Pleasure

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 28 NOV 2005

Orgasm. Not everybody's having one-and that's perfectly okay according to Hutcherson, gynecologist and co-director of the New York Center for Women's Sexual Health at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. This sexual wellness guide aims to liberate women from anxieties and inhibitions preventing them from experiencing a full spectrum of sexual pleasure. Hutcherson redefines "good sex" by shifting the focus from society's emphasis on achieving orgasm to the delight possible in finding enhanced sexual satisfaction through the discovery of, and guiltless indulgence in, intimate acts purely for the sake of pleasure. She begins with well-illustrated discussions about female and male anatomy and the ways each body part contributes to the overall ability to experience pleasure. Always explanatory, but never too clinical, the author maintains a frank and unreserved voice that spices up anatomical facts while also tempering her explicit advice on over 150 (primarily heterosexual) techniques and positions. The book has surprising inclusions: a chapter on how food choices affect desire, prescriptive exercises to strengthen and tone muscles of the pelvic region, direct talk about the waxing and waning of desire within marriage and a matter-of-fact chapter on anal sex. For women whose feeling of entitlement to sexual pleasure needs reinforcing, this guide's emphasis on comfort and confidence as the foundation of sexiness and the ability to experience pleasure will be very useful.