Thrift Book Finds

Though I am still working on getting all the images together for the Labor Day book sale, garage sale and estate sale book finds I made recently, I do have this much done: the books I recently ran across while at the various thrift stores in the area. I hope you like books because there's ANOTHER book sale (local library) coming up this week, where I'll probably find more book goodness.


• The Gay World: Male Homosexuality and the Social Creation of Evil by Martin Hoffman ©
Synopsis: (From the book jacket) In this illuminating and inevitably controversial book, Dr. Hoffman, who conducted numerous interviews and visited many of the places where homosexuals congregate, probes, in the depth and style of Oscar Lewis and other masters of the genre, this occult subculture which is hidden from the view of most Americans yet includes millions of their closest friends and relatives.

Here are the gay bars, the "orgy rooms" and private cubicles of the gay baths, the private house parties, the homosexual ménage or "gay marriage," and the rest rooms, the parks, and the streets where homosexuals arrange their liaisons. Here too are the "queens," the "twinkies," the aging homosexuals, and the "part-time" homosexuals who are often husbands and fathers in their "straight" lives.

The Gay World also explores the vexing question raised by its look into the homosexual community. Why do men become homosexual? What is bisexuality? Is homosexuality a mental illness? Do gay marriages work and what are their problems?

The picture this book paints of homosexual life is not always a pretty one. But it refuses to explain all of what it sees purely in terms of the individual psychopathology of the men themselves. It shows, rather, how prevailing social attitudes contribute to the pathology present within the homosexual community and how, therefore, society itself creates human misery and evil.
Comments: Geez, Louise, where do I even begin in regards to this book? I initially learned of this book via eBay, where I wanted to bid on it, but it was more than I wanted to pay. I also wanted the hardcover version, with book jacket (no small task). I finally ended up finding it at this junky ol' bookstore in Fort Worth, and was very excited.

I realize it seems kind of morbid or defeatist to actually want to read such an obviously biased, negative, ignorant book, but I consider stuff like this "pulp" and enjoy reading just how fucked up books on this subject used to be (and still are, they're just not as sensationalistic now).

• Angel Loves Nobody by Richard Miles ©
Synopsis: (From the book jacket)
The Shock Of The
Blackboard Jungle
The Drama Of Up The Down Staircase
And A Style Of Terror All Its Own
Angel had the brains. Rico had the muscle. Angie had the body. Tio and Johnny and Maria and Ishmael and Cooper and all the rest had the hatred to play their parts in the Plan.
And only Tim Nielson among the teachers had the information that could stop it-if the others would listen. But they wouldn't. That was precisely the reason they were marked as victims...
Comments: Ooh, I loooove these kinds of books. It brings back all those teen-angst-y 80's memories of movies like Heathers and Class of 1984 and those deliciously-wicked books like My Bodyguard and The Chocolate War. I couldn't resist buying this one (a whopping 27¢) when I came across it while browsing at one of the local thrift stores.

• I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan ©
Synopsis: Julie and her three friends run over a young boy on his bike, and kill him. In a fit of panic, they decided to drive away, and make a pact never to tell another living person. It has been a year, and the group has fallen apart. But strange accidents are happening, first to Barry, then to Helen. And Julie can't explain the note, written in simple block letters and delivered personally to her house: I know what you did last summer.
Comments: I grew up reading Lois Duncan's books, which I've blogged about before. AND since I loved the movie version (though Lois didn't care for it) of the movie of the same name, picking this one up was a no-brainer. A fun read to pass the time. I just wish I could find all of the 80's paperbacks of Duncan's books that I remember loving. The covers were so great back then. I have a couple of the 80's versions (Down a Dark Hall and Five Went Missing), but finding some of the others (Killing Mr. Griffin and IKWYDLS) is proving harder than I thought.

• My Darling, My Hamburger by Paul Zindel ©
Synopsis: Liz and Sean, both beautiful and popular, are madly in love and completely misunderstood by their parents. Their best friends, Maggie and Dennis, are shy and awkward, but willing to take the first tentative steps toward a romance of their own. Yet before either couple can enjoy true happiness, life conspires against them, threatening to destroy their friendships completely.
Comments: This is one of those book I remember overhearing being talked about when I was growing up, but I never really knew what it was about. Usually some assignment from some rogue English teacher, I always wondered "When will we get this assigned to us?" It was one of those 'message' books, if you know what I mean. Back then, it seemed, 'message' books were all the rage. They usually ended up being about (at the time) 'taboo' subjects like abortion, getting pregnant at a young age, suicide, parental death, divorce, homosexuality and/or infidelity. I loved all that shit. As a pre-teen, I felt like I was really reading something juicy. LOL!

This particular book was one of those that was for the "young adult" scene, like Are You There God? It's Me Margaret, The Pigman, The Bell Jar, etc. So, since I've always been curious about it, I bought it...I'm still reading it, but I'm thinking it's one of those teen angst books about being pressured into pre-marital sex. It's pretty funny and some of it is dead-on (in regards to the inner monologue that goes along with one's first "date").