Dana’s Books
Dana is the author of Bottled: A Mom’s Guide to Early Recovery, winner of the 2016 Kansas Notable Book Award, How to Be Perfect Like Me, and the forthcoming Humble Pie: Sober Menopause, Sugar Addiction, and the Sweetness of Recovery (December 2025, Bloomsbury Academic).
Follow Dana on social media for a sneak peek at the book building and publishing process for Humble Pie.
Available December 11, 2025 | PREORDER TODAY!
Humble Pie:
Lemon pie, if done right, should hurt just a little. When you eat lemon pie, the tartness should make your tongue and your brain do a tiny wince, but then the cloud of meringue melts it away. The slice needs to be ice cold and paired with a cup of very hot black coffee, which is served in a thick white mug. This is the pie I had in a small diner in North Carolina, and it made me want to cry…
Humble Pie is about my long-term sobriety. It's also about middle age and food and menopause and marriage and parenting. All of these things trampled right on through my recovery, and then they helped transform it. And my recovery is everything. It is the music in my life; my soundtrack that keeps me marching forward, no matter the chaos around me. It's what wakes me up, and it's what lays me down.
But at that diner with my slice of lemon pie, I could no longer hear the music. The pie was so good. But I devoured it in seconds. I stared at the crumbs on my plate, and I was still so hungry. I wanted more. But also, I knew that the waitress could bring endless slices of pie. She could keep slinging plates down, like those marching brooms with their sloshing pails of water, overflowing the cauldron in The Sorcerer's Apprentice. I would never feel full.
My slice of lemon pie and I were on my tour for my second book, How to be Perfect Like Me. Book tours are super glamorous, especially when only two people show up to your signing and they are the store owner's parents. Weirdly, this happened twice on this trip. Shoutout to those parents for being so supportive. Meanwhile, my trip had also become the Tour de Cinnamon Roll, and I was placing first at every leg of the race. I was anxious and tired and supposedly celebrating my second book, but instead all I wanted was pastry, and a dark place to eat it.
I knew I was veering away from my sober path, into the land of food addiction and binge-eating, but I couldn't stop. Menopause, food-addiction's bitchy sister, had swerved me into deep weeds. I was menopausal; therefore, I had become invisible, or at least it felt that way. Months later, the isolation and fear of a global pandemic entered the mix, and I succumbed to even more unhealthy issues with comparison, scrolling, and frenetic over-exercising. Finally, my higher power finally threw up her hands and said, “Ok. It's time to deal.” As is my way, there was a lot of whining about cupcakes, but eventually I got better.
Sober Menopause, Sugar Addiction, and the Sweetness of Recovery
An unflinchingly hilarious memoir about recovery as a mother of young kids.
Bottled chronicles Dana’s path to recovery—from hitting bottom, to early sobriety (a blur of pain and chaos), to her now (in)frequent moments of peace. An exploration of the perils moms face with drinking punctuated by potent, laugh-out-loud sarcasm, Bottled offers practical suggestions on how to be a sober, present mom.
Bottled: A Mom’s Guide to Early Recovery
Recover. Rinse. Repeat.
In the follow-up to her bestselling book Bottled, Dana reflects on our society of excess and obsession with perfection. When Dana experiences a short-lived relapse, she realizes that recovery is more than just giving up alcohol, and that escaping the lure of perfectionism demands self-care (and getting over herself).
How to Be Perfect Like Me
“Humble Pie is an extraordinary and fearless excavation of the second act of recovery. . . This book belongs on the shelf of every clinician, sponsor, and struggler who's ever wondered why getting sober didn't make everything easier.”
For Humble Pie | Mark B. Borg, Jr., Ph.D, co-author of the Irrelationship series & Love. Crash. Rebuild
“This is a book about cross-addiction, being human, and giving yourself grace. An intimate look into food addiction that will help you feel less alone, Bowman generously shares personal stories of her binges and healing in a way that invites you to step into your personal agency.”
For Humble Pie | Katherine Morgan Schafler, author of The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control
“Dana reminds us that 'it's ok to not be ok' and gives the reader permission to free themselves from more labels and instead wear their authenticity like a coat of many colors. If you want to feel seen, understood, and travel through a journey of ups and downs but end up on higher ground then this book is for you.”
For Humble Pie | Jenn Kautsch, author of Look Alive, Sis
“Menopause stories are having a moment, but menopause + sobriety + food addiction? Dana Bowman is early to market on that. More than a pioneering truth teller, in Humble Pie, she's a mom who does her research, a master of digressions that make sense in a minute, and a writer whose wise cracks resonate whether you're sober or not.”
For Humble Pie | Amy Cuevas Schroeder, founder of The Midst
“This book is a powerful reminder that healing is not a finish line, but a daily choice. A must-read for anyone navigating recovery, midlife, or the quiet ache of feeling unseen.”
For Humble Pie | Arlina Allen, author of The 12 Step Guide For Skeptics
“Heartbreaking, tragic (and very funny).”
For Bottled | Library Journal Starred Review ★
“Full of vulnerability, courage, and grace. Bowman shares her story with wisdom and humor, and speaks to the beautiful messiness in us all.”
For Bottled | Ellie Schoenberger, author of Let Me Get This Straight
“Dana’s tips on surviving recovery and motherhood will help anyone navigating the sharper edges of life. She offers what so many addicts say they need: ‘a Handbook for Life.’ Bottled is funny, captivating, comforting, and full of hope.”
For Bottled | May Wilkerson, Huffington Post, Substance
“Whether it’s a transition or a tragedy, we are all recovering from something, and we all need a little honesty and humor to make it through. That’s exactly what Dana provides in Bottled.”
For Bottled | Kasey Johnson, author of Mom Essentials, 7 Ways to Be a S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Mom
“Moms will no doubt relate to it, but so will daughters, sisters, wives, and all women who need a friend to walk with them in early recovery. Dana is that friend.”
For Bottled | Crystal Renaud, author of Dirty Girls Come Clean
“A must-read for recovering moms, but also a wonderful book for any mom who may struggle with parenting small humans while attempting to stay sane.”
For Bottled | Megan Peters, CrazyBananas.com
“This big-hearted book rejoices in the messy, tangled clusterfuck of being a perfectly imperfect human.”
For How to Be Perfect Like Me | Catherine Gray, author of The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober
“Dana Bowman is honest, insightful, and incredibly funny… Men, don’t be surprised if your wife hands you this and says, ‘Read this, then you’ll understand.’”
For How to Be Perfect Like Me | Stan Friedman, Covenant Companion
“Real, honest, hopeful, and funny.”
For How to Be Perfect Like Me | Alison Buhler, author of Rethinking Women’s Health