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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Aims for the mind first, then looks further south..., January 7, 2010
A thoughtful and provocative collection that gathers writers from the print and on-line worlds to tackle the year's biggest topics in sex. Very little of what appears here can be classed as erotica, though if you prefer to spend time between the sheets with someone who has something between their ears, this is the book you should pick up.
It's the nature of anthologies to be uneven, and this is no exception. There's a welcome breadth of identities represented here, with some common themes sounded: the still contentious role of sex education in the United States (especially the outgoing administration's relentless pushing of "abstinence only" curricula), the ongoing struggle against AIDS, the absurdities of many of the current sex laws, and the various ways in which women's bodies and identities remain subject to societal controls.
Several of the pieces still bear the clear imprint of where they were first published: David Black's tour through the LA Swinger's community mingles sex scenes and a few soft facts in in just the proportions you would expect from a Playboy feature, while Brian Alexander's piece on Sex Surrogates was originally published on [...] and is as flat and truncated as most of the writing on that site. Rachel Swan's piece, originally from the East Bay Express, is a solid look at the condom industry and is pretty much business journalism that just happens to be about a sexual topic.
For me the most successful pieces are those that combine a strong personal voice with a topic that is unexpected and difficult. In these, the standouts are Mollena Williams' brilliantly provocative examination of racially focused S/M, Betty Dodson's "Sexual Outlaw", which tracks her quest for self and honesty amidst shifting identities and expectations, and Kirk Read's charming appreciation of the off-kilter dignity of one sex worker's fetishy john.
All in all, this is an apt snapshot of were we are today: abused, confused, and yet just as often amused by the mysteries of desire. The dead spots are few and the pleasures many.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Scintillating, April 6, 2010
Rachel Kramer Brussel has put together a fantastic assortment of sexual essays. There are many different topics these essays delve into: from condoms to texting, homosexuality to swinging, BDSM to affairs. These topics come from intellectual writers who deliver information while captivating the reader. Most of the essays are not so much sexually exciting as they are learning experiences. But don't get me wrong, there is plenty of spice to keep you reading if the sexuality-related information isn't enough for you.
I look forward to next year's collection, and I will continue to reccommend the 2010 edition to friends and family.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Inclusive, always interesting and inspiring., March 3, 2010
The truth is, I almost never read Sex books, not because I'm uninterested in the subject, but because I can rarely find any that add to my knowledge or make me feel included or even hold my interest without being frustratingly PC or obviously agenda-driven. More often than not, I start one and give up about halfway through, wondering if I should try writing my own book.
Editirx Rachel Kramer Bussel's new collection "Best Sex Writing 2010" has only increased my desire to write for such a volume, but not for the above reasons. Far from leaving me feeling disinterested/disenfranchised regarding sex, the 25 essays in this volume have me feeling more included and inspired than I've felt in a long time.
Subject-wise, the book is all over the place, but in a wonderful way. If there was a left-field way to think about sex, Miss Bussell seems to have found someone to do. Once we get past the PC, hyper-academic hokum, human sex is amazingly diverse; part kaleidoscope, part rorshach test, unpredictable and endlessly fascinating. "BSW'10"'s contributors reflect this fact, tackling subjects as mechanical and (seemingly) mundane as condom manufacture and marketing, as personal as a wife's plans for an extramarital affair, as potentially explosive as BDSM "race" play, as controversial as teen "sexting". Bussel's contributors never let us get too comfortable with them or ourselves, pushing and pulling us past one fun house mirror after another, always wondering if we'll see ourselves in the next one.
What thrilled me most is how well men are represented in the book. One of the unfortunate assumptions of our society is that men are incapable (or unwilling) to speak/write thoughtfully about sex, the male voice relegated to the pages of "Lad's Mags" and Comedy Central standup specials. "BSW'10" features several male-authored essays that explode this myth (at least a little). From a gay escort's loving description of a fetish session, a straight man's pean to the female bush, to a man's love for sexual wordplay, the male contributors to the book helped ease my personal vagina-envy...for a little while anyway.
What I'm trying to say is that "Best Sex Writing 2010" is the kind of book that makes me want to dust off my composition book and try to write something of my own good enough for the 2011 edition...Which I'll be looking forward to even if I can't be in it myself.
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