The Bright List

Your Life is in Your Pilot's Hands. But Do You Know Who's Flying Your Plane?

Flight for Control by Karlene Petitt

What a great idea... a crime thriller with a steely woman pilot as gumshoe!

Karlene Petitt is a self-published author, and veteran pilot, who I discovered in an airport bookstore and in-flight magazine. She is a total firecracker, and has a great pilot-detective series starting with Flight for Control.  

"After a ten-year leave, Kathryn Jacobs has been invited back to the N.T.S.B to investigate a series of unexplained airline crashes. But her husband, Captain Bill Jacobs, has his concerns. While her twin daughters are off at camp, and Bill is campaigning for the Pilot Union Presidency, Kathryn secretly begins her investigation. What she learns will shock the nation."

Jacobs is gonna get to bottom of the conspiracy— if it kills her! 

"Your life is in your pilot's hands. Do you know who's flying your plane?"

Narrated by Dina Pearlman, a great sci-fi and spy novel narrator who we loved in Clementine and the Kris Longknife series.

-Aretha and Susie Bright

The Girls in 3-B -- A Golden Peep into Lesbian Pulp of the 50s

The Girls in 3-B by Valerie Taylor

Valerie Taylor is a classic lesbian lit writer, from the golden age of lesbian pulp in the 1950s. She put the torrid, pre-Stonewall lesbian romance on the map, along with Ann Bannon and Tereska Torres. 

The Girls in 3-B is a good peek at what it was like for single women to live together during the 1950s. It reminded me a little of the Valley of the Dolls, because VOTD is also about three young single women and what happens to them when they try to strike out on their own in the Big City, but with a defiantly anti-heteronormative twist.

The novel has searing plot twists on sexual abuse, infidelity, the glass ceiling, and getting way too high-- check out the three-page peyote trip that could show Carlos Casteneda a thing or two!

Narrated by Julie McKay, my favorite newcomer actor this year... what a find! 

-Aretha and Susie Bright

The Rescue Industry is Built on Migrant Sex Workers' Backs: Laura Agustín's Rip Roaring Exposé

Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry, by Laura Agustín 

Laura Agustín has almost singlehandedly changed the international debate about the definition and exploitation of the “sex trafficking” world as it is manipulated and exploited by NGOs, the Rescue Industry and major political players. 

The corruption and disassembling that is going in the name of “saving victims” is truly shocking, and that's why Sex at the Margins has been on every feminist, public policy, and migrant rights desk since its first appearance. 

"This groundbreaking book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work; that migrants who sell sex are passive victims; and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest."

The fact that Agustín is an international multi-lingual genius, who can appear in Sweden or Italy or Nairobi at a moment’s notice to speak truth to power, has turned the world on its ear when the usual liars come out to press their sanctimonious case on "fallen women." She will not suffer fools gladly and she WILL demand evidence.  (Check out her debate with Mira Sorvino at the UN!)

Whatever Laura does next, Margins will remain as the classic that started the fireworks. As far as I'm concerned, this book is the vanguard of feminism and the bleeding edge of migration consciousness. 

Narrated by Robert Blumenfeld, who we last heard reading Euclid's Widow and Paul Bowles short stories!

-Susie Bright 

Pure Porn for the Dating Disaster Set

I Don’t Care About Your Band: What I Learned From Indie Rockers, Trust Funders, Pornographers, Felons, Faux-Sensitive Hipsters, and Other Guys I’ve Dated, by Julie Klausner

Fun writing! This is a good novel to take to bed and not get up 'til you turn the last page.

Poor Julie dated too many jerks in sensitive sheep's clothing— but my god, they provided her a wealth of material: the long-distance internet crushes, the BF fixated on a threesome,  and Colin, the vegan, who only liked the taste of his own semen. 

This book is pure porn for people who delight in dating disaster stories (who, me?).

I'm not surprised to learn that I Don't Care About Your Band has been optioned by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's production company for HBO with Lizzie Caplan slated to star.

Narrated with absolute aplomb by author  Julie Klausner!

-Aretha Bright 

Chomsky's Interventions -- The Concept of a "Just War" Just Got Blown Up

Interventions, by Noam Chomsky

Chomsky! Here we go! I've read each of his books and this is classic Noam on fire,  saying what’s about to happen NEXT— and being on target every time. I know how much Audible listeners love his books— and I'm so proud to bring out this one, another gem.

Interventions is a series of 30+ tightly-argued essays aimed at US power and politics in the post-9/11 world. Interventions is designed to raise lucid awareness about the consequences of U.S.  power moves at home and abroad— from Social Security and "Intelligent Design," to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and South America, and Asia. Yeah, pretty busy.

