The mother of a suicide victim shares her pain, guilt, anger, and psychiatric expertise to offer methods for healing, weaving her personal grief, pain, and anger with practical information on the "normal" reactions to suicide.

From impotence to diabetes, cataracts to psoriasis, the proven dangers of smoking go well beyond heart and lung disease. Here, for the first time in one complete volume, noted experts detail all the known health threats of smoking. Each day thousands of people decide to smoke. This book offers the cold, hard facts about smoking so that the decision can be an informed one. The health experts urge consumers to look beyond the headlines, the politics, the propaganda, and opinion polls to learn what research has proven about the dangers of smoking, the leading cause of preventable death in the world. Twenty eye-opening chapters all carefully reviewed by independent health experts explain clearly and honestly how cigarette smoking can effect the body from head to toe.They go far beyond the obvious risks of heart disease, lung cancer and emphysema, stroke, and concerns over second-hand smoke. Probed in depth are conditions few would even associate with smoking risks to which moderate to light smokers are susceptible: blood vessel disease, skin disease and wrinkles, risks during surgery, joint and bone problems, paediatric illness, male infertility and impotence, nerve disorders, numerous types of cancer, depression, hearing loss, eye disorders, Crohn's disease, and more.

This book is an action research study of a community at work. The community prevention project set the system in motion, revealing its character and internal dynamics. This process and its context are analyzed from a sociological point of view. It is shown that the type of community prevention that really works and creates sustainable changes, is neither value neutral nor given from above: it adheres to reason, rituals and emotions alike, and requires subjective involvement of the people in the community.

Since 1954, Twenty-Four Hours a Day has become a stable force in the recovery of many alcoholics throughout the world. With over nine million copies in print (the original text has been revised), this "little black book" offers daily thoughts, meditations, and prayers for living a clean and sober life. A spiritual resource with practical applications to fit our daily lives.

"For yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision" is part of the Sanskrit proverb quoted at the beginning of the book which has become one of the basic building blocks for a life of sobriety. In addition to a thought, meditation and prayer for each day of the year, this handy, pocket-sized volume also contains the Serenity Prayer and the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous.

It is a simple, yet effective way to help us relate the Twelve Steps to everyday life and helps us find the power not to take that first drink each day.

What does a codependent say to his mate when he wakes up?  
"Good  morning, how am I?"
--Overheard at a Codependents Anonymous meeting

Throughout the world today, more than two million alcoholics and hundreds of thousands of drug addicts, compulsive overeaters, sex addicts, compulsive gamblers, codependents, and other addicts abstain from their addiction, having found a new life by practicing the 12-step program of recovery developed by Alcoholics Anonymous.  Over the years, their practices have evolved into a way of life--the 12-Step Culture.

"I don't remember my first meeting, but I've been told that I talked for a really long time."
--Mary, a member of Narcotics Anonymous

AA to Z is the first book to document the richness and diversity of the lives of recovering people and to provide an encyclopedic look at this unique subculture.  Less self-help than enlightenment and entertainment, AA to Z is comprised of real-life stories of recovering addicts as well as an "addictionary" of recovery terminology.  Everything from the well-known slogan "One Day at a Time" to more esoteric terms like "pigeon" (a lovingly insulting term for a newcomer to the program) and "Wharf Rats" (sober Deadheads) is explained with clarity, insight, and humor.  

"How it works, you ask--slowly and well."
--Cooper, a member of Alcoholics Anonymous

Conversational, witty, and engaging, AA to Z is a must-have for all 12-step participants and their loved ones, and it offers the uninitiated a fascinating firsthand look at one of the most influential yet least-documented cultural movements of our time.

Introduces the nature and effects of alcohol and describes what happens when it is abused.