Sex and Sensibility: 28 True Romances from the Lives of Single Women (Paperback)

by Genevieve Field (Editor) "I blame the suburbs for making me a cocktease..." (more)
Key Phrases: lisa gabriele, quinn dalton, darcy cosper, New York, New Jersey, Little Bear (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
A collection of short essays sets out to reveal the truth about sex and the modern single girl via tales of love lost, sought and found. And while the importance of this exploration is open to debate in a world saturated with Cosmo confessions and Sex and the City reruns, and the stories assembled here do little to assert their necessity, they're generally quite enjoyable. Elissa Schappell's "Confessions of a Teenage Cocktease" is a sparkling, incisive account of finding true love almost by mistake, and Erika Krouse's "Penelope" is a funny-sad look at a humiliating breakup. With only a few exceptions, the essays focus on heterosexual sex, and almost every scene is clearly situated in an urban environment (often New York). Only one story touches on the matter of sexual assault, nor is there much that's titillating. The similarity of the authors' voices and experiences combined with the pieces' brevity and earnest feminism-lite tone prevent the content from being truly provocative or groundbreaking. Readers will find moments of truth, comedy and poignant recognition in this compendium, but they won't find much that's challenging.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description
It's all about you. Your apartment. Your job. Your dates. Your sex life. Your time off. Your exercise. Your food. Your music. Your future. What are you waiting for? Who will you love? What is it, really, that you want?

The life of a single woman in the twenty-first century is full of new connections, new sex, new love, and new loss. It's about letting the laundry pile up, sipping strong drinks with near strangers, and dishing to girlfriends on those foggy-headed, flushed morning-afters. But it isn't all heightened connections and steamy dates. The single girl is no stranger to the scramble for a Saturday night plan, the oh-so-promising guy who took her number at a party and then -- poof! -- disappeared, the ever narrowing circle of unattached girlfriends....

In Sex and Sensibility twenty-nine of today's most acclaimed -- and often bestselling -- female authors write about the push-pull between independence and vulnerability, fearlessness and self-doubt that defines single life. Jennifer Weiner, Pam Houston, Laurie Notaro, Amy Sohn, and Julianna Baggott are just a few of the real-life heroines whose stories about long-distance dating, twenty-something divorce, online crushes, and thrilling one-night stands make up this funny, frank, and unabashedly erotic celebration of singlehood and sisterhood -- a quintessential handbook for today's independent woman.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Washington Square Press; 1st Washington Square Press Trade Pbk. Ed edition (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743483030
• ISBN-13: 978-0743483032
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #808,518 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reading in the Dark, March 13, 2005

By	Laurah E. Klepinger (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Recently single, I took this book with me for airplane reading on a weekend trip. In these essays and the spaces between, I remembered both the power and blissful stillness of being alone and the enchanting buzz of dating around, both of which I had found before my last relationship. Beautifully edited, funny, sharp and sensually delightful, this book is a collection of thoughtful, vulnerable power. I read all weekend, and found myself, on the last pages of the book, after my plane had landed back in New York, straining to read in what I realized was a dark cab. I reluctantly put the book down and have returned to re-read several times since.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Single in the city, March 1, 2005

By	A reader (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This is a great collection of female voices writing about what it is like to be single today. Tales of bawdiness and naughtiness, balanced with less experimental approaches to dating, and all laced with the humor one needs as a single woman - anywhere. The variety of stories is matched by the variety of styles of writing in this collection of 'true romances" and one is sure to find a silver lining in them all. A great read one should share with all their girlfriends!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm not a Carrie... or a Charlotte... or any of those girls, March 2, 2005

By	Jane Rutter (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

Most women's sex lives fall in the cracks between those four Sex and the City stereotypes. The way we live and love -- and especially, the way we lose love -- is more nuanced than any TV character could convey. This book is an amazing collection of stories, all of them located in these cracks, and all of them beautifully nuanced... they're funny, heart-wrenching, but best of all, true. And Lisa Gabriele's hilarious "How to Be Alone" is worth the cover price of the book on its own. Buy this book for your best friend or make your book club read it... you'll be talking about its stories for hours. You can even do that over Cosmos for all I care!