I Was a Stripper Librarian

From Cardigans to G-Strings

By: Kristy Cooper

Narrated by: Sabrina Hornecker

Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

No one at the library she worked at knew about Kristy Cooper's other job. On the surface, it seem that being a librarian and a stripper are polar opposite jobs, but in practice, Kristy found that they were not nearly as different as most people would think. Strip club customers and library patrons both produce wild stories, and you have to be good at working with people in both professions (whether your clothes are off or not). In this first-hand account, Kristy describes her decision to get into stripping to make her student loan debt more manageable, overcome her introversion to learn how to hustle customers, learn about sex worker advocacy, and finally transition into full-time library work.

For years, Kristy hid her stripping history to fit into the mold of a respectable librarian, but as time went on she realized this wasn't something she should feel ashamed about. Telling these kinds of stories helps destigmatize sex work, which makes it safer for current sex workers. Librarianship is changing, especially as the profession begins to evaluate itself through a greater anti-oppression lens. Librarians can learn a lot about class struggle and privacy advocacy from sex workers.

Ten percent of preorder profits will be donated to marginalized sex worker mutual aid funds.

©2021 Kristy Cooper (P)2021 Kristy Cooper

Tell-all memoir! So many subjects covered!

This book was informative on so many levels. The author made a difference by encouraging people to be more inclusive and accepting. I'll also probably apply for one of the classes offered by the Library Freedom Institute and help people protect their privacy she endorsed.

Worst audio editing ever!

This reading/production is easily the worst of the 100+ Audible books I have heard over the years since I first started buying them. The reader's sing-song voice almost sounds as if it were computer generated. The patches throughout the recording are painfully obvious. But, the most egregious offense of all is the ridiculous number of repeated phrases, sometimes entire sentences, that were not removed through editing. It's almost as if no editing took place at all in some places. It was quite terrible. Otherwise, this book was surprisingly good.

Interesting story

This was a very interesting g story and I was compelled to finish it almost all in one sitting. She has had a very interesting career path and it is interesting to hear her compare stripping and librarianship.

The story outweighs the poor editing

Pros: true stories and a relatable struggle with student debt. I also appreciate that the author speaks to the reality of the struggles of student debt and how her grad program failed to be worth the time, money, and effort. I value her clarity regarding both the privileges and disadvantages of her positionality.

Cons: the not-so-great audio editing is a disservice to the story. The narrator mispronounces/swaps words a couple of times. Would be curious about ways to weave the activism work more deeply into the story as now it reads as a bit tangential or as an afterthought.

Editing glitches

This is was a ver my interesting audiobook. There are some editing problems, though, that becomes quite annoying. I hope they fix it and update it. The narrator does a good job, but I found it hard to sympathize with her.

Kristy describes in detail her stripper life, but unfortunately doesn't do the same with her librarian life... which was a bit disappointing, because that was what I was more interested in learning.. yet it is a great book, it gives one a lot to think about. I don't regret listening to it, but I think I would be better off with the ebook.

Favorite Audible book so far

In addition to the book being compelling, the narration was excellent. This is the first time I have complimented a narrator.