Augusten Burroughs is brutally honest in this memoir about his struggle to overcome his addictions. It's a roller coaster read and he takes you on a journey inside the cut throat ad biz and his freaky-deaky world of crack houses, Nazi-esque ad clients, AA meetings and fuzzy bunny rehab centers. It'll make you laugh and cry. You'll never look at a bottle of Dewar's in quite the same way after reading this. You may even start to question your own addictions.

Released on Friday, June 20, 2003 at Blumenthal Performing Arts Center in Charlotte, North Carolina USA.

Backstage at the Blumenthal PAC...

My friend Wayne led me to this book where he'd left it backstage at a theatre in Charlotte, NC and gosh: I'm a new man. And guess what? I'm an alcoholic! Thanks to Augusten's true felt and finely recorded observations, I learned a heck of a lot about myself. And got some great chuckles along the way. I'm going to give this book to a friend or leave it somewhere. Don't know yet. But thanks, world, for sending it my way.

Okay, I'm hooked. After Running With Scissors and, now, Dry, Augusten feels like a friend. A really troubled friend with a freaky past who I hope is now sober and happy (since that's clearly what he deserves). But how did he manage to make his sexually abused childhood seem so much funnier than his drunken, coked-up adulthood? Maybe it's so much sadder the closer we are to our history. Hmmm. Well, I'm game for his next memoir...

I was pet sitting for my cousin, and he left out this copy of Dry for me. I had heard about the book, so I scooped it up.

Dry is a thoughtful read. And one would think, given the subject matter, a very sad memoir, but it left me hopefully.

Augusten writes about even his most difficult experiences with a perfect balance of honesty and humor. The manner in which he openly expresses his thoughts and emotions as his addiction progresses and through rehab makes this a very personal story, and you feel that you have lived this with a close friend. It's a bit disturbing for those of us with our own addictions, but perhaps that's a good thing. I highly recommend this book, and have put "Running With Scissors" at the top of my to-read list.

A co-worker read it and suggested I read it. It was very eye-opening for a naive woman from the Midwest. I thought it was very good and I plan to pass it along.

CAUGHT IN KANSAS CITY MO USA