Books by Mike Sager

Some say he was a breakthrough academic and visionary shaman. Others say he was a sham. Either way, Carlos Castaneda shaped a generation of mystical thinkers and magic mushroom eaters.In 1968, at the height of the psychedelic age, Castaneda published The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, the first of twelve books describing his apprenticeship to an Indian shaman, and his journeys to the "separate reality" of the sorcerers'' worlds.Like Herman Hesse''s Steppenwolf and Aldous Huxley''s The Doors of Perception, The Teachings of Don Juan and its sequels became essential reading for legions of truth seekers. Castaneda himself became a cult figure-seldom seen, nearly mythological, a cross between Timothy Leary and L. Ron Hubbard: a short, dapper, Buddha-with-an-attitude who likened his own appearance to that of a "Mexican bellhop."Though Castaneda had more than ten million books in print in seventeen languages, he lived in wily anonymity for nearly thirty years, doing his best, in his own words, to become "as inaccessible as possible." Most people figured he had a house somewhere in the Sonoran Desert, where he''d studied with his own teacher, a leathery old Indian brujo named Don Juan Matus.In truth, Castaneda lived and wrote for most of that time in Westwood Village, a neighborhood of students and professors in Los Angeles, not far from UCLA and Beverly Hills. Upon his death in 1998, things became even more murky.A year-long investigation into the mysterious life and impeccable death of Carlos Castaneda, as told by his wife, his adopted son, his mistresses, and his followers.

Now with new cover, new interior art, and vintage movie posters added."John Holmes was every man''s gigolo, a polyester smoothie with a sparse mustache, a flying collar, and lots of buttons undone. He wasn''t threatening. He chewed gum and overacted. He took a lounge singer''s approach to sex, deliberately gentle, ostentatiously artful, a homely guy with a pinkie ring and a big dick who was convinced he was every woman''s dream." -from "The Devil and John Holmes."John Curtis Holmes had the longest, most prolific career in the history of pornography. He had sex on-screen with two generations of leading ladies, from Seka and Marilyn Chambers to Traci Lords, Ginger Lynn, and Italian Member of Parliament Cicciolina. The first man to win the X-Rated Critics Organization Best Actor Award, Holmes was an idol and an icon, the most visible male porn star of his time.Holmes started in the business around 1968 and made more than two thousand movies. But after descending into a world of drugs and crime, he became the central figure in one of the most publicized mass murders in L.A. history, the 1981 Wonderland Avenue killings in Laurel Canyon, in which four people were brutally bludgeoned to death. Holmes was tried and acquitted of the crimes in 1982. He died from complications of AIDS on March 13, 1988.Read the story that inspired the movies Boogie Nights, with Mark Walhberg, and Wonderland, with Val Kilmer and Lisa Kudrow. Now with restored edits, updated information, new cover and interior art by Austraila''s famous illustration team WBYK, and photos of old Holmes movie posters. The collection includes three bonus stories. "Little Girl Lost," about the life and death of beautiful porn starlet Savannah, among the first of the Vivid Girls; "Deviates in Love" about swingers and amateur porn; and "The Porn Identity," about a divorced man''s search for retired porn starlets in an effort to get his mojo back.

Mike Sager has been called "the Beat poet of American Journalism." Vetville collects the best his stories about the Marine Corps. Together this tetralogy of long form pieces charts a life story arc of the modern Devil Dog. It begins at Camp Pendleton, CA, on field exercises with Lieutenant Colonel Bob Sinclair and his BN One-Four-the 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment-as they prepare to invade Afghanistan, the first wave of American combatants sent to war after the deadly terrorist attacks of 9/11. "You realize that your country has been attacked," he says. "You wanna strike back."From there, we head to the Wounded Warriors Barracks at Camp Lejeune where we meet Ringo, Cebula, Wildman, Lieutenant Colonel Maxwell, and the rest of the men recuperating together at a unique barracks where wounded Marines harness their esprit de corps to help one another through emotional and physical recovery. We hear their battlefield stories of war and heroism. And their stories of injury and despair. And we discover the soft center that lives beneath the tough exterior shell of the Marine Corps mystique-a deep love of comrades and country. "Wounded Warriors" was awarded a number of awards, including The Military Writers Society of America Founder's Award.In "Vetville" we visit a small farm in the mountains of Tennessee, where a Marine sergeant, in an effort to save himself and others, has opened his doors to veterans whose deep wounds don't necessarily show. And, we catch up with John Cebula, one of the men encountered aboard the Wounded Warriors barracks. Without a supportive network around him, he has turned to drugs. Finally, in "Fifty Grand in San Diego," we focus on the return to civilian life after the corps, with a look at a modern version of the American Dream-an ex-Marine playing Mr. Mom and finding his silver cloud in a dirty diaper.Wounded Warriors was awarded: *The American Author's Association Golden Quill Award*The Military Writers Society of America Founder's Award"Entertaining and fascinating. At the end of the book, you will find yourself changed in some way. Call it empathy, or just a compassionate response to have seen and become aware of another man's pain and suffering; but you will remember these men that you read about long after putting this book to rest." --Military Writers Society of AmericaSager has written a gripping account of how these Marines are coping with their combat-altered lives. An experienced interviewer, he lets the Marines' stories speak for themselves…Powerful stuff." --Leatherneck, Magazine of the Marines

From ground zero of the deadliest wildfire in California history to the cozy living room of super-spokesmodel Brooke Burke; from the recording studio with gangsta-rap pioneer Ice Cube to the tour bus with the Satanic metal band Slayer; this tough but lyrical collection of seventeen stories, by award-winning Esquire and Rolling Stone writer Mike Sager, brings into sharp focus the rich but confusing state of modern American life- its values, virtues, obsessions, and hypocrisies. A second edition of the author's bestselling collection, with updated material and new author's note. Domestic Goddess Roseanne Barr battles Multiple Personality Disorder… Swingers attend a "fantasy weekend" in Pensacola… Twelve-year-olds joyride in stolen cars through the ruins of the Newark ghetto… Desmond the butler services the hoi polloi on Park Avenue… Football Hall-of-Famer Mike Ditka enjoys his summer vacation of golf, cigars, and private jets… Newly minted dot.com billionaire Mark Cuban buys himself an NBA basketball team…Deeply focused long-form narrative journalism from the writer who has been called "the Beat poet of American journalism- that rare reporter who can make literature out of shabby reality."

"In Stoned Again, Mike Sager refers to himself as a "drugs correspondent," but that's legitimately humble smoke that belies what's really going on here. While there's plenty of weed, heroin, ‘shrooms, and crack (not to mention plenty of Ricky James, bitch) in these pages, what is most evident on every page is the remarkable reporting, empathy, craftsmanship, and storytelling that have rightly placed Mike Sager among the journalistic legends of our time." --Maximillian Potter, author, Shadows in the Vineyard: The True Story of the Plot to Poison the World’s Greatest Wine From the brutal days and nights of life inside a crack gang in Los Angeles, to the artistic miseries of young heroin addicts on the ultra-hip lower east side of New York; from the Sonoran desert where Carlos Castaneda made his earliest shamanic discoveries, to the cell at Folsom Prison where the author first encountered the King of Funk, Rick James, to the modest headquarters of the Church of Realized Fantasies, where the Pope of Pot presided over the first highly organized marijuana delivery service, Stoned Again: The High Times and Strange Life of a Drugs Reporter takes you to places you didn’t necessarily want to go on your own. But with Sager as your guide, you can’t wait to head to the next destination. Sager has been called “the Beat poet of American journalism, that rare reporter who can make literature out of shabby reality.” Nowhere is that skill more in evidence than when he writes about the seamier sides of life. Kirkus Reviews called him “Virgil in the modern American inferno.” "Mike Sager is a journalistic icon and a literary force. A whole generation of writers has been shaped and guided by his work. This is a seminal collection by a master of the form." --Wil S. Hylton, author, Vanished: The Sixty-Year Search for the Missing Men of World War II

From fallen porn star John Holmes to jailed pop star Rick James, to the assassination of Irish reporter Veronica Guerin, this collection by the award-winning "Esquire" and "Rolling Stone" journalist brings pop culture's underbelly into dark focus.