For most of his young life Avery has dealt with his alcoholic mother with the help of his grandfather Pal--he immerses himself in poetry and popular music, and now that high school is over for the summer, he makes out with his best friend Luca (who understands about alcoholic mothers), but the death of his grandfather creates a hole in his life that he can not seem to crawl out of.

New Jersey sisters Rosie, aged fifteen, and Skate, aged sixteen, cope differently with their father's alcoholism and incarceration, but manage to stay close to one another as they strive to lead normal lives and find hope for the future

Three high school seniors, a jock with a girlfriend and an alcoholic father, a closeted gay, and a flamboyant gay rights advocate, struggle with family issues, gay bashers, first sex, and conflicting feelings about each other.

John lives with his mother, Jean, in a social housing suburb and ekes out a meager existence as a taxi driver. After finding his mother unconscious from yet another night of binge drinking, John learns that without treatment, she will not have much longer to live. Desperate to save their broken family, he offers his services to a petty criminal in order to pay for Jean's costly rehab treatment, but this decision runs the risk of changing their lives...

"Addiction starts like a sweet lullaby sung by a trusted loved one. It washes away the pains of the day and wraps you safely in the warmness of the womb where nothing hurts and every dream is possible. Yet soon enough, this warm state of bliss becomes a cold shiver, the ecstasy and dreams become nightmares, yet we can't stop listening to the lullaby for suffering. We crave to hear the siren song as it rips us apart. A powerful list of incredible talent...

When a natural disaster threatens to destroy lives in the small mountain town of Pineville, Minnesota, Doctor Esther Hanson struggles to help her patients without giving in to overwhelming emotions triggered by a long-suppressed memory and U.S. Border Patrol agent Ben James, grieving the tragic loss of his wife, rushes an abandoned baby to Esther's clinic. Brought together by the life of a child, Ben and Esther become each other's reason to change....

In September 1973, as the school year begins in his depressed Ohio town, high-school senior Kurt Shoemaker determines to be "normal," despite his chaotic home life with his volatile, alcoholic mother and the deep loyalty and affection he has for his friends in the therapy group dubbed the Madman Underground

After Tinch Turner lost his wife, he's spent most of his time brooding, boozing, and brawling. When he ends up in the emergency room, he meets Addison Spencer, the new doctor, and for the first time in years feels a spark of attraction. Meanwhile Reagan Truman finds comfort in the family she's created in Harmony and a coming baby proves to all that life does go on

A list of thirty-one suggestions Alcoholics Anonymous members have used to stay sober.

Eleven-year-old Martha tries to keep her family together after her mother's death as her father struggles with alcoholism