Washoe County Library System

Braving a northern Michigan blizzard to search for her missing meth-addicted mother, Percy James stops by the cabin of two drug addicts and flees with their endangered baby, triggering a dangerous race from the elements and a band of desperate criminals.

In his debut novel, Junky, Burroughs fictionalized his experiences using and peddling heroin and other drugs in the 1950s into a work that reads like a field report from the underworld of post-war America. The Burroughs-like protagonist of the novel, Bill Lee, see-saws between periods of addiction and rehab, using a panoply of substances including heroin, cocaine, marijuana, paregoric (a weak tincture of opium) and goof balls (barbiturate), amongst...

It's 1994 and Adam, a drug addict from New York City, arrives at a kibbutz in Israel with a medieval sapphire brooch. To make up for a past crime, he needs to get the priceless heirloom to a woman his grandfather loved when he was a Holocaust refugee on the kibbutz fifty years earlier. There Adam joins other troubled people trying to turn their lives around: Ulya, the ambitious and beautiful Soviet emigre ; Farid, the lovelorn Palestinian farmhand...

Jen Beagins funny, moving, fearless debut novel introduces an unforgettable character, Mona--almost 24, cleaning houses to get by, emotionally adrift. Handing out clean needles to drug addicts, she falls for a recipient who proceeds to break her heart in unimaginable ways. Always just under the surface are her memories of growing up in a chaotic, destructive family from which she's trying to disentangle herself. The story of her journey toward a comfortable...

"In 2070, nanotech longevity drugs have become the de-facto currency of a post-apocalyptic Earth. Glow is one such drug, addictive and all-controlling, with the devastating power of copy, edit, and paste memories from host to host. On the streets of Coriolis City, Rex battles his addiction to Glow, and the beguiling, terrifying voices it puts in his head, all while fleeing drug liches, corrupt militia, and an unstoppable assassin sent down from space....

Frank Marr was a good cop, until his burgeoning addictions to alcohol and cocaine forced him into retirement from the D.C. Metro police. Now, he's barely eking out a living as a private investigator for a defense attorney--also Frank's ex-girlfriend. Ostracized by his family after a botched case that led to the death of his baby cousin, Jeffrey, Frank was on a collision course with rock bottom. Now clean and clinging hard to sobriety, Frank passes...

Rain Thomas is a mess. Seven years an addict and three difficult years clean. Racked by guilt for the baby she gave up for adoption when she was sixteen. Still grieving for the boys father who died in Iraq. Alone, discarded by her family, with only the damaged members of her narcotics anonymous meetings as friends. Them, and the voices in her head. One morning, on the way to a much-needed job interview, she borrows reading glasses to review her resume....

"Once a promising military intelligence officer, Danny Katz now uses his considerable gifts as a linguist and computer hacker in his work as a private investigator. He was once a high-functioning heroin addict, but his habit finally tripped him up and nowhe is self-employed, his relationship with his ex-wife and two daughters deeply troubled. In short, Katz is used to his fair share of suffering. But when his former drug dealer, Ramn, disappears along...

"Reminiscent of the beloved novels by Mary Kubica and Jodi Picoult comes a chilling portrayal of a son's addiction and its harrowing effects on both him and his mother from New York Times bestselling author Courtney Cole. There comes a time when offering your life for your child's doesn't work, when you realize that it'll never be enough. The cold needle in his warm vein was a welcome comfort to my son at first. But then it became the monster that...

The novel that inspired the highly acclaimed film directed by Gus Van Sant. Bob Hughes, the offbeat, edgy, and slightly skewed leader of a crew of traveling junkies, describes himself as “one of the cleverest and ringiest and most notorious dope fiend drugstore cowboys on the entire West Coast, including Alaska.” Bob, his wife, Diane, Rick, and Nadine have a penchant for robbing drugstores and grabbing pills and capsules to support their habit...