Wild Girls Club: Tales from Below the Belt [Paperback]

Anka Radakovich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 18, 1995

"SEXY, SAUCY...The second best thing to being inundated with gonads is reading Anka Radakovich's hilarious opinions of them."
--Michael Musto
The Village Voice
As the outspoken sex columnist for Details magazine, Anka Radakovich has seen and done it all (at least once). Dating services. Singles cruises. Aphrodisiacs. Homemade videos. Escort services. If it's about love, lust, or being shamelessly single, Anka puts her raw and raucous spin on the naked facts of life in the '90s.
BACHELOR PADS: YOUR PLACE OR MINE?
The goal of this type of dwelling is to put us in the mood. Hence, the decor combines all the ambiance of a furniture showroom with the comfort of a car's backseat. Women do not find this romantic.
"IRREVERENT.--People
PARTY ETIQUETTE: MISSED MANNERS
Women go to parties hoping to see Prince Charming across a crowded room. But sometimes all we spot is a man dancing with underwear on his head, making gastrointestinal sounds with his armpits.
"A VICARIOUS THRILL...EXPLICIT AND FUNNY."
--USA Today
THE GOODBYE GIRL: DUMPING THE BOYFRIEND
The most noble way to cut someone loose is, of course, in person. This has its drawbacks, however, including the possibility that the dumpee might think you are kidding and return five minutes later with a quart of milk.
"EROTIC."
--New York Magazine
GIRL TALK: TALES FROM BELOW THE BELT
What makes our gatherings different from boys' night out is that nothing is too personal to say. And nobody drinks ten beers and throws up.
"The Cynthia Heimel of the slacker set, she's smart and progressive....Radakovich has wit to burn."
--Entertainment Weekly

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Talking dirty" is a stereotypically male province, but here Details columnist Radakovich sets out to prove "girls" can do it too. This is hardly a revelation to most women, but then these tales of the author's own life as a single woman in search of lust and love in the 1990s were plainly written with a male audience in mind. Radakovich's purpose seems to be at once to educate men about the disjunction between female stereotypes and real women and to provide voyeuristic titillation by inviting readers to follow the minutiae of her sexual, and sometimes her scatological, activity. Her writing is uneven--pieces range from amusing and insightful to rambling and banal. For example, it should come as no surprise to anyone that you're not likely to meet Mr. Right through the personals or on a singles cruise, but Radacovich records her own negative experiences with these and other mate-seeking endeavors in lengthy, all-too-familiar detail. And the collection as a whole doesn't cohere except in the loosest sense. But Radakovich's insistence that it's okay for women to be as gleefully prurient as men can be and that men shouldn't feel threatened by such behavior is a point well taken and the book is a quick and sometimes very funny read.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Radakovich gives men the lowdown about women's secret desires and conversations, as exemplified by the Wild Girls Club, consisting of her and her ``supervixen'' friends. The pieces collected here, which have appeared in Details magazine, were written for a male audience, but, filled with anecdotes about the search for sex and love, they will also appeal to women. Obsessed with sex and male sex organs, Radakovich relates her experiences with exuberant candor. After sampling the offerings from a couple of male escort (read ``prostitute'') services, Radakovich concludes that ``having someone to worship you is one of life's better turn-ons.'' In another experiment, she tests several aphrodisiacs, with varied results (after taking one called Montezuma's Secret, ``even the knockwurst in the refrigerator started to look good''). Tired of the single life, she joins several dating services (``getting laid was not the problem; finding someone who didn't irritate us in the morning after was'') only to meet a nerd, a likable slob, and a man who embarrasses her by performing card tricks at an outdoor cafe. When a neighbor finds love on a cruise ship, Radakovich takes a cruise. Although at first the trip is a ``single's nightmare,'' it turns around with a huge alcoholic fest and flirtation confessions near the end of the cruise. Radakovich's raffish sense of humor litters her book, especially her tongue-in-cheek answers to ``probing questions from the male room'' as ``the Determinator'' at Details. Although right on target with much of her advice and narration, she also receives mail from irate customers (``Come to Seattle,'' one man writes, ``Ted Bundy was from here''). Battled-scarred survivors of stressful dating and miscommunication will want to read this book, if only for laughs. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (April 18, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449909859
• ISBN-13: 978-0449909850
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,860,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "Hip," "Cool," but not particularly clever, January 17, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wild Girls Club: Tales from Below the Belt (Paperback)

This book was more disappointing than it was entertaining. Radakovich seems to have good writing and observational skills, but neither are put to particularly good use here. Instead we're given the literary equivalent of a child trying to impress the kids on the playground by talking dirty. A lot. It wasn't shocking, it wasn't artsy; it just got boring.

If you're looking for sexy female humor read Cynthia Heimel's "Sex Tips for Girls" instead. It's much more satisfying.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Sex on a sixth grade reading level, August 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Wild Girls Club: Tales from Below the Belt (Paperback)

One of my friends best describes Anka as "A woman who gets a lot of play and then writes about it badly." I became so bored with this book that I only made if halfway through, then picked it up a month later thinking that I should finish what I start. Needless to say, I was very disappointed with her "wild" stories and descriptions of sexpolitations. She writes like a gossipy girl trying to shock the reader with her "crazy" tales, her extensive knowledge of the male anatomy and psyche, and ability to talk graphically about sex with anyone she meets on the street. If she is truly that daring, perhaps she should be on television, where her personality can be more appreciated than it can in a poorly written book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Anka Explains It All For You, June 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Wild Girls Club: Tales from Below the Belt (Paperback)

At last, a rare sex-in-the-nineties book that'll intrigue the wild girls *and* thrill the guys who get excited reading about them. From aphrodesiacs to condoms, from dating services to paying for sex, Anka explains it all for you--she's an unembarassedly sexually-forward author who happens to have not only a great sense of humour but also of the erotic and the outrageously silly. Whether you're a wild girl or a timid one, or the typical male reader of "Details" who supposedly "reads it for the articles," this is a flashy, funny, and arousing wild ride through the politics of the bedroom (and bathroom, and living room, and kitchen table, and back seats of cabs).