but hopefully not without flare.
Whaddaya know: About eighteen minutes into a Fresh Air interview, Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand reveals that she found some of her research material in a porn magazine.
Male pulp. It’s a Cold War precursor to male porn and now it’s the subject of a retrospective book. This LA Times review made me buy the book, which is enroute from my favorite NYC bookstore as I write. Curiousity seekers: Check out ebay for vintage pulp.
Not too much of a surprise, Michael Houellebecq’s novel Platform has garnered much notice. Yes, I’ve been remiss in pointing to many of those reviews(so many links, so little time!), but when my local alt-weekly published this piece and I realized it was calling the other reviews on the mat for hedging, I figured I could make up for lost time. Platform is one of several books I’m packing to take on vacation in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, I’ll get to it and be able to report back with my impressions.
Sometimes Salon prints something that really makes me ecstatic that I have a subscription with them. Lately, it’s been Charles Taylor’s writing and his How to Deal review/commentary really became something of a soap box vehicle. He didn’t stop there, though, and had similar sex-positive pointers for Gigli and I think the collective message is “this is the world teens and young American adults as they see and experience it. Grownups, deal with it.”
In the Bummer category: On my To Blog list was a pointer to several interesting Venus Book Club selections. This morning, I learn that Bookspan plans to phase out this book club in the not-too-distant future. It’s a loss not so much for its one stop shopping, but because they often printed exclusive works you couldn’t find in bookstores or at Amazon.com. And VBC’s disappearance will create a major crimp for us erotica writers. I’m not looking forward to that day.
Oh, the books I intended to point out? Let’s see: Five Minute Erotica, ed. Carol Queen, Laura Antoniou’s new novel The Reunion, Kate Dominic’s Any 2 People, Kissing, Deborah Sundahl’s Female Ejaculation and The G-Spot. Your mileage may vary, but that’s what caught my eye this month.
Food for thought: Heather Corinna talks about the creative spririt, boundaries, and pushing them. Yup, that’s how it works for us creative types.
