The great thing about a blog called Girly Things is that it implies so many different things. Girliness is not just about pink froth and sparkles, glam and glitz. It’s about strength and intelligence and the power of being a woman. It’s about seeing things through a woman’s eyes, with the insight and depth that only a woman is fully capable of capturing.

I’ve always been aware of the near mythological story of the Mitchell Brothers, which was thrust back into pop culture with the film Rated X, starring Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez. If you’ve seen this movie about the brothers who directed the infamous porn film, Behind the Green Door – starring Marilyn Chambers – and heard the story behind it, you may agree that the details are usually presented from a decidedly male point of view.

That’s why I’m excited about reading Simone Corday’s new book 9½ Years Behind The Green Door: A Memoir. Here, finally, is a woman insider’s look at the days when porn was pop culture chic and the O’Farrell Theater was the center of that unique universe. Corday began keeping journals when she started working at the O’Farrell in 1981. Those journals have morphed into this memoir.

Corday isn’t what you might expect. She is articulate, insightful, and completely characteristic of someone who has a Master’s degree in English. She ushers us into the Mitchell Brothers’ O’Farrell Theater and gives us an absolutely sensational expose about the colorful San Francisco counterculture of sex in the 80s, just before AIDS exploded onto the scene.

Corday danced at the O’Farrell Theater during a time when this underground venue of live sex entered into the limelight and attracted mainstream celebrities, politicians and journalists. She was the girlfriend of Artie Mitchell and a close friend of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. She was in three of the Mitchell Brothers’ films and is the only female involved in this core group to bring the public her insight about Jim Mitchell’s motives for shooting his brother Artie. She also shows us an enduring and realistic love story.

Intrigued yet? I know I am. You can check out more details about the book on Corday’s website and read free chapters while you’re there. I’ve already read the excerpts and I’m eager to read the rest. I love her use of language, her intelligent phraseology and her ability to conjure visual details. Most of all, I love the idea of being able to see this usually male-dominated world through the eyes of a woman.