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Sex Issue: Everything You've Always Wanted to Know about Sexuality, Seduction, and Desire
An eye-catching, conversation-sparking book that answers all your questions on sexuality, seduction, and sex by the editors of GOOP.
A beautifully illustrated, gift-y, sometimes shocking, fact-filled book that explores everything we've always wondered about sex and relationships, but may have been too shy to bring up. Broken into five sections, GOOP editors introduce the experts they rely on for sex tips, and dive into focused Q&A's that explore the ins and outs of sexual health, pleasure, and how to have the kind of sex you really want-while feeling good about doing it.
Part 1, Seduction: Goes beyond the clichés to help the reader explore the inner and outer art of seduction-with advice on attracting new partners, reigniting the flame once it's gone out, and navigating online dating, unconventional relationship scenarios, the sex toy aisle, and more.
Part 2, Sexuality: What sexuality means, looks, and feels like today, and how we can better tap into our sexual power-including a chapter on strengthening your libido, simple tantric tricks to up sexual energy, and fun ideas for exploring your own kinks.
Part 3, Sexual Health: Covers the essentials (like clean lube and condoms, and how to reset your hormones), easy exercises for strengthening the pelvic floor, as well as a path for redefining porn-all with the goal of getting real joy from sex, as opposed to just avoiding the potential calamities.
Part 4, Orgasm: Busts enduring sex myths, with expert advice on closing the orgasm gap, doing away with the pressure to perform, and the many benefits of self-pleasure.
Part 5: Doing It: The antidote to bedroom boredom, the psychology of oral sex, how to ask for what you want-and play out your greatest fantasies.
Throughout the book you'll find endcaps on the reality of everything from plain vanilla to ménage à trois, sidebars of mind-blowing stats culled from goop readers, and personal quotes and anecdotes (i.e. the first time I had sex...) from the GOOP team.
A beautifully illustrated, gift-y, sometimes shocking, fact-filled book that explores everything we've always wondered about sex and relationships, but may have been too shy to bring up. Broken into five sections, GOOP editors introduce the experts they rely on for sex tips, and dive into focused Q&A's that explore the ins and outs of sexual health, pleasure, and how to have the kind of sex you really want-while feeling good about doing it.
Part 1, Seduction: Goes beyond the clichés to help the reader explore the inner and outer art of seduction-with advice on attracting new partners, reigniting the flame once it's gone out, and navigating online dating, unconventional relationship scenarios, the sex toy aisle, and more.
Part 2, Sexuality: What sexuality means, looks, and feels like today, and how we can better tap into our sexual power-including a chapter on strengthening your libido, simple tantric tricks to up sexual energy, and fun ideas for exploring your own kinks.
Part 3, Sexual Health: Covers the essentials (like clean lube and condoms, and how to reset your hormones), easy exercises for strengthening the pelvic floor, as well as a path for redefining porn-all with the goal of getting real joy from sex, as opposed to just avoiding the potential calamities.
Part 4, Orgasm: Busts enduring sex myths, with expert advice on closing the orgasm gap, doing away with the pressure to perform, and the many benefits of self-pleasure.
Part 5: Doing It: The antidote to bedroom boredom, the psychology of oral sex, how to ask for what you want-and play out your greatest fantasies.
Throughout the book you'll find endcaps on the reality of everything from plain vanilla to ménage à trois, sidebars of mind-blowing stats culled from goop readers, and personal quotes and anecdotes (i.e. the first time I had sex...) from the GOOP team.
276 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 1, 2018
59 people are currently reading
662 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
July 30, 2021
I feel like it’s a great book for someone who doesn’t know a lot of things about sex… like I didn’t really learn anything and I wished it would’ve talk more deep down about specific subjects. The chapters were short and all felt like introductions of subjects.
June 21, 2018
I really liked this book! It was like talking to a knowledgeable and comforting friend about your personal business. I can already tell that I will reread it and I folded the corner of several pages to go back and reference. I only took off stars because I felt the book didn’t do a very good job of concluding each chapter/topic. There was no closing or summarizing paragraph for any of the topics. You just turned the page and were onto the next chapter. Otherwise I thought it was phenomenal and I loved it!
September 27, 2018
This book was ok an would deserve only two stars. Extra star for some good content you don't find lying around just like that. The "just bunch of some articles" style was troublesome because no topic was looked at thoroughly. Some parts were just silly (no, I don't want to know personal opinions of Goop staff.) There was hardcore science people and energy healing people, all in one book. Somehow I wanted more consistency.
December 27, 2022
Really vanilla and basic. It's not "everything you've always wanted to know" unless the "you" they're talking to is some sort of incredibly sheltered neophyte to these topics. Go read "Come as You Are" by Nagoski instead.
January 10, 2019
The Sex Issue did cover some great topics from hormones and how your health can affect your sex drive to understanding why you are your own worst enemy when it comes to an orgasm. I did learn quite a bit and a few months before reading this book actually did go and get my hormone levels tested to reveal I have almost no testosterone and high thyroid levels and I was able to understand better how exactly each one of those effects my body differently and the benefits or getting them treated.
It was great to hear that there is no normal. You can have sex once a month or twice a day and it is whatever makes you happy. That the people at GOOP are just as sick of certain unrealistic styles of porn and the idea that if you just try these five new positions you can orgasm because some women might never orgasm through penetration, so you are teaching them that they just are not doing it right. That women actually lose interest in sex as soon as they get in a committed relationship because now it feels like an expectation and a duty. There was some great insight that helped me let myself off the hook from living up to the wild sex lives in the movies.
My only issue is when the opinions started to own the pages and it became more like an edition of Cosmopolitan. There was a section on sex toys and the benefits of each, threesomes and how to approach your significant about it, and even how to introduce fetishes. I'm pretty dang vanilla and my husband doesn't really allow for much experimentation, but when I googled a jade egg, the first article that popped up is the reason for the lower rating. The writers of this book, not all medical professionals, were recommending things that could actually be harmful and were being sued. Seeing that article, now I don't know what else to believe or not in the book when they are recommending other items.
It was great to hear that there is no normal. You can have sex once a month or twice a day and it is whatever makes you happy. That the people at GOOP are just as sick of certain unrealistic styles of porn and the idea that if you just try these five new positions you can orgasm because some women might never orgasm through penetration, so you are teaching them that they just are not doing it right. That women actually lose interest in sex as soon as they get in a committed relationship because now it feels like an expectation and a duty. There was some great insight that helped me let myself off the hook from living up to the wild sex lives in the movies.
My only issue is when the opinions started to own the pages and it became more like an edition of Cosmopolitan. There was a section on sex toys and the benefits of each, threesomes and how to approach your significant about it, and even how to introduce fetishes. I'm pretty dang vanilla and my husband doesn't really allow for much experimentation, but when I googled a jade egg, the first article that popped up is the reason for the lower rating. The writers of this book, not all medical professionals, were recommending things that could actually be harmful and were being sued. Seeing that article, now I don't know what else to believe or not in the book when they are recommending other items.
November 19, 2025
Still in the process of reading this but I already have so many thoughts and problems with this book. I will update my review once I finish.
My biggest being how the baseline of this book, the people who wrote it, and the folks interviewed for it, all function off this idea that EVERYONE wants sex and that their low libidos or lack of desire for sex can be "fixed". That is not the case and it feels like it completely denies the existence and realities of asexual people and hyposexual people. It also feels like it vilifies them.
I am tired of people saying stuff like "oh maybe try hard to be more intimate?", "you need to do some self discovery and then you'll find out what you like and sex will be great!".
I think there are good aspects of this book tho, I think it can be helpful the broader landscape of female empowerment via sex and sexual exploration. I like that they bring in different "experts" (though one person I really have issue with his advice and stuff), the section on aphrodisiacs was cool and something I dont see being talked about often!
Regardless of the good and the bad, I just dont think this book really hit the mark.
My biggest being how the baseline of this book, the people who wrote it, and the folks interviewed for it, all function off this idea that EVERYONE wants sex and that their low libidos or lack of desire for sex can be "fixed". That is not the case and it feels like it completely denies the existence and realities of asexual people and hyposexual people. It also feels like it vilifies them.
I am tired of people saying stuff like "oh maybe try hard to be more intimate?", "you need to do some self discovery and then you'll find out what you like and sex will be great!".
I think there are good aspects of this book tho, I think it can be helpful the broader landscape of female empowerment via sex and sexual exploration. I like that they bring in different "experts" (though one person I really have issue with his advice and stuff), the section on aphrodisiacs was cool and something I dont see being talked about often!
Regardless of the good and the bad, I just dont think this book really hit the mark.
