Embracing the Fire: Sisters Talk About Sex and Relationships [Hardcover]

Julia A. Boyd (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1997

The author of the best-selling In the Company of My Sisters celebrates the sex lives of African-American women in their own words and explores the sexual relationships of black men and women. 100,000 first printing. $75,000 ad/promo. Lit Guild. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In a round of salty, rowdy, mostly joyous conversations with several "sister friends," African American therapist Julia Boyd shares her own and several other women's truths about sex, relationships, God, and children. "We weren't all in agreement and we didn't have all the answers, but we were talking," she notes. Whether just fooling or dead serious about the day's topic, the women slang each other's fears--and sometimes beliefs--and the tone is warm street jive. Boyd (In the Company of My Sisters) acts as narrator and guide, stitching together disparate pieces and adding earnest bits of information.

From Publishers Weekly

Boyd, a psychotherapist and author of In the Company of My Sisters: Black Women and Self-Esteem, addresses the issue of sexuality in the lives of African American women. In the laid-back conversational writing style that has served her well, she intersperses skilled professional insights with her own experiences and those of her black women's "sister circle," from whose pungent comments she quotes directly. Asked about the last time she had sex, one of the sisters retorts, "it was so good till it made my toes curl. There! Now are you satisfied? Pass the hot sauce, sis." The topics addressed include the pleasures of erotic sex, pluses and minuses of long-term relationships, communication between the sexes and lesbian love affairs. Boyd also has a useful chapter on the importance of daughters learning from and respecting the sexual choices of their mothers while becoming strong enough to make their own relationship decisions. The sister circle is composed of diverse and thoughtful women with a zest for life. Their struggles and joys will greatly interest other women regardless of their race.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 178 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult; 1ST edition (February 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525939598
• ISBN-13: 978-0525939597
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,009,777 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun, laughs and hometruths from black sisters to all sisters, July 29, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Embracing the Fire: Sisters Talk About Sex and Relationships (Hardcover)

Girlfriend is back!
Julia A. Boyd, author of IN THE COMPANY OF MY SISTERS, has returned with her sisters for a more focused and raucous discussion of African-American female sexuality and love relationships. Pull up a chair and break out the Haagen-Daas and prepare to laugh, cry "No she didn't...", and talk the ears off your best girlfriend when you put down EMBRACING THE FIRE: SISTERS TALK ABOUT SEX AND RELATIONSHIPS.

In a comfortable, honest, and sometime pedantic voice, Boyd talks about her own relationships and the baggage women and men carry with them from relationship to relationship. However, whenever she begins to sound too much like a therapist, her sister friends wade-in to bring the discussion back to roundtable-free-for-all of opinion, life experience, and just plain silliness. The sister circle provokes thought, disagreement, concensus, and good fun.

EMBRACING THE FIRE is for all women who have grown up with the idea of good woman and bad women and are trying to live lives that break through those and other stereotypes. Often in a lighthearted way, Boyd writes about some serious relationship and self-image issues among women of color. But the issues talked about are for sisters of any color who are into laughs, love, and self-reflection.

5.0 out of 5 stars Only With My Sisters, February 11, 2003

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Embracing the Fire: Sisters Talk About Sex and Relationships (Hardcover)

I believe we can all relate to sitting or lying around, talking, eating and discussing life with our sister-friends. Sometimes discussions lead to topics some would consider off-limits, but not these sisters! I could actually visualize the scene-preparing the food, inhaling the aroma, anticipating the taste, lounging with shoes off, feet tucked, sleeves rolled, drink in hand and everyone talking simultaneously, as I have been there and done that!

Each of the women portrayed has a voice as they navigate through their conversations on sex, self-esteem, maintaining relationships, breakups, hopes and dreams for their children and the all too familiar one of the comparison of their lives as women to the lives of their mothers. Each women portrayed in this book is different from the other but they maintain a friendship that is supportive, spiritual, loving and downright fun.

Embracing the Fire by Julia Boyd is an excellent, sassy, fast paced and thought provoking sister-friend book where life and truth are revealed.The topics will definitely lead to a lively discussion amongst any group of true friends.

Reviewed by Dawn R. Reeves
The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers