bibliophile

Most everyone who knows me knows that I am a big Anne Rice queen, so naturally the last two books I read, on vacation last month, were Merrick, the new Mayfair Witches/Vamp Chronicles edition, and then the charming Pandora, which I had missed thus far.

I have nothing but admiration for this great modern writer, and if you have somehow missed her books all these years, start and you will have years of catching up to do. The Vampire Chronicles are riveting and justly famous, but for johnny and I she has never topped the Mayfair Witches books, especially the first of them, the masterful Witching Hour.

I also adored The Feast of All Saints, which is fascinating for all the detail on New Orleans and the Free People of Color, the connections between haiti, Paris and New Orleans, and the intricate quadroon mistress system that was so much a part of N.O. life.

I just read Dreamcatcher, by Stephen King (Scribner). It was o.k, it wasn't that scary.There were painful autobiographical elements memories of a car accident like the one that nearly killed King in 1999. Its Blair Witch Meets X Files,The plot is trademark King Four pals meet virus-carrying aliens in the Maine woods.My favorite refrerence was the scooby doo lunch box, this sums up the who dunnit humour aspect.

I'm reading Dolly Parton's autobiography. It's pretty riviting. Even more than Latoya Jackson's autobiography if you can believe that. At first it's kind of hard to get into because she REALLY wrote it herself and the whole "Beverly Hillbilly" schtick is kind of tiresome. I know she has an audience that expects that crap but the truth is she is not a Hillbilly anymore and is quite an amazing woman. The good thing about that kind of "fireside chat" type of writing is that you really feel that you know her. I don't believe everything she says however. I really can't believe her best friend for 50 years, Judy (the one with the shag haircut, the one that never married, you know... the one that was in the Army for all of those years) and her are not lovers. She says that there is always alot of talk because when she goes on tour Judy is her bodyguard and they sleep in the same hotel room, in fact they sleep in the same bed. I guess that's how rummors start! She denies any hanky panky. Dolly is a totally modern woman!

Just finished Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club author)... it was such a fun read! Didn't want to put it down... imagine the fast-edit style of Fight Club, adding all the drugs, drinking and fabulosity of AbFab, throwing in a handful of wild, raunchy drag queens, but still maintaing a serious plot and a journey through a woman's psyche. HOT DAMN! It was both entertaining and thought-provoking. His style is edgy without being too distracting or too self-conscious, and the characters are AWESOME. Anything else I say would be a spoiler, so I'll leave it at that.

I just finished a reread of The Great Gatsby -- checking out decadence of another era -- and have now started a collection of Calvin Trillin essays. I love that he can be so humorously evocative of the joys of food without any cooking skill of his own. he's a great guide to NYC takeout!

I just finished "Sea Dragon Heir" by Storm Constantine.... a fantastical tale, miserable wretched and gray.... just how I like it

I adore her work

I am a big nautical fan.

For those who have a love of World/English history and of the Georgan/Napoleonic Period in general, check out Patrick O' Brian's Jack Aubrey Series. The series begins with the first work, Master and Commander. No, it's not a D/S novel. However, there is quite a bit of talk about flogging, rum and sodomy just to keep you all interested.

The naval detail, musical, medical, fashion, cultural, language, art, and science accuracy of the 22 volume work is truly staggering. It is immersive and educating. An excellent read.


T

[This message was edited by Ted & Di on 04-03-01 at 05:43 PM.]

I just read all of the David Sedaris books. They're a real hoot! I fell in Love with his sister Amy via "Strangers With Candy" and I've discovered that a sick form of genius runs in their family.

"The Book Of Liz," a play that they cowrote is currently running. I really liked it, but the books are great on a much higher level.

[This message was edited by Miss Understood on 04-09-01 at 08:42 PM.]

