Kindle Daily Post

"Running with Scissors": One Hilarious and Horrific Memoir

In Running with Scissors, author Augusten Burroughs gives an equally hilarious and horrific tour of his nearly unbelievable world as his family disintegrates and his boyhood slides into a surreal and grotesque version of the American dream. After his mother, a delusional poet suffering from mental illness, and his alcoholic father end their chaotic marriage, Augusten's mother gives him away to be raised by her psychiatrist.

This is how, at age 12, Augusten found himself in a dilapidated Victorian in Northampton, Massachusetts, living in perfect squalor with an egomaniac doctor that was a dead-ringer for Santa Claus and a lunatic to boot. Most of Running with Scissors chronicles Augusten's teenage years spent with the psychiatrist's bizarre family that also included a few other patients. Augusten's pathos-drenched stories are seasoned with riotous, self-deprecating humor, even the sexually explicit ones where he describes his relationship with a man 20 years his senior.

In this environment, there were no rules, and there was no school. The Christmas tree stayed up until summer, and Valium was eaten like Pez. When things got dull, there was always the vintage electroshock therapy machine under the stairs, just waiting to be fired up.

Burroughs roles through his anecdotes with a peerless comic timing meshed with the witty, truthful observations of a child. His writing promises to have you laughing at, while simultaneously recoiling from, the horrors of his youth. Above all, Running with Scissors is an ordinary boy's survival chronicle of extraordinary circumstances. Ranging from foul and harrowing to compelling and maniacally funny, this is a rare, oddly-shaped gem shining out from the crowded memoir shelves.

Augusten's writing has appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers around the world including The New York Times and New York Magazine. In 2005, Entertainment Weekly named him one of “The 25 Funniest People in America.”

His latest work, This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike, is a bare-knuckled, no-holds-barred self-help book and an Amazon Best of the Month pick for May, 2012.

Top 10 Kindle Books for May

 

May's editors' picks include new books from iconic American novelists John Irving and Toni Morrison, plus more great new novels and nonfiction from established writers and newcomers alike.

 

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

Poignant, funny, and heartbreaking, the new novel from this winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award and the O. Henry Prize is being called "the Catch-22 of the Iraq War."

 

 

 In One Person by John Irving

A compelling story of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, John Irving's newest novel explores unfulfilled love--tormented, funny, and affecting--and the impassioned embrace of our differences.

 

An Uncommon Education by Elizabeth Percer

A young woman tries to save three people she loves in this insightful coming-of-age debut, which artfully captures the complicated ties of family, the inevitability of loss, and the importance of learning to let go.

 

The Passage of Power by Robert A. Caro

The fourth book of the monumental "Years of Lyndon Johnson" series displays all the narrative energy and insight that has led to its being hailed as among "the truly great political biographies of the modern age."

 

Home by Toni Morrison

In Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison's newest novel, an angry and self-loathing Korean War veteran is back in racist America after enduring trauma that left him with more than just physical scars.

 

Season of the Witch by David Talbot

Best-selling author David Talbot's gripping story of San Francisco examines the turbulent years between 1967 and 1982 and the men and women who led to the city's rebirth.

 

 

Trapeze by Simon Mawer

Out of school and helping the British war effort, Marian Sutro goes to WWII Paris to persuade a friend--a research physicist--to join the Allies. The outcome could affect the course of the war.

 

 

This Is How by Augusten Burroughs

With black humor and in-your-face advice, best-selling author Augusten Burroughs challenges the notion of self-help books with a "proven aid in overcoming shyness... spinsterhood, grief, disease, lushery, decrepitude & more."

 

Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll

In a narrative driven by larger-than-life characters, Steve Coll investigates the largest and most powerful private corporation in the United States and Big Oil's place in American politics and foreign policy.

 

I Suck at Girls by Justin Halpern

Fans of the best-selling Sh*t My Dad Says will recognize the always patient voice of Justin Halpern's dad as it crackles through the pages of this hysterical new quasi-memoir.

Guest Blogger: Elizabeth Percer, author of "An Uncommon Education"

Elizabeth Percer is a three-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize and has twice been honored by the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Foundation. She received a BA in English from Wellesley and a PhD in arts education from Stanford University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship for the National Writing Project at UC Berkeley. An Uncommon Education is her first novel.

When I first came to Wellesley College, I was in much the same position as my main character, Naomi, is in the book: naive, inexperienced, idealistic, and lost. Like Naomi, I came dangerously close to losing my childhood self on campus, or at least not caring if I did. I took astronomy and tried to join the right clubs, competed academically and talked about how stressed and overworked I was in that tone only the most over-privileged learn to adopt.  But I also lost thirty pounds and stopped wanting to visit my parents or write or--gasp--even read for pleasure. Fortunately, at the very last minute I was saved by the play. Actually, by playing.

The first time I acted in a play I was the third of the Three Billy Goats Gruff; the first time I took on a Shakespearean role, I played a simpering and long-winded man. I never grew, really, as an actor. But acting helped me to grow, perhaps simply by placing me within a series of great cocoons playwrights help create for their characters so that I might protect myself and emerge later, fully formed.

If I have learned anything as a lifelong student and sometimes teacher, it is that when we lose connection to our messier, less defined selves we also lose hope for true brilliance. I think about my kids--the way they play all the time and mess up language and talk to themselves unselfconsciously and cry and laugh openly in public--and I feel so grateful that I walked into a house of cross-dressing women devoted to the plays of a five-hundred-year-old playwright when I was nineteen. I might have otherwise been fine, but I also know that I would have grown disconnected to that more nebulous self, the one wherein all the truly important, undefined stuff of life has the opportunity to blossom.

--Elizabeth Percer

Top 10 Kindle Books for April

 

April's editors' picks include a hilarious personal journey to health, an eye-opening look at the American presidency, and some intense thrillers. From the Appalachians to Seattle, the selection presents a collection of worlds we're excited for you to explore.

 

The Cove by Ron Rash

Deep in the North Carolina Appalachians lives the witch Laurel Shelton with her brother Hank, a WWI veteran. When a stranger captures Laurel's heart, his secret may destroy everything the trio cherishes.

 

 

The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity  by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy

Starting with the surprising relationship of Truman and Hoover, and following through to "Obama and His Club," TIME Magazine's Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy trace the complicated story of America's post WWII presidents.

 

 

The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen

With intensely taut storytelling and crystalline prose, this gripping debut explores how far we'll go to protect the things we love through the faith-driven and persecuted life of 10-year-old Judith McPherson.

 

 

The Coldest Night by Robert Olmstead

At 17, Henry Childs falls for the young, beautiful Mercy, but when her father threatens Henry’s life, he escapes to the Korean war.

 

 

 

Afterwards: A Novel by Rosamund Lupton

This intense psychological-thriller picks through the smoldering aftermath of a school fire that has torn Grace's family apart, but the danger isn't over until Grace uncovers the arsonist.

 

 

Truth Like the Sun by Jim Lynch

This cat-and-mouse story of urban intrigue is set in Seattle in 1962--when the Emerald City hosted the World's Fair--and in 2001, after the Microsoft gold rush.

 

 

 

Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird by Tim Birkhead

How do birds interpret the world through their senses? Tim Birkhead answers this question with engaging, scientifically-grounded prose.

 

 

 

Drop Dead Healthy by A. J. Jacobs

Feeling ashamed of a body he likened to “a python that swallowed a goat,” A.J. Jacobs felt compelled to change his middle-age ways. More than simple weight loss, his goal was maximum health from head to toe.

 

 

The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler

A physically-challenged man, Aaron's relatively calm middle-aged life rips apart after the tragic death of his wife, Dorothy. Only Dorothy’s unexpected appearances from the dead help him to find peace.

 

 

A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash

Reminiscent of the John Hart's work, This mesmerizing debut thriller explores the bond between two brothers and the evil they face in a western North Carolina town.

April's Kindle Books for $3.99 or Less

 

Spring has arrived, and so has this month's selection of 100 Kindle Books for $3.99 or Less. Here are a few of our top picks we're excited to share with you:

 

Russell Wiley Is Out to Lunch by Richard Hine, $1.99

Media executive Russell Wiley's career is about to collapse along with his struggling daily paper and his sexless marriage. Sardonic, humorous, and true to life, this gripping novel offers an insider’s view into a newspaper's inner sanctum.

