James's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 21 Sep 2015 11:52:52 -0700 60 James's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Freaks I've Met 26041497 208 Jans Donald 0578152150 James 5 3.65 2015 Freaks I've Met
author: Jans Donald
name: James
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2015/09/01
date added: 2015/09/21
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How do you make the bond market funny? The author did this, and more, and made me relive my own foibles of my first job. Kirkus called it Buchowski-esque, yes, with a dash of Hunter S. Thompson and David Sedaris for good measure. Great book for anyone who has ever had a job, or is just starting out. My only complaint was it ended too quickly. I purposely stopped 10 pages short for the night so I would have something fun to read the next day. Love how he set up his arch nemesis and how that all played out in the end. Over the top, and yet somehow completely believable. I look forward to more from this author.
]]> <![CDATA[The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family]]> 25079 In a time when much of the country sees red whenever the subject of gay marriage comes up, Dan Savage-outspoken author of the column "Savage Love"- makes it personal.

Dan Savage's mother wants him to get married. His boyfriend, Terry, says "no thanks" because he doesn't want to act like a straight person. Their six-year-old son DJ says his two dads aren't "allowed" to get married, but that he'd like to come to the reception and eat cake. Throw into the mix Dan's straight siblings, whose varied choices form a microcosm of how Americans are approaching marriage these days, and you get a rollicking family memoir that will have everyone-gay or straight, right or left, single or married-howling with laughter and rethinking their notions of marriage and all it entails. BACKCOVER: "Hilarious, heartfelt."
-Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"As funny as David Sedaris's essay collections, but bawdier and more thought-provoking."
-Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

"Most of all, a book about creating and appreciating family."
-Seattle Times

"I think America would be a better place if everyone on every side of the gay marriage debate would read this book."
-Ira Glass, host of the public radio show This American Life

"The strongest argument here, which [Savage] brilliantly plays down, is that family means everything to these people: married, not married, blended, gay, straight, whatever."
-The Washington Post]]> 304 Dan Savage 0452287634 James 3 3.93 2005 The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family
author: Dan Savage
name: James
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2005
rating: 3
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date added: 2015/09/21
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]]> Possible Side Effects 61115 National Bestseller
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From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Running with Scissors comes Augusten Burroughs's most provocative collection of true stories yet. From nicotine gum addiction to lesbian personal ads to incontinent dogs, Possible Side Effects mines Burroughs's life in a series of uproariously funny essays. These are stories that are uniquely Augusten, with all the over-the-top hilarity of Running with Scissors, the erudition of Dry, and the breadth of Magical Thinking. A collection that is universal in its appeal and unabashedly intimate, Possible Side Effects continues to explore that which is most personal, mirthful, disturbing, and cherished, with unmatched audacity. A cautionary tale in essay form. Be forewarned--hilarious, troubling, and shocking results might occur.]]> 291 Augusten Burroughs 031242681X James 4 3.99 2006 Possible Side Effects
author: Augusten Burroughs
name: James
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2006
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Magical Thinking: True Stories]]> 79790 304 Augusten Burroughs 0312315953 James 5 3.96 2004 Magical Thinking: True Stories
author: Augusten Burroughs
name: James
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2004
rating: 5
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date added: 2015/09/21
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]]> Dry 32370 293 Augusten Burroughs 0312423799 James 4 4.02 2003 Dry
author: Augusten Burroughs
name: James
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2003
rating: 4
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]]> Running with Scissors 242006 336 Augusten Burroughs 031242227X James 4 3.77 2002 Running with Scissors
author: Augusten Burroughs
name: James
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2002
rating: 4
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]]> Sex and Death to the Age 14 38305 256 Spalding Gray 0394742575 James 5 4.06 1986 Sex and Death to the Age 14
author: Spalding Gray
name: James
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1986
rating: 5
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]]> Impossible Vacation 33306
Brewster North witnesses his mother's madness but misses her suicide; searches frantically for enlightenment in the Poconos and zipless sex in India; suffers family ennui in Rhode Island and a nervous breakdown in Amsterdam. In the process he emerges as a hilariously complex everyman. And as Gray narrates his hero's free fall, he confirms his own stature as one of our funniest, most eccentric, and most engaging storytellers.]]> 228 Spalding Gray 0679745238 James 4 3.74 1992 Impossible Vacation
author: Spalding Gray
name: James
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1992
rating: 4
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]]> Monster in a Box 38306 96 Spalding Gray 0679737391 James 4 4.02 1992 Monster in a Box
author: Spalding Gray
name: James
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1992
rating: 4
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]]> Mississippi Sissy 178758 Mississippi Sissy is the stunning memoir from Kevin Sessums, a celebrity journalist who grew up scaring other children, hiding terrible secrets, pretending to be Arlene Frances and running wild in the South. As he grew up in Forest, Mississippi, befriended by the family maid, Mattie May, he became a young man who turned the word "sissy" on its head, just as his mother taught him. In Jackson, he is befriended by Eudora Welty and journalist Frank Hains, but when Hains is brutally murdered in his antebellum mansion, Kevin's long road north towards celebrity begins. In a memoir that echoes bestsellers like The Liar's Club, Kevin Sessums brings to life the pungent American south of the 1960s and the world of the strange little boy who grew there.]]> 320 Kevin Sessums 0312341016 James 4 3.60 2007 Mississippi Sissy
author: Kevin Sessums
name: James
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2007
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[I Left It on the Mountain: A Memoir]]> 22543750 288 Kevin Sessums 0312598386 James 4 3.39 2015 I Left It on the Mountain: A Memoir
author: Kevin Sessums
name: James
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2015
rating: 4
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date added: 2015/09/21
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]]> Uganda Be Kidding Me 18127101
On safari in Africa, it's anyone's guess as to what's more dangerous: the wildlife or Chelsea. But whether she's fumbling the seduction of a guide by not knowing where tigers live (Asia, duh) or wearing a bathrobe into the bush because her clothes stopped fitting seven margaritas ago, she's always game for the next misadventure.

The situation gets down and dirty as she defiles a kayak in the Bahamas, and outright sweaty as she escapes from a German hospital on crutches. When things get truly scary, like finding herself stuck next to a passenger with bad breath, she knows she can rely on her family to make matters even worse. Thank goodness she has the devoted Chunk by her side-except for the time she loses him in Telluride.

Complete with answers to the most frequently asked traveler's questions, hot travel trips, and travel etiquette, none of which should be believed, UGANDA BE KIDDING ME has Chelsea taking on the world, one laugh-out-loud incident at a time.]]> 257 Chelsea Handler 1455599735 James 4 3.64 2014 Uganda Be Kidding Me
author: Chelsea Handler
name: James
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2014
rating: 4
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date added: 2015/09/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Assholes Finish First (Tucker Max, #2)]]> 89284
What do you do when you've become rich and famous for writing a #1 best-selling book about your drunken, sexual misadventures? I'll tell you what I do: I write another fucking book.

This is that book. Assholes Finish First is hilarious in ways you will recognize from I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell, and in other, newer ways you won't. Of course it has all the sex and debauchery you expect from my writing, but with a twist. You already know how I deal with women when I am poor and anonymous. You have no idea how I do it when I have money and fame.

It also answers the hard questions you've never thought of asking. What's it like to have sex with a midget? How about two of 'em? What happens when you eat too much beef jerky and then drink a gallon of vegetable juice? Or get head in an X-ray machine? The answers are inside, they are absurd, and they are the product of one man's experiences:

My name is still Tucker Max, and I am still an asshole.]]> 404 Tucker Max 1416938745 James 4 3.63 2008 Assholes Finish First (Tucker Max, #2)
author: Tucker Max
name: James
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2008
rating: 4
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date added: 2015/09/21
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]]> Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang 6472246 Chelsea Lately and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea.

Get ready for big laughs as Chelsea Handler lets loose with more comic personal essays. In this new, no-holds-barred account of life on the ridiculous side, Chelsea mines the wealth of material that is her family, her sex life, her career, and her distinctively outrageous worldview. Here is young Chelsea discovering "The Feeling" during a third-grade sleepover and getting shafted by clueless parents over Cabbage Patch dolls...and grown-up Chelsea at the mercy of the remote control, Lean Pockets, and Sex and the City --but still managing to convince her boyfriend that there are Swiss Army knives in the soles of her $16,000 shoes. Through it all, Chelsea never lets anyone off the hook, even herself, as she delivers page after page of irreverent humor, biting wit, and deliciously off-kilter entertainment.

]]> 244 Chelsea Handler 0446552445 James 5 3.83 2010 Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang
author: Chelsea Handler
name: James
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2010
rating: 5
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date added: 2015/09/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea]]> 40173
In this hilarious, deliciously skewed collection, Chelsea mines her past for stories about her family, relationships, and career that are at once singular and ridiculous. Whether she's convincing her third-grade class that she has been tapped to play Goldie Hawn's daughter in the sequel to Private Benjamin, deciding to be more egalitarian by dating a redhead, or looking out for a foulmouthed, rum-swilling little person who looks just like her... only smaller, Chelsea has a knack for getting herself into the most outrageous situations.

Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea showcases the candor and irresistible turns of phrase that have made her one of the freshest voices in comedy today.]]> 264 Chelsea Handler 0061173398 James 4 3.85 2008 Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea
author: Chelsea Handler
name: James
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2008
rating: 4
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date added: 2015/09/21
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]]> <![CDATA[You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas]]> 6548291
You better not cry --
And two eyes made out of coal --
Claus and effect --
Ask again later --
Why do you reward me thus --
The best and only everything --
Silent night]]> 206 Augusten Burroughs 0312341911 James 4 3.70 2009 You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas
author: Augusten Burroughs
name: James
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2009
rating: 4
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date added: 2015/09/21
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]]> <![CDATA[The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000]]> 284429 United States, Gore Vidal’s scintillating ninth collection, The Last Empire, affirms his reputation as our most provocative critic and observer of the modern American scene. In the essays collected here, Vidal brings his keen intellect, experience, and razor-edged wit to bear on an astonishing range of subjects. From his celebrated profiles of Clare Boothe Luce and Charles Lindbergh and his controversial essay about the Bill of Rights–which sparked an extended correspondence with convicted Oklahoma City Bomber Timothy McVeigh–to his provocative analyses of literary icons such as John Updike and Mark Twain and his trenchant observations about terrorism, civil liberties, the CIA, Al Gore, Tony Blair, and the Clintons, Vidal weaves a rich tapestry of personal anecdote, critical insight, and historical detail. Written between the first presidential campaign of Bill Clinton and the electoral crisis of 2000, The Last Empire is a sweeping coda to the last century’s conflicted vision of the American dream.]]> 480 Gore Vidal 037572639X James 4 3.90 2001 The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000
author: Gore Vidal
name: James
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2001
rating: 4
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date added: 2015/09/21
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]]> Holidays on Ice 4136 Us and Them); the difficulties of explaining the Easter Bunny to the French (Jesus Shaves); what to do when you've been locked out in a snowstorm (Let It Snow); the puzzling Christmas traditions of other nations (Six to Eight Black Men); what Halloween at the medical examiner's looks like (The Monster Mash); and a barnyard secret Santa scheme gone awry (Cow and Turkey).]]> 176 David Sedaris 0316191299 James 5 3.92 1997 Holidays on Ice
author: David Sedaris
name: James
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1997
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[When You Are Engulfed in Flames]]> 1044355 When You Are Engulfed in Flames confirms once again that David Sedaris is a master of mystery and suspense.

Or how about...

when set on fire, most of us either fumble for our wallets or waste valuable time feeling sorry for ourselves. David Sedaris has studied this phenomenon, and his resulting insights may very well save your life. Author of the national bestsellers Should You Be Attacked By Snakes and If You Are Surrounded by Mean Ghosts, David Sedaris, with When You Are Engulfed in Flames, is clearly at the top of his game.

Oh, all right...

David Sedaris has written yet another book of essays (his sixth). Subjects include a parasitic worm that once lived in his mother-in-law's leg, an encounter with a dingo, and the recreational use of an external catheter. Also recounted is the buying of a human skeleton and the author's attempt to quit smoking In Tokyo.

Master of nothing, at the dead center of his game, Sedaris proves that when you play with matches, you sometimes light the whole pack on fire.
(front flap)]]> 323 David Sedaris 0316143472 James 4 4.08 2008 When You Are Engulfed in Flames
author: David Sedaris
name: James
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2008
rating: 4
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date added: 2015/09/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim]]> 10176 --davidsedarisbooks.com]]> 257 David Sedaris 0965904830 James 4 4.12 2004 Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
author: David Sedaris
name: James
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2004
rating: 4
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date added: 2015/09/21
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]]> Naked 4138 Naked, Sedaris turns the mania for memoir on its proverbial ear, mining the exceedingly rich terrain of his life, his family, and his unique worldview—a sensibility at once take-no-prisoners sharp and deeply charitable. A tart-tongued mother does dead-on imitations of her young son's nervous tics, to the great amusement of his teachers; a stint of Kerouackian wandering is undertaken (of course!) with a quadriplegic companion; a family gathers for a wedding in the face of imminent death. Through it all is Sedaris's unmistakable voice, without doubt one of the freshest in American writing.]]> 304 David Sedaris James 4 4.10 1997 Naked
author: David Sedaris
name: James
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1997
rating: 4
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date added: 2015/09/21
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]]> Me Talk Pretty One Day 4137 272 David Sedaris 0349113912 James 5 4.01 2000 Me Talk Pretty One Day
author: David Sedaris
name: James
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2000
rating: 5
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date added: 2015/09/21
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]]>