Books about neo-burlesque

I was reading the Vivienne VaVoom "Candy Gram " on the Candy Pitch blog, and I noticed the two books she has on her nightstand. One was Gilded Lili: Lili St. Cyr and the Striptease Mystique, and the other was The Happy Stripper: Pleasures and Politics of the New Burlesque. Now I'm always curious about the latest evolution of burlesque, so I chose to Google the latter title.

It seems that Google has a preview of the book, which may be found here. It includes the first 23 or so pages, as well as the table of contents and covers, so it should give you an idea if you would like to purchase it for yourself. I'm finding the introduction interesting, so I'll probably buy the book sometime soon. It seems to focus on the sociological implications of burlesque, especially with regards to feminism and post-feminism.

Oddly enough, I also discovered that Ms. VaVoom has written her own book about neo-burlesque. It's called Burlesque and the New Bump-n-Grind, published under her offstage name, Michelle Baldwin. It has very favorable reviews on Amazon.com, and it seems like it includes quite a bit of the history of burlesque as well as an exploration of the reasons for its latest popularity. It also has a preview on Google Books, so you can take a look at it also to see if it's worth a purchase.

Between those two books, one can get information about other books covering burlesque that are referenced and included in the bibliographies. It's a book and burlesque fan's dream come true. Hehe.

Happy reading!