Erotic Writing

Erotic literature has a long and colorful past, from Ovid to Tijuana Bibles to today's contemporary fiction. Books have the ability to spark the imagination and quicken the libido. Here you’ll find an array of sexuality-based books, ranging from, fiction, to true stories, to essays, to how-to volumes, and more. If it's on the printed page and it's about sex, we strive to cover it and give you our opinion of it.

We want our readers to find books that will both entertain and enlighten. We have fiction, anthologies, and graphic novels for that erotic fix. There are many excellent how-to guides for those of you who'd like to get away from the printed page for you jollies. Finally, we will have non-fiction on the topic of sex, histories both general and specific, and books of contemporary essays. Some of these books will blur the lines, being both instructional and erotic simultaneously.

Books are rated on several levels. First, we consider the quality of the writing. Second, we think about the ideas presented in the books, and how they relate to our readers. Finally, we let you know if it's really hot. The best books in this genre are able to provoke our bodies as well as our minds.

The SexHerald Book Review section is dedicated to bringing our readers a great variety. The books we review are for everyone in the reading community, and we strive to bring you the best erotica covering a variety of sexualities. Concise and most importantly honest, we strive to consistently provide a high level of accuracy in all our reviews.

Suggestions? Suggestions for books to review are welcome; please contact editor@sexherald.com with ideas.

One can’t help but wonder where the life of the first true porn star, John Holmes, would have gone without the notoriety gained by his atypical physical endowment. Although the length of his penis is often contested, Ron Jeremy, an immensely popular male porn star, openly admits that Holmes “had me beat by about an inch—inch and a half.” But there was much more to the John Holmes than his illustrious career in pornography, his drug abuse, and his involvement with one of the most notorious mass murders in Hollywood history.   Jennifer Sugar and Jill C. Nelson’s coauthored biography, John Holmes: A Life Measured in Inches (2008), is as girthy as it is informative—nearly 440 pages of detailed first-person accounts from those who knew Holmes personally, as well as from the legend himself. The people interviewed and excerpted throughout the book become distinct through the tone and idiosyncrasies of their voices, providing intimate and multi-layered perspectives.

Thanks For Coming is Mara Altman’s memoir chronicling her quest to have her first orgasm. An enjoyable romp, this book is a humorous examination of our culture’s hang-ups and obsession with the female orgasm. The book is not without flaws. The first few chapters are clumsy, with pacing that is jerky and rushed, and the humor often falling flat. It’s also hard in the beginning not to dismiss her apparent lack of effort—why doesn’t she just get a vibrator and get it over with, like everyone’s telling her? You wonder. She mentions on page 1 that “an essential, yet quite counterproductive, part of my problem was that ‘trying’ didn’t actually include touching myself.” The reader could be forgiven for thinking they’re going to read an entire memoir about a prudish uptight woman’s quest for an immaculate orgasm, and putting the book down unfinished.

Just as we open Seduction: A Celebration of Sensual Style by Caroline Cox, we see the most apropos description of just what seduction really is. There stands a young Dustin Hoffman in the role of Benjamin in Mike Nichols’ The Graduate, the black stocking-clad leg of the infamous Mrs. Robinson extending across the bottom of the entire page, slightly out of focus but still very commanding. On the opposite page, we see, in big bold letters, French Sociologist Jean Baudrillard’s wonderful observation, “To seduce is to render weak.”