Thinly fictionalized story about Britney’s rise and fall. The first one, I mean.

After volunteering to be a subject in drug trials – and one of those drugs being LSD-25 – Kesey worked the night shift at a mental hospital. He observed many of the traits that he put into this book, but it was a hallucinogenic trip that gave him the idea of a big Indian narrator.

A murder mystery in 1663 told from 4 points of view. Each character leaves out some things, and lies about other things, but we still learn more and more till finally the truth will out. The only person who knows the truth was the person who saw everything. Politics and religion and intrigue and sex will keep anyone glued to the pages. I read the entire thing in under 2 days.

There’s a lot of pomo shit in here that is over my head, but the timeline for IJ is pretty much key.

A sweet story about a Christian girl who is ostracized by her church and makes new friends in her biology class, and figures out how to reconcile science with her religion, as well as crush on her cute lab partner.

I wonder if Spielberg thinks that like, war is bad, or something.

The Bishop and the Warlord alone are worth the entire price.

This totally reads like an after-school special. After reading so many drug memoirs written by young (and not so young) geniuses, this one was almost hilarious. Sam is a 19-yo living near Manhattan with an alcoholic mother and absent father and a diabetic cat. She sort of wants to be a stripper but can’t fathom taking off her top, till she has “some magic potion.” Seriously, she sees a fellow stripper shooting up and the woman gives her some so she will be able to take off her top. I almost howled with laughter at this scene. The whole book goes on like that, then Sam meets a corrupt cop who charms her pants off, and she won’t believe anything bad anyone says about him. Blah blah blah. Anyway yeah if you are in the mood for some tragic trash check it out, but it really ain’t a classic.

Bean shoots Achilles.

There, I just saved you a few hours of your life.

The first article in this book was originally published in Salon, about Rolf trying to sneak on the set of The Beach, ten years ago or so. I remember actually reading it way back then, and I’m glad this guy got off the ground. The rest of these stories tend to be more “successful” than that one, but they are all just as entertaining.