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How to Set His Thighs on Fire: 86 Red-Hot Lessons on Love, Life, Men, and (Especially) Sex
This hip and funny guide to life by "Cosmopolitan" editor-in-chief and "New York Times" bestselling author Kate White is in the tradition of Helen Gurley Brown's classic "Sex and the Single Girl."
272 pages, Hardcover
First published May 30, 2006
2 people are currently reading
91 people want to read
About the author
Kate White
53 books2,807 followersKate White is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of nineteen novels of suspense: eleven standalone psychological thrillers, including The Last Time She Saw Him (2024), and eight Bailey Weggins mysteries.
A former Glamour magazine Top Ten College Women Contest winner and cover girl, Kate had a long career in the media business, eventually running five national magazines. For fourteen years she was the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, which under her became the most successful magazine in single copy sales in the U.S. Though she loved her magazine career, she decided to leave eleven years ago to concentrate full-time on another passion: writing suspense fiction.
Kate’s first mystery, If Looks Could Kill, was a Kelly Ripa Book Club pick, a #1 bestseller on Amazon, and an instant New York Times bestseller. She has been nominated for an International Thriller Writers Award in the fiction category, and her books have been published in over 30 countries.
Kate is a frequent speaker at libraries, bookstores, and conferences, and has appeared on many television shows, including The Today Show, CBS This Morning, Good Morning America, Morning Joe, and CNN’s Quest Means Business.
She is also the author of several bestselling career books, including I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This and the ground-breaking Wall Street Journal bestseller, Why Good Girls Don’t Get Ahead but Gutsy Girls Do.
Kate is an avid traveler and spends each winter with her husband at their home in Uruguay. She holds an honorary doctorate of letters from her alma mater, Union College, where she gave the 2022 commencement address.
A former Glamour magazine Top Ten College Women Contest winner and cover girl, Kate had a long career in the media business, eventually running five national magazines. For fourteen years she was the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, which under her became the most successful magazine in single copy sales in the U.S. Though she loved her magazine career, she decided to leave eleven years ago to concentrate full-time on another passion: writing suspense fiction.
Kate’s first mystery, If Looks Could Kill, was a Kelly Ripa Book Club pick, a #1 bestseller on Amazon, and an instant New York Times bestseller. She has been nominated for an International Thriller Writers Award in the fiction category, and her books have been published in over 30 countries.
Kate is a frequent speaker at libraries, bookstores, and conferences, and has appeared on many television shows, including The Today Show, CBS This Morning, Good Morning America, Morning Joe, and CNN’s Quest Means Business.
She is also the author of several bestselling career books, including I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This and the ground-breaking Wall Street Journal bestseller, Why Good Girls Don’t Get Ahead but Gutsy Girls Do.
Kate is an avid traveler and spends each winter with her husband at their home in Uruguay. She holds an honorary doctorate of letters from her alma mater, Union College, where she gave the 2022 commencement address.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
December 9, 2009
I liked this one. It's all about how to be confident and assured in every aspect of your life. It's about work. it's about interpersonal relationships. It's about sex. Sexy is about having it all together. Truthfully, I didn't expect much from the editor of Cosmo and was pleasantly surprised at her message of all around empowerment.
I do have a few gripes. Yes, we get that you write novels. She plugs her own writing, constantly and it's rarely relevant to what she's discussing. She plugs herself constantly and I'm not talking about sharing relevant anecdotes. She talks about herself and her accomplishments a lot. The editor of Cosmo could really use an editor. There are not 86 lessons. Several of them are repeats. She could have picked some other arbitrary number and organized the book around this number. It feels that she's stretching to reach x number of pages. This book wouldn't be any less interesting with some good editing and fewer pages.
Overall, it's a quick and fun little read although you only need to read it once. It's a good one to pass on to your girlfriends.
I do have a few gripes. Yes, we get that you write novels. She plugs her own writing, constantly and it's rarely relevant to what she's discussing. She plugs herself constantly and I'm not talking about sharing relevant anecdotes. She talks about herself and her accomplishments a lot. The editor of Cosmo could really use an editor. There are not 86 lessons. Several of them are repeats. She could have picked some other arbitrary number and organized the book around this number. It feels that she's stretching to reach x number of pages. This book wouldn't be any less interesting with some good editing and fewer pages.
Overall, it's a quick and fun little read although you only need to read it once. It's a good one to pass on to your girlfriends.
July 8, 2009
Are you a reader of Cosmopolitan magazine? Great, then you've read this book already.
It's not a book only about sex, despite the title. I give Kate White props for picking such a "LOOK AT ME" title to make people pick it up off the shelf. Of the 80+ chapters, only 1/4 of them really focus on sex that could possibly inflame a man's upper leg region. The majority of the book is just how to be a successful woman/human/organism. Which is nice.
