The Bright List

Why Aren’t You Smiling? Alvin Orloff Skewers the 70s New Age-- Crispy!

Why Aren’t You Smiling? by Alvin Orloff

A teenage outsider in the 1970s sheds his boring dweeb persona and starts hanging in the park with the cool burnouts.

He's taken under the wing of a handsome charismatic Jesus-Freak-turned-cult-leader.

Orloff barbeques the 70s New Age culture with one zinger after the next, while still showing sympathy for the yearnings and aspirations of any young kid trying to be cool. 

Alvin, the author, has been the manager of the beloved Dog-Eared Books on Valencia St. in San Francisco's Mission District for years. He was the lyricist for the San Francisco punk band the Hairdryers and used is locally beloved as the founder of the greatest City club of all time, (IMHO!) Klubstitute. 

I was floored to find out he was a writer, and such a good one.

Narrated with droll tenderness by Jake Lewis.

--Willow Pennell and Susie Bright

Cold Hands, Warm Heart

Cold Hands, Warm Heart, by Jill Wolfson

Dani has a congenital heart defect and is waiting for a donor, but that doesn’t change that she’s still a self-conscious teen with all the insecurity, vanity, innocence, and attitude that entails.

She receives a new heart from Amanda, a champion gymnast.

As Dani adjusts to her new heart, we learn through Amanda’s brother about Amanda’s life and the warm heart she had.

"The social and psychological ramifications of organ transplantation on the lives of recipients and the family members of the recently deceased fuel the plot of this well-written novel...Showing teens confronting unexpected emotions in both themselves and others." 

--Francisca Goldsmith

 

Narrated by Luci Christian Bell and Evan Greenberg

--Willow Pennell

A White Boy Outsider Grows Up— Inside the Navajo Rez

Navajos Wear Nikes: A Reservation Life  by Jim Kristofic

"This book brought to life everything that I love about living on the rez. He truly captured the spirit of the Navajo people and our land. He brought to light the issues that face our people in a funny, astute, and emotional story. I believe he answered The Question in the only way possible, with stories, just like a Navajo should. I am definitely recommending this book to people who have asked me The Question."

—Beth Riley, Amazon

 

Jim Kristofic portrays life on “the Rez” from the inside and out. He writes that when he’s asked if he’s an Indian, he answers in the only way that seems straightforward--with stories.

He is an adroit storyteller, and the stories he tells are absorbing, and recognizable as real life. 

As a boy, his Indian-obsessed mother took a job on a Navajo reservation in Arizona. He writes, “The Navajo seemed to fit right into my mom’s Indian dream. But there I was--hot dog in hand--not really sure where I was going to fit.” Eventually, he does fit in, finding friendship and community in his new home.

Life on the Rez can be tough, but there is a well of culture and familial ties that can be starkly missing in the rest of America. When his family moves agin, this time off the Rez, Jim again must feel like an outsider, gaining new perspective on the world’s views of Rez life.

Narrated by the author.

--Willow Pennell

 

Jill Soloway on Sex, Celebrity, and Shiny Pants

Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants, by Jill Soloway

"I felt a little guilty and refreshed after reading this book, like spending an illicit afternoon with an amazing stranger."

-- Andrei Codrescu

"Were I a whip-smart Jewess possessing a natural gift for observation and a wickedly funny insightfulness, I hope I would write a book just like the one Jill Soloway has written."

-- Andy Richter

 

Jill Soloway, screenwriter and director extraordinaire,  serves up a memoir with enormous bravado, candor, and humor. She takes on self-revelation, sex, celebrity, and feminism with confidence and--always-- a kick in the pants.

Soloway's new film, Afternoon Delight, just swept the director's award at Sundance and is opening nationwide this summer. After her ground-breaking work on Six Feet Under and United States of Tara, who doesn't want to know everything about her?

I wanted to know everything Soloway had to say about her life: from being a pint sized rock-star stalker in 80s Chicago, to a successful Hollywood writer and director who still considers herself a “starf*cker.” I’ll never forget the image she created of stars being giant babies wrapped in pashmina blankets with giant milky coffee drinks for bottles. 

