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The Hot Woman's Handbook: The CAKE Guide to Female Sexual Pleasure
Want to explore your sexual fantasies?
Tired of having sex without an orgasm?
Searching for the perfect vibrator?
YES, YES, and YES. Enter The Hot Woman's Handbook , the ultimate sexuality primer for a new generation of young women who are turned on and getting off. Written by expert authors Melinda Gallagher and Emily Scarlet Kramer -- founders of CAKE, a women's sexuality enterprise with locations in New York, London, and San Francisco -- The Hot Woman's Handbook is the first of its kind to provide the why-to along with the how-to. Through extensive research and interviews, Gallagher and Kramer have uncovered a world of female sexual pleasure that's accessible to us all. Alongside inspirational and instructional material are the detailed biology and history lessons never quite covered in high school. Steamy fantasies and anecdotes from real women help put readers in the mood to try out stimulating scenarios and tantalizing tips. Praised as the "authoritative voice on modern female sexuality" ( Kirkus Reviews ), The Hot Woman's Handbook encourages today's woman to speak up and ask for what she wants, increasing her overall confidence and pleasure as a result.
Tired of having sex without an orgasm?
Searching for the perfect vibrator?
YES, YES, and YES. Enter The Hot Woman's Handbook , the ultimate sexuality primer for a new generation of young women who are turned on and getting off. Written by expert authors Melinda Gallagher and Emily Scarlet Kramer -- founders of CAKE, a women's sexuality enterprise with locations in New York, London, and San Francisco -- The Hot Woman's Handbook is the first of its kind to provide the why-to along with the how-to. Through extensive research and interviews, Gallagher and Kramer have uncovered a world of female sexual pleasure that's accessible to us all. Alongside inspirational and instructional material are the detailed biology and history lessons never quite covered in high school. Steamy fantasies and anecdotes from real women help put readers in the mood to try out stimulating scenarios and tantalizing tips. Praised as the "authoritative voice on modern female sexuality" ( Kirkus Reviews ), The Hot Woman's Handbook encourages today's woman to speak up and ask for what she wants, increasing her overall confidence and pleasure as a result.
304 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2005
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16 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 9, 2007
I have to say upfront that one of the authors of this book approached me about reviewing it. She read some of my critiques of sex guides on the Goodreads website and offered to send me a copy of this book to read and review. Always on the lookout for the latest in sex ed, I jumped at the chance.
In the book’s introduction, the authors state, “there is a huge disconnect between how women are portrayed and how women really live, fantasize, think, and act. In 2000, we created CAKE to set the record straight.” They began producing events in New York City and later in London and then launched the CAKE website (www.cakenyc.com) where women around the world shared their sexual experiences.
(CAKE, the authors say, is a “euphemism for a woman’s sexual anatomy; silky smooth on the outside, tender and moist on the inside,” which makes me wonder if the authors assume most women shave their pubic hair.)
The book is divided into three parts, “On Your Own,” “Let’s Get It On,” and “On the Road.” Those parts are subdivided into fourteen chapters with titles like “Play Solitaire” (masturbation, fantasy, the G-spot, and some basic sexual anatomy diagrams); “It’s a Vibe Thing” (all about vibrators, with no mention of other sex toys); “Scream if You Want To” (orgasm and ejaculation); “Beyond the Missionary” (oral and anal sex, emergency contraception, sex position variety); “A Little Help From Our Friends” (introducing sex toys to a partner, still with a strong emphasis on vibrators); “Express Yourself” (exhibitionism); and “ Birth of the Cake Sam’ich” (threesomes, especially with two men and one woman). Other features include information boxed in “Cake Bite[s:];” “Pleasure Tip[s:]” and quotes from respondents to the “Cake Report” online sex survey sprinkled throughout each chapter; descriptions of products labeled “Cake Approved;” and “Surrender the Pink” sections, which I think are reader fantasies, but are maybe real life experiences.