August 10, 2022
This book was better than I was expecting. I picked it up at the library for a research project on aphrodisiacs. It has many topics that are touched on. Like a beginning of a conversation on many sexual topics. They could obviously go much deeper on each one, but I don't think that's what this book is for. It was successful in pointing me in some new directions on what to look up next. Somethings I knew already and was glad to have the reminder, others added to the research project by sending me down yet another rabbit hole.
Pretty good if you know what you're getting into. It reads like interviews on a blog, and sometimes that's just fine.
Pretty good if you know what you're getting into. It reads like interviews on a blog, and sometimes that's just fine.
October 24, 2024
It was a decent book. I was expecting this book to be really extra since it's a Goop product, but I was delightfully surprised that it wasn't that bad. I don't know if I learned much from it, but I'm not upset that I finished it. Would recommend to anyone interested in sexuality and hasn't already read an exhaustive list of other books.
October 29, 2024
Super informative, I took some notes and might apply them soon. Nonjudgmental perspective and it was an easy read for me. 3 stars because not all the material relates to me (so I kinda skimmed through it) and I would have liked some chapters to be longer.
May 27, 2018
What can I say??? The title is self explanatory!!!!! Thankyou Goodreads for this free book.
August 2, 2018
This was not the best book ever.
September 9, 2018
Clinical information
November 20, 2018
Somehow, the editors managed to make this book pretty boring, while also not answering anywhere near everything I've always wanted to know on these subjects.
June 27, 2020
This is such a fun and informative book! Written in a magazine style that is easy to read, and answers lots of questions one might have regarding sexuality!
July 2, 2020
I enjoyed listening to this book from women about women. It had parts with good information about sexuality.
August 24, 2021
This is extremely informative and well written in a way thats not intimidating to inexperienced people but seems to not have much info geering towards the lgbtq+ community
April 27, 2022
Pretty good! Wanted more details at times- but overall a enjoyable and informative read.
January 29, 2023
I'll never have the time back that it took to open and close this book - I'm resentful and I couldn't even get through the foreword.
January 28, 2024
I wasn't sure what to expect but it was informative and enjoyable! Definitely not the definitive guide on everything about sex. BUT, it was fun reading it!
April 1, 2024
Better for the singles out there
November 15, 2018
It was a decent book with good references and smart dialogue. Worth the time it took to listen on 1.5 speed
May 21, 2018
LOVE THIS BOOK. EVERY WOMAN SHOULD READ!!!
October 3, 2023
Wildly out of touch, painfully heterosexual, lacking in any real depth; the first chapter begins with a “study” about “hot people” attracting “hot people" like a bad early 2000s Cosmopolitan magazine article.
At 26 years old, I was hoping for something more mature and educational from Goop, so for me, this was a big disappointment.
However, this book did cover all of the basics with clear and concise descriptions. I wish that I had had this book when I was a teenager, and as a mom thought that this would be a great teaching tool for the talk.
In other words; good information, just marketed to the wrong demographic.
At 26 years old, I was hoping for something more mature and educational from Goop, so for me, this was a big disappointment.
However, this book did cover all of the basics with clear and concise descriptions. I wish that I had had this book when I was a teenager, and as a mom thought that this would be a great teaching tool for the talk.
In other words; good information, just marketed to the wrong demographic.
November 6, 2018
OK, I have a lot of questions about sex, it being one of those areas in which I have both an active interest and firmly held belief that not enough—of substance and quality—gets said about it. One of the things I love about the folks at GOOP is that they come at the topic with such a frank, exploratory, and relaxed vibe, and when it comes to some of the more out-there topics, they do their homework and provide their resources so you can check it out yourself. Overall, I’ve found this collection good at expanding a conversation that too often gets pretty narrow pretty fast.
June 3, 2018
There was a lot of very good information in this book. I’m an older woman just getting back into the dating scene so there definitely some pertinent info in here. Also some I wasn’t interested in but I skipped those chapters.
May 12, 2023
Had good resources about the topics it touched on. Inclusions of resources, experts and other additional information was helpful. The format of questions and answers was an easy way to break down sexuality, sex topics and perceived societal taboos in a conversational and relaxed way.
February 19, 2022
I just love all the GOOP books!
Read
January 2, 2019When one of GP's "thought leaders" describes a particular female hormone as being "comfortable, like a cashmere hoodie" you know you're getting EXACTLY what you signed up for. BWAHAHAHAH
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews