Are you excited about all the great books published on sexuality? Here are a few that I recommend.

Emily Nagoski, Come As You Are

This is a wonderful, empowering and informative book on Women’s Sexuality. Nagoski does a great job of introducing female sexual anatomy, the female sexual response cycle and techniques to enhance pleasure and intimacy between partners in a way that feels engaging, warm, down to earth and easy to read for the novice in sexuality to the professional of sexuality studies. She describes the dual control model developed by Kinsey graduates in a way that feels hugely relevant to our growing understanding of human sexual desire. Her inclusion of arousal non-concordance and the fact that it is prevalent more in women than in men and to what degree feels like important information and a breakthrough in the way we consider consent to have and want sexual encounters. And her emphasis on communication between partners as a way to gauge true desire seems as always, important today as it ever was. In all, this is an important new book in our culture of increased interest in female sexuality.

 

 

 

 

 

Ian Kerner, PhD She Comes First – The Thinking Man’s Guide to Pleasuring a Woman

This book, written primarily with cisgender men in mind, is a helpful, sex-positive book for anyone looking to learn about cunnilingus, the female sexual response system including arousal and female sexual anatomy and increase awareness around why it is so important to include oral sex as the main course and not just a side dish when pleasuring a woman. His book is useful in a sex therapy practice to offer clients because of the thorough description and illustrations of female sexual anatomy, for men who have erectile dysfunction and are looking to expand their repertoire and for couples to read together who may need new ideas to spice up their love life.

 

 

 

 

 

Peter A. Levine Waking the Tiger, Healing Trauma

Peter Levine is the pioneer of the trauma treatment modality known as Somatic Experiencing. As a young man when he began working with patients he stumbled upon a healing process that included gentle touch, somatic awareness exercises and allowing the nervous system to shake off trauma like a gazelle or animal in the wild. He saw tremendous results and a startling decrease in various symptoms that his patients had been suffering from for years. He went on to write Waking the Tiger which is in part a manual of exercises that he has designed, case histories of his patients and an explanation of trauma and how the body responds to it. This has been a good introductory read on trauma and the benefits of Somatic Experiencing and I encourage anyone who has experienced trauma to add it to their collection of materials to draw from.

 

 

 

 

 

Daniel Amen, MD The Brain in Love

Dr. Daniel Amen is a clinical neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and brain-imaging expert. He is the author of many books and heads the world-renowned Amen Clinics. The Brain in Love describes the many hormones, neurotransmitters and brain functions that occur in various stages of love including falling in love, long term love, sexual desires and break ups. This is a great book and an easy to read manuscript on the brain and the way it functions, demystifying some of the feelings, sensations, and behaviours humans engage in around love and breakups. I found this to be immensely helpful in my own understanding and I have recommended this book to friends and colleagues alike.

 

 

 

 

 

Sandra L.Samons When the opposite sex isn’t – Sexual Orientation in Male-to-Female Transgender people

Sandra Samons is a social worker and sexologist with a PhD from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. Her dissertation turned book, When the Opposite Sex Isn’t offers insights on the diversity and spectrum of transsexuals and their experience and elaborates on concepts of gender and sexuality that are useful for any clinician wishing to expand their knowledge of gender identity. This is an important and highly recommended book for anyone in the mental health and sexuality professions.

 

 

 

 

 

Opening Up by Tristan Taormino

This is one of the best books written on Open Relationships.  Highly recommended for anyone interested in opening their relationship or learning more about the concepts of an open relationship that can include any definition other than monogamy.  Tristan is a wonderful writer who makes this subject easy, fun and light.

 

 

 

The Ethical Slut by Dossie Easton and Catherine A. Liszt

A modern classic, The Ethical Slut is a wonderful journey through polyamorous relationships, how to navigate them, how to deal with jealousy, how to be a parent and a family with multiple partners and lovers, how to communicate and how to have a wonderful, full and fulfilling life in a non-monogamous paradigm.