Narrated by Jill Soloway, like a one-woman radio play.

--Willow Pennell

Fenton Johnson Maps His Geography of the Heart

Geography of the Heart, by Fenton Johnson

Fenton Johnson was the ninth child of Kentucky whiskey distillers. His lover, Larry Rose, was the only child of German Jewish Holocaust survivors.

A gay Love Story, Geography of the Heart is Johnson’s memoir of his brief, life-altering time with Rose. 

“Love doesn’t measure itself by a calendar—does a mother love her child less for being young?”

Visiting his lover’s parents after he loses him to AIDS,  Johnson realizes holocaust survivors and Southern gays have something in common-- hiding. 

Johnson writes lyrically, from California coral trees, to the wandering rivers of France. He fills your head and heart with a tender appreciation for life in the moment.

Narrated by the author.

--Willow Pennell

Portrait of a Tragedy in Boston's Southie- All Souls by Michael MacDonald

All Souls: A Family Story from Southie, by Michael MacDonald

"An incendiary, moving book that startles on nearly every page . . .

"MacDonald's nimble prose and detailed recall of grim times long past make for luminous reading; his hard-won conception of how ghettoized poverty spawns localized violence, and the dignity he brings to lives snuffed out in chaos, gives All Souls a moral urgency usually lacking in current memoir or crime prose.

"A remarkable work." 

—Kirkus Reviews

Michael MacDonald grew up believing his mother and the politicians who said Boston's Southie neighborhood was the “best place in the world.”

But the tight-knit, community was also insular and hostile to outsiders. Violence on the street was ignored even as it affected nearly every family there. Politicians like William "Billy" Bulger and gangsters like Whitey Bulger cooperated to keep crime and punishment in the neighborhood and out of sight.

This insider’s tale is revelatory and heartbreaking. MacDonald's writing: evocative and sharp. It’s easy to see why, even as he describes the murders and overdoses of friends and family, he loves  his neighborhood.   

Rather than join in the cycle of violence all around him, Michael Patrick MacDonald used his sorrow and his outrage as an anti-violence activist helping to start a gun buyback program and the South Boston Vigil Group which helped the community acknowledge and bring to light the violence around them.

Winner of the American Book Award.

Narrated by the author.

--Willow Pennell

Mungo Park's Travels in Africa in the 18th Century— on Audio!

Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa, by Mungo Park. Edited with an Introduction by Kate Ferguson Marsters.

“At the age of twenty-four, Park had set out for the interior of Africa with an umbrella, a horse a few trade goods, two days’ worth of provisions, and a basic pair of everything else...

"When he reappeared eighteen months later, clothed in rags and carrying only his hat stuffed full of notes from his original outfit, he was greeted as one who had risen from the dead.” 

 

Mungo Park was a lanky, reserved Scottish physician with wanderlust in the 1700s. Provided an introduction to Sir Joseph Banks, he was chosen to lead an exploratory mission, with no military or missionary goals, to find the Niger river in Africa— and a trans-continental trade route to Timbuktu. 

Early on, Park lost his few traveling companions. Thus alone, he was able to observe the daily workings of life in the region. Park kept an extraordinary journal of his travels. He encountered disease, kidnapping, imprisonment, and theft— but also kindness, charity, sophisticated trade systems and literacy.

The detailed, intimate portrait he paints of pre-colonial Gambia, Senegal, and Mali— and the trade and slave routes within—  is invaluable and rare. 

With his return to the UK, Mungo Park became a sensation. His honest, humble depiction of his adventures, the people he encountered, and his self-awareness and honesty set the standard for travel writing hence. 

 Since it was first published in 1799, Mungo's diaries directly influenced Wordsworth, Melville, Conrad, Hemingway, and T. C. Boyle— talk about a legacy!

Superbly narrated by actor Steven Brand who was born in Dundee Scotland, and spent his childhood in Africa. Perfect. You may know him as The Scorpion King's Memnon.

