sev's kinky book reviews

all reviews

Sensuous Magic by Patrick Califia-Rice

Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns, by Philip Miller and Molly Devon

The Sexually Dominant Woman, by Lady Green

There are some great books out there about kink. Not many, but the good ones are very good.

Nonfiction
	Sensuous Magic by Patrick Califia-Rice What can I say? It's the best how-to book for beginners, bar none. Even years after my first read, I still refer back to Sensuous Magic just for the negotiation checklist. If you're at all in the market for a beginners' book, go out and get it! (read more...)
Screw the Roses, Send me the Thorns by Philip Miller and Molly Devon Screw the Roses is probably the most-recommended book on S/M in the mainstream S/M community. I was lucky enough to work at Amazon.com at one point & volunteered to write the review of this book.
	The Bottoming Book by Dossie Easton and Catherine Liszt Good advice laced with good humor -- what more can we ask for? While reading The Bottoming Book, I barely noticed how much I was learning -- but oh, did I learn! This is definitely an empowering book for bottoms; no dishrags or doormats here. Bottoms should read it for advice on being a bottom, and tops should read it to understand what kinds of bottoms they really want.
The Topping Book by Dossie Easton and Catherine Liszt Perfect companion to The Bottoming Book. If you've ever finished topping in a tough public scene and wondered where your aftercare was, you're not alone. Tops need love, too! It's great to see a book that recognizes that instead of just plodding on about technique.
	SM 101 by Jay Wiseman Good basic starter information. The later chapters allow a bit of one-true-wayism to leak out, though; I'm not overly thrilled with Wiseman's presuming to tell novices what a "true submissive" is or is not. Aside from that, though, SM 100 is a solid beginners' manual.
The Sexually Dominant Woman, by Lady Green If you're a submissive man looking to see if your honey has a dominant side or a woman who wants to begin to learn how to dominate her partner, this book may be the way you're looking for. (read more...)
Amazon.com's alternative sex instruction list is also a good place to find other nonfiction books on kink.
Fiction
	Macho Sluts by Pat Califia Pat Califia's first collection of sexy leatherfiction, and his second, Melting Point, are the hottest, wettest stories around, packed with luscious characters that I wouldn't kick out of bed for eating crackers. I think of Califia as something like the John Preston of the leatherdyke world. Apparently the first printing of the first edition of this book had a "Macho Sluts" button attached to it -- mine didn't, and I *want* one. The new cover isn't as pretty, IMO, but I'm glad it's being reprinted.
The Slave by Laura Antoniou (formerly published under the pen name "Sara Adamson") The Slave is the most erotic of Antoniou's Marketplace triology. The title character, Robin, is a particularly talented submissive who is put through two weeks of intense training before her introduction to The Marketplace, where humans are bought and sold. Not a particularly unusual premise, but the book is far from predictable, and Antoniou's writing sexy enough that the reader's too busy getting wet to wonder at the number of authors who have failed to make this kind of story hot.
	The Second Coming edited by Pat Califia and Robin Sweeney Like its predecessor, Samois' Coming to Power, The Second Coming is a celebration of leatherdyke sexuality with short stories, poems, and articles.

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