Book Lists

New Releases by John Waters

John Waters is the author of Multiple Maniacs (2025), Female Trouble (2025), Hairspray (2025), Pink Flamingos (2025), Flamingos Forever (2025), Desperate Living (2025).

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Multiple Maniacs

release date: Oct 21, 2025
Multiple Maniacs
A very John Waters traveling show, replete with freaks, robbery, murder, sex, blasphemy, and savage shellfish—a lurid, surreal celebration of camp and trash. The Cavalcade of Perversion is a traveling show run by Lady Divine and a crew of her fellow degenerates. They have to drag suburban housewives into each vile, tasteless performance—only to rob them at gunpoint at the end of each show. When Divine gets bored of the routine and graduates to murdering the attendees one day, it sets her off on a rampage, hunting down her cheating lover, Mr. David, and unleashing a chain of frenzy, a truly blasphemous sex act, and a surreal violation by a giant lobster. Multiple Maniacs is John Waters’ paean to the glories of trash. As Lady Divine chants as she marches proudly into downtown Baltimore at the end of the movie, “I’m a maniac! A maniac that cannot be cured! O Divine, I am Di-vine!”

Female Trouble

release date: Oct 21, 2025
Female Trouble
“Burroughs famously dubbed Waters the Pope of Trash. Female Trouble, we might say, is his Summa Trashologica.” —Ed Halter, The Criterion Collection It all goes to hell when Baltimore bad girl Dawn Davenport doesn’t get the cha-cha heels she’s been demanding for Christmas. In this hilarious, irreverent, pyrotechnic melee of high-trash hijinks, Dawn ruins Christmas, skips town, and embarks on a wild ride that involves hitchhiking, robbery, murder, pregnancy—and, of course, modeling and glamour, too. The second installment of John Waters’ classic Trash Trilogy, Female Trouble explodes conventional norms of good behavior (and art) and is all the proof you’ll ever need that sometimes being bad can feel so, so very good.

Hairspray

release date: Oct 21, 2025
Hairspray
A feel-good fable and an enduring critique of conformity told with true John Waters flair. Tracy Turnblad, a spunky, full-figured Baltimore teen, wants nothing more than to be a featured dancer on The Corny Collins Show. So when she gets chosen to be on the air, it seems like all her dreams are about to come true. But when she and some of the Black cast of the show try to integrate the segregated dancing, things take on a life of their own. A sweet, hopeful parable about the dangers of conformity and segregation, Hairspray is perhaps the one optimistic entry in John Waters’ shocking and delightfully deranged oeuvre. Both a clear-eyed social critique and a celebration of the dizzying aesthetics of Baltimore in the early 1960s, this is another, softer side to the essential John Waters.

Pink Flamingos

release date: May 27, 2025
Pink Flamingos
The return of a spectacular, reviled, and iconic classic of American filth! John Waters takes us back to the scene of his original crime against good taste. Watch as Babs Johnson fights to hold on to her title as “Filthiest Person Alive,“ fending off the craven attempts to dethrone her by her nemeses Connie and Raymond Marble. Read along as Waters takes us on a romp through his camp and filthy vision of Baltimore, from nefarious baby-stealing lesbians to scenes of unspeakable things done to unsuspecting chickens, to the film’s iconic and revolting coup de grace (no spoilers, but it is just as stomach-churning on the page more than fifty years later!). Pink Flamingos is John Waters at his provocative, disgusting, piety-puncturing best, with the hellish and hilarious trash masterpiece that first made him a household name.

Flamingos Forever

release date: May 27, 2025
Flamingos Forever
One part of John Waters’ iconic Trash Trilogy, Flamingos Forever is a dark-comedy screenplay about a drag queen trying to retain her title of “Filthiest Person in the World.” Fifteen years after the events of Pink Flamingos, Babs Johnson returns to Baltimore from a life spent largely in bus station lavatories, only to find that she once again has to fight for the right to claim the title of “World’s Filthiest Person.” Her nemesis Connie Marble’s sister, Vera Venninger, and her necrophiliac husband, Wilbur, are in her way. So begins a new battle of filth. This raucous, filthy—and essential!—volume in John Waters’ oeuvre never made it to the screen, so this is readers’ and his legions of fans’ one chance to see how this ghastly and irreverent saga meets its end!

Desperate Living

release date: May 27, 2025
Desperate Living
A grotesque and hilarious satire about the American dream, suburban living, and the corrupting influence of power, set in a world that could only have sprung from the unhinged and brilliant mind of John Waters. On the verge of a suburban mental health crisis, frazzled and wildly unstable housewife Peggy (immortalized by Mink Stole on-screen) runs away from home with her maid and partner in crime, Grizelda (played with spectacular gumption by the sizzling Jean Hill), only to end up in Mortville, a shantytown filled with society’s rejects. Mortville is run by the evil Queen Carlotta, who parades through the cardboard streets taunting and terrorizing her subjects. John Waters’ wild and visionary fable lampoons everything from the staid conservatism of the American dream to race and class relations. The New York Times ranked Desperate Living at “the highest peak atop [John Waters’] trash heap of a filmography.” High praise indeed!

Sale menteuse

release date: Apr 25, 2023
Sale menteuse
Menteuse invétérée, voleuse pathologique, arnaqueuse de génie : Marsha Sprinkle ne compte plus ses ennemis. Certains sont bien déterminés à lui régler son compte et lui faire ravaler ses bobards. À commencer par sa mère et sa fille, son ex-complice lubrique Daryl et une sautillante bande d’hurluberlus, fétichistes du trampoline, tous lancés à ses trousses dans une rocambolesque et décadente course-poursuite à travers le Nord-Est des Etats-Unis. Mais Marsha est intelligente, incroyablement fourbe et celui qui l’attrapera n’est pas encore né ! Le légendaire John Waters signe un premier roman à son image : hilarant, outrancier, déjanté, pervers, choquant. Tout simplement culte.

Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance

release date: May 03, 2022
Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance
A hilariously filthy tale of sex, crime, and family dysfunction from the brilliantly twisted mind of John Waters, the legendary filmmaker and bestselling author of Mr. Know-It-All. Marsha Sprinkle: Suitcase thief. Scammer. Master of disguise. Dogs and children hate her. Her own family wants her dead. She’s smart, she’s desperate, she’s disturbed, and she’s on the run with a big chip on her shoulder. They call her Liarmouth—until one insane man makes her tell the truth. Liarmouth, the first novel by John Waters, is a perfectly perverted “feel-bad romance,” and the reader will thrill to hop aboard this delirious road trip of riotous revenge.

M. Je-Sais-Tout

release date: Mar 09, 2021
M. Je-Sais-Tout
Cry-Baby avec Johnny Depp dans un de ses premiers rôles ? C’est lui. Serial Mother mettant en scène une Kathleen Turner en mère tueuse sur fond pastel ? Lui encore. Pink Flamingos avec l’iconique drag-queen Divine ? Vous avez deviné, c’est lui aussi. À 74 ans, John Waters, le “Pape du trash”, revient avec un récit à mi-chemin entre mémoires et livre de conseils dévoyés regorgeant d’anecdotes de tournage et d’expériences personnelles, d’hommages et d’exercices d’admiration (Warhol ; Pasolini ; Tina Turner ; Patty Hearst...), d’humour irrévérencieux et de punchlines ravageuses.

