5 Sexy and Smart Books for Extra-Curious Couples
Yeah, of course I want to see that new series Masters of Sex! And Orange is the New Black wth Laura Prepon, plus Lena Dunham’s Girls, as well as finish watching Californication with David Duchovny… first season of that show was awesome! But TV and the gossip circle around the water cooler at work aren’t the only places you can find out about what’s new in the world of sex. My bookshelf is a good place to learn, too! Here’s a few things I’ve discovered about love and time… happy learning!
Click the titles below to purchase any of these great books on Amazon!
1. How To Make Love to a Woman by Xaviera Hollander
Xaviera Hollander also wrote The Happy Hooker and has been running the Penthouse forum “Call Me Madam” for over thirty years, bringing joy and sex education to countless people around the world. This book is subversive and sneaky, as it kind of deceives the reader with its subtitle: “69 Ways to Have Mind-Blowing Sex”. But you open it up, and it’s all pretty damn cerebral! Not too many positions or advanced techniques to find… just oodles and oodles of gooey information. Page one starts by saying “In my experience, there are very few truly frigid women, and lots of lousy lovers.” Well, now! If that’s true… enlighten us all, Xaviera! (Her description of the Holy Trinity of the Clitorii will likely satisfy all women… and the men who care to learn how to stimulate the brain-clit, the body-clit, and the heart-clit!)
2. La Seduction: How The French Play the Game of Life by Elaine Sciolino
“The hidden truth about the French Way of Life. It’s all about ‘seduction’: its rules, its pleasures, its secrets.” Seduction lies at the center of the French approach to human relations, not only in how they conduct business, but how they enjoy food and drink, define style, engage in intellectual debate, elect politicians and project power around the world. Sections are called “Prolonging the Moment” and “Written on the Body”, while chapters are called “The Allure of the Flesh”, “Make Friends with your Butcher”, “The Gastronomic Orgasm” and “Intellectual Foreplay”. Zut alors, there is a lot to devour! Plus the book says: “It is not enough to conquer. One must know how to seduce.” Sacre bleu!
3. The Sexual Paradox: Men, Women and the Real Gender Gap by Susan Pinker
It’s not as much about interpersonal sexual relations, per se, but it’s about how we perceive our own selves at particular times in our lives, depending on our gender and our schooling, and how this can affect and direct the trajectory of our future and our dreams of what we can do in that future! Chapters like “Are Males the More Fragile Sex?” and “No One Ever Asked Me to Be the Daddy” and “Competition: Is It a Guy Thing?” sure sound like things that polyamorists could find intriguing too!!
4. All About Love: Anatomy of an Unruly Emotion by Lisa Appignanesi
This book is a kind of Love Bible. I’m really enjoying reading this one. The book is divided into two parts: “Overture the Riddle of Love” and “Configurations of Passion First Love, Young Love”. Such wise lines such as “Love – unlike its nearest kin, the religion it displaced – gives us the illusion that of being free agents who make intentional decisions.”
This book is a seriously delicious slice of obsession over the entire idea of Love and all the dimension it can take shape into across our lives. She looks at current culture to 3000 years ago, and makes comparisons and contrasts to how we love today. Fascinating stuff.
5. The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure by Tristan Taormino, Constance Penley, Mireille Miller-Young, and Celine Parrenas Shimizu
Without question, this book is the NEW MILLENIUM BIBLE of evolved sexuality and erotic wisdom. A collection of writings from various intimacy geniuses, it’s got articles like “Porn Wars” by Betty Dodson, “A Question of Feminism” by Sinnamon Love, “Where the Trans Women Aren’t: The Slow Inclusion of Trans Women in Feminist Queer Porn” by Tobi Hill-Meyer, “Being Fatty D: Size, Beauty and Embodiment in the Adult Industry” by April Flores, and many others that will explode your brain and genitals, probably at the same time, honestly.
Can’t go wrong with a book that says: “Every time we fuck, WE WIN.”
In love,
Addi Stewart
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