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Jan 04, 2012

K.D. rated it:

This is my third book by Augusten Burroughs and I am beginning to understand him. Maybe because I was just prompted by Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man that made a tremendous impact on me and I was able to relate to his character – an aging gay literature professor. I am aging but I am not any of the other three but still the very moving prose of Isherwood made me emphatize with middle-age gay guys like Burroughs.

In my mind, gays come in two types: the quiet decent sometimes-clos More...

6 comments like (9 people liked it)

Nov 13, 2011

The Holy Terror rated it:

I give 3 stars to the first few stories and 1 star to the last few for an average of 2 stars. The first couple of stories tell about Burroughs's childhood memories of past Christmases. Two stories are about how he used to confuse Santa with Jesus and also when he bit the wax face off of a life-size Santa Claus and I was actually laughing out loud while reading them. They were funny and easier to relate to than the stories he recounted of his adulthood. Burroughs's childhood stories are lighter t More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 31, 2011

Meagan rated it:

I give this three and a half stars.

I had hear of Burroughs' best seller Running with Sissors and so gave this a grab while in the checkout at my favorite local bookstore. Amusing Christmas tales? He confused Santa and Jesus? I was in.

But I was quickly disappointed. I felt like the stories from his childhood were trying too hard. They were a little too cynical to be taken humorously, though the events themselves actually were quite amusing. It was the way he described th More...

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Dec 27, 2011

Ms Anderson rated it:

I'd give this five stars, except I'm not so sure about some of the stories. The first few are downright hysterical--I was crying as he described the gingerbread house. However, the later stories of grown-up Christmases are a little more introspective. Not that they're bad, necessarily, but it's like the movie Moulin Rouge, in that everything starts off funny and by the end you're feeling sort of depressed. I've liked the way Burroughs writes since I first read his books in college, and I especia More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 12, 2011

J rated it:

When did Christmas become "the holiday you love to hate and hate to love" as described in the book jacket?!

Hating Christmas is akin to hating Shirley Temple and Easter bunnies. I've been searching for festive holiday reading material and have stumbled into a patch of snarky & cycnical books on the 'darkside' of the holidays. I get frustrated and stressed during the holidays too, but I'm shocked that anyone would take the time to write (or read) a negative book about the ho More...

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Jan 03, 2011

Topher rated it:

Augusten Burroughs has carved a literary career from exposing his troubled family life in Running With Scissors and A Wolf At The Table.

Now, with You Better Not Cry, he brings us a festive series of recollections about the disastrous Christmases he has experienced.

The early stories tread familiar ground, drawing us back to the young Augusten and his fractious relationship with his mentally unstable mother, taciturn brother, and angry, alcoholic father, and the litany of fail More...

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Dec 21, 2009

Denise rated it:

This is my favorite Augusten Burroughs book yet! I was a little skeptical at first. The book starts with some of his darkest stories from his childhood and early days as an alcoholic. They are fascinating in the way a train wreck is, you just can't bring yourself to look away. Slowly, as you work your way through the book, the stories begin to change as Augusten's idea of Christmas evolves. There is the Christmas a group of homeless people take him in, look after him, and teach him to accept hel More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 06, 2009

Jeff rated it:

Oh, Augusten Burroughs, why do I love you? You infuriate me sometimes, but I just can’t quit you.

“You Better Not Cry” is not laugh-out-loud hysterical, but rather chuckle-in-the-back-of-your-throat cynicism laced with pull-at-the-heart-strings-despite-yourself sentimentality. The funny thing about Augusten’s breezy Christmas anthology is that for all the times you feel like it is an anti-holiday holiday book, it is actually filled with some extraordinarily lovely moments of … well, t More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 03, 2009

Schmacko rated it:

In the realm of today’s gay memoirists, there are two legends: David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs.

David Sedaris (The Santaland Diaries, Naked, When Engulfed in Flames) tells charming, quaint stories to his wacky Geek family. His stories include odd jobs (being a holiday elf for Macy’s) and strange stories that hide a sweet humanity (like when his sister brought a hooker home for the holidays in “Dinah the Christmas Whore.”) Sedaris is kooky but cuddly; he started telling his stor More...

1 comment like (9 people liked it)

Nov 29, 2009

Jamie rated it:

I have never read any Augusten Burroughs, but this is the 3rd one I've listened to. Running with Scissors and Dry are two of my favorite audiobooks ever.

I also have a touch of OCD, and I can never ever ever ever ever not finish a book. If it's awful, I'll try and read it as fast as possible, but I'll ALWAYS ALWAYS finish.

So, the first 2 stories on this cd were SO BAD that I nearly quit listening and called it a day. I was getting ready to go on a long drive, and listening More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Nov 25, 2009

Aaron rated it:

The newest option by Augusten Burroughs brings together seven short biographical essays relating to some of his Christmas experiences.

The stories are full of the wry wit that is found in much of the rest of his work, but I thought that the tales didn't float quite as well. In his earlier books, most of the stories had a common themed and flowed more evenly.

The earliest pieces highlight his earliest confusion between Santa and Jesus since modern America seems to celebrate More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 04, 2012

Doreen rated it:

I'd never read any Augusten Burroughs before, though have had Running With Scissors and Dry recommended to me, and know generally of their narratives. In this volume, Mr Burroughs takes a look at his experiences with Christmas through the years. You get the feeling that he doesn't want to rehash material he's gone over before, and he manages to put together a coherent chronicle even though, in my opinion, this book doesn't stand on its own very well outside of Mr Burroughs' larger memoirist oeuv More...

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Dec 03, 2010

Lormac rated it:

Wow. What a ride, opinion-wise. There is a lot to say about this book, believe it or not. My opinion of the book kept changing as I listened to the stories. (I listened to it on CD.) Here are my reactions in order: #1 More often than not it is a huge mistake to let the authori read his own work, and this is a case in point. Burroughs' voice is so annoying inthe first couple of stories that it drive me crazy. Try saying "stringy strands" as s-l-o-w-l-y as you possibly can, and you More...

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Dec 18, 2010

ALPHAreader rated it:

You can keep your Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp crushes. . . if I am being 100% earnest and honest, my number #1 fan-girl crush is unashamedly on gay American writer, Augusten Burroughs.

I have read every one of his books and gotten a stomach cramp from laughing too hard at each one. He is my author/reader soul-mate and I’m sure that if we ever met I would fall at his feet and beg him to be my friend. I love his sense of humour, I love his brutal honesty and I just love him. . . ‘You Bette More...

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Dec 05, 2009

Caris rated it:

Every year, new Christmas books are published and line the new books shelf at the library like tacky decorations on a Wal-Mart display. And, without fail, every year, people tell me that I have to read some new seasonal book like The Christmas Box or Skipping Christmas or some other piece of Hallmark bullshit that makes me want to put my eyes out with a barbecue fork. I always decline.

But I always want to read something special for the season, because I love Christmas. I always have. More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 18, 2011

Mercedes rated it:

When I started reading this book I though that Augusten Burroughs would produce his short stories and adventures with nothing less than his usuall sarcasm and blunt style, happy to say he delievered as expected.
Much like some of his other books, "You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas", it is a collection of short stories from his up and down past that always seem just bizzar enough to be true.
I was happy with the last short, "Silent Night" , as it displayed More...

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Dec 01, 2009

Amy added it

A nice little short story collection. I tend to like Burroughs' full-length memoirs better than his short story collections - but then I generally like novels better than short stories. Still, in this case, I liked how the short story format allowed Burroughs to explore the different aspects of Christmas, from the excruciating anticipation and euphoria that you feel as a child, to the jaded outlook that budding atheists and agnostics start to adopt. I also liked that he explored the idea that More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 03, 2012

Valerie rated it:

I love Augusten Burroughs, but this was not my favorite collection of his stories. The two at the beginning were good, and the last one was pretty good, but in between...ay yi yi. Each story is about something that happened to Augusten at Christmas time. The first one, where as a child, he confused Santa and Jesus was great--it's easy to see how that might happen if you grow up in a non-religious household. After the first few stories in his childhood, we jump to Augusten in the throes of hi More...

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Jul 28, 2011

Robert added it

Very familiar territory here for readers familiar with Burroughs, his writing style and his life stories. Different glimpses at the Christmas holidays that he experience throughout his life, as a young boy whose curiosity about a lifesized Santa doll leads to a rush to the emergency room; the two day blackout spent sleeping with street bums across from his own apartment building and his first steps to recognition of his alcholism; and the final two stories which offer quite lovingly presented p More...

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Dec 12, 2010

Robert rated it:

I loved this book. While I have a Kindle reader, I decided that I wanted to go out and get the book instead because I loved the cover art, and I was attracted to the font and aesthetic elements of the text pages. I really enjoy Augusten Burroughs' writing. His stories have a lot of images that mirror my own experiences. These set of Christmas stories were very enjoyable. My favorites being the first two. Hilarious! Whenever I read his accounts of his childhood, I am shocked at how similar he was More...

