Rating: 
Summary: Weird but entertaining
Review: I agree with alot of what other reviewers say about this being a weird book and no way did all that stuff happen. It's just too far out. The molestation/gay scenes were odd. I guess if you're like me and are looking for something different in a book that includes odd, dark, and weirdly funny then you will enjoy this book. It's not a page turner, but yet you find yourself being drawn back to it. I liked it and will probably read the sequel.
Rating: 
Summary: I'll bet this will be made into a movie !
Review: I found this book to be both heart wrenching and hilarious . This boy's life is so outrageous, nobody could possibly make up the things he experienced . I highly recommend it to anyone with an open mind. It even made me feel " normal " by comparison!
Rating: 
Summary: J'Accuse
Review: It is absolutely stunning to me that no one has questioned the veracity of this book. Though I seldom write in books (unless I'm reviewing them), I found myself repeatedly writing "No way" in the margins. A well-respected therapist who examines his family's bowel movements to predict the future? No way. A crazy aunt who lives on dog food? No way. This same family moves its belongings out of doors and then LIVES there? Please. You'll notice that in his afterward, Burroughs lets the reader know that these people are either dead or disappeared (i.e., so that no one who might want to fact check can do so). How transparent can you get? If Mr. Burroughs had called this book fiction, he could be called, "kooky." RUNNING WITH SCISSORS might be okay as satire. That he passed it off as nonfiction is dangerously irresponsible. That so many people uncritically accept it as fact is a sign of how far removed from reality we've gotten.
Rating: 
Summary: Two Sides To the Scissor
Review: Augusten Burroughs tells the story of his twisted chilhood. He was sent to live with his mother's very unorthodox psychiatrist, "Dr. Finch," in Boston. Augusten's stay with the doctor, who resembles Santa Claus, and the doctor's family, in what is literally a madhouse. I liked this book very much in its' straitforward and almost a little-too-brutal reality of the Burrough's childhood. However, I feel as though the book lacked any real message, that the storylines such as his mother's mental health, her relationship with Dr. Finch, the doctors' behavior regarding sex, therapy, and family ... I just feel that though the story took on an honest tone that makes the reader empathize with Augusten, it also leaves open much speculation as to the rest of the people he lives with. While Burroughs himself progressed throughout the entire novel, the other characters remained the same until otherwise mentioned. It seems to me like he bases much of the a lot of blame on the doctor himself, which is only half understood, since details about the doctor and the other characters weren't fully explored. Obviously this is an autobiography and about Augusten's views, I just expected some more inrformation about the rest of the people - the Finch children, the other "patients" he befriends, for they too are as much of an influence on how he turned out to be. This is an excellent piece of work, and it absolutely is an inspiration: Even when life seems bad, (and while it could always be worse), good things can come from just about everything.
Rating:
Summary: Weird and Wonderful
Review: OK it's true it's not for the squeamish. I was a little shocked-- but then so was the author-- when he had his first sexual encounter at age 13. He didn't seem to enjoy it much, and although he began a relationship with the man (34!), he clearly had mixed feelings the whole time... but the main thing, as Augusten himself later realizes, is that, without an adult to tell you what NOT to do... "freedom" is just like being trapped. It's the real meaning of "freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." After his mother pawns him off on her nutty egomaniac psychologist and his squalid though entertaining household and his father refuses to accept charges on collect calls, Augusten is a free agent... at 12. This is a great read, though. Augusten is preternaturally self-aware, even as a tiny child... he's sort of a flaming queen at eight, with his fetishes about clothes and cleanliness, and his identification with his "poet" mother (we get one excerpt from her poetry and it's god-awful, self-indulgent junk, though she has delusions of New Yorker publication)... and his observations are mixed with just the right amount of analysis so that we get to make our own conclusions without losing sight of his opinions and attitudes. Great sense of place and time-- this could ONLY be the seventies in Northhampton. Somehow he and the kids in the squalid "Doc's" household maintain some humanity even without any limits or restraints and though much of what goes on qualifies as "abuse" (it's a miracle social workers never broke up the family) there's no intentional cruelty... and we just know that Augusten's talent will pull him through. This is a hard book to put down; its structure is short, independent chapters with titles like "Something Isn't Right." They connect to one another only loosely after awhile-- the beginning tells a pretty clear story of the parents' divorce and Augusten's transfer to the loopy Finch family. The middle sometimes seems unrelated episodes and occasionally I wanted to know more about the details (after he and his foster sister Natalie sing "You Light Up My Life" in a mental home and a patient spits at them, do they ever go back?). But that also makes the story at times a little frustrating. Still, what a talent! and with almost no formal education or guidance. I look forward to reading Dry, the sequel, in which young Augusten manages to get hired as an advertising copyrighter in New York. This book was an unexpected pleasure, neither gross-out, maudlin, "uplifiting" or "redemptive" but funny, sad and truthful.
Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: its is amazing to me that this child was able to survive living with a truly odd upbringing. I applaud this book. Very well done. Also recommended: Nightmares Echo
Rating:
Summary: An unbelievably believable story
Review: While reading Running With Scissors, I kept flipping back to the cover to make sure it didn't say "fiction" or "a novel." Because much of what happens to Augusten seems completely unbelievable. However, this twisted and riveting memoir had me turning pages faster than any thriller I've ever read. I wanted to see how Augusten survived and what would happen next. From a neurotic mother who dreams of celebrity to a psychiatrist who believes God is speaking to him through his bowel movements, it is almost miraculous that the author survived to write the book. Mesmerizing and horrifying all at once, "Running with Scissors" will have you laughing, crying, and thanking your parents for not letting you run with scissors.
Rating:
Summary: Harrowing and Highly Entertaining.
Review: Augusten Burroughs' memoir, Running with Scissors, avoids the treacherous pitfall of self-pity, although he has as much justification as anyone. When his parents' miserable marriage escalates to chucking objects at each other and making homicidal threats (Augusten's dad memorably chases his wife through the house with a fondue pot), Augusten's mom desperately enrolls them both in marriage counseling with one Dr. Finch. A jolly and Santa-like man, Finch logs in hours a day, several days a week, behind closed doors with his mom. Augusten, being a mere eleven years old, sits out in the waiting room, or goes to amuse himself with the help of cash handouts from Dr. Finch. If this seems creepy and spooky, rest assured that it gets far worse, yet it always remains a strangely compelling and entertaining book. Other recommended titles: Dry by Burroughs, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez
Rating:
Summary: you have to read this one
Review: This is truly one of the most entertaining books i have ever read. I just couldn't put it down and immediately went to amazon to order Sellevision and Dry - his other two novels. His style of writing is so intriging and interesting. It's really hard to believe that all the stuff in here actually happened to one little boy. The fact that he survived and was able to write a sequel is a miracle. At any rate, he is my new favorite author.
Rating:
Summary: A sharp look at reality
Review: Augusten Burroughs goes to live with the eccentric Dr. Finch - his mothers' psychiatrist. He is a man who reminds Augusten of Santa Claus...except for the fact that Santa brings gifts to people in boxes, and Dr. Finch gives his "presents" out in the form of something from a medicine bottle. And - instead of a fireplace for the chimmney, Dr. Finch has an outdated electric shock therapy machine in his home. While Santa is just about every child's dream, it seems as though Dr. Finch was Augusten's nightmare. Augusten lives not only with two of the Finch daughters, his so-called "wife" as well as various patients that are under the doctor's "care." Here is a painfully honest story for the reader, and as I read some parts of the it, I was thinking, "How could someone be so brave to write this about himself?" Some may find it graphic - such as the parts that Augusten (as a 12 year old boy) spends time with a pedaphile who is almost three times his age. Augusten is exposed to the most unorthodox doctor in practice that I have ever heard of.
While the story is a bit too accurate in its' accounts to really be called an autobiography, it also displays a new approach for authors in writing about themselves. This author seems to have made some very good reflective thoughts, as he thinks to himself: "The problem with no one telling you what to do, I realized, is that there is no one to tell you what not to do."
Augusten lives in a home where there are no rules, where ranting and raging to the extreme is considered healthy, and where he is unable to really view himself in relation to the real world. Throughout the years spent with Dr. Finch, it is proven that perhaps it is not just in spite of, but more importantly, because of, all of the craziness that Burroughs was exposed to that made him the success who he is today. Burroughs' story is not one of courage; rather it is one of survival - and trying to maintain one's sanity in the face of disaster. He does not make himself out to be anything better than any human being living a difficult life, yet the story is thought-provoking as we read the skewed reality of one boy's experiences in the most important years of growing up.
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