Summer Reads: The Bitch inside the House & The Bastard on the Couch

I’ve been reading “The Bitch in the House” edited by Cathi Hanauer. The subtitle of the book is: 26 Women Tell the Truth about Sex, Solitude, Work, Motherhood, and Marriage. The premise is women writing a response to the question “Why are women angry?” Cathy woke up one day and realized that she had everything she could possibly want: a home within the country, two children, a good husband, a great career…and despite all that, she was mad as hell. She talked to her women friends, who were also primarily writers, and they were all angry, too. So she asked them to write about their rage, and the book came about.

Some of the essays I relate to, some of them I don’t. I mean, women writing about how they miss the boys their husbands once were, or how their children’s demands cut into their “me time” doesn’t really affect me… I don’t have a husband, don’t have children, and don’t have any angst about the lack of either, as some of the single writers do within the book. Still, its a great glimpse into the female psyche, from some very well-spoken and educated women.

Next on my list is “The Bastard on the Couch” edited by Daniel Jones and subtitled: 27 Men Try Really Hard to Explain Their Feelings About Love, Loss, Fatherhood and Freedom. This is the partner book to Bitch in the Residence, and the editor is married to Cathi. I’ve heard that this is an interesting and entertaining collection of well-written essays, and I’m looking forward to reading it.

“Girl Fever” Erotic Reading Book Review

The book “Girl Fever” is published by Cleis Press and edited by Sacchi Green. A pretty thick book at 331 pages, this erotica collection includes 69 different short, erotic stories. Thicker and smaller in width than typical Cleis Press erotica collections, the smaller page size makes the stories fly by even faster. The front cover does show a nude couple embracing, so it may not be suitable for reading in public unless you can cover up the cover of this book.

The theme of this book is “69 Stories of Sudden Sex for Lesbians”. All of the stories are definitely short, and the theme of most of the stories is “sudden”. So not only do you get very short stories, but all of those short stories are about gotta-have-it-now types of sex. All of the stories are between females, and for the most part, most of the stories are just between a couple instead of group situations.

I have to admit that I’m not as fond of the short-short stories like are included in this erotica anthology. Most of the stories are about two to four pages long, and in that time, the story usually jumps straight to the sex. In fact, in some stories, there really isn’t much information about the characters at all, and it’s mostly an artistic look at sex.

The stories are definitely well-written, but I’m just not sure all of them appeal to me. Most of them are okay, but a couple of them really just strike me as more flowery in descriptions than I like. I tend to like my product descriptions to get straight to the point and really have passion and urgency behind them. With some of the stories, that’s exactly what happens, and with others, it tends to be more “vague” and artistic than just “in your face”. As all 69 stories were bound not to appeal to every person, I think it’s good that Sacchi Green included a good variety – but it is something to keep in mind when wanting to purchase this book of erotic stories.

Here were some of my favorite stories from the book:
“Dressing Down” by Heather Towns: In this story, a fashion-loving blogger meets up with another fashion lover, and it turns out that they have more in common than just their clothes!

“Pierced” by Maxine Marsh: Right after getting a piercing done, this girl can’t wait to show her lover exactly what her genital piercing looks like. Of course, it leads to hot sex right in the car.

“The Flight Home” by Nicole Wolfe: On the way home from her vacation, a woman gets seated next to a cute girl. When both of them are laying under their blankets during the night portion of the flight, the woman feels the cute girl’s hand on her thigh, and it leads to a lot of fun.

This book ends up being okay. I’m not too in-love with it, but I didn’t dislike it either. I don’t remember any of the stories being too memorable, and it’s probably not something that I will read again in the future. The stories, though, when I read them, were enjoyable and kept me turning the pages. Thanks to Cleis Press for providing “Girl Fever” for my review!