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Jan 05, 2010

Claire rated it:

Burroughs is in top form again with a series of episodes from his life occurring around Christmas. Outrageous, horrifying, moving, full of humor and humanity. Through it all, I was rooting for him. The stories occur at different points in his life, but I always felt in the often Oh No! moment with him.

If you liked Running With Scissors, you'll like this.

Note well: it's not fluffy Christmas stories for children. Nor does one need to be into Christmas to enjoy it. He spent More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 04, 2010

Kristin rated it:

I like this book because I identify with it (is this the most common reason for liking things? I like people for the same reason). Burroughs loved Christmas as a child, and so did I. Burroughs hated Christmas as an adult, and so did I. That’s pretty vague. That’s because my mother was not a mental case, my father was not a nasty asshole, and I was not dealing with confusing feelings about my sexuality. My childhood, however dissatisfying it was, was about a hundred times nicer than his.

More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Mar 06, 2010

Natalie rated it:

I had not read anything by Burroughs and picked this up in my library's new and noted section, not sure what to expect. I read through the first few stories about chrismas during his childhood, and thoroughly enjoyed them. Humourous stories about a mischevious kid, enjoyable fluff.
But then I got to the first "adult" chapter about Augusten f**king Santa Claus. Not what I was expecting to follow these cute, funny stories about a little boy at Christmas. I started the following More...

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May 25, 2011

Judy rated it:

I received this book at Christmas, but I didn't want to read it then and get mental pictures lodged in my mind that would last beyond New Year's. So, I put the book into the pile and just read it. Yes, I read a Christmas book while sitting outside in shorts and a polo shirt. Still loved it. This book is hysterical, disturbing, heart-warming,and a tad bit sad. Burroughs brings his own twist to the holiday season. Okay, he once ate the wax face off a life-size Santa (whom he confused with Je More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 16, 2010

Shea rated it:

I was expecting this to be different than what it was. I guess that might have been my fault, but when I read the description I was expecting something more light-hearted and funny, like cute little tales of the author's childhood Christmases with his dysfunctional family...you know, something I could relate to that would put me in the Christmas spirit.
That was not the case. I found Burroughs to be pretty unrelateable, and not very sympathetic, for that matter. As a child he seemed snotty More...

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Mar 24, 2010

Joyce rated it:

This is my hands-down favorite of all the Augusten Burroughs books I have read to date. As the book flap says, he's "pathologically honest" and this time, he's not just painfully funny but totally touching as he recounts moments of both love and madness about the holiday packed with such longing and often disappointment. As a writer myself, there are few times I have what I call "Venus envy," where a passage is so beautifully written, I wish I'd done it myself. There were a More...

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Oct 10, 2010

Melissa rated it:

Burroughs' You'd Better Not Cry is a mixed-bag memoir collection of his most cursed holiday: Christmas. Presented in chronological order, each memoir offers further evidence that Burroughs is simply destined not to have a joyful Christmas, yet even by the last memoir, he still loves the holiday.

The book isn't laugh-out loud funny, as promised by some critics, but it is cringe-worthy and hilariously honest, especially in the stories about Augusten's childhood and early adulthood. The More...

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Oct 31, 2009

Beth rated it:

I really enjoyed with holiday collection of stories, Burroughs has a great self-deprecating style. I liked the childhood centered tales the best. In one, he thinks Jesus and Santa are the same person (horrifying his grandparents) and spends Christmas day getting his stomach pumped, and another year, he deviously asks for something ridiculously expensive and impossible, thus ensuring he gets everything else on his list.

Later stories are well told, insightful, humorous, not as cheery, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 20, 2011

Kathryn rated it:

Summary: This is another one of Burroughs's short essays on life -- with a Christmas theme.

Why I Read This Book: Our book club wanted something Christmas themed, so we bounced between this and David Sedaris's "Holidays on Ice". This one won because one of us had already read the Sedaris book.

Review: I didn't find this book to be laugh out loud funny like "Magical Thinking", but it touched me in an entirely different way. I also learned some great lessons: More...

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Oct 18, 2011

Dalian rated it:

This was a quick read, but perhaps I should have spent more time getting into some of the stories because in a couple cases it seemed to end abruptly and I felt like I missed something. From the other books and collection of stories I have read by Burroughs, they have a tendency to end with a feeling like he 'beat out' another person in some mind game, or that his misunderstanding about something points out the ignorance of others, but these types of feelings were a bit absent this time around. More...

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