I Was a Stripper Librarian

I Was a Stripper Librarian By Kristy Cooper
Publication date: July 30, 2021
Buy Link: Amazon
Genres: Adult, Memoir
Summary:

No one at the library she worked at knew about Kristy Cooper’s other job.

On the surface, it seem that being a librarian and a stripper are polar opposite jobs, but in practice Kristy found that they were not nearly as different as most people would think. 

Strip club customers and library patrons both produce wild stories, and you have to be good at working with people in both professions (whether your clothes are off or not).

In this first-hand account, Kristy describes her decision to get into stripping to make her student loan debt more manageable, overcome her introversion to learn how to hustle customers, learn about sex worker advocacy, and finally transition into full-time library work. 

For years Kristy hid her stripping history to fit into the mold of a respectable librarian, but as time went on she realized this wasn’t something she should feel ashamed about. Telling these kinds of stories helps destigmatize sex work, which makes it safer for current sex workers.

Librarianship is changing, especially as the profession begins to evaluate itself through a greater anti-oppression lens. Librarians can learn a lot about class struggle and privacy advocacy from sex workers.

—

EXCERPT:

I got involved with a former stripper before I ever became one myself.

Lillian had gorgeous long red hair, tattoos, and wore glasses. She was working as a barista at a coffee shop in my college town, Champaign, IL. I was twenty-three and finishing off a year of fucking around partying before moving to Ann Arbor to pursue a Master of Science in Information at the University of Michigan.

One day, I went into her coffee shop and, as I often did when ordering things, I became annoyingly indecisive about what I wanted. “I want a green tea, or wait, maybe a chai… I think I’m hungry… I’m sorry I’m wasting your time.”

Lillian just looked at me coyly. “Don’t worry about it. I don’t have anywhere else to be.” I smiled and felt more at ease as she winked.

Promotional Event: Another Kind of Free: Suicide Prevention in the Wake of Robin Williams' Death

Another Kind of Free: Suicide Prevention in the Wake of Robin Williams' Death by Nicole Skuba
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Memoir
Release Date: September 10th, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

In mid-September 2001, recent college graduate and writer, Nicole Skuba, found herself strapped to a hospital bed after a deliberate overdose of Prozac. The previous five years of therapy and antidepressants did nothing to ease the bipolar disorder, clinical depression, or other diagnoses du jour.

Another Kind of Free: Suicide Prevention in the Wake of Robin Williams’ Death is part suicide prevention self-help guide, part darkly humorous memoir. After Nicole’s release in five days from the mental ward, she was determined to come up with her own route to happiness.

This memoir shares the excessive drinking, casual sex, manic joy, counseling, yoga, and goal-setting that ultimately led to healing and the beginning of a life worth living. It also illustrates the power that mindfulness-based stress reduction—even when done accidentally—can have in reducing depression and finding balance.

After thirteen years, Nicole is finally sharing her holistic methods of overcoming depression and addiction long-term with the hope of preventing at least one person from taking his or her life. This is especially important in the wake of Robin Williams’ death. The charismatic actor gave us laughter, inspiration, and the ability to embrace the absurd. With his suicide, he also left an unintended legacy: permission to end anguish with the same permanent decision he made.

Another Kind of Free: Suicide Prevention in the Wake of Robin Williams’ Death is a quick read aiming to reduce the stigma attached to mental illness and to provide an alternate, doable method of becoming “free” from mental illness. Sufferers and their family members will find Nicole’s memoir to be an entertaining chronicle of valuable, attainable information.

♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:

“How many pills did you swallow?”

The room fuzzed in and out, little black smudges blurring my vision. Smudges… schmudges… That officer’s name really was Officer Schmick. What a weird name. He had a bit of a limp, but he was nice as far as cops from my hometown went. His partner was a bit on edge though.

Put down the cat, ma’am, his partner had warned. I hadn’t realized a cat was viewed as a weapon to some people. Why had my mother called the cops anyway? That was a little extreme - and dangerous as well. Just outside the most dangerous quadrant of Washington, D.C., Prince Georges County cops were known for their excessive force. They were worse since the terrorist attacks a week ago. But, in truth, the cops had always had been jumpy. Just a month or a year ago, they’d shot some confused guy who had barricaded himself in his own bedroom. He wasn’t hurting anyone, but his family was worried. So, the cops shot him. Kind of like shooting a cat to get him out of a tree.

Cats. Right. So, Officer Schmick’s partner had wanted me to put down the cat. I put Polka down before I got myself killed. My mother was talking. Really, she seemed unable to stop talking and talking and talking. Could she drive me? Should she call my therapist? Did they need the empty pill bottle? Then they put me in the front seat of the police car beside Officer Schmick and I ended up here.

Blog Tour: Sister Surrendered

Sister Surrendered by Darla M. Grese
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Memoir
Release Date: April 11, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

When you’re a twin, loneliness is somewhat unfamiliar because you’ve always had each other. So when a twin passes, the other is left unprepared. Our loyalty was steadfast and our devotion to one another, solid. Our love was unconditional no matter what the circumstances.

I’m so grateful every day for the memories of the joy and laughter that we shared together. I know the bond that Kelli and I shared is impossible for anyone to replace. This memoir has become something so much more than initially intended. It’s become a documented journey barely scratching the surface of the love between two sisters. And surprisingly, it’s also become an outlet for me to speak candidly and honestly about my struggles with the cause of Kelli’s death.

This is a love story turned tragedy. An exposure of one of the greatest healthcare failures killing Veterans and civilians, and a cry for help to remedy the fiasco. I’ve stressed about who I would mention in this book, nervous that I would hurt someone’s feelings by not mentioning their names. But I’ve realized that it’s impossible to do.

Kelli had so many great friends, some I’ve never even met. I need each person to know who has taken the time to reach out to me in whatever capacity that if it weren’t for your heartfelt show of support and love, I don’t know that I would be able to muster the energy to even get up each day. Kelli, we did it.

♥ ♥ ♥



Sister Surrendered, my memoir, is a book that I wish didn’t exist. I wish I could replace the word Surrendered with perhaps prospered or flourished. But I cannot.

How did this happen? How did I lose a battle that I fought so hard for? Why did I settle the case? Why did I have to write my memoir that ended in such avoidable tragedy? These are questions I’m left with each and every morning, after nights filled with nightmares, sadness and feeling s of defeat.

Every story should have a great ending right? By the time we finish the last paragraph, we’re leaping to our feet, applauding and celebrating that happy, “feel-good” ending. And dammit I wish by the time you finished my book, you’d be doing the same. But the truth is, you’ll end up angry, sad and maybe even baffled. You’ll be left with questioning a system that’s now currently under fire in most media outlets, the Veterans Affairs Health Care System.

Review: Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight

Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight by M.E. Thomas
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Memoir
Release Date: May 14, 2013
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

The first memoir of its kind, Confessions of a Sociopath is an engrossing, highly captivating narrative of the author's life as a diagnosed sociopath.

She is a charismatic charmer, an ambitious self-promoter, and a cunning and calculating liar. She can induce you to invest in her financial schemes, vote for her causes, and even join her in bed. Like a real-life Lisbeth Salander, she has her own system of ethics, and like Dexter, she thrives on bending and occasionally breaking the rules. She is a diagnosed, high-functioning, noncriminal sociopath, and this is her world from her point of view.

Drawn from the author's own experiences; her popular blog, Sociopathworld.com; and scientific literature, Confessions of a Sociopath is part confessional memoir, part primer for the curious. Written from the point of view of a diagnosed sociopath, it unveils for the very first time these people who are hiding in plain sight. The book confirms suspicions and debunks myths about sociopathy, providing a road map for dealing with the sociopath in your life.

♥ ♥ ♥
*I received a free copy of this book from Blogging for Books  for an honest reivew

“I viewed everyone as objects, pieces in my chess game. I had no awareness of their own internal worlds and no understanding of their emotional palette because their bright hues were so different from my own drab shades of gray.” – Confessions of a Sociopath.

I absolutely loved this book. I spent a longer than usual time reading through it and taking everything in, and I have to say that with each passing chapter, Confessions of a Sociopath became more and more fascinating. M.E. Thomas definitely knows how to weave a tale, though the great thing about it is it’s truly not a tale of fiction. There are a lot of facts littered through the book about sociopaths and psychology, but what I loved most was seeing things from a new perspective.

