The first and only modernization of the "bible" of Alcoholics Anonymous, A Simple Program provides an accessible, gender-equal translation for today's readers while maintaining the book's complete core text, which serves as the basis of all 12-step programs.
Book Description
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- This item is eligible for our 4-for-3 promotion. Eligible products include select Books and Home & Garden items. Buy any 4 eligible items and get the lowest-priced item free. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Since 1939, the book Alcoholics Anonymous ("The Big Book") collectively composed by the first 100 persons to recover through that program, has been said to have rescued millions of formerly hopeless addicts from the claws of their hellish addiction. But while alcoholism's horrors have remained unchanged, the demography of its victims has altered. When the Big Book was written, most known alcoholics were male; accordingly, its linguistic and social orientations are pointedly gender-emphatic. But now almost half of all alcoholics seeking help in AA are women, and chapters such as "To Wives" (without an equivalent "To Husbands") present, for some women, yet another stumbling block to an already hard-won freedom. This, the first translation of the core 164 pages of the Big Book, is written by a sober 12-year member of AA. Except for seamless and commendably transparent gender-balancing (e.g., sans the grotesque "s/he" or the infamous Oxfordian "Mother/Father God"), some replacements of obsolete 1930s slang, and a few substitutions of the phrase "Higher Power" for the word "God," it remains indistinguishable from the life-saving original. Consequently, A Simple Program belongs immediately next to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA World Svces., 1991) on the shelves of every library. Indispensable.?Bill Piekarski, Southwestern Coll. Lib., Chula Vista, Cal.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
The unnamed preparer of this reworking of the first 11 chapters of the "Big Book" of Alcoholics Anonymous has responded to the discomfort many, especially women, are said to feel with that text's exclusively male pronouns. Working and publishing without the endorsement of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, "J" has mostly just varied the genders of pronouns but also has substituted, in the manner of much current modern speech, they, their, etc., for he, his, etc. "J" also hopes the AA organization will do its own gender-varying "translation" of the entire Big Book (what "J" does not rework, because there is no need to, is the dozens of personal testimonies of recovered alcoholics that fill out the full text). Meanwhile, here are the basics of the AA approach made gender inclusive. Ray Olson
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
71 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Book,
By A Customer
This review is from: A Simple Program: A Contemporary Translation of the Book, Alcoholics Anonymous (Paperback)
Twenty years of soberity here. Yes it is time for an update and this is it. I would recommend this book to new people in AA along with the book An Encounter With A Prophet.
31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A truly needed book in the Program- Possibly a new Big Book.,
By roycewilliams@worldnet.att.net (North Central Texas) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Simple Program: A Contemporary Translation of the Book, Alcoholics Anonymous (Paperback)
With 7 years in the Program, I am amazed that a book like this hasn't been published sooner. A very needed addition/update to the Big Book. Possibly a preview of what the next revision of the Big Book will look like. Although I am considered a "Big Book thumper" I find no fault in this translation of "our bible...." Masterfully done and a true landmark for those of us in the Program today..... Yes it is 1998 and time for an update such as this..... rw texas
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cheaper than a 12 pack,
By Ocean "Ocean" (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Simple Program: A Contemporary Translation of the Book, Alcoholics Anonymous (Paperback)
This book explains what it means to be an Alcoholic. Being an Alchoholic is as much an attitude towards yourself and life, as a craving for alcohol. For the many who are at the bottom looking for answers, or to the skeptic who isn't sure whether or not they are an Alchoholic, this book offers clear answers to a confusing problem.I bought this book one day after experiencing a wonderful hangover, and then it sat on my bookshelf unread for years. I actually read the book while drinking a glass of wine. As I turned the pages, I realized more and more the exact measure of how much I had lost control of my life, and the capacity I possessed for lying to myself. Spend 12 dollars for a 12 pack and have fun tonight, or spend 12 dollars on this book and learn what it takes to have fun for the rest of your life... real fun.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
