Last year’s HIV and hepatitis C outbreaks in rural Indiana put a spotlight on another national epidemic that’s seldom talked about: injection drug use resulting from addiction to prescription painkillers. For an eye-opening account of this growing threat and how we got to this dangerous point, don’t miss journalist Sam Quinones’s Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic. The riveting read made many “best books of 2015” lists and unfortunately will only become more relevant.

Similarly, Lust, Men and Meth: A Gay Man’s Guide to Sex and Recovery, by David Fawcett, PhD, sheds light on an addiction that continues to fuel HIV rates. As this important book explains, crystal meth holds a seductive sway over gay men and people with HIV. But Fawcett offers the hope of reclaiming both sobriety and a healthy sex life.

If American AIDS history is more your thing, then check out Yale professor John Whittier Treat’s The Rise and Fall of the Yellow House. This fictionalized tale based on Treat’s experiences recounts early days of the AIDS epidemic in 1980s Seattle while grappling with issues of addiction.