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Strip Club Book Summaries

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Play Something Dancy (2012)
by Dee Simon
Stories of debauchery from a San Francisco strip club DJ. It's fairly well written. It confirms most of what you suspected about DJs -- drug addicts / drug dealers, will have sex with anything with a pulse, and then thinks that you are one who's the pathetic loser, etc, etc. This book did nothing to alter my opinion that strip club DJs are oxygen thieves. But at least this particular oxygen thief has a some talent as a writer, I gotta give him that much. That's probably because he's a Michigan native who attended U of M before moving to the west coast. And he's got an amusing story about sneaking into the Saginaw Déjà Vu, underage with a fake id.

Diary of an Angry Stripper (2012)
by Sarah Tressler
In this collection of posts ripped from her Diary of an Angry Stripper blog, Sarah Tressler writes about her experiences as a Houston-based stripper. Sarah writes well, I've been following her blog for a while. She's become infamous lately for 1) her blog post on getting boring head from Jeremy Piven (Ari Gold on Entourage) and 2) getting fired from her job as a society reporter on the Houston Chronicle when they found out she was a stripper. (Sarah has a Master's degree in journalism.) If you haven't already been following her blog, then this is well worth a read.

American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee (2010)
by Karen Abbott
A new biography of Gypsy Rose Lee. The author jumbles the timeline quite a bit, which makes the flow sometimes difficult to follow. Otherwise this is a pretty good read, if you're into the history of burlesque.

Topless Prophet: The True Story of America's Most Successful Gentleman's Club Entrepreneur (2010)
by Alan Markowitz with Thomas Stevens
Alan Markowitz owns Flight Club, Penthouse and All Stars in Detroit. For that reason alone his self-published book is worth reading. On the other hand, the repetition and self-aggrandizement in this book makes it tough sledding at times. The book combines autobiography with some glimpses of strip club owner politics in Detroit since the 1980s. Add to that Alan's stories about the two times that he's been shot, once by a dancer and once by an off-duty Inkster cop, and the contract that his partner in BTs took out on him and the ensuing trial in federal court, and there's enough meat in here to keep you turning the pages.

Mom I'm Allright. Confessions of a Former Stripper (2009)
by Monica Mendez
A collection of random, disjointed stripper blog posts. The book is short and there's no flow. Be glad you didn't spend money on this one.

Strip Clubs Exposed (2009)
by Herb Pastor
The owner of some of the best known strip clubs in Las Vegas and New Orleans writes about his adventures owning strip clubs and managing strippers. This self-published book is a good mix of an owner/manager's perspective on clubs and his observations on the lives of the dancers and other people that work for him. This book is part of a set of two. See “Strip Joint Millionaire” below for the second book.

Strip Joint Millionaire (2009)
by Herb Pastor
In his second self-published book, the owner of some of the best known strip clubs in Las Vegas and New Orleans tells more stories about strippers and customers. This book is a fairly entertaining collection of stories. This book is part of a set of two. See “Strip Clubs Exposed” above for the second book.

Stripper Secrets - How to Seduce Strippers in the Strip Club (2008)
by Bruno McKay
A prototypical "how to date a stripper" book, typical of those hawked on the internet and elsewhere to the gullible among us. Hopefully, having this available here will help you save the money you would be tempted to spend on those other come-ons. The advice in the book is fine, such as it is. It works, sometimes. On the other hand, nothing found here is rocket science. All of it is common sense advice you could get from anyone who has a clue about strip clubs.

9½ Years Behind the Green Door (2007)
by Simone Corday
“In 9½ Years Behind the Green Door, readers are taken back to 1980s San Francisco and into the world of Simone Corday, a stripper working during the heyday of the infamous Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theater. Opened as an X-rated movie theater by brothers Jim and Artie Mitchell, the O'Farrell was and remains one of America's oldest, most notorious adult-entertainment establishments. This nightspot was the major force behind the normalization of lap dancing in strip clubs nationwide. Corday's memoir is a lengthy peek at the lives of the theater's management and employees, most notably her lover of ten years, Artie Mitchell.” - From $pread Magazine, Shakti Ziller

Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper (2006)
by Diablo Cody
Diablo Cody went from stripper, to blogger, to author, to Oscar-winning screenwriter of Juno, to creator, writer and executive producer of Showtime's United States of Tara. Here she writes about her year as a Minneapolis stripper (Déjà Vu), peep show girl (Sex World), and phone sex operator. Well written, and a great read.

Confessions of a Stripper: Tales from the VIP Room (2004)
by Lacey Lane
A well written memoir by a level-headed west coast stripper. In the first part of the book she describes her experiences working in clubs for seven years. In the second part, the "Tales from the VIP" part, Lacey tells stories about the wackos and fetishists she met in the VIP.

Strip City - A Stripper's Farewell Journey Across America (2001)
by Lily Burana
On the verge of marriage, Lily Burana discovers that she needs to come to terms with her former life as a stripper. This book chronicles the year that she spends travelling the country, working in clubs, and her thoughts as she comes to terms with that former life. This is an excellent, well written exploration of how stripping and strippers fit into the world, with some entertaining stories, and striptease history told by the women who lived it, mixed in along the way.

Stripper Lessons (1997)
by John O'Brien
“This posthumously released novel by the late O'Brien, author of Leaving Las Vegas (1991), is an introspective and surprisingly compassionate study of a loner, Carroll. He is middle aged, unmarried, and friendless. His job as a file clerk is a series of humiliations large and small. His life, such as it is, centers on Indiscretions, a strip joint. Although the surroundings are seedy, Carroll goes there nightly with the rather benign expectation that one of the waitresses or strippers will share a real conversation with him. He eventually meets Stevie, a new dancer—and she actually talks to him! He falls for her right then and there. Discarding his protective emotional shell, Carroll shares his fears, ideas, and hopes with her. But he has picked someone with a very limited interest in him, and, as this point begins to come home, Carroll wonders if life wasn't better inside that shell after all. A sensitive and understated novel.” - Booklist, Brian McCombie