false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179594836m/934480.jpg 242006 35 There is a passage early in Augusten Burroughs's harrowing and highly entertaining memoir, <I>Running with Scissors</I>, that speaks volumes about the author. While going to the garbage dump with his father, young Augusten spots a chipped, glass-top coffee table that he longs to bring home. "I knew I could hide the chip by fanning a display of magazines on the surface, like in a doctor's office," he writes, "And it certainly wouldn't be dirty after I polished it with Windex for three hours." There were certainly numerous chips in the childhood Burroughs describes: an alcoholic father, an unstable mother who gives him up for adoption to her therapist, and an adolescence spent as part of the therapist's eccentric extended family, gobbling prescription meds and fooling around with both an old electroshock machine and a pedophile who lives in a shed out back. But just as he dreamed of doing with that old table, Burroughs employs a vigorous program of decoration and fervent polishing to a life that many would have simply thrown in a landfill. Despite her abandonment, he never gives up on his increasingly unbalanced mother. And rather than despair about his lot, he glamorizes it: planning a "beauty empire" and performing an a capella version of "You Light Up My Life" at a local mental ward. Burroughs's perspective achieves a crucial balance for a memoir: emotional but not self-involved, observant but not clinical, funny but not deliberately comic. And it's ultimately a feel-good story: as he steers through a challenging childhood, there's always a sense that Burroughs's survivor mentality will guide him through and that the coffee table will be salvaged after all. <I>--John Moe</I> 828773 book 2002 Running with Scissors: A Memoir total:47680|5:8971|4:16140|3:14040|2:5646|1:2881| 47680 165712 58197 5742 1 33 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jul 07 08:40:21 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 21 09:26:31 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 21 false false Wed Aug 29 18:53:32 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 29 18:56:00 -0700 2007 By Rodrique Ngowi, Associated Press Writer | August 29, 2007

BOSTON --A family that claimed author Augusten Burroughs defamed them in his best-selling book "Running with Scissors" has settled a lawsui...more...]]> 1 18 false false Tue Aug 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 20 17:42:17 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 12 16:03:19 -0700 2008
I've menti...more...]]> 1 14 false false Thu Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Mon Dec 31 09:24:26 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 31 09:39:28 -0800 2007 more...]]> 2 14 true false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 16 16:48:21 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 16 16:54:52 -0700 2007 Running With Scissors is no exception. It shows potential in some parts, where the author puts down the 2x4 he was using to beat you over the head with and just tells a story. Most of the time, though, he's not-so-subtly reminding you that he had a terr...more...]]> 2 12 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 06 09:10:05 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 21 10:50:44 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 9 false false Sun Jul 22 14:44:33 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 24 21:30:50 -0700 2007
1) People who have had seriously interesting / crazy lives, who also happen to be terrific writers, able to render their stories in a compelling, original way (like Nick Flynn in the incredible Another Bullshit Night in Suck City...more...]]> 2 8 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 13 08:39:20 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 13 08:47:00 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 9 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Thu Jun 12 16:57:51 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 06 18:53:07 -0700 2008 It has been said that Truman Capote's last book, "Answered Prayers," cost him the friendship of almost everyone he knew at that time in his life, and it has even been speculated that this contributed to his demise. He had mined the personal secrets and character flaws of those aroun...more...]]> 2 6 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Apr 25 09:43:30 -0700 2007 Wed Apr 25 09:50:25 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 12 false false Fri Jun 20 03:52:56 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 20 03:54:31 -0700 2008

paraphrased, but you get it..]]> 4 4 false true Mon Mar 31 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 23 18:36:37 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 31 15:04:53 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 3 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Aug 22 14:06:48 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 22 14:06:48 -0700 2007
I've always looked at this book, picked it up, and put it back down. I was wary because it seemed like something Sedaris would write, and I really hate Sedaris. Also, look at the cover. Always judge books by covers! It's in sepia-uh oh, yo...more...]]> 3 3 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 13 09:57:26 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 17 12:31:52 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 2 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Sun Sep 23 05:38:57 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 23 05:49:58 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 2 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Oct 28 10:16:38 -0700 2007 Thu Nov 01 19:31:23 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 2 false false Wed Sep 26 12:54:40 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 26 13:00:11 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 4 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Thu Jun 05 07:38:21 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 11 08:58:31 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Wed Sep 05 13:29:59 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 05 13:33:17 -0700 2007 I think that he is a great story teller...more...]]> 1 4 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jun 26 09:31:45 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 30 15:36:30 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=934480