What do you think?
Rate this book
Pleasure: An Almanac for the Heart - Friendship, Love, Loss, Heartbreak, Sex, Passion
This almanac for the heart is dealing candidly with everything from Brazilian waxes to secret underwear, from coping with broken hearts to what makes a perfect partner (a checklist to cut out and keep) from advice on the friends who flatten you (frenemies) to the importance of empathy. Australian author.
- GenresNonfiction
30 pages, Paperback
First published October 25, 2006
5 people are currently reading
79 people want to read
About the author
Nikki Gemmell
35 books303 followersNikki Gemmell has written four novels, Shiver, Cleave, Lovesong, The Bride Stripped Bare and The Book Of Rapture, and one non-fiction book, Pleasure: An Almanac for the Heart. Her work has been internationally critically acclaimed and translated into many languages.
In France she's been described as a female Jack Kerouac, in Australia as one of the most original and engaging authors of her generation and in the US as one of the few truly original voices to emerge in a long time.
The French literary review "Lire" has included her in a list of what it calls the fifty most important writers in the world - the ones it believes will have a significant influence on the literature of the 21st century. The criteria for selection included a very individual voice and unmistakeable style, as well as an original choice of subject. Nikki Gemmell was selected along with such novelists as Rick Moody, Zadie Smith, Jonathan Safran Froer, Rohinton Mistry, Tim Winton, Colum McCann, Michel Faber and Hari Kunzru among others.
Born in Wollongong, Australia, she now lives in London.
In France she's been described as a female Jack Kerouac, in Australia as one of the most original and engaging authors of her generation and in the US as one of the few truly original voices to emerge in a long time.
The French literary review "Lire" has included her in a list of what it calls the fifty most important writers in the world - the ones it believes will have a significant influence on the literature of the 21st century. The criteria for selection included a very individual voice and unmistakeable style, as well as an original choice of subject. Nikki Gemmell was selected along with such novelists as Rick Moody, Zadie Smith, Jonathan Safran Froer, Rohinton Mistry, Tim Winton, Colum McCann, Michel Faber and Hari Kunzru among others.
Born in Wollongong, Australia, she now lives in London.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 22, 2020
It felt like Gemmell was trying to recover her image from Bride Stripped Bare's tantalising naughtiness. This is mostly a book about how to be a Lady in the 21st century and, despite it pushing the boundaries of what a Lady USED to be, it is still anchored in the domestic femininity expected of us.
There were so many holes. Gemmell was so close in so many parts. For example, you can't 'tick off' lesbianism with a chapter called "Lesbianism," which is more about bi-curiosity and how it relates to heterosexual relationships, in order to make up for a book that references - more than once - how reproduction is the thesis of our lives, how sex when trying to conceive is wonderful because of the fact, and, secretly, most/all women do just want to be domestic housewives with a few kids.
Where was the mention of non-feminine women? You know, the women who don't shave at all, have buzz cuts, don't want to fall pregnant, would never dream of touching a man? I'm not someone that believes every book should encapsulate the experience of absolutely everyone, that's silly and impossible, but this book is a guidebook to womanhood, and promotes the pro-capitalist woman who Has it All: she's made her career! She's having kids in her early 30s! She's heterosexual! She's Godly and Forgiving! She's a freak in bed! She's not even insane! Gemmell doesn't say it, but this ideal is impossible. It's an ideal created so women both work and don't give up wanting maternal/domestic bliss.
I think Gemmell overlooks one thing when she talks about sex: she says "don't do things you don't want to do" whilst also advocating for contemporary experimentation, which tends to make what male-attracted women do/don't want to do look too black/white. Often pornified, degrading sex they say they do want to do, especially in their teens-30, is narrated by the expectations put on us (lesbians included). The thing is, women, from birth, hitting hard especially during puberty, are isolated from their sexual selves, we - quite frankly - don't KNOW what we TRULY want until we find a partner (male or female) who makes us feel safe, because the only sexual images we have access to are 1. reproduction or 2. pornified, degrading, soulless sex Gemmell (rightfully) criticises. How are we supposed to know what we want unless there's an image of it? Much of what women accept in the bedroom is due to the misogynistic standard for (hetero and homo) sex. I just think there's a lot more nuance that she left undiscovered there.
Finally, the block quotes during the book weren't bad, but the list of quotes at the beginning and end of the book were a little cliche. It's not that I disagree with them, it's just that they're the typical essence of done-before quotes: "don't lie to yourself," "forgive," "don't be afraid of failure," etc.
There were good parts in the book, I love the way Gemmell writes, which is why I read it in the first place. But it didn't offer me any mini-epiphanies that a book like this probably should.
There were so many holes. Gemmell was so close in so many parts. For example, you can't 'tick off' lesbianism with a chapter called "Lesbianism," which is more about bi-curiosity and how it relates to heterosexual relationships, in order to make up for a book that references - more than once - how reproduction is the thesis of our lives, how sex when trying to conceive is wonderful because of the fact, and, secretly, most/all women do just want to be domestic housewives with a few kids.
Where was the mention of non-feminine women? You know, the women who don't shave at all, have buzz cuts, don't want to fall pregnant, would never dream of touching a man? I'm not someone that believes every book should encapsulate the experience of absolutely everyone, that's silly and impossible, but this book is a guidebook to womanhood, and promotes the pro-capitalist woman who Has it All: she's made her career! She's having kids in her early 30s! She's heterosexual! She's Godly and Forgiving! She's a freak in bed! She's not even insane! Gemmell doesn't say it, but this ideal is impossible. It's an ideal created so women both work and don't give up wanting maternal/domestic bliss.
