More book reviews that I emailed to myself back in March:

Another City, Not My Own, Dominick Dunne
Dunne's O.J. book is packed with gossip, unverifiable facts and bizarre intersections. How many O.J. Simpson books also have cameos by Andrew Cunanan? Yeah, that's what I thought. Part sleazy celebrity journalism, part sleazy trial journalism and a very small part classy and thoughtful. Oh, and it's nominally fiction. What the fuck? Is Dunne eccentric, or just crazy? This might be the third-best book about the O.J. trial (after Jeffrey Toobin's and Vincent Bugliosi's, and ahead of Larry Schiller's), or it might occupy a bizarre place all its own. In addition to people who are obsessed with O.J., and celebrity in general, and wealth and power and modern Los Angeles, this book would also be good for people who like E! and CourtTV. Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure Dunne's got a show on CourtTV.

Scar Tissue, Anthony Kiedis with Larry Sloman
Sloman seems to have dropped the nickname 'Ratso' that served him so well when he was writing books about Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead. Anthony Kiedis? Downgrade. This must rank among the least interesting stories about a junkie ever written. Not enough sex, not enough drugs, not enough celebrity and, worse, Rick Rubin barely appears in it. RHCP fans might, I suppose, dig this, though I can't imagine there are very many of them reading.

Eyeing the Flash: The Education of a Carnival Con Artist, Peter Fenton
A memoir of years spent as a sleazy operator of crooked carnival games. I think this book is great--it reads more like good fiction than memoir, and I suspect that's largely because the world that Fenton describes was always hidden, and seems to be lately disappearing. Good for Penn and Teller fans, and people who like hucksters and grifters and con games and fleecing pigeons and whatnot (they used to call me Grifty McGrift--I wrote the book on flimflamming). After you finish this book, read Malcolm Gladwell's profile of Ron Popeil.  ¶ 10:47 AM