In the introduction, the authors say, “We have chosen to highlight positive ways that women seek and find sexual pleasure. We do not claim that all women have experienced or must explore sexuality in every way we suggest. Our agenda is to provide more options for women and to show the many ways that women get turned on and get off.” I think those are admirable goals, but readers should know right up front what women the authors “talked with, worked with, and entertained” in the five years leading up to this book, as it is those women who helped shape what ended up between its covers. “Many of the women…live in New York City”…while “others are scattered throughout” the U.S. and the rest are from “the UK and abroad.” We’re told that some are married and others are single and most have college or graduate degrees. Some of the women are mothers, and “most identify as ‘straight.’” From the ages given with the reader quotes, it also seems that these women are fairly young, mostly under 30.
I don’t think I was the intended audience for this book. I can’t really relate to the women portrayed here, middle and upper class, living in the glamorous big city, shaved, primped, and digging through a “…Murakami Louis Vuitton handbag…that you bought for, like, $9 million…”). I can’t really relate to women who claim to be about the empowerment of women but then refer to other women as “girls.” And I can’t really relate to women who need to talk about how much they love men and how amazing their boyfriends are before they can admit to being physically and sexually attracted to other women. Maybe I’m too old and unhip. Maybe you can relate to all the things in this book that are foreign to me; if you can, more power to you. But please, promise me that you will round out your sexual reading with something a little less cute and a little more real.
In the book’s introduction, the authors state, “there is a huge disconnect between how women are portrayed and how women really live, fantasize, think, and act. In 2000, we created CAKE to set the record straight.” They began producing events in New York City and later in London and then launched the CAKE website (www.cakenyc.com) where women around the world shared their sexual experiences.
(CAKE, the authors say, is a “euphemism for a woman’s sexual anatomy; silky smooth on the outside, tender and moist on the inside,” which makes me wonder if the authors assume most women shave their pubic hair.)
The book is divided into three parts, “On Your Own,” “Let’s Get It On,” and “On the Road.” Those parts are subdivided into fourteen chapters with titles like “Play Solitaire” (masturbation, fantasy, the G-spot, and some basic sexual anatomy diagrams); “It’s a Vibe Thing” (all about vibrators, with no mention of other sex toys); “Scream if You Want To” (orgasm and ejaculation); “Beyond the Missionary” (oral and anal sex, emergency contraception, sex position variety); “A Little Help From Our Friends” (introducing sex toys to a partner, still with a strong emphasis on vibrators); “Express Yourself” (exhibitionism); and “ Birth of the Cake Sam’ich” (threesomes, especially with two men and one woman). Other features include information boxed in “Cake Bite[s:];” “Pleasure Tip[s:]” and quotes from respondents to the “Cake Report” online sex survey sprinkled throughout each chapter; descriptions of products labeled “Cake Approved;” and “Surrender the Pink” sections, which I think are reader fantasies, but are maybe real life experiences.
In the introduction, the authors say, “We have chosen to highlight positive ways that women seek and find sexual pleasure. We do not claim that all women have experienced or must explore sexuality in every way we suggest. Our agenda is to provide more options for women and to show the many ways that women get turned on and get off.” I think those are admirable goals, but readers should know right up front what women the authors “talked with, worked with, and entertained” in the five years leading up to this book, as it is those women who helped shape what ended up between its covers. “Many of the women…live in New York City”…while “others are scattered throughout” the U.S. and the rest are from “the UK and abroad.” We’re told that some are married and others are single and most have college or graduate degrees. Some of the women are mothers, and “most identify as ‘straight.’” From the ages given with the reader quotes, it also seems that these women are fairly young, mostly under 30.
I don’t think I was the intended audience for this book. I can’t really relate to the women portrayed here, middle and upper class, living in the glamorous big city, shaved, primped, and digging through a “…Murakami Louis Vuitton handbag…that you bought for, like, $9 million…”). I can’t really relate to women who claim to be about the empowerment of women but then refer to other women as “girls.” And I can’t really relate to women who need to talk about how much they love men and how amazing their boyfriends are before they can admit to being physically and sexually attracted to other women. Maybe I’m too old and unhip. Maybe you can relate to all the things in this book that are foreign to me; if you can, more power to you. But please, promise me that you will round out your sexual reading with something a little less cute and a little more real.
July 2, 2007
This book has helped me get in touch with my feminine side... if you know what I mean.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews