Sober Curious? Recent Books Explore Alcohol-Free Living

Are you taking a break from drinking for Dry January? Or are you curious about what it means to be "sober curious"? Both movements are catching on with more people, as evidenced by recent articles such as "The New Sobriety" (The New York Times) and "Curious About Sober Curious?" (Men's Health).

While there are a number of memoirs regarding problem drinkingbooks on alcohol or drug recovery and even mocktail recipe books, here's a look at recent books exploring what it means to be sober. 

Sober Curious author Ruby Warrington has become a face of the sober curious movement—she's quoted in both of the above articles. In this book, she takes on myths about drinking and fears about quitting, focusing on how going alcohol free can transform lives.

Catherine Gray's The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober is part memoir of navigating life after quitting (sober special occasions, no hangovers), part science about the affects of alcohol on the mind and body.

Quit Like A Woman: The Radical Choice To Not Drink In A Culture Obsessed With Alcohol, by the founder of a recovery program, offers a "glimpse at how liberating not drinking can be," according to Publishers Weekly. We Are The Luckiest: The Surprising Magic Of A Sober Life explores author Laura McKowen's journey to get and stay sober. (Memoirist Glennon Doyle has praised both of these books, saying Quit "has the power to change your relationship with your entire life" and calling Luckiest "the truest, most generous, honest and helpful sobriety memoir.")

The Alcohol Experiment, subtitled A 30-day, Alcohol-free Challenge to Interrupt Your Habits and Help You Take Control, features an action plan and workbook prompts, as well as research and personal stories.