No Place for Normal: New York

Book excerpt: From random sightings of the spectral (and spectacular) Rollerena, a fortyish male who would grace onlookers with his fairy godmother benedictions in a cloud of white fabric and rhinestones, to some of the haunts that Charles Dickens frequented during his visits to the city, author Clifford Browder leaves no stone unturned, or for that matter, subject untouched. Topics include (but are not limited to) alcoholics, abortionists, grave robbers, Occupy Wall Street, the Gay Pride Parade, peyote visions, sinners that New Yorkers will (or won't) put up with, and an artist who makes art of a blood-filled squirt gun and a blackened human toe. From the grotesque to the engrossing, No Place for Normal: New York celebrates the shocking, weird, unpredictable, yet utterly wonderful tapestry that makes New York unlike any other city in the world, and a place that so many are proud to call home.