Nightranger on (Slutty) Summer Reads

Our social calendar has been packed with book signings and their after-bashes recently, some wilder than any club night. Two books in particular are rockin' our reading radar, and not just because both have the word "slut" in their titles. It was the same eve as the Cobrasnake hullabaloo, so we missed Sharon Oreck's signing and post-Book Soup soiree at the Sunset Marquis for Video Slut, a behind the scenes look at the music biz in the '80s and the video revolution, but it's on the page-flipper list simply for the subtitle alone: "How I Shoved Madonna Off an Olympic High Dive, Got Prince into a Pair of Tiny Purple Woolen Underpants, [and] Ran Away from Michael Jackson's Dad, [...] So I Could Bring Rock Videos to the Masses."

This Slut lives up to its name, a raunchy ride drawing comparisons to the depraved antics in Motley Crue's The Dirt. No surprise: writer Neil Strauss (who co-wrote that one as well as Marilyn Manson and Dave Navarro's bios) discovered Shirazi, and in between being schmoozed by movie execs and hit on by dumb, hot chicks (he also did the pick-up artist guide The Game) at The Rainbow (where else?), he told us his new Harper Collins imprint, Igniter Literary Group, came about in part because of the lascivious memoir. Nobody would put it out, so he did.

Graphic sexual escapades with rockstars and tales of oppression in Islamic lands make for a controversial combo to say the least. Enjoying the party in a bosom-baring corset, Shirazi came off as sexy and smart as her memoir suggests. Smarter, actually. She does some pretty sleazy stuff in the book, which is like a kinkier, more contemporary I'm With The Band . Strauss' next Igniter releases include a Bozo the Clown bio, a mobster memoir and an animal rescuer adventure, all true stories.

More on this and Nightranger's own book signing bash for our new guzzler guide, Los Angeles' Best Dive Bars- Drinking & Diving in the City of Angels, in this Thursday's Nightranger column and slideshow.

Below, two of the snazziest (sluttiest?) book covers we've seen in a long time.