Between the Covers: A Bookstore Erotica Anthology

by Rebecca Makkai (editor), Rebecca George (Editor)

In 2018 Volumes Bookcafe brought together a few dozen poets, fiction authors and comic artists to create a generous collection of bookstore erotica. What is bookstore erotica? Bookstores, for book lovers, are already inherently a sensual place - and these writers imagine every sort of iteration of that. From tongue-in-cheek humor to blush-worthy sex scenes - this anthology packs a lot of fun for all bookstore lovers.

Rebecca Makkai, Charles FInch, Renee Rosen, Dave Kelly, Kathleen Rooney, C. Russell Price, Lauren Emily, Adam Morgan, Christine Sneed, Mary Robinette Kowal, Megan Stielstra and many more!

116 pages, Paperback

Published May 15, 2018

About the author

Rebecca Makkai is the author of 2023's New York Times bestselling I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU, as well as the novels THE GREAT BELIEVERS, THE BORROWER and THE HUNDRED-YEAR HOUSE, and the collection MUSIC FOR WARTIME. THE GREAT BELIEVERS was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award; it received the ALA Carnegie Medal and the LA Times Book Prize among other honors,

A 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, Rebecca teaches graduate fiction writing at Northwestern University, UNR Tahoe, and Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English; and she is Artistic Director of StoryStudio Chicago. She lives in Chicago and Vermont. Visit her at RebeccaMakkai.com or on twitter@rebeccamakkai.

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is like a solid 3.5-ish.

First, Goodreads needs to update the photo because whatever book cover is featured is not this book. Not even close. But I can't seem to do it, so I'm just putting that out there. Now to the review.

I know two of the writers featured in this book: one was my grad school professor who is now also a colleague, and another is a friend/former colleague. So, when I heard they were both going to be featured in an anthology, I was like, "awesome! I'll buy it!" And then when I heard it was an anthology of erotica centered around bookstores in order to help fundraise to support a local bookstore (Volume Books, which gets many shoutouts in this book) in Chicago, I was like, "huh. Awesome! I'll buy it!"

My experience with the "erotica" genre is really limited to fanfic that has smut in it. (And not 50 Shades weird Twilight fic...but like, actually well-written stories, which occasionally have a very detailed sex scene, with characters I like and that doesn't make me hate our society for letting 50 Shades become a thing...but I digress). All that said, this is not what I was expecting. It was a lot less smutty than I expected. (Not complaining, because it's not really my thing and I purposefully avoid reading anything that is purely smut without plot). I haven't read Nora Roberts or whoever else writes books with Fabio on the cover, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

Generally, there were some stories I loved. Some I was really not so fond of. The quality of writing was really hit or miss, but I kind of get the vibe that this was mostly a group of published authors and friends who got together and hammered these pieces out. So that's fine. I'm hoping this wasn't slaved over for hours on end, because it's not that great. But, I don't think I'll ever love an entire anthology. The fact that it was only 100-some pages but it took me nearly two months to get through kind of speaks to the lack of engagement I had.

But, major major bonus points for being super inclusive and intersectional. There's pretty much every possible configuration of people featured in this book (solo, M-M, M-F, F-F, multiple people, and so on). The writers are also super diverse, so yay for that.

So, if this genre or simply the idea of helping to support an independent bookstore is your thing, I think it's worth checking out. And maybe buy it from a local bookstore instead of Amazon to keep the spirit of the book going.

[Rocky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delicious! I love how you can give a roomful (figuratively speaking) of writers a theme to write about (erotic bookstore moments) and you will get such varied results. The Shakespearean story is my favorite (the innuendo!), and I only wish Kowal's submission (which is about two characters from the Glamourist Histories series she writes) had gone on for a bit longer! If you're on this site, it means you love books, and if you love books and erotica, this will really be your cup of tea.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

The quality of the writing was hit-or-miss. There were some really interesting ones and some terribly boring stories here. I didn't expect too much from it, and some stories had serious problems of continuity or believability. A couple of the stories were good enough that they didn't need to be restricted to the erotica genre. I appreciated the courage and diversity of the writers and their stories. Overall and entertaining read

[Frank Karioris · Rating 3 out of 5]

First and foremost, so excited to support an independent bookstore; secondly, the idea of bookstore erotica is, well, just absolutely fantastic! There are a couple stories from this collection that are firing on all cylinders, and some that don't - like most collections. I would recommend people buy this to support Volumes, and if they are looking for a quick and quirky read.

[Lena · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a nice, short read. Many of the stories are a page, maybe two. But they are excellent. The stories are beautiful and blend the two aspects of the theme wonderfully. My favorite story is about love at first sight...with a book. Just love it. Picked it up because of one particular author I knew who had a story in it, but the rest of the stories are amazing.

[Susan Moss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hit or miss, mostly miss, I'm afraid. Standouts were The Velvet Book... Dear M... Sonnet 69... and Love Among the Remainders. "Hasn't everyone had a sex fantasy about a bookstore?"... :-)