Books can be incredibly helpful to those of us who are seeking pleasure of all kinds. They can be explored introspectively, shared among platonic networks, and engaging with partners. Books can transport you into scenarios you may not yet have found yourself in, or even interactions you’ve never imagined. They can affirm your lived experiences and shape your view of the past. They can help you understand others. Books can even help you get to know yourself better.
Read when you wake up in the morning, on your lunch break, before you go to bed. Not sure where to start? We’ve got you covered.
Want to cover all the bases?
Carnal Knowledge: Sex Education You Didn’t Get in School by Zoë Ligon and Elizabeth Renstrom
Very few of us have received a comprehensive sex education that didn’t come from personal explorations and furious Google searches. Ligon’s “edutainer” work on the internet, and now in print, seeks to fill in the blanks with inclusivity, invitation, and ease. “Lusciously illustrated, this book takes readers through every aspect of sexuality–from body basics and physiology to maintaining healthy relationships.” Renstrom’s gorgeous and vibrant photographs accompany this crash course, making it the perfect book for both the bedside and coffee table!
Getting to know your boundaries?
What You Really Want: The Smart Girl’s Shame-Free Guide to Sex and Safety by Jaclyn Friedman
“Do you know what you really, really want, and how to get it?” What You Really Want prioritizes cultivating a consent culture, penned by one of many foundational voices in sex-positive feminism and powerul campaigner toward affirmative consent law and the end of rape culture. Friedman understands that consent is most possible when you know what you want, alongside what you don’t want. Through myth busting, supportive storytelling, and with invitations into practices that explore your pleasure—your desires, your doubts, your hard stops (no thanks!)— Friedman gets at the heart of shame and the importance of meeting yourself where you’re at. (Sexual liberation doesn’t have to look one way. That’s not liberatory!)
“This empowering guide will help you navigate the barriers and brudens that too often prevent women from developing a shame-free, blame-free, and fear-free sexuality. What You Really Want provides you with the tools to safely and confidently express your sexuality—whatever your desires may be.”
Loving up on your body?
The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
Together a movement of unapologetically fierce and body positive people have committed to dismantling shame and reconnecting with the body. In a society that wants to divorce the mind from the body, a society that disconnects us by discouraging the celebration of difference among us, Sonya Renee Taylor has been at the forefront of this movement. The catalyst for this congregation, Taylor welcomed all bodies, all identities, all life experiences—starting with herself. This book, crafted after and alongside a website full of rich resources, invites its readers to do the same.
“The Body Is Not An Apology was created to remind us that we do not need to wait to feel beautiful, powerful, or worthy tomorrow. We can choose to act in honor of our bodies today, no matter the form they currently take. All lasting, healthy growth is born of love. Your body needs you to love it today, just as it is, however it is, unapologetically.”
Want to politicize your pleasure?
Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown
How do we make social justice the most pleasurable human experience? How can we awaken within ourselves desires that make it impossible to settle for anything less than a fulfilling life? Brown explores these questions from the lens of “pleasure activism,” a politics that prioritizes pleasure as a part of the hard, liberatory work of changing the world.
This anthology style book covers race and gender justice, climate chaos and love in apocalypse, sexuality, and so much more. It recognizes that for so many of us, what is pleasurable is politicized and policed. And, it celebrates the opportunities for pleasure to show up in our political lives.
Stay tuned for more literary round-ups!
Jaye Elizabeth Elijah