It's a quick, fast read, recommendable to anyone who wants sex tips and life lessons and to make people blush and do a double take when they see the title of the book you're reading.
It's not a book only about sex, despite the title. I give Kate White props for picking such a "LOOK AT ME" title to make people pick it up off the shelf. Of the 80+ chapters, only 1/4 of them really focus on sex that could possibly inflame a man's upper leg region. The majority of the book is just how to be a successful woman/human/organism. Which is nice.
It's a quick, fast read, recommendable to anyone who wants sex tips and life lessons and to make people blush and do a double take when they see the title of the book you're reading.
July 7, 2008
The book, while interesting read more like a diary than a how to book--and most of the 'lessons' were been there done that types of things. Nothing new and exciting here.
June 3, 2009
Yeah, I read it, get over it.
*Now having read more books with a similar theme, this one stunk. This just happen to be the first book of this genre I read and I had only been married about year.
*Now having read more books with a similar theme, this one stunk. This just happen to be the first book of this genre I read and I had only been married about year.
November 19, 2012
I found that the advise in this book eas mostly common sense. Of course I know quite a few 20 somethings with no common sense so this would be great for them.
September 4, 2018
I couldn't resist checking this out from my library, if nothing else, to see the reaction of the guy scanning the book at the library check out counter. Easy and quick read but confounding jumble of subject matter of which sex is clearly less than half of the content. Perhaps this book is best for younger women and folks in heterosexual relationships. Reading this in 2018 felt very dated. One "tip" was to stop wearing pantyhose. The author touts her editor-of-Cosmo (and to a lesser extent, her mystery writer) occupations to an annoying degree.
September 12, 2016
I followed all the advice but his thighs refused to light. Flesh is apparently terrible kindling. Next time a good soaking with gasoline should do the trick.
Basically, if you read Cosmo before you don't need this book. If you're not sure if Cosmo's your bag, this collection of (articles? essays?) should give you an idea if the magazine's for you. Otherwise, don't bother.
Some of this advice is embarrassingly backwards, basically telling women how to vamp it up and make themselves into eye candy to entice men. Yawn. The articles describing how to become a bigger success at the office is just odd, coming randomly in between articles on blow jobs and makeup. And the sex tips that are there are either nothing special or nothing that I haven't seen in women's magazines for years.
Take a pass, get some erotica, and wear whatever the hell you like, for fucksake.
Basically, if you read Cosmo before you don't need this book. If you're not sure if Cosmo's your bag, this collection of (articles? essays?) should give you an idea if the magazine's for you. Otherwise, don't bother.
Some of this advice is embarrassingly backwards, basically telling women how to vamp it up and make themselves into eye candy to entice men. Yawn. The articles describing how to become a bigger success at the office is just odd, coming randomly in between articles on blow jobs and makeup. And the sex tips that are there are either nothing special or nothing that I haven't seen in women's magazines for years.
Take a pass, get some erotica, and wear whatever the hell you like, for fucksake.
July 5, 2008
I bought this book as a gift for a friend because the title cracked me up. The contents are largely non-sexual, in spite of what you might think, and for the most part, the author, and Cosmo editor-in-chief, does her best to offer simple common-sense good advice for balancing life and getting ahead in your career. I found it a tad annoying how much she plugged her other writing, but I think her heart was in the right place. Not sure if you will learn to "set his thighs on fire", but the chapters will fly, especially if you don't take it too seriously. I can't believe I'm admitting to have read this!
October 11, 2011
I agree with what some of the other reviewers of this book have said, in that some of the chapters just seem like a way for Kate White to brag about being the editor of Cosmo. However, some of the chapters were very informative and presented life suggestions in an easy to understand way that some might not have thought of before. I would not recommend this book as one to read through from beginning to end, but maybe one where you could peruse certain chapters of interest for information.
January 18, 2016
This book is not at all what I expected. The title is EXTREMELY misleading. The majority of this book is the author talking about herself and her job at Cosmo Magazine. It was basically like reading an issue of Cosmo that kept repeating itself over and over. You would not expect a book titled How to Set His Thighs on Fire to spend an entire chapter talking about the proper way to butt kiss people in the real world. It was a useless book.
April 10, 2010
The title is, of course, to get the reader's attention - it's not all about sex. Finished this book in a few days of light reading. Chapters were 2-4 pages long. Straight forward life advice offered from a highly successful business woman with lots of sassy humor.
December 3, 2007
This book is not just about sexy stuff. It's about confidence in yourself and your abilities and tips on how to remind yourself that you really are fabulous and deserve great things in life.
March 12, 2014
Easy read. Much like Cosmo. Common sense stuff. Nothing too deep.
November 15, 2017
This book contains tips and suggestions on becoming a siren.
July 6, 2014
Somewhat drab but overall interesting articles on how to spice things up.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews