The Moving Memoir You Must Read (Plus, 6 Other New Favorites)
Real stories + real emotions + really beautiful writing = the
books that illuminate the lives of us all.
3 of 7
Lust & Wonder
By Augusten Burroughs
304 pages;
St. Martin's Press
"As a rule, if I am offered a choice
between two things, I will take both and then run," Augusten Burroughs
writes in his latest memoir. This time, the author of the modern classic,
Running with Scissors,
winningly chronicles the up-all-night start of his career (which replaces
falling-down drunkenness), his dating blunders, his epic paranoia and his quest
for abiding love. Burroughs lives without brakes, sure, but realizes that given
a choice between lust and love, or between wildly ambitious dreams and a
stable, comforting home, we all want to have it both ways. Burroughs' witty,
dead-on observations about everything from hapless therapists to petty
impediments to love (finding fault with the tiniest lines around a boyfriend's
eyes) make every sentence an adventure. It isn't even a spoiler to say that
there's a deliciously happy ending.
— Dawn Raffel
Published 03/22/2016