Self-assessment Questions for MRCP Part 2

release date: Jan 01, 2021
Self-assessment Questions for MRCP Part 2
"Structured in the same way as the MRCP part 2 written exam, the two volumes of this self-assessment book together contain over 270 questions based on clinical scenarios which address the more difficult aspects of the medical curriculum. Chapters are divided by clinical specialties. Volume 1 includes: cardiology, dermatology, endocrinology and metabolic medicine, gastroenterology, haematology, and infectious diseases. Volume 2 includes: neurology and ophthalmology, oncology and palliative care, psychiatry and clinical pharmacology, nephrology, respiratory medicine and rheumatology. The first section of each chapter contains a clinical scenario followed by a multiple-choice, 'best-of-five', question written in the style of the MRCP exam. The second section of each chapter contains the answer, a concise and clear explanation of the reasoning behind the given answer being correct, as well as a comprehensive tutorial on the subject matter which uses high-quality diagrams and tables to help readers absorb and retain information quickly and orderly. References for further reading are also then given for those interested in a broader review"--

Mr. Know-It-All

release date: May 21, 2019
Mr. Know-It-All
No one knows more about everything—especially everything rude, clever, and offensively compelling—than John Waters. The man in the pencil-thin mustache, auteur of the transgressive movie classics Pink Flamingos, Polyester, Hairspray, Cry-Baby, and A Dirty Shame, is one of the world’s great sophisticates, and in Mr. Know-It-All he serves it up raw: how to fail upward in Hollywood; how to develop musical taste, from Nervous Norvus to Maria Callas; how to build a home so ugly and trendy that no one but you would dare live in it; more important, how to tell someone you love them without emotional risk; and yes, how to cheat death itself. Through it all, Waters swears by one undeniable truth: “Whatever you might have heard, there is absolutely no downside to being famous. None at all.” Studded with cameos, from Divine and Mink Stole to Johnny Depp, Kathleen Turner, Patricia Hearst, and Tracey Ullman, and illustrated with unseen photos from the author's personal collection, Mr. Know-It-All is Waters’ most hypnotically readable, upsetting, revelatory book—another instant Waters classic. “Waters doesn’t kowtow to the received wisdom, he flips it the bird . . . [Waters] has the ability to show humanity at its most ridiculous and make that funny rather than repellent.” —Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post “Carsick becomes a portrait not just of America’s desolate freeway nodes—though they’re brilliantly evoked—but of American fame itself.” —Lawrence Osborne, The New York Times Book Review

Cómo liarla

release date: Feb 28, 2018
Cómo liarla
Cuando John Waters dio sus consejos a los licenciados de la Escuela de Diseno de Rhode Island, su discurso se hizo viral, en parte por la brillantez y tino con que trataba el tema de ganarse la vida siendo una persona creativa. Con su maliciosa sabiduria, nos insta a abrazar el caos, ser impertinentes y enfurecer a los que nos critican. Para ser creativo, nos dice, el pragmatismo y la disciplina son tan importantes como el talento, y no hay que tenerle miedo al rechazo. Waters aconseja a los jovenes que escuchen a hurtadillas, que presten atencion a sus enemigos y que nos horroricen con nuevas ideas. En otras palabras, que la lien!

Give Us Back the Bad Roads

release date: Jan 01, 2018

Make Trouble

release date: Apr 11, 2017
Make Trouble
From an icon of popular culture, here is inspiring advice for artists, graduates, and all who seek happiness and success on their own terms. So what if you have talent? Then what? When John Waters delivered his gleefully subversive advice to the graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design, the speech went viral, in part because it was so brilliantly on point about making a living as a creative person. Now we can all enjoy his sly wisdom in a manifesto that reminds us, no matter what field we choose, to embrace chaos, be nosy, and outrage our critics. Anyone embarking on a creative path, he tells us, would do well to realize that pragmatism and discipline are as important as talent and that rejection is nothing to fear. Waters advises young people to eavesdrop, listen to their enemies, and horrify us with new ideas. In other words, MAKE TROUBLE! Illustrated with slightly demented line drawings by Eric Hanson, Make Trouble is a one-of-a-kind gift, the perfect playbook for gaming the system by making the system work for you.

