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Slow Hand: Women Writing Erotica
An anthology of twenty-one new erotic stories by women explores the unspoken fantasies of a broad range of lesbians and straight women whose real jobs range from bureaucrat to performance artist. 25,000 first printing. National ad/promo.
228 pages, Hardcover
First published December 31, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
November 13, 2008
WARNING: Several stories in this book include non-consensual sex. One, "The Story of No" by Lisa Tuttle, is all about a woman who says, "No, no" with her mouth while her body says, "Yes, yes." I think stories with non-consensual sex and mixed messages and outdated stereotypes are gross, and I don't really want to read them. I mostly skimmed the stories that had this kind of stuff in them.
(I had actually read "The Story of No" before, but didn't fully remember it when I encountered it in this book. I decided to read it again because I wasn't really sure why I had disliked it the first time. Now I know.)
I did like a couple of stories in this collection. "Reasons Not to Go to Fort Lauderdale" (about a group of college students who live together and have sex together) was really hot, and "Oh, Brother" was pretty good too.
But a couple of good stories is not reason enough to keep this on my real life erotica shelf. I will offer this off on BookMooch, from whence it came.
(I had actually read "The Story of No" before, but didn't fully remember it when I encountered it in this book. I decided to read it again because I wasn't really sure why I had disliked it the first time. Now I know.)
I did like a couple of stories in this collection. "Reasons Not to Go to Fort Lauderdale" (about a group of college students who live together and have sex together) was really hot, and "Oh, Brother" was pretty good too.
But a couple of good stories is not reason enough to keep this on my real life erotica shelf. I will offer this off on BookMooch, from whence it came.
October 5, 2010
This book is as hot as changing diapers. I suppose I'm not the target audience- it has a definite Harlequin feel to it. Even in the more 'edgy' stories the sexuality is very 'gender role' oriented. I think it's great that some ladies put this deal together (though it's been done before, and better,) but all of the stories seem to suffer from the same lack of believability- the eroticism seems forced or juvenile, inorganic. There's none of the actual nervous, primal tension you get in actual sexual encounters, only a sort of subdued, ineffective coaxing that ends up being more frustrating than arousing.
November 27, 2015
This book begun with a quote from Madonna: 'I want to write a book of erotic short stories'. When I read this anthology, somehow it's not erotic enough for me. It contained 20 short stories written by women writers who shared their idea, view, perspective, interpretation, opinion and fantasies about sex. The theme is different, from lesbian sex, interracial sexual encounter, threesome, masturbation, married sex, younger older sex and others. I got two stories in this book that I found intriguing: '93 Millions Miles Away' by Barbara Gowdy and 'The Story of No' by Lisa Tuttle. They are all good and make me turn on as I feel so familiar with those feelings too! It's sexy book, but not sexy enough.
December 19, 2023
Anthology. The usual hits and misses. I will forever love snooping on what other people find sexy, especially when they feel safe enough to be honest. This already reads like a cultural artifact, which is interesting too. And definitely less taboo than Nancy Friday, lol.
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July 16, 2019Rating: 3 1/2
It's a collection of erotic stories that features (mostly) authors who don't specialize in erotica. A lot of these stories are more about the scenario than the steamy sex. Not sure if that's a female thing or due to what I just mentioned. There's plenty of variety: settings, ages, orientations, etc. Certain pieces might be controversial. One, in particular, made me a bit uncomfortable.
Favorites:
"Leaper" - Jenny Diski
Worth it just for the ending.
"Ninety-Three Million Miles Away" - Barbara Gowdy
A wife with an exhibitionist side.
"Reasons Not to Go to Fort Lauderdale" - Liz Clarke
The adventures of a bisexual college student.
"The American Woman in the Chinese Hat" - Carole Maso
An excerpt from a novel.
And voluntary death awes me with its absolute refusal to tolerate the intolerable. I admire the cold calculation, the rejection of a life of fear and panic in favor of decision.
- Jenny Diski, "Leaper"
... it's very depressing to me as a writer that I have such cliched mental images during sex.
- Liz Clarke, "Reasons Not to Go to Fort Lauderdale"
It's a collection of erotic stories that features (mostly) authors who don't specialize in erotica. A lot of these stories are more about the scenario than the steamy sex. Not sure if that's a female thing or due to what I just mentioned. There's plenty of variety: settings, ages, orientations, etc. Certain pieces might be controversial. One, in particular, made me a bit uncomfortable.
Favorites:
"Leaper" - Jenny Diski
Worth it just for the ending.
