Read My Lips

October 3, 2011
Herbenick, associate director and research scientist at the Center for Sexual Health Promotion, Indiana University, as well as a sex columnist and author (Because It Feels Good: A Woman’s Guide to Sexual Pleasure and Satisfaction), and Schick, a social psychologist at the center, have penned a book “for anyone who has a vulva, loves someone with a vulva, came from a vagina, or is just plain curious about their parts.” The two Ph.D.s cover a number of vulva-related topics, including the parts of the vulva, women’s attitudes toward their genitals, vaginal problems such as yeast and bacterial infections, and sexual issues. Anything but priggish or clinical, the authors also tackle such subjects as grooming genital hair and how to make a vulva costume or throw a vulva-themed dinner party. The book is also filled with fascinating facts about the vulva (for example, the word “cunt” may have evolved from the Asian goddess Cunti). While imparting current research and useful advice, the authors play with words (i.e., “The Age of Clit-arius”) and include such humorous anecdotes as the tale of a woman who inadvertently used her child’s glittery craft washcloth to wipe her vulva before visiting her gynecologist. Readers “18 to 80” will find this informative yet lively text goes above and beyond in addressing everything they ever wanted to know about the vulva and vagina.

November 1, 2011

This diverse and informative tour spans health, sex, and V-culture. While the thorough health and sex chapters cover pretty standard sex-book territory, the numerous stops on the culture route pick up on less commonly mentioned size/shape variations, pubic hair styling and coloring, labiaplasty, V-knitting circles and other V-crafts, vulvas in prehistory and myth, V-activism, and a DIY vulva costume. Kinsey Institute researchers Herbenick (Because It Feels Good) and Schick bring extensive knowledge together with a welcoming-all-options attitude. References and an excellent resource list encourage readers to explore favorite topics further. Illustrations, however, are sadly meager: there is one anatomical drawing (no side view or G-spot); small, black-and-white vulva photos; and a few other rather drab visuals. This savvy work is just screaming for stylish color art illustrating techniques, objects, and, of course, V-ville. VERDICT The essential book for vulvovaginal health is Elizabeth G. Stewart and Paula Spencer's The V Book. This new volume will help supplement that definitive text with necessary and entertaining cultural content for 21st-century gals, teens and up. Sadly, its limited illustrations make it safer for libraries.--Martha Cornog, Philadelphia

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2011
This book about the vulva makes The Vagina Monologues seem tame. Written in a chatty style by two scientists at the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University, it gives explicit details about sexually transmitted infections, piercings (they may tear condoms), vibrators (nonporous materials, such as glass, are best), lesbian relationships (sex toys), tampons (they can't get through the cervix), and pubic hair (Playboy models mostly shave). Chapters titled Meet the Vulva, Vulvalicious: Vulvas and Vaginas in Bed, The Hair down There, and Evulvalution: Vulva Culture end with quizzes. A typical question-and-answer: When do doctors recommend that an average woman should douche? Never ever. The writers share stories about themselves, such as when Schick used pubic hair dye. Sometimes they get too cutesie, using such made-up words as cunt-parisons and cuntclusions. The photographs, which depict women's vulvas and a knit vulva from the International Vulva Knitting Circle Collection, are certainly unusual. Herbenick and Schick's intimate guide will educate and entertain women who grew up with birth control and Sex and the City.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)