Blog Tour: Promotional Event - Through the Withering Storm

Through The Withering Storm by Leif Gregersen
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Memoir, Non-Fiction
Release Date: September 19, 2011
Buy Links:

Purchase Book

Book Description:

Through the Withering Storm: A Brief History of a Mental Illness is the autobiography of a boy who becomes a man in a cold and seemingly impossible world. This book, with foreword by prominent psychiatrist Dr. Brian Bishop, takes the reader through the true life horror of growing up mentally ill. The author shows us what it is like to juggle school, a dysfunctional family, a ‘career’ as an Air Cadet and all the emotions and troubles that come with adolescence – until genetics throws in a curve ball and the worst imaginable happens.

This book also takes the reader inside the hallways and chambers of a hospital treating the violent, criminal and institutionalized in a place built for ‘shell-shocked’ World War I veterans.

As with many illnesses, there is denial and the struggle doesn’t end in these halls. Despite delusions, fights, arrests, reprisals and being institutionalized, years are wasted fighting treatment and refusing medications.

From the cold and frozen north country of Alberta, through the Rocky Mountains and coastal cities of Vancouver and Los Angeles, the author constantly struggles to shake off the demons that haunt him. He loses friends and possessions, becomes estranged from his family and relinquishes every shred of dignity. Each time he is beaten down, he struggles back to find a small piece of sanity, just enough to keep him going. Finally, with acceptance of his illness, comes treatment and peace.

For any parent or caregiver living with a troubled teenager, this book provides valuable insight into the behaviours of mentally ill youth. For others, such as healthcare professionals, family members or those that suspect they may have an illness themselves, this book sheds light on the symptoms of being bipolar and the all-too-common journey through madness.

Ultimately, this work demonstrates how precious and precarious our lives and relationships are. In the profound words of Dylan Thomas, this book simply says to all who open it and take part in the tragedy that is the human condition, “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:
I loved camp but in a way I could hardly wait for it to end so I could go back to my home town. I felt pretty privileged at times to be receiving all this training and knowledge about guns, planes, first aid and leadership, while most of the people back home were simply trying to decide which soap opera to watch and which one to tape.

It was impossible not to swell with pride when I felt the power and esprit de corps of marching in perfect timing with a hundred other people. It made me stronger, mentally and physically, and there was a real sense of direction in my younger life.

Review: Memoirs Aren't Fairytales: A Story of Addiction

Memoirs Aren't Fairytales: A Story of Addiction by Marni Mann
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Memoir
Release Date: December 13, 2011
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

A dark tale of a young woman's descent into the hell of drug addiction."I could feel my chin falling towards my chest, my back hunching forward. My body was acting on its own, and my mind was empty, like all my memories had been erased. There was scenery behind my lids. 

Aqua colored water and powdery sand that extended for miles. I was never going back to coke. I wanted more heroin. And I wanted it now. "Leaving behind a nightmarish college experience, nineteen-year-old Nicole and her best friend Eric escape their home of Bangor, Maine to start a newlife in Boston.

Fragile and scared, Nicole desperately seeks a new beginning to help erase her past. But there is something besides freedom waiting for her in the shadows- a drug that will make every day a nightmare.

Heroin.

With one taste, the love that once flowed through Nicole's veins turns into cravings. Tracks mark the passing of time, and heroin's grip gets tighter. It holds her hand through deaths and prostitution, but her addiction keeps her in the darkness. When her family tries to strike a match to help light her way, Nicole must choose between a life she can hardly remember, or a love for heroin she'll never forget.

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Emotions!

Jeez I was a wreck while reading this book. (points to Fiona gif) that was me. I just couldn't stop tearing up and occasionally yelling, telling Nicole to stop being so dumb! Mean, I know.

Memoirs Aren't Fairytales: A Story of Addiction is an absolute emotional tear jerking rollercoaster. I cried my eyes out at certain parts of this story, I couldn’t help it Marni Mann went to some dark places when she wrote this book and there were several times where I actually had to put it down because it got so intense, which was hard to do because I was dying to know what happened next.

Review: Life's That Way

“I’ve learned that in the midst of heartbreak, nothing on earth is more valuable than talking about it and having open hearts ready to hear it,” said actor, playwright, and film historian, 59-year-old Jim Beaver.

Review: I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

“My name is Tucker Max, and I am an asshole. I get excessively drunk at inappropriate times, disregard social norms, indulge every whim, ignore the consequences of my actions, mock idiots and posers, sleep with more woman than is safe or reasonable, and just generally act like a raging dickhead,” wrote Tucker Max in 'I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.'