan and express their appreciation to his many friends and fellow musicians and to his brother, Jimmie Vaughan, all of whom contributed (see the several page “cast of characters”) to this book which “represents three decades of work.”

This biography explores Vaughan’s life from an early age and uses direct quotes (“I got my first guitar when I was seven”) from his interviews.  In addition, the authors feature impressions and quotes from a large number of his associates (think of a script from a Ken Burns documentary) in chapters that deal with the Austin music scene, Vaughan’s addiction issues, his work with the Double Trouble band and much more. Kirkus called TEXAS FLOOD “a treasure trove for anyone interested in the blues and Vaughan’s place within popular music” and gave it a starred review as did Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. If you have not heard Stevie Ray play the blues, give a listen to the video below; then read his story: 

Dopesick by Beth Macy

DOPESICK by Beth Macy is a fascinating work of non-fiction that deals with “Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America.” Macy, an award-winning journalist and author of Factory Man, explores the opioid crisis through the lives of four families whose teenage children’s addiction resulted in devastating emotional and economic costs. As she tells it, this is a story of rehab and prison, of recovery and relapse, of “the crushing and sometime contradictory facets of an inadequate criminal justice system often working at cross-purposes against medical science.” Macy argues that “the flood of painkillers pushed by rapacious pharma companies,” particularly Purdue Pharma, began in isolated and politically unimportant places. A resident of Roanoke, Virginia, she attempts to “retrace the epidemic as it shape-shifted across the spine of the Appalachians, roughly paralleling Interstate 81 as it fanned out from the coalfields and crept north up the Shenandoah Valley.” In addition to the collapse of work, she points to denial coupled with fear and ready stereotypes (“affliction of jobless hillbillies”) plus the lack of resources for local papers to cover the enfolding story as several reasons for why it took so long for this epidemic to be widely recognized. 

The abuse of opioids is a high interest topic for our students, both in Health classes and for Junior Theme and they will find much valuable information in Macy’s work, as well as other titles such as Sederer’s The Addiction Solution and Quinones’ Dreamland (to which Macy refers). DOPESICK is extensively researched, with more than twenty percent of the book devoted to notes. Chosen as an Amazon Best Book of August 2018, DOPESICK also received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus and Publishers Weekly.

The Addiction Solution by Lloyd Sederer

THE ADDICTION SOLUTION by Lloyd Sederer is subtitled “Treating Our Dependence on Opioids and Other Drugs” and it certainly addresses a timely and concerning topic. In fact, I had several students who crafted major research papers on opioid abuse and over-prescription issues this year. They often turned to full length texts like Quinones’ Dreamland for information and compelling details.  

THE ADDICTION SOLUTION will be an important addition to our collection, especially given the compassionate manner in which Sederer approaches treatment options. He argues for "a cultural shift" away from punishment and towards prevention by promoting understanding of addiction as disease with individualized impacts due to its complex medical, psychological, and social aspects.  As Chief Medical Officer for the New York State Office of Mental Health, Sederer is able to draw on his own vast clinical knowledge and to combine disguised patient case studies with recent scientific research and some shocking statistics. For example, he notes the 4-fold increase in prescriptions between 1999 and 2010, with Cardinal Health allegedly shipping 241 million opioid pills to West Virginia alone (population less than 2 million) between 2007 and 2012. 

THE ADDICTION SOLUTION is a very accessible, practical text which received starred reviews from both Booklist and Library Journal.