I want to be augusten burroughs’ friend. his book makes you fall in love with this quirky, awkward, sophisticated young man. it also makes you kind of awkward, because if you’re reading in a small public space, such as an airplane, it’s awkward to laugh out loud. augusten’s writing makes you feel like you’re apart of his family’s dysfunction. you can feel the tension, smell the mold, hear the screaming, and taste the dog food.
i want to see the movie, but i have a feeling it can’t compete with the pictures i have in my head.

1998: Stanley Alpert is abducted and driven blindly through the streets of new york sandwiched between 2 dangerously armed men, eventually finding himself sitting on a mattress in a dirty apartment. He describes a surreal, yet true, experience, as he, an assistant U.S. attorney, helps his kidnappers realize they’ve chosen the wrong man. Sitting blindfolded(on his birthday!) with prostitutes having sex with his kidnappers around him, Stanley slyly manipulates his kidnappers— mildly befriending them. Retardely realizing that they had stolen a man with $100K in his savings account, who is a prosecutor, the kidnappers realize they are in way over their heads.

After asking for legal advice, offering their blindfolded friend drinks, food, sex from their whores, and weed— Stanley escapes. (obviously, considering he wrote the book…)

Entertaining and interesting, considering the statistics on living through a kidnapping.

Epilepsy, electricity, Electricity.
A unique, zany narrative of emptiness.
An abrupt character, Lily, with epilepsy lost in the story of her own life, looking for answers to so many questions after her mother (the reason for her epilepsy) dies.

Written interestingly and perfectly shapes and reflects Lily’s scatterbrained bluntness with its expression and style. Her quirkiness and seizures pull you through the story while her passion and determination push you. The story is as striking as the character.

I couldn’t tell the difference between menstruation and protractors or compass. Big words like that just make me feel sad.

The first chapter of this book actually tells you the entire story.
It only makes sense, however, after you actually read the book.

The story of Rant is told by conglomerated tidbits of stories told by friends, enemies and neighbors. Rant is probably one of the strangest characters ever. He has odd talents associated with scent and taste (which are rather disturbing), as well as odd addictions (which, again, are rather disturbing). He scares me.

The subject of the book is truly creative. It keeps you contemplating for a while.

Also consider that someday, when you’re dead and rotted, kids with their baby teeth will sit in their time-geography class and laugh about how stupid you were.

confusing wonderful weird.

this person really liked this book.

I was in a really bad mood this morning.
Then I read this book.
And I feel very happy now.
Notice this all happened in one day.

This book is awesome, because it is about a drag queen and her male hooker boyfriend.
What about that doesn’t scream awesome to you?

Fully entertaining. I laughed out loud several times, and I learned a lot.
You may be wondering what exactly I learned…
Probably things you’re supposed to learn on the street, but luckily this guy brought it into a book.

boys. sex. drugs. vodka. parties. fish. love.

I really like the title of this book.
I suppose there are a few connections between this title and the actual story.
Literally, Danielle’s father was a “tunnel rat” in Vietnam during the war which, as you can probably assume, involved him crawling though dirt tunnels below ground (Danielle later visits Vietnam and crawls though a such tunnel) (and these tunnels scare me, as does Vietnam).

More metaphorically- Danielle’s life: choosing to live with her drunken, traumatized, mostly heartless father, living her childhood and adolescence in bars hearing war stories and about her father’s sexual escapades.

So, in the end, I really liked the title of the book.

“Cold saline on the brain can actually stop a seizure in its tracks.”

This is a casually written memoir. It was a really fun and easy read, but in a way the tone almost trivializes the very subject it is on, neurosurgery.

Katrina Firlik, a neurosurgeon (one out of about two hundred women in the field), talks about her seven years as a resident. She thoughtfully chooses which cases to tell and which words to use and shares a glimpse into the OR, while she jovially interjects interesting facts and entertaining reflections.

I want to be a neurosurgeon.

“The brain, by far, is the most complex and interesting organ of the human body (take note, guys, if you thought otherwise)…”

The title of this book refers to one of a string of thirteen serial murders done by the “Boston Strangler.” Junger chooses this particular murder for the title because he is from Belmont, and the man who eventually confessed to the boston stranglings did carpentry work on his house. There are pictures of this man with Junger’s mom and himself as a baby. I find that really creepy.
The book was well-written. I just think it sucks that they never figured out who the boston strangler was.
I was unaware that this was an unsolved mystery when I started reading the book.

I read this book in one day, and I was sad when it was over.
Jeannette and her family bounce around from trailer park to trailer park, from run down apartments to abandoned train stations. Having parents with no money, no sense of responsibility and huge unrealistic dreams (such as building a glass castle), Jeannette has to develop her own plans, and actually achieve them.
The Walls kids learn to take care of themselves, as well as their parents (who are quite interesting characters).

One of the most intriguing parts of this book is that you already know that Jeannette Walls is a successful journalist. You know the ending already, so this is solely about the journey.