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Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies and Revolution
Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies and Revolution
Laura Pennie | 2014 | History & Politics, LGBTQ+, Philosophy, Psychology & Social Sciences
(0 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"This was the first book that explained radical feminism to me. She untangles the smallest, most insidious ways that we all contribute to preserving the patriarchy. She also carefully aligns all women: sex workers to stay-at-home mothers. Also, after reading this I will no longer participate in conversation about feminism that leaves out class and race."

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Exposure (East Park, #1)
Exposure (East Park, #1)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I seem to have a fascination with reading romances involving sex workers. Yeah, I know that's a little weird but I like how they go from being all hard and bitter to finding the one to melt them.

Technically she isn't a sex worker, she just poses nude/half nude for photos in a magazine. But she gets up close and personal with her male counterpart.

I really liked the story, probably thanks to my above mentioned admission.

There were a few reasons why I didn't give it a higher rating. His relationship with his girlfriend, and the ending--or the bit near the end. I'd have liked a little more of them as a couple but since I know there are more books maybe I'll see more of them in those :-)
  
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ClareR (5572 KP) rated Nightcrawling in Books

Aug 27, 2022 (Updated Aug 27, 2022)  
Nightcrawling
Nightcrawling
Leila Mottley | 2022 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is a firm five star read for me. It’s visceral, heartbreaking and beautifully written.

Kiara, 17 years old, gets drawn in to prostitution and is picked up by a group of corrupt cops who like to ‘invite’ young sex workers to their parties. And a lot of these girls are too young. Kiara included.

It really angered me that people who were supposed to take care of and protect people, young black girls included, should take advantage and blackmail them.

Kiara and her neighbours son Trevor, live in poverty. Kiara has stopped going to school, so has no qualifications and no one will employ her. Trevor’s mother goes missing for days at a time, and Kiara sees children's services as a last resort, wholly unacceptable. So to feed them and to pay the rent, she walks the streets, sells sex, and does what the cops want her to do. These men made me feel quite murderous, actually.

Nightcrawling made me feel emotionally exhausted, but I had to read every page. It’s a story that drags you in, grabs your attention, and doesn’t let go until the last page. The fact that it’s based on a true story makes it even more saddening.

If you’re up for a challenge, I’d recommend this. It deserves its place on the Booker Prize long list.

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole.
  
This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor
This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor
Adam Kay | 2017 | Biography
8
9.0 (44 Ratings)
Book Rating
Loved the insight into who the people working within the NHS are treated (0 more)
Same as the good, the insight into how we treat our NHS employees (0 more)
Good Read, became very repetitive towards the end
This book really did give me an insight into how our NHS is being run into the ground. A business (and that is what the NHS is) that is run by senior leaders who do not care about the workers. This highlighted this on numerous occasions and was really sad to see and hear. If people red the book who had been thinking about joining the NHS they may now have had a change of heart.

Adam's anecdotes and stories are fantastic, what some people do for sex :) is concerning.

I really enjoyed who Adam took us through a journey and a rollercoaster of emotions. It is a shame that him and probably so many others are leaving the profession because of being under paid and over worked.

At the end of the book it felt that the stories did become very similar and therefore lost its shock value. But it was however an interesting read and I would recommend to friends.
  
The 40 Year Old Virgin  (2005)
The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
2005 | Comedy, Romance
Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell) is a guy who has found his place in the world. Andy has a small but comfortable apartment that is stocked with all manner of high tech electronics, as well as an impressive collection of valuable collectables.

Andy has a comfortable if not dynamic job managing inventory for a local electronics store as well as a group of co-workers who include Andy in their conversations.

Andy’s life takes an unexpected turn when it is revealed at an after hours poker game that he has never been with a woman in a physical way, making him a 40 year old virgin.

Shocked and amused, Andy’s co-workers make it their personal quest to get Andy fixed up and on with his life. Andy for the most part is not overly enthused as his past failures in dating and heavy petting have all ended in disaster causing him to forgo pursuing sex.

Andy takes this all in stride even when it results in some hilarious and often painful experiences ranging from chest waxing, to drunken woman intent on making Andy their pleasure toy. As the experiences go from one bizarre encounter after another, Andy becomes even more confused, especially when his co-workers continue to offer advice that seems less than practical.

During this time, Andy meets Trish (Catherine Keener), who works at a business across from the shop. Andy is unsure how to handle her openness but when persuaded, he realizes that she may indeed like him, and now it is time to put what he has been told into effect.

Playing it cool, Andy does not call right away, but after even more outrageous situations arise, Andy eventually calls Trish and they go out. Things go very well, that is until Andy is faced with situations he has never encountered and all of his life experiences have prepared him for what is to come next.

Directed by Judd Apatow, The 40 Year Old Virgin, is a comic triumph that is consistently funny throughout. Carell is fantastic as he shows that he is a true comic talent that has arrived after his scene stealing performances in “Bruce Almighty”, and “Anchorman”.

The film is very crude and raunchy, but unlike the recent Deuce Bigalow film, there is a sincerity and charm about the films that puts the debauchery in context. This is not a film that throws gross situations at you for shock value, they are included as a natural part of the story and as part of the characters lives.

While some may balk at this, it is important to remember that in a film that deals with single men and sex, in many ways this film could actually be seen as restrained in how the characters discuss and deal with the topics and situations.

That being said, the film is a true work of genius and should launch Carell as the next great comic actor. His ability to blend physical and subtle comedy is amazing as his ability to portray Andy as a sympathetic and understandable character is truly amazing. Talent such as his only comes along once in a great while and thankfully the 42 year old Carell is finally getting a chance to shine. If you love to laugh and do not mind crude humor, do not miss this film.
  
I Never Knew (Riverside Town #4)
I Never Knew (Riverside Town #4)
Darla O’Malley | 2023 | Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I NEVER KNEW is the fourth book in the Riverside Town series, but I haven't read any of the others, and had no difficulties following this story or the characters involved.

Ryan is an angry young man who hides his feelings behind insults and gruffness. Elijah is the owner of a cafe, taking over when his mum and dad died, putting his own dreams on hold. Together, they are grumpy/sunshine and a delight to read about. I loved the explanations given for Ryan, to help you understand his character - the reasons for his anger and also his lack of enjoyment of sex until he met Elijah. I thought these were done brilliantly, giving details without too much drama.

Elijah has his own issues to deal with, trying to run a cafe that is leaking money with workers who don't show up. He is too nice of a guy and I was glad when he toughened up a bit on them. I don't like it when people are taken advantage of - even in books! I liked him marshmallow soft in the other areas though.

This is a fast-paced story and it works! From beginning to end, their relationship is just how it should be. Why question something when it's so right?! Elijah and Ryan got the ending I was hoping for, and I'm so very happy about that. I am definitely returning to Riverside Town and catching up on some of the others now. Definitely recommended by me.

** same worded review will appear elsewhere **

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Jun 29, 2023
  
Hottest Blood: The Ultimate in Erotic Horror
Hottest Blood: The Ultimate in Erotic Horror
Jeff Gelb | 1993 | Erotica, Horror
1
5.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Shelf Life – Hottest Blood: The Ultimate in Erotic Horror is Neither of Those Things
(I’m gonna go ahead and throw a disclaimer on up here: You are about to read something that deals with purportedly “erotic” subject matter. If you don’t like the sound of that word, you might wanna go elsewhere. If it’s actually-erotic things that offend you, though, you’ll be fine.)

I like short story compilations because you get a variety of content that’s just as easy to breeze through if you have the time as it is to get to a stopping point and put down if you don’t. I like horror fiction because it usually involves the super-natural, which interests me, and intense emotional responses, which are almost always a good thing in writing. And I like eroticism because I am a warm-blooded human being with a pulse. However, on the whole, I do not like Hottest Blood.

I wanted to, I did. Look at that cover. It’s equal amounts scary and sexy, both in completely safe, PG-13-at-most kind of ways. Unfortunately, Softcore Succubus here is both the scariest and the sexiest thing about this book

Bluntly analogized, you know that feeling you get when you come across something on the internet that disturbs and/or disgusts you, and then you learn that there’s a dedicated group of people that gets off on it? Most of the stories in this book are that feeling captured in words.

Case in point, the story “Damaged Goods” by Elizabeth Massie, which as far as I can tell is about a couple of physically abused, emotionally damaged, developmentally stunted kids somewhere around their early teens who live with a religious fringe cult being led out to a field to have sex with each other while a nameless U.S. President watches and masturbates before both kids are drowned in a river by their preacher/pimp caretaker.

Or there’s “Mr. Right” by Chris Lacher, which tells the story of a college student named Russ who has a secret fetish for the deformed women in the freak show at a nearby carnival – a fascination which leads to him getting held down and forcibly raped by a group of unwashed subhuman mutants, which the detailed descriptions make sure you understand are completely revolting to all five senses. The story ends with him being dumped out behind the fairgrounds while a small, legless girl happily informs him that this is how all carnival workers reproduce, and he can look forward to seeing his own mutant rape-spawn in the show next year.

Or there’s “Abuse” by Matthew Costello, which simply shows us how the arrest of a Peewee Herman surrogate goes down in an adult movie theater before ending with another man jerking off with the cold, dry, severed hand in his pocket as he contemplates getting a new one to replace it.

The tone of these three are pretty much par for the course for the rest of the book: thoroughly disturbing, and sex is involved, but the disturbing feeling stems from revulsion rather than fear, and the sex bits are so far on the other end of the spectrum from erotic that it feels like the authors are trying to punish their readers for even expecting to be aroused in any way.

Of course, I said myself earlier that intense emotional responses are “almost always a good thing in writing.” By that merit alone, this book technically succeeds; in fact, if it had billed itself as shock fiction instead of erotic horror, I’d begrudgingly give it a medal in its class. The “aw, what the hell?!” moments are not as artistically executed as, say, a Chuck Palahniuk read, and they tend not to have as much depth to them, but strictly in terms of making you wish that you could unread words, they get the job done.

But that isn’t the job that Hottest Blood was hired to do, and that’s not what it put on its resume. It said it was going to “heat the blood and chill the mind,” and promised that “terror never felt this sexy!” It would have been more appropriate to say that “sex never felt this terrible.”

All of that said, if you abandon any hope of seeing anything resembling erotica or horror (scary horror, anyway), there are a few stories in here that are decent reads – mostly because they try to say something with their subject matter rather than use it to see how thoroughly they can ruin the idea of sex for the reader. To give a few quick nods of approval:

Nancy Holder’s “I Hear the Mermaids Singing,” which opens the anthology, is a dark and modern re-imagining of “The Little Mermaid” that brutally points up the drawbacks to throwing away your whole life and family in order to pursue someone that you know nothing about outside of a few fleeting glimpses and lustful inner fantasies.

J.L. Comeau’s “Black Cars” is the narrative of a high-class chauffeur as he tells his passenger an increasingly mysterious story about a couple of his regular customers, culminating in a creepy twist payoff that, in retrospect, actually makes it count as a legitimate horror story, and a decently gripping one at that.

And “Safe at Home” by Steve and Melanie Tem, while decidedly and disturbingly unsexy, at least has good reason to be; it’s a short character study of a young woman who’d been molested as a child, and the lasting and complex psychological damage resulting thereof that prevents her from having any normal social life or relationships, even with someone whom she legitimately likes, someone who knows what’s happened and sincerely cares for her.

So for the handful of intriguing stories that don’t make you quit (or wish you had) mid-read out of revolted disappointment, I can’t completely condemn Hottest Blood. If you want to test your own threshold for repulsion but are understandably hesitant to use online image searches to this end, I heartily recommend it.

If you are legitimately turned on by the idea of a man eating a woman alive and then gestating her alien spawn inside his own bloated body until his head detaches and crawls away (“How Deep the Taste of Love,” John Shirley), I suppose I still heartily recommend it, though I do so from a safe distance.

If you want to read one of the few stories involved that aren’t horrible, I heartily recommend trying to find them on their own somewhere else first.

But if you want “the ultimate in erotic horror,” stay the hell away. Softcore Succubus is a trap.
  
Room Service
Room Service
Mindy Wilde | 2018 | Contemporary, Erotica, Fiction & Poetry
6
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Desperate Woman Gets Housekeeping Job at a Brothel
Genre: Erotic Romance

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Word Count: 17,530 words


After getting conned and dumped by a traveling guitar player, Lucy is struggling to make ends meet and things only get worse when she’s laid off from her waitressing job. Her last customer– a sexy, mysterious man wearing clothes that cost five times her annual salary– leaves her a $1,000 tip out of sympathy, but that money will only last so long.

But when she gets offered a job as a housekeeper at a brothel, things are looking up. Cleaning up after sex isn’t her usual line of work, but at least she won’t have to struggle financially anymore. When she literally runs into her heavy tipper at the brothel, however, things might get a little more complicated, especially when just looking at him is enough to fill her fantasies.

I’m still not sure what to make of this book, but I definitely wish there was more of it. I’m fascinated by this high-class brothel where everything is safe and 100% consensual and everyone treats each other like old friends. There are panic buttons in every room and all of the “Room Service” workers carry panic buttons on them as well (where they carry them isn’t mentioned, unfortunately).

I’m a little uneasy about what happens if one of the staff wants to quit, though. That’s never really mentioned, and Mrs. Stark, the owner of the brothel and Iron Man’s mother, isn’t someone to cross. Are they allowed to leave as long or have they taken a blood oath?

” Just know that if you accept you will be all-in. The secrets you keep will need to go to your grave with you. We take this vow very seriously.” — Mrs. Stark

Sounds like a blood oath to me.

Lucy’s a pretty cool character. She took getting fired well and she’s pretty kind and relatable overall. But her emotions when it comes to her ex are really simplistic. She’s just enraged that he left her destitute. And she definitely has reason to be. But anger is all she’s feeling. She’s not sad that he didn’t love her enough to stick around. She’s not regretting her decision to squander her savings on his debt (and it really was her decision. He might have sweet-talked her into it, but he didn’t hold a gun to her head). There aren’t even any lingering feelings of love or any sign she loved him at all. When it comes to her past, her entire character falls flat.

Of course, she’s better than Adam Palmer, the heavy tipper we know next to nothing about so far. The description “billionaire alpha” basically sums up everything about him. Not that I really mind Adam. He was actually pretty nice to Lucy. Despite the circumstances, I didn’t sense a disturbing power imbalance between them and he seems to genuinely care about her. I wish we saw at least one scene from his point of view. It would have gone a long way to making him a real character instead of an alpha-billionaire-on-the-verge-of-manly-tears stock photo.

I have a theory that he’s the one who got her the job at the brothel, but this has yet to be confirmed. I’ll be sad if this isn’t the case.

The sex scene, was honestly more comical than sexy to me. Reading about them screaming out each others’ names while doin’ it made me giggle.

“OH ADAM,” I cried out at the top of my lungs.

For real, have you or anyone you know actually shouted your partner’s name during sex because you were so caught up in the moment? It doesn’t count if you’re faking it.

Honestly, they talked a lot for two people who were supposed to be lost in the magical sensations of expert boning. Adam could even get out full sentences.

“Fuck Lucy, you are going to make me explode and I am definitely not done with you yet.”

As you can probably guess, this story is in need of some editing. Not just for punctuation issues (not too distracting, but still there), but also for the dialogue which is about as good as the best-written porn out there. The first chapter is also just Lucy straight-up telling her backstory. It only lasts for about a page, but it kept me from getting pulled into the story immediately and kept me from connecting to Lucy.

But despite all its faults, I still enjoyed the story. I thought it was really cute and I want to see more of Lucy and Adam together.
  
What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Deep Space Nine (2018)
What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Deep Space Nine (2018)
2018 | Documentary
Where would we be without DS9?
Maybe the best Trek of all time?

Sisko, Odo, Kira, O'Brien, Dax, Quark, Bashir and the rest of the massive cast brought Star Trek to life as never before in this vastly different "station"ary style of Trek.

At the time, syndication was where it was at for reruns and additional revenue for a TV program. DS9 bucked the trend of wrapping up everything within one episode and began a TV serial which pretty much ran almost the entire run, much to the dismay of studio executives. Nowadays, shows like The Walking Dead, Lost, or Game of Thrones do this every week, but in the mid 90s this was not common.

Sandwiched in between The Next Generation and Voyager, DS9 did not get a lot of respect during its initial run at all. Also at that time, Trek TNG movies were in full swing so the show had to compete with that as well. Television stations would often preempt the show, skip a week or run the show in the early morning hours which made it even harder for its audience to keep track of the action.

DS9 certainly got a 2nd life with the current popularity of "binge watching" on your favorite streaming service. Having the ability to watch multi-part episodes or entire seasons within a few weeks brought back to life the en genius writing, acting and production quality of the series.

