Listen to Top 100 Audiobooks in Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

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Title: I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

Author: Tucker Max

Narrator: Tucker Max

Format: Abridged

Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-03-06

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1440 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

"My name is Tucker Max, and I am an asshole. I get excessively drunk at inappropriate times, disregard social norms, indulge every whim, ignore the consequences of my actions, mock idiots and posers, sleep with more women than is safe or reasonable, and just generally act like a raging dickhead. But, I do contribute to humanity in one very important way: I share my adventures with the world."

Actual reader feedback:

"I am completely baffled as to how you can congratulate yourself for being a womanizer and a raging drunk, or think anyone cares about an idiot like you. Do you really think that exploiting the insecurities of others while getting wasted is a legitimate thing to offer?"

"Thank you, thank you, thank you: for sharing with us your wonderful tales of drunken revelry, for teaching me what it means to be a man, for just existing so I know that there is another option; I too can say 'screw the system' and be myself and have fun. My life truly began when I finished reading your stories. Now, when faced with a quandary about what course of action I should take, I just ask myself, 'What would Tucker do?', and I do it, and I am a better man for it."

"I find it truly appalling that there are people in the world like you. You are a disgusting, vile, repulsive, repugnant, foul creature. Because of you, I don't believe in God anymore. No just God would allow someone like you to exist."

"I'll stay with God as my Lord, but you are my savior. I just finished reading your brilliant stories, and I laughed so hard I almost vomited. I want to bring that kind of joy to people. You're an artist of the highest order and a true humanitarian to boot. I'm in both shock and awe at how much I want to be you."

"You are the coolest person I can even imagine existing. If you slept with my girlfriend, it'd make me love her more."

Critic Reviews:

"Occasionally, a book comes along that horrifies and disgusts you while making you laugh out loud all at the same time. This book does that and more." (The Rebel Yell)

Members Reviews:

I don't think he should have narrated the book...

Any additional comments?

WARNING: This book is not for the faint of heart or for those who are easily offended. Go look up some nice, wholesome Jeff Foxworthy or something.

I didn't much care for his narration, but this book was a gold-mine of stories. I have even RE-TOLD some of the stories from this book to MY OWN friends. Some people just know how to press all the wrong buttons in any given situation, and Tucker Max is one of those people. He somehow repeatedly makes the exact opposite decision that any, wholesome, upstanding, caring person would choose... and only manages to make it worse yet again

A delightful read if you like a good rascal. If not, STAY AS FAR AWAY FROM THIS BOOK AS POSSIBLE.

Tucker Max?

Tucker Max (great name by the way) is the most famous person I had never heard of. OK, I'm a retired Baby Boomer so I can be forgiven my generational ignorance. I listened to this one, and his next three books, and I have rarely laughed so hard in my entire life. I mean loud laughing - doubled-over, tummy-holding, pant-peeing laughing. Don't get me wrong, I don't want him anywhere near my grand-daughter, but I get it.

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Title: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

Author: Bill Bryson

Narrator: Bill Bryson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-28-06

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 1639 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Using this persona as a springboard, Bryson recreates the life of his family and his native city in the 1950s in all its transcendent normality, at once completely familiar to us all and as far away and unreachable as another galaxy. Warm and laugh-out-loud funny, and full of his inimitable, pitch-perfect observations, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is as wondrous an audiobook as Bill Bryson has ever recorded. It will enchant anyone who has ever been young.

Critic Reviews:

"This affectionate portrait wistfully recalls the bygone days of Burns and Allen and downtown department stores, but with a good-natured elbow poke to the ribs." (Booklist)

Members Reviews:

Can't speak highly enough of this book

I've listened to this book now four times and I'll listen to it again. It is by far my most highly recommended book. AND, it's even better in audio then it is reading it because Bryson is the narrator. It is heartwarming and funny and real and perfect. There is not high enough praise for this book.

Fun, but not for squeamish

Off and on while listening to "The Thunderbolt Kid" you realize that no one's memory of childhood could be that good, and that Bryson has invented and embroidered throughout. But it doesn't matter: his Midwest 1950s is recreated in such careful detail that you're more reliving his story than listening to it. This is somewhat less than wonderful when he is describing with gusto, about once every five minutes, various encounters with boogers, dog poo, partially masticated food, and--but you get the idea. (On the other hand, if you're a conoisseur of the gross you'll be delighted.)

Bryson has a huge audience and most of his readers are not Americans of his generation, so he's justified in his historical excursions into the sociology and highly problematic American political culture of the 1950s. His boyhood in Des Moines was lived in a sort of happy bubble, something he's acutely aware of as an adult.

His reading doesn't have the range or verve of some professional readers, but it's clear and careful and has a quiet intimacy that grew on me as the reading went on.

Another winner

I have enjoyed every Bill Bryson book I have read, and I have read nearly all of them. This is no exception. Engaging, interesting, with laugh-out-loud moments. Plus, it was interesting to hear his voice after all these years.

Funny -- with a couple points

I like the variety of Bryson's work and his sense of humor shines in this visit to childhood in the 1950s. Much easier listening than his previous "The History of Nearly Everything". I still have "A Walk in the Woods" at the top of my list. I did like that he pointed out a few nasty things that occurred in the 50s -- to keep us from getting too nostalgic for the good old days. Bryson's views on chain stores and chain restaurants are interesting, he really dislikes that they make everywhere the same. I enjoyed hearing him read his own work.

great

whether you grew up then , or just want a taste of a special time in America ,this book ,read to perfection by the author , will give you a snapshot of this country when everything was possible and we were all innocent childeren

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Title: A Moveable Feast

Author: Ernest Hemingway

Narrator: James Naughton

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-01-06

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 1301 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Published posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway's most beloved works. It is his classic memoir of Paris in the 1920s, filled with irreverent portraits of other expatriate luminaries such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein; tender memories of his first wife, Hadley; and insightful recollections of his own early experiments with his craft. It is a literary feast, brilliantly evoking the exuberant mood of Paris after World War I and the youthful spirit, unbridled creativity, and unquenchable enthusiasm that Hemingway himself epitomized.

©1964 Ernest Hemingway Ltd. Copyright renewed ©1992 John H. Hemingway, Patrick Hemingway, and Gregory Hemingway. All rights reserved.; (P)2006 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.

Critic Reviews:

"Hemingway beautifully captures the fragile magic of a special time and place, and he manages to be nostalgic without hitting any false notes of sentimentality." (Amazon.com)

Members Reviews:

INDOOR PLUMBING MAKES YOU WEAK

WINE, WINE AND MORE WINE

An excellent look at a young writer's life before he hit the big time. Written so well that you will be taken back in time and to Paris. No story here, this is a memoir. Also a great look into the 20's and the attitudes of other writers at the time.

Hemingway without being TOO Hemingway

I honestly didn't read any Hemingway until 20 year after I learned who he was (and that was mostly because of his super-model offspring). But after "Farewell to Arms" I quickly realized how this man drop-kicked a whole new level of intensity into literature.

But this work is nothing like the gut wrenching drama in "For Whom the Bell Tolls" or "The Son also Rises". This collection of memoirs reads more like short stories, and the short stories are even more fascinating because they're based on real people and events. Hemingway's view of the world is still pretty macho - but he's also struggling with money and not sure if he'll ever be a success at this point. He's also not sure if having to rub shoulders with these other soon to be iconoclastic characters is worth his while either. The frank and irreverant observations are even more fun considering our current celebrity obsessed culture.

So if you've thought Hemingway was too heavy for your taste, you still may really enjoy this book. If you enjoy reading first hand accounts of important literary figures, you'll love this book. And if you ever plan to go to Paris, you must hear this book!

It is the Feast of Life!

I was surprised when read few negative comments here. It looks like some readers were expecting detailed sex scenes while others were irritated by mentioning drinks often.

I value Papa Hem for his enormous ability to enjoy and capture the life "as is" without unnecessary exaggerations and extremes that some expect from literature (probably due their own boring life experience where nothing real happens).

In my view he's a teacher who helps us to appreciate life and be happy with its simple artifacts like eating, drinking and loving. He had an extraordinary talent to bring the artistic fragrance of Paris' of 20-th to everybody's life by few simple words that everyone could understand.

He is a phenomena that had never happened in the US or world's literature before and that will probably never happen again.

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Title: A Piece of Cake

Author: Cupcake Brown

Narrator: Bahni Turpin

Format: Unabridged

Length: 21 hrs and 8 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-17-06

Publisher: Books on Tape

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 822 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Cupcake Brown survived all these things before she'd even turned 20.

And that's when things got interesting.

This is the strange, heart-wrenching, and exhilarating tale of a woman named Cupcake. It begins as the story of a girl orphaned twice over, once by the death of her mother and then again by a child welfare system that separated her from her stepfather and put her into the hands of an epically sadistic foster parent. But there comes a point in her preteen years, maybe it's the night she first tries to run away and is exposed to drugs, alcohol, and sex all at once, when Cupcake's story shifts from a tear-jerking tragedy to a dark comic blues opera. As Cupcake's troubles grow, so do her voice and spirit. Her gut-punch sense of humor and eye for the absurd, along with her outsized will, carry her through a fateful series of events that could easily have left her dead.

Young Cupcake learned to survive by turning tricks, downing hard liquor, partying like a rock star, and ingesting every drug she could find while hitchhiking up and down the California coast. She stumbled into gangbanging, drug dealing, hustling, prostitution, theft, and, eventually, the best scam of all: a series of 9-to-5 jobs. But Cupcake's unlikely tour through the cubicle world was paralleled by a quickening descent into the nightmare of crack cocaine use, till she eventually found herself living behind a dumpster.

Astonishingly, she turned it around. With the help of a cobbled together family of eccentric fellow addicts and "angels", a series of friends and strangers who came to her aid at pivotal moments, she slowly transformed her life from the inside out.

Critic Reviews:

"Cupcake's gonna sell like hotcakes." (Publishers Weekly)

"Her story of survival and triumph is incredible and often rough." (Booklist)

Members Reviews:

Amazing , Brutal, Inspiring

Let me start by saying the narrator is by far the best I've heard - it's hard to believe she isn't the author - it sounded like she was speaking from personal knowledge of each and every event of this gripping life story. Every bit of this amazing true account of the author's journey from happy child, to victim of abuse and circumstance, delinquency and drugs, crime and chaos, then rebirth and final triumph, overwhelmed me with emotion and awe. The writing is brutal and graphic at times - but the images the author paints ring so true that the shock of profanity or vulgarity are not even worth fixating on. The lowest of lows make the ascent to success and triumph that much more uplifting and inspiring for the reader. I loved this book - I love the message - I applaud Cupcake Brown for all that she has been become.

The best book I've ever listened to

I can't say enough positive things about this book.

Cupcake Brown's story is one I'll never forget. It's hard-core honest. For me, the brutality was sometimes hard to listen to (I had to take a lot of breaks in the beginning). The things she went through, no child should ever have to endure.

I totally enjoyed her style of writing. Cupcake's sense of humor tickled me. As flawed and tragic as she was, many of her antics throughout the book made me scream with laughter. Redemption comes at the end, and I cried like a baby.

The narrator, Bahni Turpin, is very expressive and she did this story incredible justice.

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Title: Confessions of an Economic Hitman

Author: John Perkins

Narrator: Brian Emerson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-28-05

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2853 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

"Economic hit men," John Perkins writes, "are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder."

John Perkins should know; he was an economic hit man. His job was to convince countries that are strategically important to the U.S., from Indonesia to Panama, to accept enormous loans for infrastructure development and to make sure that the lucrative projects were contracted to Halliburton, Bechtel, Brown and Root, and other United States engineering and construction companies. Saddled with huge debts, these countries came under the control of the United States government, World Bank, and other U.S.-dominated aid agencies that acted like loan sharks, dictating repayment terms and bullying foreign governments into submission.

This extraordinary real-life tale exposes international intrigue, corruption, and little-known government and corporate activities that have dire consequences for American democracy and the world.

Members Reviews:

Excellent Story for people have traveled

I listened to the entire story before even looking at the reviews. While I felt the story did repeat a couple of parts and could have been condensed a tiny bit that was not what any of the complaints were even about. As someone who has spent 8 years traveling all over the world with the vast majority of that time being in asia for a large corporation, I can completely buy into most of this book. Given what I have seen and experienced first hand along with the time frame the story takes place it does not seem to be outlandish or unbelievable as was commented. In fact I find the opposite to be true. It explains things to me I have seen in a way that makes sense. I can not confirm that the story is 100% true but it is worth your time to read. It will help you open your mind to outside thought from the mainstream media. I would overall give this a 4* review but I felt it was worthy of the bump due to all the 1* which were based on not even listening to the entire thing.

A Textbook History

Not an American textbook, however. Instead, this enlightening and disturbing book relates a history of the world since World War II that demonstrates how the United States has become a new kind of Empire. This Empire is based not on military might -- although as we see in Iraq, this is always an option -- but on the power of giant U.S. engineering, construction and oil corporations to induce nations around the world to borrow heavily from entities like the World Bank and USAID for economic development. Once these nations join the list of debtor nations, these staggering debts are used to get them to accede to a variety of U.S. political and corporate interests.

"Confessions" is John Perkins' personal account of how, as an "Economic Hitman" or EHM, he and others like him spearheaded this new kind of imperialism. The corporations EHM's worked for are almost quasi-governmental and have supplied our government with officials like Dick Cheney (Halliburton), George Schultz and Caspar Weinberger (Bechtel) and Geoge H.W. Bush who started in oil, became a Congressman, U.N.

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Title: Naked

Author: David Sedaris

Narrator: David Sedaris, Amy Sedaris

Format: Abridged

Length: 3 hrs and 4 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-03-05

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 2102 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Welcome to the hilarious, strange, elegiac, outrageous world of David Sedaris. In Naked, Sedaris turns the current mania for the memoir on its proverbial ear, mining the exceedingly rich terrain of his life, his family, and his unique worldview, a sensibility at once take-no-prisoners sharp and deeply charitable. A tart-tongued mother does dead-on imitations of her young son's nervous tics, to the great amusement of his teachers; a stint of Kerouackian wandering is undertaken (of course!) with a quadriplegic companion. Through it all is Sedaris's unmistakable voice, without a doubt one of the freshest in American writing.

©1997 David Sedaris; (P)1998, 2001 Time Warner AudioBooks

Critic Reviews:

"Sidesplitting." (The New York Times Book Review)

"Genuinely funny, at times hilarious....Makes for a smashing use of audio as a unique entertainment medium....Highly likable and spirited throughout...makes a case for audio as its own special form." (Publishers Weekly)

"Sedaris is a gifted satirist with an uncanny knack for re-creating dialogue and revealing fantasies....Brutally honest and brilliantly eloquent, Sedaris is positively tonic." (Booklist)

Members Reviews:

My Favorite Sedaris

I have all of David Sedaris's books (and I love them all), but I think this is his funniest and most poignant. He really is a wonderful writer and observer of human nature and I recommend all of his work to anyone who enjoys a quirky sense of humor.

love it!

I keep going back and listening to parts of this book, and never fail to laugh! I enjoy his narration and his storytelling just can't be beat. Sometimes I just couldn't believe he would say/do such a thing, but it is a fun kind of astonishment. While he never seems to run out of material from his family and his relationship, I like that he's going out creating new adventures to share with his loyal readers.

Loved it.

I still wish we could get unabridged versions of Sedaris' books, because I really wanted this one to go on much longer! From obsessive compulsive behavior to the most awkward wedding party ever, Naked is a real treat for fans. I know David Sedaris isn't for everyone, but for those who like his work, this is no exception.

Honest & Sincere

This is a collection of brutally honest autobiographical stories of David Sedaris' upbrining and life. We sometimes found ourselves wincing at his childhood accounts and then laughing the next moment at the author's way of finding the wry humor in otherwise disturbing events. My husband and I would look at each other and say, "Jeez, we thought OUR families were crazy. They were Ozzy and Harriet compared to this guy's family!" As always, his tales are sincere and humorous and perfectly delivered.

Not the whole book

What disappointed you about Naked?

This audiobook is lacking some chapters of the actual printed book... I was reading it on paper but after several days of not picking it up I realized I was never going to finnish it, I was too disinterested. Normally I would just start another book but since I have listened to some of David's readings I thought I should finnish it as an audiobook.

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Title: Secrets

Subtitle: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

Author: Daniel Ellsberg

Narrator: Dan Cashman, Daniel Ellsberg

Format: Abridged

Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-22-04

Publisher: HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 136 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

How did the coldest of warriors come to turn against his own government? In Secrets, Ellsberg finally tells the full story.

Ellsberg provides a vivid eyewitness account of the two years he spent behind the lines in Vietnam as a State Department observer, an experience that profoundly altered his own political thinking. And he tells how the release of the Pentagon Papers set in motion a train of events that ultimately toppled a president and helped to end an unjust war.

Infused with the political passion and turmoil of the Vietnam era, Secrets is the memoir of a daring man, a story about what it takes to make a dramatic life-change in the context of moral challenge, an expose of Washington power politics, and a searing portrait of America at a perilous modern crossroads.

Critic Reviews:

"A remarkable and riveting story." (Publishers Weekly) "The story is fascinating, and one that anyone interested in Vietnam should hear. Ellsberg has a gruff voice, and he gives a true measure of himself as he reads his story." (AudioFile) "Ellsberg's deft critique of secrecy in government is an invaluable contribution to understanding one of our nation's darkest hours." (San Francisco Chronicle)

Contact me for any questions: [email protected]

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Title: Black Like Me

Author: John Howard Griffin

Narrator: Ray Childs

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-24-03

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 1383 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Writer John Howard Griffin (1920-1980) decided to perform an experiment in order to learn from the inside out how one race could withstand the second class citizenship imposed on it by another race. Through medication, he dyed his skin dark and left his family and home in Texas to find out.

The setting is the Deep South in 1959. What began as scientific research ended up changing his life in every way imaginable. When he decided the real story was in his journals, he published them, and the storm that followed is now part of American history.

As performed by Ray Childs, this first-ever recording of Black Like Me will leave each listener deeply affected. John Howard Griffin did the impossible to help bring the full effect of racism to the forefront of America's conscience.

Critic Reviews:

"No one can read it without suffering." (Dallas Morning News)

"Only the coldest of hearts could be unaffected by this story, told with dignity and warmth, conviction and steadfast honesty. Audiobooks like this can help heal wounds and open minds about racism, an issue our nation still struggles with." (AudioFile)

Members Reviews:

Absolutely Stunning!

What a fantastic book! Had this in my audible library and finally got around to reading it.

First of all, it was hard to believe that you could physically transform a white man to a black man, but I've seen the before and after pictures online and it was amazing.

Secondly, the various situations he encountered were almost unbelievable. From a man who picked him up while he was hitchiking, primarily to ask him about his genitalia, to the shoe shine man who didn't realize he was the same guy before and after, the stories in this book are simply astounding!

Third, it is also curious as to how dangerous an undertaking this actually was. Can't believe he came out physically unscathed, although there are some close calls in the book. (However, after the book was published, he and his family had to flee to Mexico due to death threats).

Like "Uncle Tom's Cabin", this is a must-read and really points out how it feels to be on the "other side". Highly recommend!!!!

This book brings back memories...

memories of the growing up in the very racially segregated rural South with Jim Crow laws that would not allow my black friends/neighbors to go to the same school, use the same public restrooms, drink from the same public drinking fountains, and eat in the same restaurants as me. It brings back memories of this wonderful book.and memories of meeting and talking with John Howard Griffin. And memories of losing my signed copy from the original run of this beautiful book years later during a move. Finally, it brings back memories of the KKK burning a cross in our yard 30 feet from our house in June of 1955 just before my 12th birthday to warn us to stop associating with our closest neighbors and friends who happened to be black.

I was born and raised in the very racially segregated rural US South, and I am white. I first read Black Like Me late in 1961 as a freshman in college in Chapel Hill NC. During the first semester of my junior year (fall semester of 1963) I took a sociology course that used Black Like Me as the textbook and which had John Howard Griffin for three guest lectures. I was a math and chemistry major, so the sociology course was one of my few electives.

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Title: Dry

Subtitle: A Memoir

Author: Augusten Burroughs

Narrator: Augusten Burroughs

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-20-03

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 1172 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

You may not know it, but you've met Augusten Burroughs. You've seen him on the street, in bars, on the subway, at restaurants: a twentysomething guy, nice suit, works in advertising. Regular. Ordinary. But when the ordinary person had two drinks, Augusten was circling the drain by having twelve; when the ordinary person went home at midnight, Augusten never went home at all. Loud, distracting ties, automated wake-up calls and cologne on the tongue could only hide so much for so long. At the request (well, it wasn't really a request) of his employers, Augusten lands in rehab, where his dreams of group therapy with Robert Downey Jr. are immediately dashed by grim reality of fluorescent lighting and paper hospital slippers. But when Augusten is forced to examine himself, something actually starts to click and that's when he finds himself in the worst trouble of all. Because when his thirty days are up, he has to return to his same drunken Manhattan life - and live it sober. What follows is a memoir that's as moving as it is funny, as heartbreaking as it is true. Dry is the story of love, loss, and Starbucks as a Higher Power.

©2003 Augusten Burroughs; ©2003 by Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC

Critic Reviews:

"Mr. Burroughs remains ebulliently glib when it's useful, as befits his advertising skills....[He] remains adept at mixing comedy and calamity." (The New York Times)

"Like the alcohol he so enjoys, Burroughs' story of getting dry will go straight into your bloodstream and leave you buzzing, exhilarated, and wiped out...this memoir operates on a high level of involvement and suspense." (Kirkus Reviews)

"[A] wrenching, edifying journey...with the added benefit of being really entertaining." (The New York Times Book Reviews)

"Harrowing yet hilarious personal encounter....His performance blends self-deprecating black humor with wise-cracking confidence. His natural wit and charm keep the listener rooting for his success." (AudioFile)

Members Reviews:

I chugged it.

I could not stop listening. As a writer, I'm not sure I could ever pen an account as personal and self aware as Dry. And Burroughs' candor and veracity seem to be what other readers often call into question. "No one could possibly be this messed up," I hear again and again. True or not, it's a pretty stunning piece of work. Anyone who has struggled with addiction can take two things away from this story. One, the typical way we deal with these problems don't always work just the opposite, in fact. And two, very few people can hit rock bottom and come back like the author.

The Wisdom to Know the Difference

My mother was a recovering alcoholic and took me to her AA meetings when I was ten years old, back in 1952. Augusten Burroughs attended his first AA meetings in the mid 1990s, over forty years later. Listening to his book, "Dry: A Memoir", I was amazed how little AA has changed over the years. Even the Serenity Prayer as remained a mainstay: "God, Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

Yes, "Dry" is funny but it deals with a potentially tragic subject. Virtually everyone has an addiction or two.

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Title: Running with Scissors

Subtitle: A Memoir

Author: Augusten Burroughs

Narrator: Augusten Burroughs

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-07-03

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1401 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Suddenly, at age 12, Augusten Burroughs found himself living in a dilapidated Victorian house in perfect squalor. The doctor's bizarre family, a few patients, and a pedophile living in the backyard shed completed the tableau. Here, there were no rules. There was no school. The Christmas tree stayed up until summer, and Valium was eaten like Pez. And when things went dull, there was always the vintage electroshock-therapy machine under the stairs...

Running with Scissors is at turns foul and harrowing, compelling and maniacally funny. But above all, it is a truly amazing chronicle of an ordinary boy's survival under the most extraordinary circumstances.

Critic Reviews:

"Beautifully written with a finely tuned sense of style...this memoir of a nightmarish youth is both compulsively entertaining and tremendously provocative." (Publishers Weekly) "Sharp, riotous humor...deeply affecting...this is a survival story readers won't forget." (Booklist) "Bawdy, outrageous, often hilarious." (The New York Times)

Members Reviews:

NOT what I was expecting

This book takes you on a journey of growing up and discovery from a child's point of view. It's an "adult" tape, (definitely not for children - I wouldn't want to explain parts to my 8 year old son, but its not salacious either). It has kept me fascinated for the 40 min. drive home every day for a week. Its like discovering parts of my own family from the viewpoint of one of my younger relatives.

Sometimes previews and marketing do a book a dis-service trying to lure people in. I found this to be true - the value far exceeds what I expected.

The reader is outstanding, bringing each individual character to life with a voice that seems to match the author's words exceedingly well.

Way better than the movie

I saw this movie a few years back and wasn't too impressed - I'm glad I decided to give the book a chance. This is one of those pieces that grabs you early and doesn't let go - although gruesome at times, it gets into your head and makes you want to find out what insane thing can possibly happen next. The dialogue comes across as authentic which is just as important to a book as the events that take place - bad dialogue can ruin an otherwise perfect story. Augusten Burroughs is amazingly talented at both writing and narration - I will definitely be listening to his other titles.

Hilarious! And a little sad...

Excellent book - I've read some reviews of Burroughs work where they compare him to David Sedaris (who I adore), but other than being gay and funny, comparison stops there. He is so open about his life - painfully so at times - and it really drew me in to his story. With a lot of humor and a gift for communicating the grotesque in a light handed way, Burroughs is an amazing writer. I listen in my car on MP3 player and found myself sitting in parking lots, outside of my house, etc. just so I could keep listening before I had to stop the player.

Not humor, tragedy.

There are funny moments in an "oh my that's awful" sort of way, but why would I want to read about bodily fluids of all types in excruciating detail set in a home ruled by people with no control over their lives.