Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk About Sex After Sixty

by Joan Price

Better Than I Ever Expected is a warm, witty, and honest book that contends with the challenges and celebrates the delights of older-life sexuality. It asserts that women over sixty are at the top of their game when it comes to enjoying sex.
Joan Price’s woman-to-woman straight talk transcends the self-help style of other books in this field. Yes, there are challenges to sex after menopause and beyond, says Price, but there are also creative solutions. She is on a mission to let women her age and older know that they can, in fact, have the best sex of their lives. Price gets personal and stays positive, combining her own story with candid comments, tips, and sassy tales from sexually seasoned women. She acknowledges the gritty issues that older women confront in their sexual lives, noting that it’s not easy, but it certainly isn’t over.
At age 61, Price is newly engaged to the man she’s been looking for her whole life. Her discovery of how great “well-seasoned” sex can be was the inspiration for this book. Sidebars present candid and friendly sex tips; fitness, exercise, and lifestyle information; and women's erotic vignettes—both real-life experiences and fantasies.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sexuality

280 pages, Paperback

First published November 22, 2005

About the author

I am a senior sex author, speaker, and advocate for ageless sexuality. My books include:

* Sex after Grief: Navigating Your Sexuality after Losing Your Beloved (coming Summer 2019);
* The Ultimate Guide to Sex After 50: How to Maintain – or Regain! – a Spicy, Satisfying Sex Life;
* Naked at Our Age: Talking Out Loud about Senior Sex – winner of Outstanding Self-Help Book 2012 from American Society of Journalists and Authors and 2012 Book Award from American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists;
* Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk about Sex After Sixty;
* Ageless Erotica: a steamy erotica anthology by authors age 50+
* The Anytime, Anywhere Exercise Book: 300+ Quick and Easy Exercises You Can Do Whenever You Want!

Please visit my website at http://www.joanprice.com and my zesty blog about sex and aging at http://www.NakedAtOurAge.com/. For news, views, and events related to senior sex and relationships, subscribe at http://eepurl.com/cx2Nab.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book full of ideas, affirmation, and explicit details for people over 60 who believe, or want to know why they should believe, that people over 60 can have the best sex of their lives. It is mainly from the point of view of heterosexual women, although stories concerning heterosexual men are included. (She has good chapters on body changes, vibrators, and "going it alone" so you could technically say older lesbians could get something out of this, but it would be a stretch).

I would recommend this book for the target audience (or those planning to be in the target audience) because it is uninhibited and answers a lot of questions some people are even afraid to ask. In fact, it was only awkward when the author seemed to provide too much information, at least about her personal life. She is a bit of an exhibitionist, but at least she tries to be open and honest throughout, and the details are helpful regardless of context.

My chief complaint with the book is that the format is a bit awkward. She has a lot of sidebars and anecdotes added to the pages to spice things up and cover topics she doesn't get to in the main text. However, the result is distracting and I ended up just ignoring all the sidebars to focus on the main text. Those seem like something you could go back and review later on rereads.

For someone looking to dive right in, I would recommend these chapters (these are not the chapter titles, they are my descriptions):

Chapter 4 - Body image and body changes
Chapter 5 - Physical details
Chapter 6 - The benefits of exercise
Chapter 7 - Foreplay, mood, and ideas (these are not conservative; if something shocks you, you could always come back to it later!)
Chapter 8 - Sexy times
Chapter 9 - Vibrator strategies and resources
Chapter 10 - Sexy on your own
Chapter 11 - Dating
Chapter 15 - Sex without your body's full participation

She also had a reference in the book to Fearless Women: Midlife Portraits, which looks like a really great book for affirmative senior sexiness and reflecting on aging.

[Kristie J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like the concept of this book. I’m only 46, but I was hoping to learn some valuable tips for keeping my sex life with my husband active and enjoyable into my 60's. This book is really half memoir, with the author telling stories from her promiscuous sex life spanning decades, and half results of a survey the author conducted of women over 60 talking about their sex lives. The survey results were presented in very large, multi-page textboxes that were randomly inserted into the main text in every chapter. After a couple of chapters, I found them to be really annoying. I was constantly flipping pages forward and back to find where the main text continued. The survey results were mostly quotes, copied verbatim, from the responses to each and every question on the survey. I wish the author had incorporated these responses into the actual text and edited them instead of just putting them in textboxes in every chapter. The author and the vast majority of women who answered the surveys were hippies in the 60's who indulged in the era of free love. Nearly all of them were divorced and some had "open" marriages. It wasn’t until chapter 14 that the author finally presented some more traditional women who have been married for decades and have kept their sex lives (with their husbands) satisfying. The book was mostly focused on single women in their 60's and not happily married women. All that said, the message of the book was hopeful, encouraging women to enjoy sex no matter what their age, no matter how long it takes, and not to give in to society's stereotypes of the sexless older woman.

[Carolyn Lee Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enthusiastic senior cheering for women’s sexuality!
Joan Price is an over-60 woman on a mission to keep older women sexually active, and her enthusiasm rubs off in this upbeat, entertaining and informative book. She is like an older sister who happens to be a sex educator, wants us to be sexual into old age, has gathered all possible information about it from her own experience as well as those of all her friends, and presents it in a fun, light-hearted way. The chapters, with flirty titles like “Beds Afire: Stoking the Slower-Burning Flame,” thoroughly cover all the factors that go into staying sexually able and interested as we age past 60 and beyond—menopause and hormones (HRT), lubrication, fitness, coaxing sexual arousal with dress, dance, erotica and types of touch, sex toys, staying sexy in long term relationships or while being single, dating, when your partner can’t be sexual, and when to contact a therapist, to name a few. The real value of this book is that Price weaves her own very compelling sexual her-story with interviews of many “sexually seasoned” women, so a variety of perspectives are represented on each subject. While the book’s purpose is women-to-women sharing, there are also interviews with men, and all genders would be wise to read this book for the enjoyable and inspiring view of women’s and men’s sexuality as we age.

[Mali Apple · Rating 5 out of 5]

Affirming and encouraging, as is everything Joan Price does. The many quotes and stories from older people about everything from what helps them feel positively about their bodies and their sex lives to what helps them get turned on and feel sexy will leave you feeling uplifted and ready to age up. We’re including Better Than I Ever Expected in the resources section of our upcoming book, Wild Monogamy.

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really put intimacy into perspective for those of us beyond a certain age. Enjoyed this book and clarified what I would like in my life.

[Deborah Arvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very practical for the older single woman!