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elizabeth12's review
challenging
medium-paced
4.0
I agree with the reviews that say this book is all over the place. It's part memoir and part feminist history. I actually enjoyed how the author wove these two together. I like that she related different feminist theories and ideologies to her personal life, and she even talked about some of the more radical theories. And I found it really interesting to read about a person who focuses so much on pleasure and sex.
bibliodefiled's review
3.0
2.5 rounded up. For me, it seemed like the writer was too in her head while also not doing the actual introspection work and self reflection. The book couldn't decide if it wanted to be more memoir or more sociological writing, so it's neither. A few more rounds of edits probably could have made the book feel less choppy and flow together better. The first half is also spent conflating marriage and sex and the perspective is a little rigid. The second half is better, but I think it tries to cover too many topics tangentially related to sex that there doesn't seem to be an overall conclusion to what the writer is getting at.
_lilbey_'s review
2.0
Very disjointed and disorganized. I liked the historical analysis, and while I find it important to use personal experience to understand broader cultural phenomena, the memoir portion of this book just irritated me. It felt like she was trying to create her own "Fear of Flying" and pat herself on the back for being so sexually liberal and open, while subtly disparaging those who choose more traditional sexual paths.
ladyheather10's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
rebelqueen's review
3.0
This is part memoir, part history of the American sexual revolution, part sociological examination of sex in American society now. It felt disjointed and unorganized, but it did have some good insights.
betsyrisen's review
4.0
“Abortion laws are sexist laws, made by men to punish women.”
I wanted to like this book more than I did, but in the end I was stubbornly working through it to the finish line out of some sense of duty to the subject matter. I genuinely appreciated the history lessons and context provided by the author throughout.
This is a me problem, not an author problem. I just want to state that for the record.
I wanted to like this book more than I did, but in the end I was stubbornly working through it to the finish line out of some sense of duty to the subject matter. I genuinely appreciated the history lessons and context provided by the author throughout.
This is a me problem, not an author problem. I just want to state that for the record.
simplychi's review
5.0
It’s a memoir about why the author’s marriage ended while using her late mom’s feminist writings to explore feminist history on sex - exploring the concept of marriage, monogamy, sexuality, and more. A little jumbled at times trying to keep up with the many concepts and her own sexual history and her mom’s but I enjoyed the many ways this made me think.