Best Lesbian Erotica 2005 [Paperback]

Tristan Taormino (Editor), Felice Newman (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Best Lesbian Erotica | Publication Date: November 12, 2004

Best Lesbian Erotica, winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Erotica in 2003 and 2004, celebrates its tenth anniversary with 21 new stories of hot lesbian sex: sensual, inventive, and breathtaking. In Elaine Miller’s “Fee Fie Foe Femme,” a girly-girl reaps a sweet punishment for refusing to mess up her raspberry pink lipstick. In Madeleine Oh’s “Our Women Know What to Do,” a woman hoping to please her Turkish boyfriend ends up being pleased by Turkish women instead. And in Peggy Munson’s “Fairgrounds,” a handsome dyke daddy sells her sweetie to the carnies for a night.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tristan Taormino is a columnist for the Village Voice, the editor of the Best Lesbian Erotica series, and the author of The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women and Tristan Taormino's True Lust. She lives in New York City.

Felice Newman is the author of The Whole Lesbian Sex Book. As publisher of Cleis Press since 1980, she has developed and edited books on sexuality and gender by Susie Bright, Joan Nestle, Tristan Taormino, Good Vibrations, and Violet Blue. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Cleis Press; 10 Anv edition (November 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157344202X
• ISBN-13: 978-1573442022
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,714,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Unapologetic Odyssey into the Splendor of Lesbian Sex, December 27, 2004

By 

L. Martin - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Best Lesbian Erotica 2005 (Paperback)

From the first story to the last, this collection grabs you by your gonads and won't let go. If you are repressed or inhibited and in search of something to make you set yourself loose, this book is an express train to libido-ville. If you are a prude and happily wed to your vanilla fondlings on crisp linens, this book is for you too-it will repulse you and ignite you at the same time or at a minimum give you something to be substantially angry about. If you are already uninhibited and proud of the way your desire rules you, this book will reaffirm that you are on the right track. Within these pages, classic lesbian stereotypes get celebrated, blown apart and put back together again in a brand new way. Butches flaunt their penis envy, bask in their ability to woo the girly girls or subdue the bois and, take ownership of their desire to submit when they choose to. Femmes rise with formidable power above the superficiality of their lipstick and stilettos to leave us breathless and aching. 26 stories. 26 unique, unfaltering voices. 26 opportunities to discover a new kink. 26 ways to recover what you may have lost. 26 chances to validate that part of yourself you keep denying. I have read every edition of this series. This is, bar none, the best. READ IT!

19 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, December 29, 2004

By 

M (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best Lesbian Erotica 2005 (Paperback)

I can only recommend this book to people who are very into butch/femme roles or genderf**king in general.
I appreciate that the editor is trying to appeal to a wide audience, but in doing so, she loses her mainstream readers.
I'm not conservative about sex, but I also have no desire to read a story about a woman who prostitutes her girlfriend out to a male biker or a butch who has borderline nonconsensual sex with a hooker. If that's your thing, then you'll love this book.

23 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Title Ruins It For Me, February 16, 2005

By 

Collie Girl (US of A) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best Lesbian Erotica 2005 (Paperback)

No doubt I'll be lambasted for lack of political correctness, but I'd probably like this anthology better if the word "lesbian" wasn't in the title!

I didn't find a single story that reflected sex the way I've enjoyed it with women throughout my life and I've tried a lot a wide-ranging things - and liked most of it, too. I think that in order to be deemed "cutting edge" this series has gotten so far away from the way *most* lesbians experience their lesbianism that it bears no real reflection of anything but bizarre and isolated sexual kink. If one - or both! - of the people in the scene do not identify as lesbian, how is the sex "lesbian"? I have to assume that the inclusion of such stories under the label "best lesbian" means the editors think these are lesbian sex acts.

I beg to differ. For example, ask any sex worker who identifies lesbian - sex with a male customer isn't lesbian sex. I also know many butches who don't recoil in shock and horror if a femme reaches down their pants wanting to touch female flesh.

And this is the "best" such talented writers have to offer as insight into lesbian sex in the year 2005? What's with the men, and the straight women, the lack of clear consent, and the endless, endless, endless genderbending and calling it "best lesbian" sex acts? There are stories with "lesbians" yearning to be and acting so much like men that the sex is het! That's simply not what I want in an anthology of "best lesbian" sex.

I thought last year's anthology was as far as they could go labeling the contents "lesbian" but this year went way over the line that works for me. I'll be looking elsewhere from now on for reflections of what I (and I know I'm not alone) call "best lesbian sex."