I think Gemmell overlooks one thing when she talks about sex: she says "don't do things you don't want to do" whilst also advocating for contemporary experimentation, which tends to make what male-attracted women do/don't want to do look too black/white. Often pornified, degrading sex they say they do want to do, especially in their teens-30, is narrated by the expectations put on us (lesbians included). The thing is, women, from birth, hitting hard especially during puberty, are isolated from their sexual selves, we - quite frankly - don't KNOW what we TRULY want until we find a partner (male or female) who makes us feel safe, because the only sexual images we have access to are 1. reproduction or 2. pornified, degrading, soulless sex Gemmell (rightfully) criticises. How are we supposed to know what we want unless there's an image of it? Much of what women accept in the bedroom is due to the misogynistic standard for (hetero and homo) sex. I just think there's a lot more nuance that she left undiscovered there.
Finally, the block quotes during the book weren't bad, but the list of quotes at the beginning and end of the book were a little cliche. It's not that I disagree with them, it's just that they're the typical essence of done-before quotes: "don't lie to yourself," "forgive," "don't be afraid of failure," etc.
There were good parts in the book, I love the way Gemmell writes, which is why I read it in the first place. But it didn't offer me any mini-epiphanies that a book like this probably should.
December 1, 2017
Beautifully written in some parts yet strangely patronising in others. The ideal husband checklist is surely hypocritical and far from ironic? Otherwise this is an easy read that could be picked up and flicked through any time. Maybe that's why it did feel a little too flippantly Cleo/Cosmo at times.
June 13, 2019
I read this many years ago and loved it. I remember a sense of calm and softness and indulgence. I don’t remember exactly what was in it but I remember I enjoyed it immensely.
March 21, 2008
Sometimes insightful, sometimes funny, sometimes inspiring, sometimes wrong...
If I could tear off a few pages, it'd be the perfect birthday gift for some of my closest girlfriends.
Some of the best bits of the book include the chapter on Frenemies (with friends like these women, who needs enemies?) and bereavement after suffering a miscarriage.
Some choice quotes
"Failure humbles us, which is no bad thing.
Learn to laugh at the gift of it."
"Shun indifference.
It is a heart-flincher, a killer of humanity."
"Love and success are great beautifiers.
But so is goodness."
"Often it's not when times are bad that you realise who your real friends are, but when times are good."
"Mum says if you have one true friend in your life,
you can forgive all the rest."
Buy this book and place it in your bathroom as a toilet reader. Look at it as a great uplift while you (and your guests) download.
If I could tear off a few pages, it'd be the perfect birthday gift for some of my closest girlfriends.
Some of the best bits of the book include the chapter on Frenemies (with friends like these women, who needs enemies?) and bereavement after suffering a miscarriage.
Some choice quotes
"Failure humbles us, which is no bad thing.
Learn to laugh at the gift of it."
"Shun indifference.
It is a heart-flincher, a killer of humanity."
"Love and success are great beautifiers.
But so is goodness."
"Often it's not when times are bad that you realise who your real friends are, but when times are good."
"Mum says if you have one true friend in your life,
you can forgive all the rest."
Buy this book and place it in your bathroom as a toilet reader. Look at it as a great uplift while you (and your guests) download.
December 26, 2011
This is a collection of quotes and little personal stories. Some of them really resonated, some made me think, and some made me wonder how she could believe certain things. Most of the emphasis is on love and sex, although she is ambivalent about the importance we should give them in real life. A taster- "Advice from an extremely glamorous great-aunt: 'Whenever a strange room is entered you must always remember four things, and repeat them silently to yourself as you cross the threshold: I am beautiful. I am witty. I am intelligent. And I can do whatever I want!'"
October 16, 2012
Awesome witty truthful and fun, lots of amazing quotes and info for those domestically challenged, having affairs or just feeling scared about being a good lover as Marylin Monroe is quoted as saying .......I don't know whether I di it right......!!!
One quote for real is.......that there's not a person alive who doesn't want to be told thery're loved.
great gift for a great friend.
One quote for real is.......that there's not a person alive who doesn't want to be told thery're loved.
great gift for a great friend.
December 28, 2015
This book should be gifted to women by other women. And enlightened men. And to men by women. And to men by other men! This book is funny, empowering, motivational, and just reminds you that life is a wonderful smorgasbord full of sensation after sensation......if you allow it to be. I'm gifting this to my bestie!
February 5, 2017
3.5 - Would make a great 18th/21st or general gift for a dear friend. Lots of great advice and musings. If your familiar with NG's writings (which I dearly love) this felt a bit repetitive (perhaps cherry picked from) of previous works.
February 6, 2007
This book is full of quotes and anecdotes. It's a nice idea and I enjoyed the first quarter or so, but I found the more I read the less I could relate.
December 9, 2012
Nourishing morsels
April 13, 2013
I like this book, it's the sort of book you can keep for years and just dip in and out of for inspiration, insight and comfort.
November 13, 2013
A lovely and nourishing read. Paved the way for the brilliant "Honestly".
November 14, 2013
Great for women/girls/teens pondering life
August 12, 2014
Great funny book! Pure entertainment, not to be taken too seriously!!
June 2, 2008
Lots of interesting tidbits.
September 7, 2013
Every girl can relate....and its funny!
Read
January 28, 2019i loved this book, it also made me realised at lot at life, and how much i want to make it better.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews