Rating: 
Summary: We all have skeletons
Review: I found Augusten's book, "Dry", to be well written with dashes of brilliantly depicted analogies of alcoholism and the insanity of alcoholic thinking. However, in my opinion, Augusten spent way too much time describing "what it use to be like" and precious little ink on "what life's like today freed from the death grip of drugs and alcohol". I, for one, would have liked to hear more on what Augusten did to get well, as opposed to how he got sick. But I guess that wouldn't be as an exciting a read. We all like the dirt!
Rating: 
Summary: Great follow up to Running With Scissors
Review: "Dry" by Augusten Burroughs is an interesting and natural follow up to "Running With Scissors." Wherein "Running With Scissors" is a masterpiece story of addiction out of control, "Dry" is the story of the process of going sober. However, like the tragically beautiful "My Fractured Life" by Rikki Lee Travolta, both "Dry" and "Running With Scissors" neither preach nor serve as news style documentaries. Instead, the story of recovery is captured within the storyline and subtext of the actions of the novel. The writing has a sad musical quality to it like that used by Travolta in "My Fractured Life" and Jonathan Lethem in "Fortress of Solitude." Like it's predecessor "Running With Scissors," "Dry" manages to fully cement the integrity of the affects of addiction within the story. I recommend both books.
Rating:
Summary: Not dry at all.
Review: A well-written cast of characters (all are true, of course) are what make this book so great. The character interaction is everything from disturbing to absolutely hilarious. I read this book in one evening, and I couldn't help but feel like I was a changed man.Being an alcoholic myself, it was easier for me to relate to Augusten. It makes me glad, though, that people can understand the struggles of being gay and an alcoholic, and why things happen the way they do in this harsh world. I hope this book helps relieve judgement, even if it's just a little bit.
Rating: 
Summary: Really, really honest
Review: I am amazed at the brutal honesty that Augusten Burroughs possesses to write a second book on his painful past. He writes with such pathos and truth and humor that it feels like he is sitting next to you retelling his struggles. Dry is a testament to human strength and perserverance.
Rating:
Summary: What an incredible book!
Review: I read Running With Scissors and thought it was pretty good, but the author's apparent flippant attitude about his difficult life was a bit of a turn-off to me. As Dry makes clear, however, that 'flippant attitude' is probably how he survived his childhood. The writing style in Dry is different from Running With Scissors, which makes Dry a superior and more powerful novel. This book is moving, inspiring, and funny, and isn't it a wonderful experience when you find a book that makes you want to sit down and have coffee with the author? Dry is the best book I've read in years, and the feedback I've gotten from the two people I've let borrow it has also been extremely positive. This is one of those rare sequels that will probably appeal to both fans AND non-fans of the first memoir.
Rating:
Summary: Funny, harrowing, amazing
Review: I read "Dry: A Memoir" because it is a Talking Volumes selection. I did not expect to become so swept up in the narrative. Burroughs has an engaging and original voice that dances between hilarious wit and harrowing honesty. The book traces his arc from alcoholic ad man through an alternately comic and devastating recovery process and the pursuit of relationships. I had to keep reminding myself that this was nonfiction. I read "Dry" like I had been hungry for this kind of a book for years, and when I finished, I had to start writing myself - who knows how much time any of us have?
Rating:
Summary: Not for Alcoholics Only
Review: This book was simply fabulous. A follow-up to his Running With Scissors, I found it just as riveting. This is one of the few books I had trouble putting down. His vivid and contemporary writing style kept my interest up throughout the whole book. Burroughs is tragically funny. His language flows smoothly, quickly and is often times profound. It reads like a fiction story, not some nonfiction stilted tell-all. It's beautifully written. I don't know if you have to be an alcoholic or drug addict to appreciate this book, but I'm not and I did.
Rating:
Summary: First Rate
Review: I am female, not gay, not a recovering alcoholic or recovering anything, and this is one of the best books I have ever read. Augusten Burroughs tells his story with such uncensored honesty, revealing every aspect of himself, warts and all, that I found it absolutely compelling. I thought there couldn't be a better writer than Pat Conroy, but this guy is right up there with him. Can't wait for the next book!
Rating:
Summary: Drink in Burroughs' Harrowing Experiences
Review: As a follow-up to his bestselling work, Running with Scissors, Burroughs gives more insight to the experiences that created the author we know today. This time, with Dry, he tackles his dependency on alchol and how he let it get the best of him, until he saw the light. We follow Burroughs from realization to reheb to relapse and back again to realization. Only an author with a flair for writing and knack for humor can make a situation that can be deemed extremely horrifying seem like a fun, rollicking adventure. Burroughs takes us on the ride of a lifetime through the world of alcohol and drug addiction, and makes non-addicts never want to test the waters and makes recovering addicts glad that they have chosen to change. Read this book if you are looking for a good look at someone else's life, and in the age of reality television, this is definitely one book you don't want to pass up.
Rating:
Summary: A fresh voice for old subject matter
Review: I read the first several chapters of "Dry" standing up, in a bookstore, and couldn't put it down until the bookstore closed for the evening. After that, I got the book out of the library and read it in one sitting. I reread those first several chapters, going over them more slowly than I was able to in the bookstore, and laughing more loudly than I was able to in the bookstore. The beginning is definitely the best part, when the protagonist is a sarcastic drunk. The scenes at the rehab clinic are especially wonderful, and are recognizable by anyone, even those of us who haven't been through these kinds of therapy. The sarcasm effectively turns recovery cliches on their heads in the beginning part of the book, and then the protagonist begins to recover and get healthy, and that's when the book loses a lot of its bite and recovery cliches become recovery cliches. Burroughs' writing is good enough to propel the reader to the end of the book -- as I said earlier, I finished the book in one sitting -- but recovery is recovery is recovery.
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