Tinseltown Deception

release date: Nov 03, 2016
Tinseltown Deception
A love triangle goes bad on the movie set for Secret Desires when a determined killer prowling Crystal Dreams Pictures brutally murders two Academy-Award-Winning stars under exclusive contract with the Hollywood studio. The film's leading actor, Lance Vaughn is rising to the top with unprecedented speed. His fairytale romance with Natalie Baldwin, the film's makeup artist, begins to fade when his stunning co-star, Kela Ryan, faces the critical decision to play her part opposite Vaughn and to become his secret lover. When Lance doesn't show up for publicity photos the morning after the mega-budget picture wraps, Natalie finds Lance in the guesthouse of his Bel Air mansion, dead with a .38 caliber revolver next to the body. Within hours of the discovery of Vaughn's body, the LAPD reluctantly arrest Jake Baldwin, a decorated veteran detective with LAPD based on circumstantial but troubling evidence: the gun found at the crime scene is his. The next day Natalie, who also just happens to be Jake's daughter, thinks of only one person who could possibly beat the rap against her father - Grant Westmore, Jake's former partner on the Job. As the days pass in Grant's exhaustive search for the real killer, Kela is found murdered in her Beverly Hills estate. At the crime scene, Grant uncovers a startling fact: Kela died in the same manner as Lance. Except this time the killer did not leave behind the murder weapon. Inching closer toward the explosive truth about the killer's identity, the police, along with Grant and his investigative dream team, soon realize they've all glossed over one person: Natalie Baldwin. Having known Natalie since she was a little girl, Grant doesn't want to believe the possibility that she's capable of two cold-blooded murders. Grasping at a faint hope that they're all wrong about Natalie, Grant orders a full-court press to find out one way or the other.

Secret Circle

release date: Nov 03, 2016
Secret Circle
The center of conversation during coffee breaks around office water coolers, at bars and restaurants, on talk shows and in newspapers, is the FBI's number three national priority only after terrorism and counterintelligence - computer crime. Grant Westmore discovers a secret brotherhood operating under the color of authority within the highest level of the federal government, but not before Grant himself becomes the target of the secret circle that will use all their power to stop him - dead. Proving his client is not a master criminal within a worldwide syndicate involved in extortion, fraud, money laundering, and murder, catapults Grant into the midst of the secret circle, whose members are as cunning as they are formidable. Grant's run-of-the-mill case soon leads to dangerous discoveries, woven into a vile whirlpool of criminality far beyond conspiracy theories that only Judith Osborne, the Attorney General of the United States, can stop before his last chance of clearing his longtime friend Kyle Miller of the multi-count federal indictment is ripped away. Now with only days remaining to prove Miller is innocent, Grant and the Attorney General are hurled into a chase of surprising jeopardy, and toward the volatile reality about the secret circle's true identity. In the end, and without warning the unthinkable occurs in a federal courtroom in Los Angeles, as Grant and the Attorney General are about to perform one of the most incredible stings in American judicial history. Regrettably, His Honor will never see the final chapter close in each of the brethren's personal world as the secret circle is finally decapitated.

Privilege

release date: Nov 03, 2016
Privilege
Using a blend of reality and fiction, Privilege is a ripped-from-the-headlines slice into the ever evolving, and sometimes finicky, world of privilege, where reality is pushed to the point of no return, and some stars go to jail, some die from their excesses, or merely fade away.Accidentally launched into superstardom when her estranged co-star leaked some sleazy sex photos of the two of them to the public via Facebook, billionaire heiress Allie Dolanne is at the top of the paparazzi A-list. Talk about dumb luck. Like it or not, the self-proclaimed iconic redhead is an entity the world can't escape.With the paparazzi in their speed dial, and trumping world news, Allie and her Best Friends Forever celebutantes, singer-actress-starlet Lara Tait, once-cute kid star Sheli Lange, and fashion model-actress-singer Kela Ryan, Allie and her singer-starlet sister Tary, feed the celebrity gossip tabloids and Internet sites daily with one shocking shenanigan after the other.Captured on film by a prominent paparazzo, an unexpected sexual indiscretion between two of the BFFs forever changes their lives. This leads Grant Westmore to the breakthrough discovery of a blackmail plot by the paparazzo and his adult film goddess wife, and that there's a serial killer on the loose in Tinseltown.Grant Westmore mixes the intuitive spirit of the beloved sleuths of classic detective tales with the irony, wit and creativity of a postmodern private eye in Tinseltown. In this gripping mystery, Grant struggles to make what they know to be the truths prevail as a Pandora's box of crime, trickery, and deception under the color of privilege slowly opens before his eyes.

Tom of Finland XXL

release date: Jan 01, 2016
Tom of Finland XXL
C'est en 1998, avec The Art of Pleasure, que TASCHEN a fait découvrir au monde l'art remarquable de Touko Laaksonen. Avant cela, Laaksonen, alias Tom of Finland, artiste culte de la communauté gay internationale, était pratiquement inconnu du grand public. En 2009, TASCHEN poursuit l'entreprise avec l'ouvrage ultime retraçant l'oeuvre de Tom, Tom of Finland XXL, une magnifique édition collector grand format réunissant plus de 1000 illustrations et couvrant soixante ans de carrière de l'artiste. Son oeuvre a été réuni avec l'aide de la Tom of Finland Foundation, à partir de collections conservées aux Etats-Unis et en Europe, et comporte de nombreux dessins, peintures et études préparatoires qui n'avaient encore jamais été publiés. D'autres n'avaient jusqu'alors été vus qu'isolément et sont montrés ici dans l'ordre séquentiel prévu par Tom, gagnant ainsi toute leur valeur artistique et leur charge érotique. Cet élégant volume grand format présente toute l'étendue du talent de Tom, de ses portraits sensibles à ses descriptions explicites du plaisir sexuel et à ses hommages pleins de tendresse rendus aux jeunes hommes emportés par le sida, et il inclut, en complément, huit essais écrits pour l'occasion par Camille Paglia, John Waters, Armistead Maupin, Todd Oldham, entre autres, qui reviennent sur l'influence sociale et personnelle de Tom, ainsi qu'une étude approfondie de ses dessins par l'historien d'art Edward Lucie-Smith. Jusqu'à maintenant, la seule chose qui manquait à Tom of Finland XXL était un prix accessible au plus grand nombre. Le nouveau Tom of Finland XXL est toujours aussi gros, fera autant travailler vos biceps et reprend tout du contenu original, mais ne coûte qu'une fraction du prix d'origine. Il vous souhaite la bienvenue.

Carsick

release date: Jun 03, 2014
Carsick
"John Waters hitchhikes across America"--Dust jacket cover.

Jiving At The Crossroads (New Edition)

release date: Oct 13, 2011
Jiving At The Crossroads (New Edition)
In 1991, Ireland was in the midst of a devastating recession; thousands of young Irish men and women had emigrated over the previous decade, and divisive social and moral debates on abortion and divorce had rocked Irish society. The great pillars of society - politics and religion - were beginning to crumble, a process that continued in subsequent years as both institutions were hit by scandal. A questioning of the values on which Ireland had been built had begun, with an apparently unbridgeable divide opening between "traditionalists" and "modernizers". At the start of the decade, the modernizers appeared to have won, with the election as President of the iconic Mary Robinson. Irish Times columnist John Waters captured the zeitgeist of the time with the hugely successful Jiving at the Crossroads, which sold over 50,000 copies. A defining book of the era, its success was partly due to its remarkable blending of social/cultural commentary with personal memoir. At the emotional core of the book was the relationship between John and his father, and the story of Ireland was intricately woven into this powerful narrative. It was the first in a long line of books to question the very notion of modern Irish identity, and to examine the deep-rooted tensions at the heart of the Irish psyche. Twenty years later, much has changed in Ireland, and yet Jiving at the Crossroads remains a deeply resonant book, particularly in the light of the remarkable rise and precipitous fall of the Celtic Tiger, and the fresh questioning of how we got where we are now. This twentieth anniversary reissue of a landmark book, with a new Afterword, will be welcomed by those who remember it, and will be a fascinating insight for a new generation of Irish people.

Jiving at the Crossroads

release date: Jan 01, 2011
Jiving at the Crossroads
In 1991, Ireland was in the midst of a devastating recession; thousands of young Irish men and women had emigrated over the previous decade, and divisive social and moral debates on abortion and divorce had rocked Irish society. The great pillars of society - politics and religion - were beginning to crumble, a process that continued in subsequent years as both institutions were hit by scandal. A questioning of the values on which Ireland had been built had begun, with an apparently unbridgeable divide opening between "traditionalists" and "modernizers". At the start of the decade, the modernizers appeared to have won, with the election as President of the iconic Mary Robinson. Irish Times columnist John Waters captured the zeitgeist of the time with the hugely successful Jiving at the Crossroads, which sold over 50,000 copies. A defining book of the era, its success was partly due to its remarkable blending of social/cultural commentary with personal memoir. At the emotional core of the book was the relationship between Waters and his father, and the story of Ireland was intricately woven into this powerful narrative. It was the first in a long line of books to question the very notion of modern Irish identity, and to examine the deep-rooted tensions at the heart of the Irish psyche. Twenty years later, much has changed in Ireland, and yet Jiving at the Crossroads remains a deeply resonant book, particularly in the light of the remarkable rise and precipitous fall of the Celtic Tiger, and the fresh questioning of how we got where we are now. This twentieth anniversary reissue of a landmark book, with a new Introduction, will be welcomed by those who remember it, and will be a fascinating insight for a new generation of Irish people. It is published in parallel with a brand new book by John Waters, When We Are Free, which takes up the story of Jiving twenty years on to reflect on Ireland and the Irish in 2011.

Role Models

release date: May 25, 2010
Role Models
Role Models is a personal invitation into one of the most unique, perverse, and hilarious artistic minds of our time. From the incomparable John Waters, a paean to the power of subversive inspiration that will delight, amuse, enrich—and happily horrify readers everywhere. Role Models is, in fact, a self-portrait told through intimate profiles of favorite personalities—some famous, some unknown, some criminal, some surprisingly middle-of-the-road. From Esther Martin, owner of the scariest bar in Baltimore, to the playwright Tennessee Williams; from the atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair to the insane martyr Saint Catherine of Siena; from the English novelist Denton Welch to the timelessly appealing singer Johnny Mathis—these are the extreme figures who helped the author form his own brand of neurotic happiness.

Lily Van Der Stokker

release date: Jan 01, 2010
Lily Van Der Stokker
Lily van der Stokker is a Dutch artist based in Amsterdam and New York. Her bold works most often take the form of large-scale decorative wall drawings and deal, in a disarmingly unashamed and exuberant way, with ideas of beauty, love, relationships, family and the everyday. This book accompanies the largest exhibition of her work in the UK.

Crackpot

release date: Nov 01, 2007
Crackpot
An outrageous collection from the uniquely legendary John Waters, updated with new material—including Waters’s 2002 New York Times article, “Finally, Footlights on the Fat Girls.” Crackpot, originally released in 1986, is John Waters’s brilliantly entertaining litany of odd and fascinating people, places, and things. From Baltimore to Los Angeles, from William Castle to Pia Zadora, from the National Enquirer to Ronald Reagan’s colon, Waters explores the depths of our culture. And he dispenses useful advice along the way: how not to make a movie, how to become famous (read: infamous), and of course, how to most effectively shock and make our nation’s public laugh at the same time. Loaded with bonus features, this special edition is guaranteed to leave you totally mental.

Feel Good Paintings for Feel Bad Times

release date: Jan 01, 2007

Comox Valley Climbs

release date: Jan 01, 2004

Art

release date: Jan 01, 2003
Art
Waters has teamed up with art critic Hainley to offer a provocative and personal interpretation of sex and sexuality today through the window of contemporary art. They discuss a range of recent works of art, from graphic depictions of the body to abstract images.

Reservoir Characterization and Sequence Stratigraphy of the Domengine Formation, Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve, Northern California

release date: Jan 01, 2003

Bonded Thru Injustice

release date: Sep 01, 1999
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