I am learning much from reading The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell. First printed in 1951 this little gem is loaded with insightful nuggets of information like "Among average respectable women envy plays an extraordinarily large part. If you are sitting in the Underground and a well-dressed woman happens to walk along the car, watch the eyes of the other women. You will see that every one of them, with the possible exception of those who are even better dressed, will watch the woman with malevolent glances, and will be struggling to draw inferences derogatory to her. The love of scandal is an expression of this general malevolence; any story against another woman is instantly believed, even on the flimsiest evidence. A lofty morality serves the same purpose; those who have a chance to sin against it are envied, and it is considered virtuous to punish them for their own sins. This particular form of virtue is certainly its own reward."
This serves as a reminder to look the best and sin often, so that envious eyes will fall upon you.

That Bertrand Russel sounds dangerous and intriguing. His insights seem to speak from both sides of the social coin, giving his voice both astonishingly enlightentend and reprehensibly candid insights. Feeling compelled...must..investigate..further.

Oh, yeah, so my friend Jemiah Jefferson, of Portland, OR, has gotten her shit together but good, and written an engaging and delightful vampire story. It's called, "Voice of the Blood", and you can get it at Borders and finer Amazon.com clones everywhere. or, you could just go here: http://www.jemiah.com/writing/novels/vox1.html

It's not entirely unlike the works of Poppy Z Brite or Anne Rice in theme, but that's about as far as it goes. I've found thus far, (I'm halfway through it), that her humour and irony is right in your face, she doesn't pull punches, doesn't take any removed distances from her narrator's experience or the reader's.
I'm also liking how it is very much the gorey, lusty vampire tale that your jaded post-goth self still quietly wants to adore, and yet, since it picks holes and laughs at the whole genre while at the same time being _of_ it, the book brings a sort of post-post modern humanity/humility to the medium itself. It forgives you for enjoying it

In other words, it says, "Yeah, I'm cheesy like a slice of Ray's, fuck off and keep reading...I know you want to",...and you do.

How splendid, AND she's coming out to NYC in mid-May for research! So,...if, over the weekend of the 19th of that month, you spot me out and about with a foxy young black chick with creamy dreads and a half-sullen/half grinning expression, please come up with your fonkyfab self and show her why NYC is worth writing about. Flirt shamelessly, she's game. You may well wind up being immortalized!

Currently reading "The Wanting Seed" by Anthony Burgess - but it is dragging on a bit. Certainly not his best.

But I highly suggest "I Am Elijah Thrush" by James Purdy - if you can find it as it is Out-of-Print. Tells the tale of an old homosexual dancer/drag performer/artist (who reminds me a bit of what Jack Smith might have been like) and his jealous wife who hires a third-party to spy on Elijah and his gay cohorts. Very sassy.

On the autobiography topic (Daddy - you're reading Dolly Parton's?!?), rush out and get Nina Simone's "I Put A Spell On You" - truly spellbinding!

E

Thanks for the scoop Evie. Actually I need a new book because I can't find "Dolly" and I never finished it. Bummer.
When do you find time to read?

Obviously she reads at work, Daddy.

Isn't that when you snap your fingers at someone and make a rude and smart-ass comment?I'm confused..

1)Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chogyam Trungpa, the gay buddhist.
2)Care Of The Soul by Thomas Moore
3)The Essential Lenny Bruce edited by Jo hn Cohen

The BEST porn anthology ever written, "What The Fuck" by indie pub house Soft Skull Press has some of the sexiest and intelligent modern-day erotica. i think you can buy it off their website.

After finishing Confessions of a Shopaholic (by Sophie Kinsella) which for anybody also afflicted with this malady is a must read, though the happy ending is the only downfall. It is very much in the same genre as Helen Fieldings' Bridget Jones' Diary- first one I loved, but the second one I never finished- didn't live up to the first at all in my opinion.

