Title: Hooking Up: A Girl’s All-Out Guide to Sex & Sexuality Author: Amber Madison Publisher: Prometheus Books Publish Date: 2006 Pages: 208 Genres:: How-To Guide, Non-Fiction, Self-Help, Sexual Health/Women Reviewer: M. Walansky

Rating:

Equal parts how-to and how (not)-to, Hooking Up: A Girl’s All-Out Guide to Sex & Sexuality is an incredible source of tips and information on everything from birth control to weight issues to STDs. As sex-positive as the lot of us are or claim to be, chances are that a lot of our readers still have info they need to learn (and truth be told, all of us still can learn more as well)—and, it’s really hard to find a guide to all things sex and sexual that is fun without being silly and informational without being heavy-handed.

Hooking Up is full of tips for safer sex, including a tour of the female anatomy (for those of you who have yet to embrace your hand mirror…we scoff at you in shame). Being comfortable with your own body is an important component of being healthy and avoiding diseases, both STDs and otherwise. Girls, this book is about understanding guy’s bodies and needs because understanding them is an integral part of the hooking up concept as well.

Amber Madison began her sexploratory career as a sex columnist at her Tufts University campus newspaper. This experience taught her of the great need for information among her peers, whose sex education had been limited to bananas in health class and parental sermons. Thus, her book covers the basics from menstruation and female anatomy (“Vaginas: What the Hell?”) to sticky relationship situations and helping your partner find your G spot.

In the introduction, Amber mentions how part of what made her capable of learning so much was that her mother never censored their sex conversations, and that helped her to feel free to ask questions and not be held back by her inhibitions. And indeed, in just about 200 pages, Madison answers every question I have ever heard about sex, as well as answer questions I never even thought to ask. This is truly a must-read for all girls, and I plan on lending it out within my circle.

Sexual health and well-being is the most important part of sex and sexual relationships, and this book can work almost as a textbook to learning what you need to know before getting out there. The voice is very much that of a trusted friend and not clinical, which makes the information easier to swallow (speaking of, there’s advice on that as well).