Jessica

For fans of Augusten Burroughs, this is a real treat. Snippets of stuff you know from Running with Scissors weaves through his best writing yet in the form of essays about his life, relationships, neuroses, and career. He's a great reader, too, and his words and voice combine to wonderful effect. I laughed out loud a couple times in public while listening on my iPod, and while I must have looked like a wacko, I had a great time.

Right off the bat, she speaks of how she's known her husband "almost literally" half her life. Almost literally? Yikes. Didn't she have an editor?

And the narrator is annoying. Grating, even. Oh well, I was looking forward to this one, but don't think I will buy the whole thing.

I really wanted to like this book, but every time I turned it back on, I found that I simply wanted to get away from Richard Cohen's voice as it was grating and monotonous. The book itself was somewhat boring, and the author repeats some of the material over and over again during the narrative. I kept going back because I wanted it to redeem itself, but it never did. I could see how someone going through the journey of Multiple Sclerosis might find it engaging, but even then, Cohen's style undercuts the drama the subject would otherwise hold.