For this documentary, former showrunner Ira Steven Behr took several years worth of cast, crew and fan interviews, clips, behind the scenes footage and compiled a wonderful interesting film for any Trek fan. Many cast members major and minor as well as producers, writers and tech workers told tales of working on the show and how they very much enjoyed their time.

Throughout the many iterations of Trek, original creator Gene Roddenberry felt the show should entertain as well as provide social commentary on the issues of the time and DS9 was no exception. Throughout the show's 7 year run they dealt with issues such as racism, homelessness, same sex relationships and even genetic engineering.

One of the most fun subplots of the film was gathering the show's original writers in a room to formulate the first episode for the fictitious "Season 8" which will never actually happen (although I wish it would). The ideas, plot points and arcs they went through and came up with were extremely interesting, keep with the high level of writing the show originally produced, but also through us a few curveballs with some fun surprises.

Through the cast interviews we got to hear how the crew got along, some of their favorite and least favorite episodes and even the friendships they have maintained with one another.

The DVD set I received also had included a vast assortment of additional footage featuring even more nuggets and stories of what made the show great.

Overall, this film was one of the best documentaries I have ever seen about one of my favorite television programs in my lifetime. I might have to start binge watching the show again very soon.

Did I mention my name appears in the end credits?!? 😊

  
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Chad Miller (121 KP) Jul 23, 2019

I am dying to see this!!!!

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Eleanor (1463 KP) Jul 24, 2019

One of the few TV series that starts off poor but then gets better to keep going from strength to strength. Will have to give this a watch.

Long Bright River
Long Bright River
Liz Moore | 2020 | Crime, Fiction & Poetry, Thriller
8
7.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
This was the first book I ever checked out from Libby. I miss my library right now, but I'm glad for that app, even if I can only put six books on hold at one time. (What is that?! Six holds; that's for amateurs.)

Kensington, a neighborhood in Philadelphia, is plagued by drug use, especially heroin. It's where sisters Kacey and Mickey grew up. The girls lost their mother at a young age and were raised by their grandmother, Gee, who provided shelter and not much else. Now, Mickey is determined to raise her son Thomas differently. With love and kindness and a feeling of safety. Mickey is a police officer, so she's more than familiar with the streets of Kensington. At the same time, Kensington is struck with a series of murders, Kacey disappears. Mickey and Kacey haven't had much contact in years, since her sister became stuck in the tangle of addiction, but she's still worried. Even more so since those being murdered are young women, no doubt drug and sex workers. Found strangled on the streets. As Mickey starts looking into the murders, she gets caught up in a twisted web of lies and deceit--some of it related to her missing sister--and soon it may be too late to save either Mickey or Kacey.

The first time I found my sister dead, she was sixteen. It was the summer of 2002. Forty-eight hours earlier, on a Friday afternoon, she’d left school with her friends, telling me she’d be back by evening. She wasn’t.

This isn't a fun book to read, so if you're looking for a feel-good read right now, this isn't it. But it's a well-written, extremely powerful look at addiction. While it focuses on the story of the murdered girls, it's also an in-depth character study, taking us into Mickey's history with her sister and how their past has formed their present. Told in a then and now format, we learn about the sisters, and we get a harrowing and detailed look at the effect of addiction, not just on Kacey, but on an entire town. It's depressing, it's real, and it's wonderfully done.

Kacey told me that time spent in addiction feels looped. Each morning brings with it the possibility of change, each evening the shame of failure.

This is not really a fast-moving book, but it does have twists and turns, many of them surprising. There's plenty to keep you guessing, as we try to figure out what is happening to the women on the streets in Kensington. In turn, we have to figure out Kacey and Mickey's past and how it's brought us to where we are today. Characters are sparse, but incredibly well-created, with my favorite, beyond the sisters, being Mickey's landlord, Mrs. Mahon, a formidable woman in her own right. And Mickey's sweet, wise young son Thomas.

While Kacey is clearly the damaged one on paper, as an addict, often living on the streets, we see Mickey isn't always much better. She's had a tough time, and it's hard for her to trust anyone. Both she and Kacey are astounding characters, who stand out in this powerful novel about addiction, police abuse, and the love of a mother. This isn't always an easy read, but I'm glad I picked it up. It will stick with me for some time.