Book Review -- Purple Panties

Title: Purple Panties: An Eroticanoir.com Anthology
Editor: Zane
Genre: Lesbian Erotic Anthology
Edition: Kindle
Published: 2008

"Zane, the New York Times bestselling author and Queen of Erotic Fiction, brings a new collection of lesbian erotica that will blow the sheets off beds everywhere.

What happens when "The Finest Man" you have ever laid eyes on is a woman? What happens when a woman comes home to her man after a hard day's work with "Lipstick on Her Collar?" What happens when a married woman runs across the love of her life -- another woman -- who insists that "It's All or Nothing?" Is there such a thing as playing too "Hard to Get?" What happens when "Mom's Night Out" turns into group sex? What happens when you discover your true sexuality "At Last?" All of these questions and more are answered within the pages of Purple Panties.

Written by women from all over the world, here is a new level of lesbian erotica, compiled by Zane, that promises the most exciting and steamy reading experience possible. These stories move beyond race, age, and all walks of life, including long-hidden passions, secret rendezvous with strangers, and May-December romances.

With Zane's ever-growing popularity, and the need for increasingly quality erotica, Purple Panties will satisfy a long-standing demand for African-American lesbian literature.

In the tradition of such successful erotica anthologies as Chocolate Flava and Caramel Flava, Purple Panties uncovers a new world of evocative risk-taking that has never been explored before from a lesbian perspective. The adventures in these stories are beyond everyone's wildest imaginations." ~Amazon.com Product Description

Thoughts: There was as much variety in this book as there were authors. Variety in every way. Some authors went into intimate detail about the sex, so crisp you could feel it, some left the details to the imagination and just led you there. Some stories took you to climax, some just teased. Some girls were black, some white. Some rich, some poor. Some femme, some butch. But all of the stories were steamy and all of the girls were hot.

There were some very elegant parts, and some kind of cheesy. I enjoyed them all, though some turned me on more than others. Also, all the erotica, and most fiction, I had read before this were only white girls, not because that was the erotica I had chosen, but because I had never actually encountered erotica with black girls in them. Many but not all of the girls in these stories were black, and some of the slang was unfamiliar to me, living my whole life in almost completely white towns in the Western United States. Some of the descriptions on skin colours and nipple colours were so poetic. The descriptions were very lovely.

I wouldn't say I was completely satisfied with every story, but by and large I enjoyed the book. It was definitely worth reading, and I'd recommend it. It has something for everyone, I think.

Reviewed by:
~Raven

Dear John, I Love Jane: Women Write about Leaving Men for Women

Title: Dear John, I Love Jane: Women Write about Leaving Men for Women
Editor: Candace Welsh and Laura André
Genre: Autobiographical Anthology
Format: Kindle
Published: 2010
Opening Line: 'This gripping collection of first-person narratives will undoubtedly expand and deepen your understanding of women’s sexuality, whether you are gay, straight, or somewhere in between.' (Location 39)

Arousing, inspiring, and bold, this Seal Press anthology reveals a new awareness of female sexuality.

Kicking things off, Dr. Lisa Diamond's foreword states, "These women have bravely explored every edge of the supposed boundary dividing the queer from the straight, before from after, truth from falsehood, self from façade, and girl from woman....In the end, each of these women makes her own peace with identity, desire, kinship, community, partnership, and self, sometimes with a lover by her side, sometimes alone."

27 essays follow, by smart, hilarious, and heroically honest writers, who, like Cynthia Nixon, Portia de Rossi, and Wanda Sykes, left heterosexual lives behind to pursue relationships with women.

Activist and author Jennifer Baumgardner closes the book with this grace note: "...the dominant power in this book is love. You read the word over and over on these pages. These stories are not just about finding that perfect person to love, but finding yourself and loving her. It’s being connected to something between women; feeling that you are on the side of all of the women who ever wanted something more and who wanted to be bigger or different than the narrow silhouette of traditional womanhood. It’s chafing against the idea that women could only love or be loved in a certain way and proving that assumption dead wrong."

Dear John, I Love Jane is a timely, candid exploration of female sexuality and personal choice.
(From http://www.dearjohnilovejane.com)

Quotes:
'Living as a whole person, and learning to accept my own messy contradictions, is not only politically powerful, but much more sexually satisfying.' (Location 746)

'It is our desire to help people see us as their neighbors, their friends, and to see that our sexuality and identity are nothing to fear. We are spiritual, we are mothers and fathers, workers, shoppers, devoted family members, much more similar to heterosexuals than different. We’re not here to destroy families, seduce straight people, or scare anyone. We are here to live our lives and love the people we love. One of the unfortunate aspects of being gay in our culture is that while I had so many rights as a married straight woman, I do not have the same rights as a married gay woman. I still pay taxes and support my country in many ways. It is unfortunate that my rights are not equal because of my sexuality. We are here to be Americans, to claim the truth of “All people are created equal,” and to receive equal access to the constitutional pursuit of our happiness. It will be a beautiful day when that happiness—alongside our rights—will be recognized for all Americans.' (Location 3074)

'So there I was, in an “official” lesbian relationship. No man around. We could go to Gay Pride and everything. I expected it to feel different than my straight relationship—and it did—but not for the reasons I was expecting. It felt different to be in a relationship where my partner actually loved all of my shortcomings instead of mocking them, where I was encouraged to be who I was instead of being molded into a person that made my partner look better, where the sex was mind-blowingly fantastic. It felt different to be in a relationship with someone who actually wanted children and was willing to work hard at parenting. The relationship felt different, but it wasn’t because my partner was a woman. It was because my partner was Kia. It wasn’t her sex or gender that made things different. It was because I had chosen the right person, the person who loved me for me, and who wanted to be with me.' (Location 3353)

'If I look back on this journey, I see a collection of moments, occasional lights along the dark path of memory.' (Location 3544)

'While I see political energy all over these stories, the dominant power in this book is love. You read the word over and over on these pages. These stories are not just about finding that perfect person to love, but finding yourself and loving her. It’s being connected to something between women; feeling that you are on the side of all of the women who ever wanted something more and who wanted to be bigger or different than the narrow silhouette of traditional womanhood. It’s chafing against the idea that women could only love or be loved in a certain way and proving that assumption dead wrong.' (Location 3915)