Customer Reviews

Magic Gardens: The Memoirs of Viva Las Vegas

5 star:		(3)
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This is a book that from the minute you pick it up, you won't put it down till the end! So much deeper than a stripper memoir, its about life and choices and control of ones destiny. Well written with amazing insight and great humor. After I was done reading, I wanted more. I couldn't wait till her next book came out!

Even if you've never been to Portland, "Magic Gardens" is filled with its unconventional allure. The book gives a charming, levelheaded and insightful view of the town and its casual bar scene, and Viva's life as an adventurous new grad, stripper, performance artist, and rock musician as anyone could wish for. Her quirky, unrepentant friends and bedrock family add balance. From the first page her impressions and scenes are so well-written and fun that I was hooked `til the end.

One of the best stripper memoirs--but much more than that. This memoir shows a young woman intent on exploring all her creative abilities.

Viva previously reported on music for the Village Voice, and also had a piece published in the New York Times "Modern Love" series in the Style Section under an alternate name.

--Simone Corday is the author of 9 1/2 Years Behind the Green Door: A Mitchell Brothers Stripper Remembers her Lover Artie Mitchell, Hunter S. Thompson, and the Killing that Rocked San Francisco

I couldn't put it down! Well written, insightful, raw, gritty, and humorous account of real life as a stripper and aspiring rock star!

Drips with the authenticity of someone who has actually been there. An engaging voyeuristic window into another world for those who's lives haven't strayed so far outside the lines of societal expectations.

A simultaneously inspirational and cautionary guide for those drawn to the roads less traveled.