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    Possible Side Effects
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    Possible Side Effects
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    Possible Side Effects
    Audiobook9 hours

    Possible Side Effects

    Published by Macmillan Audio

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    From the million-copy best-selling author of Running with Scissors comes Augusten Burrough's most provocative collection yet.

    • This audio-book is approved by those seeking pleasure, escape, amusement, enlightenment, or general distraction. It is not approved to treat disorders such as eBay addiction or incessant blind dating.
    • In some studies, people reported inappropriate, convulsive laughter, a tingling sensation in the limbs, and sudden gasping. Fewer than 1 percent reported narcolepsy.
    • This audio-book has been shown to be especially helpful to those with parents, grandparents, life partners, and incontinent dogs.
    • Do not operate heavy machinery while listening to this program, until you know what effects it may have on you.
    • Ask your doctor about Possible Side Effects.

    A Macmillan Audio production.

    A Macmillan Audio production.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateMay 2, 2006
    ISBN9781593979096
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Possible Side Effects

    4/5

    768 ratings38 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      The essays I enjoyed most appear early in the book, and, unfortunately, it goes downhill from there. Sure, there are humorous retellings of bad dates and samples of the personal ads Burroughs admits to writing while drunk and a history of Burroughs's experiences as an amateur peeping tom (which tops out when he realizes his office overlooks Uma Thurman's apartment), but there was something missing. I had several episodes of literary deja vu and repeatedly felt as though I had heard all of these stories before.I get it. Burroughs had a genuinely traumatic childhood, a debilitating addiction, and a long string of awful experiences in between, and those are things worth talking about...but it's getting kind of tired. This book didn't leave me feeling like I knew Burroughs any better than I did when I finished the last one--we already knew that his mother was bipolar and that he was a flamboyant child and that he has intimacy issues and unrealistically high expectations and...well, you get the picture--and that makes me wonder what the point was.Read my full review at The Book Lady's Blog
    • 4/5
      More adventures in the life of Augusten Burroughs. Covers topics like dating after 30 to getting a bulldog that he and his partner name The Cow. Staying at a B&B that is run and owned by an avid doll collector which creeps him out. Trips to his Grandmother's on each side of the family during the summer, one who lavishes him with gifts and the other who is very stern. His voyeurism and spying on neighbors including a well known actress. Funny over all and certainly an enjoyable read. But like the others what to believe as truth and what not might be brought in to question.
    • 4/5
      I absolutely loved this book! It's compiled of short stories by the author of funny and true stories of him growing up and just weird situations. I laughed out loud a few times. It was very interesting and worth the read. I will never get the picture out of my head of the dog being painted to race... classic.
    • 4/5
      i will read anything this man writes!
    • 4/5
      For the most part I laughed all the way through this book. A few chapters ,especially towards the end, were a bit slow. It's not that they were boring just as the book went on the chapters were not as funny as the beginning. Some time ago I started reading "Running with Scissors" but had never finished it now I want to check it out again along with Burroughs other books. Well done and 4 thumbs up.
    • 4/5
      Whenever I read anything by Augusten Burroughs I always find that I think to myself "I shouldn't be laughing so hard that tears come to my eyes but I am." Somehow he manages to make stories about life's tougher subjects easy to read and even funny. If you have a slightly dark sense of humor and are looking for something that is poignant as well as funny Augusten Burroughs will not disappoint you.
    • 5/5
      laugh out loud funny
    • 4/5
      I don't think Burroughs is quite as funny or as good a writer as David Sedaris, but these stories are very funny and scratch the same itch.
    • 4/5
      Possible side effects offers "more of the same". Newcomers to the fictional world of Augusten Burroughs will be dazzled by his peculiar supposedly autobiographical hodge-podge of gays, lesbians, midgets and other weirdos all mixed up. Readers familiar may find Possible side effects lacking the sharp, snidiness of some of the other, better collections of short stories.Hyperbole only works as long as it is extraordinary. However, the whole universe of Augusten Burroughs is supposedly out-of-the-ordinary, and therefore the effect wears off. The collection shows signs of fatigue, and particularly the stories that make up the body of the book are largely rather weakIf you have never read anything by Augusten Burroughs , this might be a good book to start, as the stories are funny, but not as over the top as some of his other work.
    • 4/5
      Probably one of my favourite books by Burroughs., but they're all good.
    • 3/5
      This is a collection of short stories, and it was pretty good. Augusten lived a pretty messed up childhood, and it sounds like it developed into some pretty hard core addiction problems.

      He writes about his life, and I laugh, until I realize this is supposed to be true? Then I feel incredibly sorry for him....but at least he has found a way to make a living from his experiences....

      My personal favorite of his stories was the one where he convinced his friend, a self-acclaimed Lipstick Lesbian, to take out a personal add that cost $3,000...and that's just the beginning of the troubles.

      Entertaining book, for sure.
    • 5/5
      Very funny essays about the author's true to life experiences. A good "laugh out loud" book. Would be good for someone recuping from an illness, someone who likes to read but may not be up to concentrating.
    • 5/5
      A collection of stories from an unusually varied life, this book will charm with its surprising perspective and neurotic tone. The author's paranoid inner life reminds me very much of my own, though our outer lives could not be more different. Laugh-out-loud funny.
    • 3/5
      An entertaining enough book to finish, although I wasn't really hooked. His writing style wasn't anything particularly amazing, but I did like some of his little stories. From all the hype over Burroughs, I was actually a little disappointed that this was it. Maybe Running With Scissors will be better..
    • 5/5
      I laughed out loud more times than I could count, and the final essay left me with tears streaming down my face while I could hardly catch my breath for my guffaws. There were also moments of deep-felt recognition of the truth of his pain and the pain suffered by folks struggling to survive addiction and mental illness, whether their own or otherwise. More than anything I've ever read, this captures the dichotomy of having grown up in a home whose occupants struggle with addiction, mental illness, or abuse. Fair warning, this is going to be too dark for some folks. The humor is mixed in with the tragedy in a way that may leave many uncomfortable. While his humor is mostly directed at himself, it isn't always, and many may, quite legitimately, find it mean. This is dark humor.For me, it was a relief to laugh with someone who understands what it means to survive by laughing in the face of darkness.
    • 3/5
      Though many of these essays focus on Burroughs' childhood, they read easier than his memoir. He offers humorous spins on his advertising career, as well as dating after he turns 30.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Portions will make you laugh out loud but the payoffs are to few and to far apart. The lack of an index or table of contents is annoying (particularly when trying to craft a coherent review) but the two stories that stick the most in the mind are the first and the last. Whether this reflects wise choices on the part of the author and editor or merely the uneven composition of the book is left to you to judge.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Not his best book but still, a light read and plenty of good laughs.
    • 5/5
      I love Augusten Burroughs. He is mean and jaded and he knows exactly who he is. He doesn't think he a nice, sweet person; he knows exactly how he views the world. He is funny and caustic, but has a love for dogs. Love him, love this book. My favorite so far besides Running with Scissors.The essays in this book tackle:Junior Mints AdvertisingCowcow the godVacationing with creepy dollsSmokingand more....
    • 4/5
      As with all of his other books, I enjoyed Possible Side Effects quite thoroughly. His wit and humor seep from the pages. What was different from this novel that I experienced in his other memoirs was a background approach with all of the emotional intensity that someone hyped up on nicorette and alcohol can be. I believe because of this, I didnt feel as drawn into the novel as his others. However, it was still a great read!
    • 5/5
      I kept laughing so much I had to stop reading and tell my husband what was going on!
    • 2/5
      I love Augusten Burroughs when he writes about depressing things in a funny way. I love reading about his parents and his brother. This collection, fortunately, contains some of these stories. His desire as a child to be the host of a cooking show, his brother's shenanigans with the neighbor's dog, the way he got his first puppy, deciding as a child on his preferred cigarette brand, and his visits with his grandparents are the real highlights of this collection. And they are fantastic. Even his escapades as a single guy looking for love were good.Unfortunately, not all of the book is like this. It gets off to a rough start. He begins by describing vacationing with Dennis, his partner. In the hands of David Sedaris, this story would be hilarious. Burroughs doesn't have quite the same finesse for a story in this vein, though. It comes across as sappy. The events are funny enough, but hardly depressing and dark. I am happy that after all he has been through he's found the love and companionship he'd always been looking for. I really am. I think he deserves it. And, so, I forgive him for writing about it. Not my favorite collection, but I enjoyed most of it immensely.
    • 4/5
      Another book of essays by the witty and unconventional author, dealing with a wide variety of (mis)adventures. For some reason, he set this book up backwards - beginning with stories from his loving, adult relationship and ending with tales from his unconventional childhood. Essays include receiving $50 from the tooth fairy while visiting his favorite grandmother, to being horrible rude to his other "evil" grandmother, being an alcoholic and adopting a puppy, spending more money on Nicorette gum then on rent, traveling to a creepy doll themed inn, and a little bit about his mother's psychosis. Some of the essays are funny, some are sad (grandmother, and puppy), some left me confused as to who this guy really is. I have yet to read Running with Scissors, and this is my first Augusten Burroughs book, although I did read his brother's book Look Me in the Eye earlier this year. I think that this book is okay - and I will try others by the author. 3 1/2 STARS
    • 2/5
      This book is a collection of essays/short stories/memoirs surrounding the early childhood, of the author. Reviews had this book as being hilarious especially when read on audio by the author. This is the version that I checked out of the library. It missed with me. The stories are told in reverse chronological order which is a little strange - going from successful relationships to a loner; non-smoking Alcoholic in AA to a smoking drinker; gay relationship to young man looking at girls; The tales included telling of when he was a child, his reluctance to visit one grandmother (evil) after visiting the other (good) (If one of my grandmothers had a tooth fairy that gave $50 per tooth, I 'd think that the other was evil too.), spending over $600 a month on Nicorette gum when he quit smoking, and a crush on a female doctor as a child. A few of the short stories are extremely entertaining but the entire book wasn't worth its reviews that were raves. (IMHO)
    • 3/5
      Entertaining series of short stories about Augusten Burrough's life. Includes his work in advertising, his partner, his family.
    • 5/5
      Augusten Burroughs is hilarious. I never thought reading autobiographical books could be fun until I read this book.
    • 2/5
      Another collection of short essays by Mr. Burroughs about his own personal quirkiness and the relative normality of his life and the world around him.
    • 4/5
      i will read anything this man writes!
    • 3/5
      Augusten Burroughs first book, Running With Scissors, is one of my favorite books. He writes about his disturbing childhood and what he overcame to be a sucessful adult. The book, Possible Side Effects was more of a memoir of recent essays and stories that have happend to him. I found them to be funny and intreging but the book didn't have a story line to follow. It was easy to understand and read since each story was around 7 pages long. I would recommend this book to someone who wants and easy and quick read because you can set it down easily and pick it back up without forgetting where you left off.
    • 3/5
      An uneven book. A few of these stories are hilarious. Some are amusing. Others are offensive. The book starts out on a high note and descends. Too bad. There are two stories, however, which do stand out."Bloody Sunday" is the story of 8-year-old Augusten whose first tooth falls out while he was staying at his grandmother's house. When he learns that the Tooth Fairy is coming, he is truly mortified. This story is hysterical.In "Getting to No You", the author tells of his negative encounter on a blind date with another gay man. A very funny story.