But right now I am tearing through Jacqueline Susann's Shadow of the Dolls (by Rae Lawrence). Taken from a draft/outline penned prior to her death from breast cancer in '74, it does feel like a Susann novel (and I have read them all, and several more than once), but it is a bit predictable and all too short in comparison to Susann's other novels. I had issues with it not being trulya Susann novel, but curiousity won out over my feelings of loyalty regarding her writings. Incidentally, I had a rather lengthy discussion with Thomas (doorperson Thomas) last week at Kitsch-Inn about this very topic, and he had taken a course on Susann while a student at NYU. Finally, I met someone as fascinated by her and knew as much, if not more, than I (besides her biographer Barbara Seaman, who I met once at the now-defunct A Different Light- she was there for the Susann readings in honor of the rerelease of J.S.'s books, and Linda Simpson put the show together, and I was honored to participate and read a passage from Once is Not Enough, which I read when I was 14, and had to read again when I was 'older' so I could understand it so much the better). If only there had been a course while I was matriculated in college so many years ago. Next up on my list is Jackie Collins' New Hollywood Wives, which is sitting on my bookshelf in its vulgar cheetah-print cover! So I cannot wait to rip through that as well.

Sweetie gave me a copy of Sarah (by JT LeRoy) to read, which I also never finished. I just couldn't get the vernacular (all that West Virginia verbage and colloquialisms lost me), and I never got hooked, despite the topic matter (12 year old tranny truckstop hustler), which should have captured my interest.

Now to the reason of my posting (I know I digress a bit- no, alot)- I would really love to get my hands on a copy of The Wind Done Gone (the parody of Gone with the Wind written from the slaves' point of view). Unfortunately, Margaret Mitchell's estate won in court blocking publication, which is really sad for different reasons- 1) what about freedom of the press?, 2) let the public decide its merit, and 3) it would have boosted interest in Gone with the Wind again, which could only spell financial gain for the estate. Any suggestions on how to get a copy (without knowingly breaking any laws of course)?

[This message was edited by randella on 07-08-01 at 06:15 PM.]

The injunction prohibiting publication was lifted May 21/31 2001

You can get the book from Amazon.com or wherever.

prince 17.60 for hardcover.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/061810450X/o/qid=994636388/sr=2-1/ref=aps_sr_b_1_1/102-8229927-6899305

I just finished The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington, which many people only know of through the Orson Welles movie featuring the incomparable Agnes Moorehead. I found the novel very enjoyable and poignant ... I just love the classics. Before that I re-read A Passage to India by E.M. Forster, one of my favorite novelists, though Maurice is my favorite of his. I too am a fledging Anne Rice fan, but confess I have to catch up on my Vampire series reading. The best of the series so far for me is Queen of the Damned, where all the vampire superstars come together like in the superhero comics where Batman teams up with Superman and Wonder Woman and Spiderman, etc. I'm not surprised to hear that Chi-Chi is an Anne Rice fan .... Mother certainly shows her influence!

Randella: the court case on this book finished, and the Mitchell estate people must have lost becuase the book is now in stores. I saw a copy last week at Astor Place Barnes & Noble. I want to read it too out of curiosity. Gone With the Wind was a fave of mine when I was a teenager. Though thoroughly racist and I threw it across the room in anger at certain points, I was fascinated by the whole Rhett-Scarlett relationship and the character of Scarlett herself.
Regarding Jacqueline Susann, I have not picked up the recent Dolls novel, but read the original Valley of the Dolls as well as Once Is Not Enough and The Love Machine. Once Is Not Enough is great ....

And here I thought I was such a mistress of pop culture knowledge, and I never even realized the injunction was lifted, and weeks ago to boot. I guess there was less hoopla about that, then the orginial injunction came down. I am off to purchase a copy (right after my physical therapy appt this afternoon), because I will finish Shadow of the Dolls in about 20 pages (definitely for fanatics is my take on it, but an enjoyable and easy read), and the New Hollywood Wives can wait. Gone with the Wind was one of those books I have read numerous times throughout my life, and always have loved the pageantry, sorrow, and triumph (and I always wished I could be Scarlett). On a more amusing & historical note- in college, our assignment for the last paper of the semester in one of my education classes could be in any format we chose, but the topic had to be on the future of education, so mine was entitled "Tomorrow is Another Day" written in trashy novel format. The professor told me in all her years with this same assignment, she had never gotten a trashy novel as a format, and she read the back copy of my 'book' out loud to the class (incidentally, I got an A - probably more for the sexy story than my viewpoints about where education was going in 1985).

And I have to add also- one of the best things my mother ever gave me as a Christmas present was in 1979 (the 40th anniversary of the movie release)- when the Kennedy Center (in DC) had a special commerative viewing of the movie with Olivia DeHavilland introducing the film (she was the last of the major stars alive at the time). She got me 3 tickets- for me, my younger sister, and my best friend at the time, Shannon- and I remember going down to the parking garage before the film started, after she had dropped us off, and smoking a very special cigarette, and going to our seats then & seeing Olivia in a flowing lavender chiffon gown (she looked angelicly mystical to me), a whip & poof hairdo (Bobby, you weren't in town at the time to do her hair, were you?), and recollecting briefly about the filming of movie, and then of course, we saw the film (with an intermission and return trip to the parking garage). It truly was one of the better memories of my youth. I do digress alot, don't I?

Randella/ Actually..Yes I did do Miss Husseys hair for the opening. I was working on 57th St at the time in a very shishi salon and she came if for a "do" for that opening. I love that you noticed though.

Randella--

We're "on the same page" with our latest literary endeavors. I'm just finishing Shadow of the Dolls and am loving it. Sadly, I've never read so much as a single page of a real Jackie Susann novel...(of course, they are all next on my list after this intro...) I adore the pill-popping ways of Anne and Neely, although I hear this was done with greater effect in Valley...

Prior to this, I Devoured JT LeRoy's Sarah. I enjoyed it immensely. Cliche as this sounds, it truely is unlike anything I have ever read. Agreed, the West Virginia vernacular is off-putting. But having grown up in Virginia myself (and having spent many a summer in deepest Georgia AND having a truck driver uncle) I found the story quite endearing: the bizarre terms that them southerners use "ramps?" the superstition that infuses much of their culture, the seemingly backward ways they have of doing things... LeRoy's ability to capture much of this is astonishing enough...but in light of his age (he's what, 20?)...it's remarkable. He has a real mastery of language and story-telling. And on top of everything else, that the story centers on the misadventures of a pre-teen truckstop-trannie-hooker, the son of a truckstop motel whore...it's just too beautiful! (I'm still high on this book. Ahhh...)

I wish I could have gotten through it, but I just couldn't get past the vernacular. I even asked Sweetie about the language, and she tried to explain it, but I guess it was one of those things- I grew up in Northern Virginia, which technically is the South, but not really- just another metropolis with suburbs & exurbs. So I just never finished...

Alas, SOTD I finished in 3 days- and what an easy read. You have to really Valley of the Dolls. The unique thing I have noticed about that book through the years is that regardless who reads it- they can't put it down- which is why it was such a compelling success. I had it taken away from me several times in German class during high school, but silly teacher always gave it back to me, and I always said I wouldn't do it again, but I had to find out about Neely, Anne, Jennifer, etc. Trust me, you will not be able to put it down, until you get to the very end.

Has anyone checked the profile & picture of J-No? Who is she? She is soooo Valley Of The Dolls! She posted in NYC Girls.
http://motherboards.infopop.net/3/OpenTopic?q=Y&a=tpc&s=873293195&f=299298195&m=181296859

All this talk of Shadows and Valleys- I must have my say. Having just returned from a restful stay with friends on the French Riviera and am now catching up on my posts. Well, my take on the sequel is that it is a piece of garbage. Mainly, because I am not even in Shadow, just mentioned a couple of times...hrummph. It may be own biased opinion, but the author could have brought me back, they do it on television soap operas all the time. Anybody recall Bobby Ewing? Or as the long lost twin. I wasn't consulted and since I was slighted, have no intention on commenting anymore on that book. However, if you want to talk about Valley of the Dolls- well, I have all the time in the world.

I always weed out trannie chasers by asking them who their favorite author is. Talk about deer in the headlights!

I read Valley of the Dolls when I was in my early teens and I'm sure it helped contribute to my juvenile deliquency. Seconal? Oh yes, right in Mama's night stand. Wheeee!!! Made me feel real loose like a long necked goose, as I recall. That book also debunked my Mom's indoctrination about how girls were sweet and pure. (right!)

As for my reads lately, favorite author by far is John Steinbeck, another Californian who transplanted to New York. Just finished "Log from the Sea of Cortez" and "The Moon is Down". Sea of Cortez is one of the few non-fiction narratives by Steinbeck, and recounts a expedition taken with "Doc" Ricketts to collect marine specimens, mostly invertebrates from the inter-tidal zone. He also uses the expedition as a jumping off point for a philosophical discussion of "teleological" versus "non-teleological" thought, or ways of perceiving and analyzing the world and our experience of it. Here teleological is analgous to the Western cause and effect view, while non-teleological can be related to the more Eastern wholistic view of reality. A real gem is the inclusion of Steinbeck's profile "About Ed Ricketts", written after his untimely death.

The Moon is Down was written as part of the propaganda effort during WWII. It recounts the experience of a people invaded by a foreign power and the subsequent efforts of the resistance movement that developed in the aftermath. Although it was criticized in this country for depicting the invaders as humans, unlike the current hysterical propaganda of the times, in occupied territory in Europe the penalty for possessing a copy was death.

Though not his strongest work in a literary sense, it's positive impact on the resistance movements in occupied Europe is beyond redoubt, and reading it certainly makes you think. Just suppose...

ooh yes, I like Steinbeck as well Barbara. My favorite being of course East of Eden, but also The Pearl. In high school we had to read The Grapes of Wrath, but I wasn't as into it because stories about poverty tend to bore me after a while. I prefer to read gowns, designer drugs and decadent lifestyles anytime!

Well then Lex, no wonder you liked East of Eden!
One of my favorites as well.

I finally have time to take my philosophical inspiration a notch up, and since I was going to be out of town for the channel 13 series, "The Power of Myth", I picked up "The Hero's Journey. Joseph Campbell On His Life And Work" at the local used bookstore.

I am still reading, but I thought that one of the passages spoke very well to the current schisms existing in today's societal structure and world views. As follows, in answer to a question;

"What the psychologist is finding out about the structure of the human psyche: that is what is most relevant to mythology. Because mythology has to do with relating that psychological structure to the circumstances of objective life in the world today. It gives you a clue. It's a signals system. The images of myth are not fact, they are metaphors; and the reference is to transcendence. They take the facts of life and relate them to the psyche. This double relationship is then shown to the mystical function to rest on-what do you want to call it? The void? The Fullness? The pleroma? Those are words that point past what can be conceived of, and they make the point that this whole marvelous universe that we now know of, billions of galaxies, is on the void.

No one knows where those little subatomic particles come from or go to, that flash on the screen. Lives also come and go and they are spirits within the field of time and space in causal relationships. That's what we find.

The myth has to deal with the cosmology of the day and it's no good when it's based on a cosmology that's out of date. And that's one of our problems. I don't see any conflict between science and religion. Religion has to accept the science of the day and penetrate it to the mystery. The conflict is between the science of 2000 B.C. and the science of 2000 A.D. And that's what we've got in the Bible, which is based on a Sumerian mythology"

Right now I'm reading James Baldwin's "Just Above My Head". For those who don't know, James Baldwin is considered one of the best writers of the 20th century - he's gay and black - and his novel "Giovanni's Room" is considered a gay classic. Other notable works I've read by him are "Another Country", "Tell Me How Long the Train Has Been Gone" and "Go Tell It on the Mountain". Baldwin is particurlary adept at depicting and evoking the black American experience and interracial love affairs. His gay-homoerotic passages also drip with sensuality. He was also heavily involved in the 60s civil rights movement and has written several non-fiction political pieces.

I'm working through Herodotus' The Histories--if you can keep all the place names straight he's the great chatty gossip of the ancient world.

Hattie used to date him. Back in the day. I think he lived with Hapi Phace for a while.

Recently finished a fab toothpick of a book called A Massive Swelling by Cintra Wilson.
The subtitle is "Celebrity Re-examined as a Grotesque Crippling Disease" and it truly lives up to its name.

I don't know how I missed Wilson before but she is a force to be reckoned with. Here is just a small taste

quote:

---

It appears that the Streisand throne is being usurped by the morbidly shriveled and schoolmarmish likes of Celine Dion, who despite her sexual handicap of being the most wholly repellant woman ever to sing songs of love, totally capsized the vocal world by trembling with pain over the eye-bleeding Titanic ballad, at one time the number-one favorite song of weepy teenagers and pan flautists all over the world...

---

Big thanks to Clark, who gave this to me as a birthday prezzie.

A dear friend of yours and mine loaned me this book, (always return loaned books my darlings or I will haunt you after I am dead), and I want to tell you it is absolutely fascinating. Karlen is a straight researcher, a journalist and his research and reporting of society and it's sexuality through the ages is so a matter of fact. This book fills a void of well researched un-biased reporting about the history of sex and homosexuality. If you are looking for an apologist you won't find it in Karlen's writings, but you will glean more information and insights into the relationship between society and sexual "deviance" in this one place than any other.

That's a polite way of saying there's lot's of good stuff about what the Roman Emperors did on those islands in the Mediteranean.

I am writing this one third through the book, which explains the emphasis on history. Parts two and three look like they will take us into the then present and an analysis of what it all means.

"My Son Devine" by Frances Milstead.

Her Mom writes of Devine's childhood through stardom with never seen before photos (over 100) and never publshed before inteviews with John Waters, Ricki Lake, Mink Stole, Zandra Rhodes and others-(her extended families.)

Alyson Books

www.alyson.com

1-(800)5-Alyson

-------------------------------------------------

I just finished reading Mildred Pierce, the James M. Cain novel which was the basis for the smash Joan Crawford movie. The book version is great and significantly different from the movie version, worth the read.

Cain also wrote Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice, two books which were also made into highly successful films. I've read all three, and personally I think Mildred Pierce is the best.

Now I'm re-reading A Boy's Own Story by Edmund White, a must-read for all queer boys.

A great book recommended by Chi Chi to me.
It is a study of Manhattan in the later half of the 19th century. It covers all sorts of interesting things including bars, brothels, strip joints, nightclubs, theaters, cops, gangs, drugs, the list goes on. It just goes to show you that things in NY never really change they just morph a bit. Excellent! thanks Chi Chi.

T

I'm currently reading an indie book _Passages from India_ by Norman C. Bansen, a friend of my family, a gay man who only came out in later years...this is his story--told in letters, poems and essays--of being a second generation Danish-American Lutheran stationed in India during WW II. Totally engrossing, especially knowing Bansen's unspoken gay subtext.

Just finished reading gay icon Christopher Isherwood's The Berlin Stories, about life in early 30s Berlin which stars the infamous Sally Bowles character and from which Cabaret the film and Broadway musical were loosely based on. Lots of queer subtext and homoeroticism, natch. Now reading A Single Man also by Isherwood, a work he wrote later in his life. The story deals with a day in the life of a middle-aged gay college professor in California in the early 60s as he copes with the recent death of his lover. Very different in tone from the Berlin Stories but both are good reads.