The Femme's Guide to the Universe [Paperback]

Shar Rednour (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2000

Table of Contents

Part I: The Foundations of Femmehood
Welcome to Shartopia
Sharstory: How I Collected My Femme Power and Lived to Tell About It
Chickies of a Feather Flock Together

Part II: The Queen and Her Domain
Just Add Velvet: How to Turn Any Shack Into a Royalty-Ready Love Den
Grime, Begone! (How to Make Your Castle Sparkle)
The Multifaceted Handy Queen

Part III: Beyond the Palace Walls
The Working Girl
The Royal Decree: Flirt With the Whole Solar System!
Hostess to the Glitterati

Part IV: Galaxy-Wide Glamour for the New Millennium
Underneath it All: Your Body as a Temple
The Naked Surface: Skin and Nails
Hair, There, and Everywhere
Making Visible: The Art of Applying Your Face
Creating the Youtopian Collection: Fashion
Shoes: The Real Sole of a Femme

Part V: Being Sexy, Body and Mind
Conjuring up Some Sexy
Getting Over the Negative Stuff
How to Be SexyFor Real

Part VI: Gathering From the Galaxy: Creating Your Court
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: The Magnetism of Femme2
For the Love of Opposites: Seeking Butch Affection
Butch Boot Camp or, If You Can't Find One, Train One
Stone Butch Blues and Boogie

Part VII: Sex and the Single Femme
Single, Coupled, or Married?
Dating--or Shopping, as I Like to Call it
Your Step-by-Step Dating Guide
Flirting Revisited: Going into Warp Speed
The Appreciation of Expectations: On-the-Date Dos and Don'ts
There's Another Way to Be Single: Being a Mistress--not the Whip-Wielding Kind!

Part VIII: Troubleshooting
Lost in Space: Sendin' Out an S.O.S.
Meteors and Black Holes: Navigating Around Passion's Pitfalls

Part IX: 3, 2, 1Blast-Off!
Beyond Dating
Girl-Goddess Glossary
Moving on Up: The Shar Fleet Academy Final Exam
Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The author of this funny, campy guide to feminine excess (Cosmo meets On Our Backs) succeeds brilliantly in laying down the fundamentals of Femme Shartopia, with hints on developing your own dreamy Queendom, replete with pink satin, go-go boots, and long genuine fingernails. "To grow your own nails," our guide explains, "you will need the following supplies: fiber strengthener, smoother, color, top coat (optional), orange stick, polish remover, cotton swabs." Don't despair. She goes on to detail the best ways to use those nails to drive your butch or femme partner to distraction. Other highlights include a recipe for the perfect martini--sorry, Shartini--as well as instructions on how to polish patent leather and revive Draggin' Disco Legs. Attitude, grooming, and relationships get equal time, and the author devotes many pages to the joys of true friendship. "I had one of my first S/M experiences with my friend Christina," she confides. "She lay me down on her kitchen floor and, while holding my spread legs down with hers, smeared wax over my bikini line, then ripped off the strips to the piercing din of my screams. Now that's sisterhood." --Regina Marler

Review

"Shar guides readers on a painless and playful romp to femme fulfillment. She puts the fem back in feminism and the universal back in the universe. Straight, gay or bi, this is a book that lets you enjoy being a girl." -- Marcy Sheiner, editor of Herotica 4, 5,

and 6

and The Oy of Sex: Jewish Women Write Erotica

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Alyson Books (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555834612
• ISBN-13: 978-1555834616
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 7.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #271,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Shar is an author, editor, sex educator, baker of fabulous cupcakes, and fabulous and funny mother.

Please find me at SharRednour.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to Femme-topia, August 13, 2000

By 

jbs "jbs" (Portland, OR, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Femme's Guide to the Universe (Paperback)

This is the book femmes have been looking for! Shar gives lots of tips on basics, like makeup and keeping your skin baby-soft; skills aspiring femmes might need to practice, like walking in very high heels; and other, more "earthy" skills that one might use on one's butch or femme lover. She even gets into the variations on butches (i.e., from soft butch to stonebutch) and gives a handy glossary of terms to understand and/or adopt.

This book could easily be titled "The Guide to the Femme Universe," so it could be good for butches and others who want to understand femmes better (something that would make many a butch's life easier!).

For femmes, reading Shar's book is like sitting around getting tips and chat from a brand new girlsistergirlfriend, who understands what it means to be femme! There are not a lot of femme books out there, so grab this one soon!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Smart, Sassy, and Practical, October 17, 2000

By 

A Reader (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Femme's Guide to the Universe (Paperback)

Oh, the joys of being femme! In a smart, stylish tone Shar Rednour delivers the do's and don'ts, the ins and outs, and the hits and misses of being a femme in the 21st century. My personal favorite (and perhaps the most useful) section is the dating guide, which takes up a good chunk of the book. Whether you're into other femmes or long after tough butches, the author's tips on flirting, wining and dining, and boudoir etiquette are sure-fire. This practical and uproariously funny guide will also help those "middle-of-the-roaders" find their true calling as high diva femmes. It's about time femmes had their own beauty/dating Bible. This is it!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Femme-tastic!, August 23, 2001

By 

"adrenity" (College Town, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Femme's Guide to the Universe (Paperback)

I sat myself down in a comfy book store chair to preview this book, and I couldn't resist- I had to take it home! Hilarious, light-hearted and empowering! It teaches everything from fix-it tips to dinner parties to mega-confidence! Fun for everyone and a real pick-me-up. Total femme without the prissy side effects!