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New! Online Literature Order Form

The New! Online Literature Order Form is now available!

The paper forms will continue to be available as we transition to the new online form.

How to Download the Printable Forms

Use the link in the sidebar menu to download the latest version of the Literature Order Forms. The sidebar menu might move to the bottom of this page if you are working on a small device such as a mobile phone.

The sidebar menu is present on every literature page. It will instantly download a zip file with 2 versions of the same file. One computer fillable document and one print document. Double click the downloaded file to unzip the content onto your computer. See the image below for the location of the sidebar menu when the website is visited on a desktop or laptop. The description of the item might change according to the date of issue.

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Why purchase your literature from our Ontario South LDC?

Members on the World Service Office (WSO) ‘Literature Thought Force’ highly encourages Areas to have their own LDC and that the members purchase from their LDC rather than WSO.

When ordering from the LDC, shipping time is 2-4 business days. WSO shipping time for literature is 4-6 weeks.

Our CAL has something for everyone. General literature for Al-Anon and Alateen. This Includes daily readers, books on our legacies (Steps/Traditions/Concepts), workbooks, adult children, for parents and grandparents, partners and spouses. We have service material and public outreach including items for the professional.

An easy way to keep a bit of our program close at hand are our bookmarks and cards. Everything is available for viewing on our new electronic order form. Have a glance for the things you feel you need or want.

Our LDC manager is available by phone or email for questions and clarification. 

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Monthly Literature Spotlight

From the OS Literature Coordinator

About this book: Grief and loss affect almost every aspect of living-or having lived-with alcoholism. Members share how they have learned to acknowledge and accept these losses with the help of Al-Anon Family Groups.

Indexed, softcover. 201 pages.

Grief is a topic that I am learning a bit about lately. I am learning to allow myself to feel the grief as it comes up in my life, and to accept it, and then to let it go. Opening Our Hearts, Transforming Our Losses (B-29) is an amazing resource for me to use to better understand, and to help me feel, my grief. In this amazing book, many different aspects of grief are examined. Grief of my childhood, grief of the loss of some of my dreams, the grief of living with the family disease of alcoholism, as well as the grief of losing a loved one. I am learning that grief is a part of life. To grieve means that I have loved, and that is always a gift from my Higher Power.

I was fortunate to participate in an online Al-Anon book study and I was doubly fortunate that our group chose this amazing book to use for our book study. Each of us read a chapter on our own and answered the questions that were asked at the end of each of the nine chapters, before meeting up to share our answers. It was a beautiful way to connect with other members in my group, and to get to know them
better, and it was a wonderful opportunity for me to get in touch with some of my grief.

I have also used this book with sponsees as a way to continue to “work” the program together. I utilize Al-Anon literature in both my work with my sponsor and the work that I do when I sponsor people. Reading the book, and then sharing answers together, helps me to focus on the solutions that this program has to offer, rather than getting stuck in the disease. With topics such as: Dealing with Our Feelings and Taking Care of Ourselves, I can always relate what I have read to my life. There is always more to learn in this beautiful program of recovery. I can re-read the book at different times in my life, and get something different out of it, every time I read it again.

Opening Our Hearts, Transforming Our Losses (B-29) is available through our Area’s Literature Distribution Centre, as well as in eBook format and in audio book format which gives me choices about how I want to access the book.

If you are struggling with accepting your own grief, or if you’re looking for a new Al-Anon book to discover, this may be the next book that you want to check out! I wish you serenity and peace as you explore your grief, One Day At a Time!

Sue M

To order a copy of your own click here!

An e-book and audio version of this book is available through the WSO bookstore.

About Conference Approved Literature

One of the questions asked here often is ….”Is this book conference approved?” followed by the book name, author etc.

All Al-Anon CAL bears the above seal along with the words:
‘Approved by World Service Conference Al-Anon Family Groups’. This seal and statement give the assurance that the literature is produced by Al-Anon and is consistent with the Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions, and Twelve Concepts of Al-Anon Family Groups.

Some other ways to know if a book is conference approved is that on the spine there is the Al-Anon logo above the book code. As these works are collaborative there are never author names on the books.

While we may find many of the things we need to grow in literature that isn’t conference approved, our service manual on page 63 and 64 state that “only Al-Anon/Alateen materials be used in our meetings. This ensures that our program message stays consistent with our principles.”

Over the years we have had the privilege to see the traditions in action with this very phenomenon. Members were bringing along their books and in the pile was an AA book, or a publication they bought elsewhere. Kindly and quietly a member asked if they could please take those books and tuck them out of sight. We would then discuss it at the business meeting or even better put on the agenda the topic ‘Why CAL?’ so that those who did not come to the Business Meeting were also included. It was interesting to hear members share why they felt those other publications needed to stay out of sight.

Even more enlightening in one of those meetings was the sharing of a newcomer, who said they looked at the books people brought along and mentally took note. so they could get them. We may at a personal level share with others what helped us, but the use or mention of this non-Al-Anon literature in our meetings does conflict with our service manual and our traditions, particularity 3 and 4.

We want our program to be here and healthy for everyone. The new person who walks in the door (or right now signs into an electronic meeting) and for those who have been here for many 24 hours.

Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature (CAL) presents the Al-Anon and Alateen programs to members of our fellowship and the public at large.

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