Escape From Houdini Mountain

From the glittering debauched nights of 1980s Hollywood ("Escape from Houdini Mountain") to the festering bowels of New York's Lower East Side ("Must Have Been Love"), these 23 mind-bending tales chronicle a young woman's quest for romantic adventure. Spun from her experiences in the L.A. underground, the stories are infectiously entertaining. Pleasant's eye for the human condition is pristine. Her heart shines as she revels in a carnival of delicately drawn characters. Some are sad, some sick, some brilliant, but in Pleasant's world they are all appreciated equally. Ultimately this book, for all it's wildly funny tales, is an evolved praising of feminine beauty and it's power in a world gone mad.

Pleasant Gehman has been writing about L.A. for more than 20 years. She has appeared on E!'s Wild On Tinseltown, MTV, VH-1, and CNN. The author of several books including Senorita Sin and Princess of Hollywood, her work has been widely anthologized.