--Willow Pennell

The Ultimate Guide to Prostate Pleasure and Health

The Ultimate Guide to Prostate Pleasure: Erotic Exploration for Men and Their Partners, by Charlie Glickman and Aislinn Emirzian

"This superb guide combines the friendliness of a good buddy with the savvy knowledge of a top-notch sex educator, explaining the in's and out's, how's and why's, of prostate pleasure, including answering those questions you thought you couldn't ask anybody.

"Whatever you want to know about the pleasures and the how-to's of prostate stimulation, it's in this book."

--Joan Price, author of Naked at Our Age: Talking Out Loud about Senior Sex

We've talked about the G-spot orgasm, now let's move on to the P-spot.

Like the title says, this is the ultimate guide to your prostate. You've got one;  learn how to use it.

No matter your level of experience, there is something in this book for any curious person who wants to know more about their body. Technique, toys, positions, trust and communication are all covered. Glickman and Emirzian’s writing is personable, and with good humor.

Hugo Shwyzer at Jezebel recently wrote a review exploring the part of this book that claims anal play will make men better, more empathetic lovers, and could ultimately lead to world peace.

I don't know if pegging can do all that, but I suppose personal satisfaction is a worthy enough goal.

Narrated by Mark Bachman who also read Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore's Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform 

--Willow Pennell

When Marina Abramovic Dies - The Audio Biography

When Marina Abramovic Dies, by James Westcott

"Since she conceived of her first performance in 1969, Marina Abramovic has been a prime mover in the development of what became known as performance art, a source of its invention like none other, a force.

"What fuels that dynamism and has shaped its uses and defined its far-reaching impact is the subject of James Westcott's portrait of the artist and account of her work... Exceptionally candid and articulate in conversation -- the artist's voice echoes throughout this book -- and performances, Abramovic; is a public mystery, a contemporary Sphinx.

"Rather than destroy that mystery, Westcott deepens it. Rather than contain her art, he opens it up."

 -- Robert Storr, Dean, School of Art, Yale University

 

Abramovic is probably the world’s most well-known performance artists today. But when it comes to her  biography, it is nothing less than a PAGE TURNER. Her love life, her family, her career— it's  right up there with Elizabeth Taylor in drama, lust, loss, and fortunes gained and spent.

Abramovic grew up in communist Yugoslavia, the child of party elites. Her rebellion, escape, and exploration of the world outside make for fascinating listening--and fertile ground for speculation into the motives of her art.

Here she is talking about her performance "The Artist is Present" at the MOMA, legacy, and what it means for performance art pieces if the artist dies.

 

Biographer James Westcott keeps the listener engaged and is particularly skilled at describing Abramovic's works. The timing, risk, and immediacy of her performances are palpable.

Narrated with impeccable timing by Kathleen Gati.

--Susie Bright and Willow Pennell

The Juvenile Justice System and Somebody Else’s Children

Somebody Else’s Children, by Jill Wolfson and John Hubner

"A gripping narrative of juvenile case stories, 'the ordinary drama that...reflects the day-to-day working of the system.'

"It's a story of the often well-intentioned counselors, legal constraints, substance abuse, deprivation, and child and family protection gone awry.

"More descriptive than prescriptive, the book's overarching theme is the lack of responsible community recognition of the necessity for commitment to the healthy development of our kids in our society." 

--Suzanne W. Wood, SUNY College of Technology

The California Juvenile Justice System is "wrapped in a coccoon of confidentiality" deemed best for the children.

But the benefits are often outweighed by the lack of transparency. How can we know if what is best for the children is being done if no one is allowed to talk about it?

Wolfson and Hubner bring light into these shrouded proceedings by interviewing those involved in the system, case workers, lawers, judges, and families.

Not a diatribe, Wolfson and Hubner let the stories speak for themselves. You’ll see how the system is failing the children in it in so many ways, but also the workers in it who are sincerely trying to help.

Their exposé is riveting. You'll definitely be moved—and you may end up adopting a hundred children.

Narrated by P. J. Ochlan

--Willow Pennell