There was a point a few years back when you couldn’t walk into Barnes & Noble or Borders without a stripper’s memoir staring you in the face. Trust me, I plowed through enough of them. And the best of the bunch was Lily Burana’s Strip City: A Stripper’s Farewell Journey Across America. The concept of the book is simple, a now engaged stripper turned writer living in the wilds of Wyoming decides to give her strip career one last grand spin before her “i do”.

This could just be list of I went to club X, did B and made C. But as Burana packs a bag of costumes and takes her Jeep cross-country you learn more about the woman inside the g-string and clear heels. The youngest child of six siblings, the teenage Burana slunk around her high school as Goth and then embraced the punk world. Dropping out of traditional high school, she attended an alternative adult school, passed her high school exams and headed to New York City to become an actress. Struggling to survive and not wanting to admit defeat and return to her parents in New Jersey, Burana begins to work at the legendary Peepland, performing shows behind protective glass.

And for the next several years Burana keeps working as a stripper, moving from New York to California until one day she stops. But as a new chapter in her life as Sadie Sadie Married Lady looms, Burana decides to take up stripping one last time, a chance to be the stellar stripper she never was back in the day and if it means going to stripper school so be it. With new tricks, a blonde hairpiece and a sunbed tan complete with Playboy decal Burana sets off on her quest.

Along with shedding her clothes, Burana sheds layers of protective armor, allowing you to see that stripping is more than just a pile of small bills at the end of the night. The toll on your body is tough. Burana’s description of her knees after a week crawling around in thigh high boots on stages will have you running for Bactine and bandages. There’s the younger girls who plump up their chests and grind for the money. There’s artists like the former bodybuilder Pillow who actually put themselves heart and soul into each performance.

By the end of Burana’s journey you’re as drained as she is waking up in Las Vegas after a night at the Cheetah Club. Your body burns, your mind aches and you remember the fleeting high of the night before…