Author Augusten Burroughs has hit a home run again in this funny, sometimes acerbic collection of true anecdotes that reveals the dark thoughts we all sometimes have, and then carries them out to their seemingly insane conclusions...but with wit and that satirical twist.

These snippets are not presented in any particular chronological order, but begin in childhood, with memories about a Tang commercial, and lead us through the panicky drinking days and the one-night stands.

One of my favorites is the chapter about a rat he finds in the bathtub in the middle of the night, and the panic that ensues. Described beautifully in this excerpt:

"The fact was: if a rat/thing managed to claw its way out of my tub and enter the main area of the studio apartment, I would never be able to locate it. Everywhere there were mounds of foreign magazines, month-old newspapers, a thousand or more empty sixteen-ounce beer cans. I happened to live in squalor that was more than four-feet deep throughout the apartment. If the rat/thing made it into my debris field, it could easily make a nest for itself under the bed in an old aluminum beef vindaloo container or it could simply die beneath an old copy of Italian Vogue. It could die and it could rot."

He then creates a scenario in which he quests for a way to eradicate the rat that had me rolling around with laughter, imagining myself in a similar situation.

And then there's the chapter on telemarketers, and how they call numerous times at night and repeatedly, with the "frequent urgency of dumped boyfriends." Now who hasn't wanted to seek revenge on them? Well, read on and learn....

There are thoughts about almost anything that may have crossed your mind, but that you were afraid to articulate. This author crams "Magical Thinking: True Stories" with all of those thoughts and more.

As I turned the final, very satisfying page, I wanted "seconds." But instead, I'll just have to occasionally pick it up again and savor the moments. Five happy stars for this one!