 

The Pistoleer: A Novel of John Wesley Hardin by James Carlos Blake, $1.99

This stunning portrayal of Texas outlaw John Wesley Hardin exposes the many different sides of the legendary man. From his blood-soaked youth to his time in prison where he studied law, Blake masterfully retells the story of Hardin's life.

 

The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey, $2.99

Set in the canyon lands of the Southwest, a mismatched group of preservation-minded misfits set out to destroy the eyesores that threaten their desert environment's natural beauty. This wildly funny novel is among Abbey's most famous works of fiction.

 

I Wish I Were Engulfed in Flames by Jeni Decker, $1.99

Jeni Decker's brash, personal, and shocking memoir chronicles her effort to raise two healthy kids with autism is an eye-opening read. Her surreal anecdotes will have you either shaking your head in disbelief or nodding with recognition.

 

Daring the Highlander (The Legacy of MacLeod) by Laurin Wittig, $1.99

The sweeping Scottish saga that began with Charming the Shrew continues in this page-turning sequel where Ailig MacLeod returns to Castle Assynt after his brother was killed for plotting against the king. Can the beautiful widow Morainn MacRailt help rebuild his family's legacy.

 

A Matter of Honor by Jeffrey Archer, $2.99

A British colonel bequeaths a mysterious letter to his only son, Adam Scott. Soon after opening the yellowing envelope, Scott's pursued through Europe by the KGB, the CIA and his own countrymen. They intend to kill him before the letter's truth comes out.

 

Check out April's entire selection of 100 Kindle Books for $3.99 or Less. We've created a diverse list for all tastes, whether you're interested in explorations of contemporary culture, imaginative young-adult fantasies, innovative cookbooks, or intense thrillers.

 

Note: Deals expire on the last day of each month. Individual books may have additional territory restrictions, and not all deals are available in all territories.

March's Kindle Books for $3.99 or Less

It's time to celebrate the change of seasons with a fresh list of 100 Kindle Books for $3.99 or Less. Here are some of our favorites from this month's selection:

 

Under the March Sun: The Story of Spring Training by Charles Fountain, $1.99

Spring training, baseball's annual six-week ritual, dates back nearly 150 years. In this fascinating history, the full history of spring training is revealed for the first time: from its start as a shoestring-budget road trip to burn off winter calories to today's billion-dollar-a-year business surrounding the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues of Florida and Arizona.

 

A Little Death In Dixie by Lisa Turner, $2.99

Rich with the atmosphere of the American South, this expertly plotted suspense novel tracks Detective Billy Able as he works to uncover why one of Memphis' most seductive and notorious socialites has vanished. What starts as ordinary procedural work for Able soon morphs into a twisted trail of corruption, tragedy, and disturbing truths.

 

The Crossroads Café by Deborah Smith, $1.99

This sophisticated and poignant romance follows a beautiful Hollywood actress's escape to a secluded mountain cabin in North Carolina. A car accident has left her severely scarred, but in the Appalachians she finds unexpected love with a man who lost his family in 9-11.

 

I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi, $2.24

Written with refreshing irreverence, Ramit Sethi's six-week personal finance program takes a practical approach with a nonjudgmental style. The book's core centers around the four pillars of personal finance—banking, saving, budgeting, and investing—as well as the wealth-building ideas of entrepreneurship.

 

Born at Midnight (Shadow Falls) by C. C. Hunter, $2.99

After mixing with the wrong crowd, Kylie Galen gets sent to Shadow Falls camp by her mother. Kylie discovers her fellow campers aren't just "troubled," they're supernatural. The first book of this richly imagined young-adult fantasy series is filled with humor, teen angst, and a good dose of romance.

 

Be sure to browse through March's complete list of 100 Kindle Books for $3.99 or Less. We've taken care to select something for everybody, including taut thrillers, engaging romances, inspiring biographies, well-crafted cookbooks, and histories covering everything from Abraham Lincoln to the legendary punk band Black Flag.

 

Note: Deals expire on the last day of each month. Individual books may have additional territory restrictions, and not all deals are available in all territories.

Top 10 Kindle Books for March

From Theodore Roosevelt's quest to clean up sin-soaked New York City to the travails of a Tokyo pickpocket, our editors' selections for the Best Books of March features engaging nonfiction, imaginative new novels, and a moving short story collection.

 

The Vanishers by Heidi Julavits
A paranormal detective story, an affecting exposition of familial and female dynamics, and a hilarious satire of academic politics: Heidi Julavits has crafted an ambitious and strange novel.

 

 

Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Doomed Quest to Clean Up ... New York by Richard Zacks
Overrun with gambling and bootleg liquor, NYC was known as the "Island of Vice." Zacks's fun, enthusiastic style makes this well-researched history memorable.

 

 

Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
Looping from Nazi-occupied Europe to modern-day Baltimore and back, Esi Edugyan's Giller Prize winner is an electrifying, musical novel about racism and what we're willing to surrender for love and art.

 

 

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Betrayal, ardor, war, and prophecies... Author Madeline Miller gathers to love about Homer's "Iliad" without the labor of epic poetry, resulting in an absorbing, gratifyingly modern story.

 

 

The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura
Nakamura's protagonist weaves through the streets of Tokyo, pickpocketing his way through the flow of humanity, but the thief begins to realize a noose is being drawn around his neck.

 

 

Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer
Combining cutting-edge neurological research with the age-old mystery of how and when inspiration strikes, Jonah Lehrer crafts a fun and engaging study of creativity.

 

 

Wild by Cheryl Strayed
At 26, following the death of her mother, divorce, and a run of reckless behavior, Cheryl Strayed found herself embarking on a solo thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail. It's a well-balanced wilderness tale and personal-redemption memoir.

 

 

The Reconstructionist by Nick Arvin
Ellis Barstow, whose brother died young in a car crash, makes a living conducting auto accident postmortems. In love with his boss's wife, Ellis' brother's high school girlfriend, Ellis seeks answers to his brother's death.

 

 

White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf by Aaron Bobrow-Strain
Over the last hundred years, bread has gone from cure-all to fluff, and every place in between: this is table-bread's true story.

 

 

Birds of a Lesser Paradise by Megan Mayhew Bergman
This collection of stories constructs a world filled with nature and family who hate and love and mostly need one another, each satisfying in a way short fiction rarely does.

Editors' Picks: February

 

Before the calendar turns, we wanted to give you a final look at our editors' picks for the Best Books of February. Here are a handful from the list, which includes debut novels, eye-opening nonfiction titles, and a suspenseful legal mystery:

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo 

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Katherine Boo's landmark work of narrative nonfiction tells the dramatic, and sometimes heartbreaking, story of families striving toward a better life while taking up residence in the slum-shadows of one of the twenty-first century’s great, unequal cities: Mumbai, India.

 

Defending Jacob: A Novel by William Landay 

When a shocking crime shatters Andy Barber's happy life, the assistant district attorney is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student. It's a suspenseful, character-driven mystery and a spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and losing control.

 

A Good American by Alex George 

When Frederick and Jette flee her disapproving mother in 1904 by traveling to America, they find themselves in the small town of Beatrice, Missouri, not speaking a word of English and meeting characters ranging from a gumbo-cooking jazz trumpeter to a malevolent, bicycle-riding dwarf. Poignant, funny, and heartbreaking, it's a novel centered on the universal story about the search for home.

 

Flatscreen: A Novel by Adam Wilson 

Eli Schwartz as has endured the loss of his home, the indifference of his parents, the success of his older brother, and the frequent dismissal of women. A classic loser, Eli strikes up a dangerous friendship with a former TV star, now current paraplegic sex addict, that descends into utter debasement and YouTube stardom. Adam Wilson writes heart-moving mischief in this wondrous debut of a truth-telling comic voice.

 

The Snow Child: A Novel by Eowyn Ivey 

Alaska, 1920, is a brutal place to homestead, especially for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless; they are drifting apart, but in a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, the couple build a child out of snow. Come dawn, the snow child is gone, but Jack and Mabel glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees. Jack and Mabel come to love this strange child, Faina, as their own, and what they eventually learn about her will transform all of them.

February’s Kindle Books for $3.99 or Less

 

For the shortest month of the year we’ve put together a great list of 100 Kindle Books for $3.99 or Less.

Here are some of our favorites we want you to know about:

Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains by Jon Krakauer, $3.99
No matter what the actual temperature may be, several pages into this collection of stories examining the climbing subculture you will begin to shiver. The various heroes, risk-takers, incompetents, and individualists captured here are more than colorful as Krakauer explores the addiction of risk and intense effort.

The Sweetest Thing by Barbara Freethy, $1.99
Freethy’s charming writing style and expert plotting perfectly explore what happens when matters of the heart become complicated for entrepreneur Alex Carrigan after he invites his eccentric grandfather and precocious 12-year-old daughter into his home and a beautiful redhead into his love life.

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut, $2.99
An influential classic of satire and dark humor by one of the best, Vonnegut’s God Bless You Mr. Rosewater presents Eliot Rosewater, an itinerant, semi-crazed millionaire wandering the country in search of heritage and philanthropic outcome.

The Good Neighbor Cookbook: 125 Easy and Delicious Recipes to Surprise and Satisfy the New Moms, New Neighbors, and more by Suzanne Schlosberg, $2.99
Forget about the same old boring pasta salad or tuna casserole when you need to bring dinner to exhausted new parents, care for a friend recovering from surgery, or contribute to a business breakfast. Schlosberg and her coauthor Sara Quessenberry uniquely divide this excellent cookbook by occasion rather than food category.

In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming, $2.99
Fleming’s page-turning debut follows the trials of Virginian Clare Ferguson, who has left her tough past as an army helicopter pilot to become an ordained priest in upstate New York. Things become chilling after a baby is left on her doorstep and a community-shattering murder investigation follows.

 

Be sure to visit our complete list of 100 Kindle Books for $3.99 or Less and browse through the other 95 gems we’ve chosen for February; from adventure anthology to science fiction, this month’s selection has something for all reading tastes and moods.

Note: Deals expire on the last day of each month. Individual books may have additional territory restrictions, and not all deals are available in all territories.

Guest Blogger: William Landay

William Landay is the author of The Strangler, a Los Angeles Times Favorite Crime Book of the Year, and Mission Flats, winner of the Creasey Memorial Dagger Award for Best First Crime Novel and a Barry Award nominee. In his latest book, Defending Jacob, Landay asks, "How far would you go for your child?"

Every parent says it, sometime, in one oath or another: “I would do anything for my child. I’d lay down my life … give up everything I have … never abandon him.” We say it with serene certainty, we parents. We speak in absolutes: anything, everything, never. And we mean it sincerely. At least we think we do. Because most of us will never be tested. Most of us, fortunately, will never have to find out just how far we would go to defend our kids, or how far we should go.

What about you, reader? How far would you go? Can you even imagine a situation where a parent should abandon her child?

In Defending Jacob, the Barber family is faced with a crisis when their 14-year-old son Jacob is accused of murdering a schoolmate. As the evidence mounts, Jacob’s parents react in different ways. Laurie, Jacob’s mom, becomes increasingly wary of the boy. Andy, Jacob’s dad — though he is a veteran prosecutor and master trial lawyer, a disciplined guy whose entire career ought to have trained him to see the evidence clearly — simply can’t imagine his son committing the ultimate crime. I can’t say much more without spoiling the story. Suffice it to say, these two parents — equally intelligent, equally well-meaning, equally loving — seem to have different breaking points.

Is it just an idle question, something for book groups to chat about? I can hear you, reader, thinking: My child would never do that. My child is not capable of doing anything seriously wrong, let alone murder. It is probably true. Most children — most people — are not criminals. Certainly, very few parents will find themselves in the sort of extreme situation the Barbers are plunged into.

But the Barbers’ dilemma is really every parent’s problem. The only difference is the scale of Jacob’s wrongdoing. Because the challenge for every parent is to know your child, to see him for what he is and accept him, because there are limits to what any parent any can do to shape a child’s behavior. Good families produce bad kids, or at least imperfect kids. Kids who surprise their parents, in ways good and bad. Andy and Laurie Barber are not so different from you or me. When you read Defending Jacob, you may hear a little voice in your head asking, What would I do?

--William Landay