Interesting history, but it reads like a book report. Then, it goes into a litany of about 6-8 other madams. Summary: It’s actually only about ½ about Sally Stanford. A light read on rather racy material, but could have been better.

There’s some connective tissue missing there, and I feel that a restructuring of the order of events (perhaps chronologically) would have suited the book better. There is no coda to Sally’s story one chapter it’s talking about Sally, the next it jumps a century in the past to the early prostitution business in San Francisco. I like the info that’s in the book, it’s just how it’s organized that puts me off. Curt Troutwine’s narration was superb, and really fit in with the material. The book leans heavily on Sally’s own autobiography (as to be expected), which might be a double edged sword I’m not entirely sure how much of the material is just summarizing parts of the book or how much research outside of Sally’s autobiography was done. I never heard of Sally Stanford before, so hearing the goings on of a 20th century madam (brothel owner) was novel. The content, despite the short bursts its divided into, was pretty interesting. Chapters are short: only about 2-5 minutes each, and they tend to end rather abruptly (in my opinion anyway). I found this title enjoyable enough, but don’t go in expecting a full biography of Sally Stanford it’s more small humorous or interesting episodes in the woman’s life. The title of Sally Stanford is a bit misleading: the first half of the book focuses on Sally Stanford while the rest is composed of other stories of madams in California and the Midwest. I received this title for free from the author. Slightly misleading title, but interesting stories

Sally Stanford by Alton Pryor