The U.S. concept of a "just war" just got blown up. 

Narrated by the superb Peter Johnson.

-Susie Bright 

"Road to Ruins" in Atlantic's Top Books of the Year!

The Atlantic chose Ian Graham's memoir Road to Ruins as a runner-up in their Books of the Year2012 Top 5  and Runners Up. I couldn't agree more; it is a great book.

Here's what they said about it:

"In this beguiling autobiography, the handsome, highborn author, the founding director of the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions Program at Harvard, recalls a charmed life as an archaeologist-explorer. This is at once a captivating adventure tale and a poignant reflection on the redemption of a winsome ne'er do well."

Yes! And it's on Audible.

Bravo!

The Day Gay Men Boycott Weddings in Towns That Won't Play Fair!

The Marrying Kind, by Ken O'Neil

Steve and Adam are a gay couple who live with their cats in New York; Steve is a writer for The (fictional) Gay New York Times and Adam is a wedding planner. 

Upon having an epiphany that he works in an industry that creates events he can't legally be a part of, Adam decides to boycott the wedding industry and organizes all his contacts: hairdressers, cater-waiters, priests, and even gay organists! 

Of course, just as this boycott is launching off, one of their family members decides to get married, and they have to decide whether they're going to attend the wedding or stick to their guns. 

What would Miss Manners say?! 

Narrated by Zach Herries. 

-Aretha Bright

Now, Voyager -- Betty Davis' Finest Hour-- on Audible!

 

Now, Voyager, by Olive Higgins Prout

Now, Voyager is the novel that inspired one of Betty Davis’ most memorable films (1942) , and changed the way Americans smoked cigarettes.

Many cinema fans know that the 1940s were a box office heyday for Hollywood actresses. But many of us today don't realize that these great femme film vehicles were written by gifted women novelists, whose words brought these great characters to life.

Now, Voyager, the movie, was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry by Library of Congress and concludes with one of the most famous romance quotes of cinema, "Don't let's ask for the moon! We have the stars!" 

The book gives a deeper, more nuanced look into the psychological lives of women in 1930s America.

Charlotte Vale, an unattractive, overweight, repressed spinster whose life is dominated by her dictatorial mother.

The verbal and emotional abuse is so great, it brings Charlotte to the verge of a nervous breakdown. Her sister-in-law introduces her to a psychiatrist who recommends that she spend time in his sanatorium. 

As soon as Charlotte is away from her mother, she blossoms. She opts to take a sea cruise instead of returning home-- smart move. On board the ship, she meets a married man, "Jerry" Jeremiah Durrance. Cue swelling violins! 

This is one of the best tales of falling in love, ever.  Charlotte's experience of her first kiss, of being called "darling" for the first time, is the pinnacle of romantic storytelling.  Sigh...

Narrated by Coleen Marlo. 

-AB and SB

Love! Betrayal! Paris! — Your Holiday Bon-Bon

By Cecile, by Tereska Torres

By Cecile is one of the original lesbian pulp paperbacks, by the notorious Tereska Torres, author of Women's Barracks and others. 

Cecile is a beautiful orphan girl in Paris, post World War II, who gets taken under the wing of an older man who introduces her to art, culture, intellectuals... And non-monogamy! 

Unfortunately for him, Cecile falls deeply in love with his lovely mistress, who has more to teach her than anybody.

This is the perfect story for those of us brought up thinking Paris was the apex of culture from watching movies like Funny Face and An American in Paris, and then moving on to Goddard and Sartre. It's so French, and so dishy. 

This book would make an excellent movie—it has many love triangles, betrayal, and great characters! 

Narrated by Xe "Zee" Sands. 

-Aretha Bright

The Best Dating, Beauty, & Hostess Book Ever Written- The Femme's Guide

The Femme’s Guide to Universe, by Shar Rednour

The first time I read The Femme's Guide to the Universe, I was 10 years old. 

It was written for grownup lesbian femmes, but I ate up every word.

This is probably the best dating, beauty, hostess, kick-ass, and "how-to--be" book ever written. Shar is wise, shocking, and the best auntie you never had. 

Listen and learn the proper etiquette for how to tell someone to f*ck off nicely— how to throw parties no one can forget—and how to apply lipstick that never smudges. 

Femme’s Guide is the whole kit of what a real girl needs to know: from how to start a failing car, to seductively educating her butch—advice that can be applied to any gender!

Narrated by Shar Rednour herself.

-Aretha Bright