Eco - Sex - book by Ten Speed Press - review by Jessica Elizabeth

Stehanie Iris Weiss is a author who's been writing for many years. She's written other books on veganism and yoga.

What really impressed me though was her interaction with readers. When I first started reading Eco-Sex, I was a bit taken aback by what *in my opinion* is a very extreme stance in the introduction. A bit off put by this I tweeted about it. Not long after I actually had a response from Weiss! We then talked a bit about it and she encouraged me to keep writing; and also stated that she appreciated my feedback and looked forward to reading my review of her book.

Yay on the feedback! Holy crap on the knowing the freakin' author will be reading my review!!

Called Eco-Sex the book is supposed to be about "greening" up your sex life. However, you don't much get into discussion of sex and sexuality until about page 102. The first 100 pages or so of the book talk about going green with everything from cosmetics to shoes.

There are many practical suggestions and even recipes for things like an exfoliating body scrub. She also goes into detail on chemicals that are bad for the body, things you should avoid and (which I think is really awesome) discusses third party companies that provide guides and lists of eco friendly products and companies and also those that have shady business practices. However there were some lists where she was discussing chemicals you should avoid and for most of the chemicals she explained why. With some though she simply says "avoid like the plague" or something similar but doesn't explain why. Not being a fan of blind faith, I'd like to know why I should or shouldn't avoid something. (Though I can look it up online, if she's going to explain why we should avoid so many other items, I feel that that item too should be explained.)

Here are the chapters:
1 - Everything you always wanted to know about eco-regulation but were afraid to ask
2 - Eco-gorgeousness: much more than skin deep
3 - Eco-fashion: what to wear until your clothes come off
4 - Eco-licious Aphrodesiac Foods: the cream of the crop
5 - Are diamonds really a girl's best friend?
6 - Sexual Healing: or Big Pharma VS Your Big O; How naturally healthy lovers ditch the little ble pill in favor of green
7 - Make Eco-Sex Safe Sex
8 - Looking for Mr GoodPlanet How to find and keep carbon neutral love
9 - Eco Babes in Toyland; Green playthings for the bedroom
10 - bed bath and way beyond; eco-sexing your boudoir
11 - the eco parenting movement; now that you're plus one you'd better make green your mantra

There's also appendices, an index and an introduction.

There are several things that I really liked about this book. First Weiss is kind enough to have sources. Second she has little parts on the bottoms of pages where she explains things such as phthalates, genetically modified organisms and fair trade. Thirdly she speaks in a knowledgeable way but also in a way that we can understand. If there's a term we may not understand; she explains it.

The book was designed to help you go green in your sex life. And Weiss gives plenty of information on how to do that. Unfortunately the book really should have been called "eco-life" as the first half is not much about sex but about the rest of your life.

Not a bad thing! More info is needed on this so it can permeate society; just think that info should have been either pared back, or the book should have been re-titled and formulated differently.

The book has 11 chapters and 3 sections. The sections are for courtship, sex and adventure. With the courtship section, I can see how Weiss was able to sort of make it a whole book about sex.

The book appears to be made out of all recycled material; however I didn't see if and where it was mentioned that it was; typically it is.

It's organized in a way that's very understandable with topics making sense for which chapter and section they're in. The little info blurbs with definitions are set apart nicely with a different color background and text. I wish though that more information had been put in rather than so much information on companies, products and brands. I can see, totally, why you'd mention third party companies that give lists and such on what products really are organic and such, but to then also list pages of those companies I think is a bit much. By giving us the third parties that monitor products we can get their lists and research ourselves.

This is a book about going green; not a shopping guide. Some chapters it seemed had more pages dedicated to products rather than discussion about recycling and going green.

There are no pictures, but the cover is very tasteful. It's not at all discreet though.

This book, I feel, is not for a beginner to the green movement. If you're already starting to live green and want to go more in depth on it, then this book is for you. Weiss explains things well, for the most part, and gives very good tips, advice and recipes on more ways to go green.

However some of the chapters read like little more than a buying guide with more information on products and stores than the actual topic at hand.

The introduction really turned me off this book and I ended up putting it down for a couple days before I could pick it back up again. The feeling that I got reading the intro is that if you don't green *everything* from hemp clothes to green furniture, if even one thing you do is not green such as use latex condoms, then everything else you do is for nothing. That really got under my skin.

Sort of gave the feeling that if you don't go 110% green it's not worth even recycling your aluminum cans. However that *does* ease up a bit as she begins going into more detailed information and giving you suggestions and ideas that you can do around your home.

If you get that feeling too, just give the book a break but keep plugging away at it. It really is worth the info you get!!!