Monday, November 26, 2012

Cyber Monday Book Gift Ideas

Their physical days may be numbered, but books still make great gifts. Here are a few you may want to consider:


Hilarious and surprisingly touching memoir written by Michael Beaumier about his experiences as the editor of the personals section of a Chicago alt-weekly. Buy HERE.


Eric Poole's memoir about life in the Midwest with a crazy mother and an obsession with Endora from "Bewitched" packs more laughs per page than anything I've read this year -- and for just 6 bucks, you'll be laughing at what steal it was! Read HERE.


 Penny Marshall's memoir was Amazon Publishing's first big "get," and boy did it blow up in the Internet retailer's face. Most major bookstores refused to carry it -- despite its "New Harvest" imprint, a stand-in that wasn't exactly a river away from Amazon -- and it sold just 2,000 copies in its first week. (They paid Laverne an $800,000 advance!) I ended up getting the Kindle edition recently during a sale for just $1.99, but I see they've jacked the price up again. Still, I started it last night and I gotta admit I'm pretty hooked. Buy HERE.


"Fag Hag" author Robert Rodi is back with a wicked tale of psychological (and biological) horror, described as a postmillennial mash-up of "Rosemary's Baby" and "Psycho." Buy HERE.


For the wonk in your life, Urvashi Vaid's "Irresistible Revolution: Confronting Face, Class and the Assumptions of LGBT Politics" might be just the thing. Vaid, who is one of the nation's best-known and most widely respected LGBT leaders, argues for gay equality to move beyond the limiting confines of the equality movement. Buy HERE.


Just finished "Too Good to Be True," novelist Benjamin Anastas' memoir about having and then losing it all. It's an enjoyable and quick read (less than 200 pages), even if it didn't resonate with me as much as I thought it might. (This one's also published by Amazon, so is hard to find in stores.) Buy HERE.


Cyndi's Lauper's memoir will not disappoint fans, even if they may be disappointed to learn how bitter she seems that her superstardom fizzled much more quickly than it arrived. Buy HERE.


"Back to the Future" meets the grunge era in my friend Frank Anthony Polito's "Lost in the '90s." Buy HERE.


My college friend Landon J. Napoleon's four novels have recently been reissued as e-books. Preview and buy them HERE.


Anything by the late David Rakoff, whose one-of-a-kind voice lives on in everything he wrote. Start HERE.

4 comments:

Armani said...

I'm glad to say I've read this whole list of yours since I always follow your book reviews. Thanks, Ken !!
(specially disappointed with the Cyndi Lauper's memoir - the book is really good - but discovering the woman's a bitch was a really turn off for me. Sorry Cyndi, you lost me)

Frank Anthony Polito said...

Thanks for yet another shout out!

Moose said...

So happy to see that others shared the same impression I did after reading Cyndi's book. Her bitterness left me cold, and took her down a couple of pegs in my eyes.

Kelly Robinson said...

My mother and I have very different book tastes, but we both want to read Penny Marshall's bio.