Lust: erotic fantasies for women - book discontinued by Cleis Press Inc. - review by Elena

It's no secret that I'm a snob when it comes to writing, and it's also no secret that erotic fiction is one of the most difficult genres to write. Luckily for me, given that erotic fiction appeals to me more than traditional porn, there are several extremely gifted writers out there. Violet Blue, an accomplished writer and sex educator herself, pulled together several talented writers with a variety of focuses to make up her latest book, Lust.

Lust suffers from a common problem—in trying to represent a diversity of sexual interests, it hasn't adequately represented any of them. Luckily, each story was so gracefully written that while not every story appealed to me, each of them still struck me as being beautiful. It has many unusual strengths; it is the first book I've read that successfully eroticized safe sex, for example, and its stories cover aging and lesbian sex in ways that I could easily relate—and aspire— to, despite being neither.

Of special note is the story "The Butch, The Boy, and Me," by Andrea Zanin, a story that celebrates the eroticism of gender and sex separately without resorting to clichés or relying on either to carry the story. For better or worse, though, this story, like the others, is erotic in a very subtle way. Another favorite was "The Importance of Good Networking," by Saskia Walker, sure to get a chuckle out of the geekiest among us, if nothing else.

Lust is not, as many similar books are, strictly one-handed reading (though it certainly could be). Rather, it is a celebration of possibility in sometimes mundane situations, that encourages you to look for the beauty and possibility in your everyday life. It is the kind of sensitively-written book you could keep on your shelf, read aloud with a lover, or give to most of the women in your life without shame.