The Bright List

The Killer Wore Leather—Murder Most Foul at the Global Leather Convention

The Killer Wore Leather, by Laura Antoniou

Laura Antoniou is the author of the top-notch Marketplace series. With The Killer Wore Leather, she's branched out into mystery-erotica, and--humor. And this book is hilarious--not a compliment I dole out easily. Antoniou writes a tight little mystery with all the gratification of a jigsaw puzzle. She peoples it with an S/M community that she skewers with all the love and familiarity of a close family member.

In a Midtown Manhattan hotel, the year's biggest leather contest is under way. The reigning king is murdered, but he’s made a lot of enemies, and they’re all in one hotel for the duration of the contest. Our heroine, Detective Rebecca Feldblum must find the killer before the new king is crowned.

What if Raymond Chandler was more explicit with his implied S/M? What if Agatha Christie's Miss Marple was a demanding bottom? (“That’s SLAVE Marple to you!”) What if Chandler and Christie wrote their books with the humor of Steve Martin? We don’t have to wonder “what if?” we only need to listen to this book.

Narrated by Lauren Fortgang. She gives a witty performance and truly has a gift for dialogue.

--Willow Pennell

 

Every Child for Herself—Micah Perks' Pagan Time on Audio

Pagan Time: An American Childhood, by Micah Perks

 “Micah Perks's matter-of-fact re-creation of her counterculture childhood makes it clear that living without rules had severe consequences, but she also captures the anarchic pleasures of that life.” --Wendy Smith, Amazon.com

There are a lot of memoirs of the 1960s, and what it was like to grow up as a child in New Age or visionary cults... but this, truly, is my favorite. It’s amazing she’s left standing to tell it all. 

Today, Micah Perks now runs the creative writing program at UCSC. But as an infant, Perks’ parents loaded her into their VW bug, and drove into the mountains to open a "self-determined" school for troubled youths and young adults. These were the young people she grew up with. In a true-to-life Lord of the Flies climax, her father engineers a war between “Romans” and “Celts.” 

Never succumbing to the scandalized eye of the institution, Perks views her experience with a steady gaze and observes the sacrifice, distortion, and benefits of a life against where freedom conjured up the spirit of Bobbie McGee: Freedom's just another word for nothing— nothing left to lose.

Narrated by the excellent Emily Rankin, who also narrated Impulse by Steven Gould. She makes it sound like she's letting you in on secrets she's never before revealed.

--Susie Bright

 

 

3 Generations of Lesbians in California—A Little History, A Little Mystery, A Little Romance

Lilac Mines: A Novel, by Cheryl Klein

Cheryl Klein's delicious novel about three generations of lesbian women in California combines a little history, a little mystery, and a little romance. 

This book opens like a million before it—somebody gets dumped. Escaping a crushing breakup with her girlfriend and a sexual assault, Felix leaves L.A. to stay with her aunt in a small town called Lilac Mines.

From there, the narrative switches between the present day and the 1960s. There is a tension between Felix and her aunt. Will we find the clues in her aunt’s past to why she is treating Felix so gruffly?

I loved the small-town lesbian history and stories—I completely forgot that this book is fiction—Lilac Mines feels like such a real place. 

—A Golden Crown Literary Society Award finalist.

Narrated by Bernadette Dunne who did such amazing work on the best sellers Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (Oprah's Book Club 2.0) and Memoirs of a Geisha.

--Aretha Bright and Willow Pennell

Hanne Blank Challenges Everything You Think You Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Question)

This month brings the Audible release of three titles from one of my favorite independent scholars, Hanne Blank. Blank’s curiosity and thorough, critical thinking have brought fresh insights into the fields of human sexuality and history. Her warm, witty, and clever writing has brought me much enjoyment.

Virgin: The Untouched History

From the “discovery” of the Hymen in ancient times to abstinence-only education in schools and purity balls today, Blank writes about the history of our preoccupation with "virginity." In her analysis, we can see the social construction of virginity, the sexism implicit in it, and the malleable definition of virginity over time.

Everything you think you know about virginity is up for debate. Blank writes with a great deal of humor and perception: "Of all the countries of the developed world, the United States is the only one that has to date created a federal agenda having specifically to do with the virginity of its citizens."

Narrated with friendly authority by Fran Tunno who also read Straight (see below.)

 

Big, Big Love:

A Sex and Relationships Guide for People of Size (and Those Who Love Them)

This is one of my favorite sex-ed books about any subject. I hadn’t thought about it one way or another, “size and sex”-- but there’s a lot to it. This isn’t a PC plea for acceptance, it’s really about FAT SEX, the reality and the creativity!  Skinny people love this book too! 

“Big Big Love is a ginormous blessing to people everywhere. Not only is it a superb sex manual, it’s positively radical, fun to read, and life affirming—big time.

"We know that “people of size” enjoy sex as much as anyone, but to talk about it so frankly, to show it, and give explicit details about the ins and outs of it, is as transgressive as it gets in our culture of “thin is sexy.” This book is well worth its weight in gold.”   

—Annie Sprinkle, PhD

Narrated by Johanna Taylor who I absolutely believed as Hanne.

 

Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality

The title says it all--here’s the real story on how the very idea of “straightness” is a new, and quite flimsy, category if you look at how people have thought of sexuality all along.

—Funny, brainy, provocative nonfiction. A page-turner.

Like Joan Roughgarden’s Evolution’s Rainbow, Straight addresses gender, sex and biology, but goes on to explore historical and political attitudes, and perceptions of straightness and homosexuality.

Narrated by the wonderful Fran Tunno.

--Aretha Bright, Susie Bright, and Willow Pennell

Outliers and Gay Life— Forget the Status Quo South Beach B.S.

Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform, edited by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

"You may have thought you understood human nature before you read this book; after reading it you will be humbled by all you failed to grasp until now."--Edmund White

Mattilda's rant got the whole community talking—personal, strong, and compelling, about how gay life is not all white parties in Miami. 

Here are thirty short stories and essays that play with race concepts and body issues in the gay men's community. Whether it’s being gay and disabled—or growing up gay, South Asian, and living in Ohio—the attitude is indignant, confidential, painful, nostalgic, funny, and activist.

Narrated with gusto by Mark Bachman who also narrated James Lear's The Low Road and Patrick Califia's Boy in the Middle.

--Susie Bright

The Far Reaching Karma of Shawn Fanning's Napster: What No Else Knew!

All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning’s Napster, by Joseph Menn

"The book, by Joseph Menn, provides a well-documented history of one of the most celebrated collapses of the Internet.

"But it goes far deeper, giving an inside account of the creation of Napster, the battle for its control and the maneuvering by big Silicon Valley names to try to turn music piracy into gold."

—New York Times

Shawn Fanning and Napster overthrew the music industry—and if you don't think you're still reeling from that revolution, sit down and prepare to have your mind blown. 

Fanning never went away. His legend in IT and the transformation of intellectual property on the Internet is something we take for granted now— but its origins are something out of a down and dirty mystery novel.

This is Joseph Menn's meticulous investigation of how Shawn unearthed the firmament— the eye-opening reveals are incredible. The tale of Fanning's shady uncle pushes the story into a true-crime investigation.

Joseph Menn, I want to tell you,  is my stepbrother— we met when we were "all grown up." For the Audible edition of his book, I wielded my stepsister clout and asked him to sit down for an interview with me...  a special feature, just for the audiobook. Take a listen! 

Many of you savvy ones out there know that Alex Winter's documentary movie on Napster, Downloaded, is coming out any minute, and it features all the main figures of this exposé. After reading Joe's book, I can't wait to see it.

—Narrated by John Rubinstein,  who narrated Whitey: The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss, and appeared in the films 21 Grams and Red Dragon.

--Susie Bright

Lonesome Animals—One Last Case, Way Out West

Lonesome Animals, by Bruce Holbert 

"From the opening sentence of Holbert's remarkable debut, it is obvious that we are in the hands of a master storyteller . . . Holbert's prose is simultaneously roughly hewn and elegant, and recalls Cormac McCarthy at his best, as do his insights into the relationship between predator and prey.

"Call it literary fiction, classic western realism, or historical noir, Holbert is a writer of formidable skill and this auspicious debut should have considerable crossover appeal."

—Publishers Weekly

Lonesome Animals reminds us True Grit, but told from the perspective of the bounty hunter. Like Charles Portis's classic, it's plenty funny, quite serious, and sometimes brutal. 

This book is all about the hunter “coming out of retirement” for one last case. In this instance, to stop a serial killer targeting Native Americans. A Western crime mystery with tough villains, oddball characters and an even odder hero.

I love our hero's tactics for catching criminals—when he’s “waiting out” someone and grows impatient, he throws live grenades, starts a fire, or rolls boulders in their direction. A loved one dies when she’s too slow to pepper his sausage— And that’s just the prologue! 

Narrated with complete aplomb, by the author. What a magnificent reader.

--Aretha Bright and Willow Pennell

The Legendary SmartGirl Bottom Meets The Great Romantic Heroine

 

In honor of producing two erotic classics on Audible— Carrie's Story and Safe Word—  I decided to interview the author, Molly Weatherfield, about what it was like to create one of the most enduring erotic heroines of all time.

 

Susie:  What was going on in your life when you first started writing Carrie's Story?

Molly:  In the 1990s I was working hard as a computer programmer in the San Francisco Financial District and doing some non-fiction writing about cyberpunk, cyberspace, and the computer workplace automation.

My husband was honcho-ing and book ordering at Modern Times, San Francisco's longtime leftwing bookstore in the Mission District; our lovely son Jesse was in high school and we were worrying about how to pay for college.

My life was rolling by as it does at that stage of work and child-rearing.

On the other hand, I'd been thinking really hard  my longtime private fantasy life. It was hardcore BDSM. How did that fit, I wondered, with my upbeat, workoholic wife-and-mother life— not to speak of my feminist politics?