Kyle Keegan, Howard Moss, Beryl Lieff Benderly
Oxford University Press, with the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands and the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania
160 pages. $9.95.
Like The Thought That Counts, this work is written by a survivor of the condition it covers. In his late 20s, Keegan emerged from a severe heroin addiction that began with the abuse of alcohol and other drugs during his adolescence in a middle-class family. Despite incarceration, homelessness, failing health and countless treatment programs, Keegan couldn’t kick his dependency until he chose treatment for himself.
Now a professional diver with a wife and daughters, Keegan is persuasive with youth who “may not want to see or accept that you have a problem. … I’ve been where you are, and I know it’s a desolate place. Read on, and let me tell you about my experience of that place if only so I can show you a way out of it.” Assisted by expert co-authors with medical and therapeutic information about all types of substance abuse, Keegan offers a dose of hope to go with tough truths. (212) 726-6000, www.oup.com/us.