"Ninety-Three Million Miles Away" - Barbara Gowdy
A wife with an exhibitionist side.
"Reasons Not to Go to Fort Lauderdale" - Liz Clarke
The adventures of a bisexual college student.
"The American Woman in the Chinese Hat" - Carole Maso
An excerpt from a novel.
And voluntary death awes me with its absolute refusal to tolerate the intolerable. I admire the cold calculation, the rejection of a life of fear and panic in favor of decision.
- Jenny Diski, "Leaper"
... it's very depressing to me as a writer that I have such cliched mental images during sex.
- Liz Clarke, "Reasons Not to Go to Fort Lauderdale"
March 1, 2018
As in all collections, there are pieces I absolutely adore, and some that I am more indifferent to. Here are a few really wonderful short stories though, like the one with the heightened sense of touch...
June 5, 2009
the story of no = hot, hot, hot business!
November 1, 2010
"It meant that in certain lights, desire sprang up out of nowhere."
September 8, 2019
This had a few good stories, but overall I found it "disappointing." I noted in my journal at the time how disheartening it was at how passive most of the women characters were.
January 3, 2025
★★★★★ (5/5 Stars)
I discovered "Slow Hand" during a languid autumn retreat in the Catskills, where falling leaves and early twilights created the perfect atmosphere for exploring this masterful collection of female-authored erotica. Curled in a window seat overlooking misty mountains, I found myself transported by these stories that celebrate the unhurried exploration of desire.
Slung's curation demonstrates an exquisite understanding of how women write about pleasure – not as a race to climax, but as a sensual journey through landscapes of anticipation. Each story unfolds with the deliberate grace of petals opening at dawn, revealing new layers of complexity with every turn of the page.
The collection's power lies in its celebration of slow seduction. In "The Piano Tuner," the protagonist's growing desire is measured in the careful tuning of strings, each adjustment bringing her closer to surrender. Another standout, "Ripe," transforms the simple act of selecting fruit at a market into an exercise in sensual awareness that left me viewing everyday experiences through new eyes.
Most compelling is how these stories honor the full spectrum of female desire. They explore forbidden longings, unexpected connections, and the sweet ache of anticipation without rushing toward resolution. The writing itself mirrors this approach – languid sentences that stretch like honey, descriptions that linger on subtle details: the brush of silk against skin, the changing quality of light across bare shoulders, the sound of breathing in an empty room.
The anthology's organizing principle – that true eroticism requires time and attention – feels revolutionary in our fast-paced world. Stories like "The Letter" demonstrate how distance and delay can heighten desire, while "Midnight Bloom" explores how awareness of impending pleasure can become a form of pleasure itself.
Years later, certain passages still surface in memory like perfume: the description of hands moving across piano keys that becomes increasingly charged with erotic tension; the moment in "Summer Heat" where a glance across a crowded room stretches into eternity; the careful removal of stockings that becomes an act of devotion in "The Waiting Game."
Each writer brings her own rhythms to the page, but all share a commitment to exploring the deeper currents of desire. They understand that true sensuality lives in the spaces between actions – in anticipation, in memory, in the electric field of possibility that surrounds two people drawing slowly closer.
The collection's genius lies in its ability to make waiting sexy. These aren't just stories about physical encounters; they're meditations on the nature of wanting itself. They remind us that desire is as much about the journey as the destination, that pleasure exists in the full awareness of each moment's unfolding.
For those who appreciate erotica that engages both mind and body, "Slow Hand" offers a master class in the art of anticipation. It demonstrates how skilled writers can create intense erotic charge through suggestion and restraint, proving that sometimes the most powerful encounters are those that take their time.
In an era of instant gratification, these stories feel like a radical act of patience and presence. They invite us to slow down, to savor, to remember that pleasure isn't just about the peak but about every exquisite step of the climb.
I discovered "Slow Hand" during a languid autumn retreat in the Catskills, where falling leaves and early twilights created the perfect atmosphere for exploring this masterful collection of female-authored erotica. Curled in a window seat overlooking misty mountains, I found myself transported by these stories that celebrate the unhurried exploration of desire.
Slung's curation demonstrates an exquisite understanding of how women write about pleasure – not as a race to climax, but as a sensual journey through landscapes of anticipation. Each story unfolds with the deliberate grace of petals opening at dawn, revealing new layers of complexity with every turn of the page.
The collection's power lies in its celebration of slow seduction. In "The Piano Tuner," the protagonist's growing desire is measured in the careful tuning of strings, each adjustment bringing her closer to surrender. Another standout, "Ripe," transforms the simple act of selecting fruit at a market into an exercise in sensual awareness that left me viewing everyday experiences through new eyes.
Most compelling is how these stories honor the full spectrum of female desire. They explore forbidden longings, unexpected connections, and the sweet ache of anticipation without rushing toward resolution. The writing itself mirrors this approach – languid sentences that stretch like honey, descriptions that linger on subtle details: the brush of silk against skin, the changing quality of light across bare shoulders, the sound of breathing in an empty room.
The anthology's organizing principle – that true eroticism requires time and attention – feels revolutionary in our fast-paced world. Stories like "The Letter" demonstrate how distance and delay can heighten desire, while "Midnight Bloom" explores how awareness of impending pleasure can become a form of pleasure itself.
Years later, certain passages still surface in memory like perfume: the description of hands moving across piano keys that becomes increasingly charged with erotic tension; the moment in "Summer Heat" where a glance across a crowded room stretches into eternity; the careful removal of stockings that becomes an act of devotion in "The Waiting Game."
Each writer brings her own rhythms to the page, but all share a commitment to exploring the deeper currents of desire. They understand that true sensuality lives in the spaces between actions – in anticipation, in memory, in the electric field of possibility that surrounds two people drawing slowly closer.
The collection's genius lies in its ability to make waiting sexy. These aren't just stories about physical encounters; they're meditations on the nature of wanting itself. They remind us that desire is as much about the journey as the destination, that pleasure exists in the full awareness of each moment's unfolding.
For those who appreciate erotica that engages both mind and body, "Slow Hand" offers a master class in the art of anticipation. It demonstrates how skilled writers can create intense erotic charge through suggestion and restraint, proving that sometimes the most powerful encounters are those that take their time.
In an era of instant gratification, these stories feel like a radical act of patience and presence. They invite us to slow down, to savor, to remember that pleasure isn't just about the peak but about every exquisite step of the climb.
February 14, 2023
Not the erotica stories I was expecting.
February 4, 2024
A few worthwhile vignettes, but mostly rambling nearly incoherent schlock.
February 20, 2025
3⭐️ LOL
some good some awful idk why I get into these but I was intrigued, my bad.
some good some awful idk why I get into these but I was intrigued, my bad.
February 15, 2025
3.5 but i did quite enjoy it
June 30, 2011
Someone gave me a box of books and I am not sure that he was aware that this book was among them. The night after he gave me the box I was packing to fly from Charleston to Lansing and my friend Kelly came over to keep me from over packing. She reads a lot so I told her to look through the box to see if there were any books that she was interested in reading. Most of them were war and espionage thrillers but then she pulled out this little gem. Kelly opened it to a random page and started reading out loud. the woman in this story was bending naked over a chair so that the man in the building across the street could watch her masturbating. She was afraid he did not have a good view so she bought some binoculars and left them at this mailbox. Of course Kelly and I both wanted to read this book.
So 4 years later I finally got to it. I did like some of the stories and the one mentioned above wasn't too bad, it was a bit sad. Two of them had some good twists to them. There were actually only three stories that I didn't like. One because the hygiene of one of the participants made me gag, another becasue the woman wanted to be ravished by a man who was raping women in her area, and the third because it was taking place in a monastary.
But since all the stories dealt with women and their sexuality it bcame repetative and boring.
So 4 years later I finally got to it. I did like some of the stories and the one mentioned above wasn't too bad, it was a bit sad. Two of them had some good twists to them. There were actually only three stories that I didn't like. One because the hygiene of one of the participants made me gag, another becasue the woman wanted to be ravished by a man who was raping women in her area, and the third because it was taking place in a monastary.
But since all the stories dealt with women and their sexuality it bcame repetative and boring.
November 9, 2021
1/5 stars
I almost didn't finish the book but finished it anyway. It wasn't extraordinary and there were stories that were more cringy (for the lack of a better term) than sexy. Some of them were non-consensual and it made me uncomfortable reading them.
I almost didn't finish the book but finished it anyway. It wasn't extraordinary and there were stories that were more cringy (for the lack of a better term) than sexy. Some of them were non-consensual and it made me uncomfortable reading them.
October 8, 2015
A nice collection, with talented writers and stories with nice substance. Yet, as I read, there was nothing that spoke to me or struck me in a significant or meaningful way. Perhaps I was just not in the mood...
February 19, 2008
I read this as one of my first jumps into the world of literary erotica. It was this book that helped me see that this is writing worth attempting.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews