Book List 🙌

I was asked by a Patron recently for some book suggestions so here are a few I really love.

“When women were this angry, they were always right.” On my recent vacation I DEVOURED “When We Lost Our Heads” by Heather O’Neill. I really loved her book “Lullabies For Little Criminals” and found her chaotic childhood relatable, but this recent book speaks to the deepest most passionate parts of me. When We Lost Our Heads is thoughtful, hot, gay, political, historically accurate feminist storytelling and I never wanted it to end. I felt like I knew these stunning characters, I felt my blood boil with the rage of my great-grandmothers at the way O’Neill describes the reality of women’s lives pre-birth-control, I couldn’t put this book down. The story itself is fun and whimsical, but the political undercurrents are violent and real. A precise blend of beautiful prose and harsh truth, I’m obsessed with the main characters in this story and they’ll live on in my heart forever.

Bee gifted me Kristen Arnett’s “Mostly Dead Things” years back and the writing is so visceral and good! It’s fiction that pokes at you, and a story that will ensure you never look at taxidermy the same. Very much worth noting there is a hot gay sex scene where the drunk anxious dirty talk includes the phrase “tell me everything you know about cicadas” and I felt so SEEN!!!! 😳🔥

Leigh Cowart’s “Hurts So Good: The Science & Culture of Pain on Purpose” is required reading for anxious kinksters who wonder why they like the things they do, or those trying to understand their complicated relationships with pain. It’s a lovely mix of anecdotes about masochism and scientific lessons about human tendencies. I love Leigh’s non-judgmental approach to painful pastimes like long distance running, spicy foods, ballet, and BDSM. Coolest Science teacher ever.

One of the best books for folks new to polyamory (and other forms of ethical non-monogamy) is The Island on The Edge of Normal by Guy New York. On the surface this book is an indulgent adventure erotica novel, but it’s actually the story of how a person can process and metabolize a lot of the questions that come up when you’re dismantling monogamy and “the way people say you should do things”. It’s worth nothing this journey involves a lot of hot very group sex. I appreciate Guy’s gentle hand when it comes to teaching tough lessons, this book has so much empathy and compersion. I really like “The Ethical Slut” and “Opening Up” as more technical guidebooks, but this book helps us learn through feeling, alongside of a relatable narrator.

“Good Girl” by Anna Fitzpatrick is almost as fun as hanging out with actual Anna Fitzpatrick. Her protagonist, Lucy, is honest and hilarious in her reflections on dating, kinks, and relationships of all kinds. Lucy makes me cringe because she’s so relatable, and that also makes me root for her.

“Disgusting Beautiful Immoral” by Guy New York is hands down my favourite dirty book. I read the whole thing with one hand on a camping trip and loved it so much that years later I threw an entire sex party related to me reading the feminist gangbang scene out loud to a room full of people while Kitten used a hitachi on me. (It was as hot then as it was the first time.) If you like taboo sex and lovable characters this one’s for you.

Okay I’m not going back over the classics but I do want to suggest this should be in your bookshelf. In 160 pages that I read over again and again when I need reminding, “I Wouldn’t Take Nothing For My Journey Now” by Dr. Maya Angelou is a powerful text. So much wisdom on how to live with dignity in an undignified world.

“Living well is an art that can be developed: a love of life and ability to take great pleasure from small offerings and assurance that the world owes you nothing and that every gift is exactly that, a gift.”

What have you read lately that you’ve loved?