Psst…this post is about S-E-X, oh, and a pretty sweet giveaway

A few weeks ago, I was approached by HarperCollins to do a book review of Thanks for Coming: One Young Woman’s Quest for an Orgasm by Mara Altman. My immediate reaction was, um, YES because a) I’m obsessed with memoirs and b) who doesn’t love to read/write/talk about or have sex? Not this girl!

My lovely review copy came just in time for me to pack it with me on the plane to Mexico. I started it right away while lying poolside on day one, and HELLO, I couldn’t put it down! I kinda wanted my BF to go off on solo snorkeling trips all the time, just so I could be left alone with the book. Now, if you know me, you know that I read a lot of books and a review like that should come highly coveted. [I'm not just giving a rave review for shits and giggles or suck-up points.]

At age 26 Altman realizes that she’s never had an orgasm and goes on an emotional, physical and sometimes spiritual quest for one. Immediately you’ll probably have the reaction that my boyfriend did when I told him about the book, “Not even with a vibrator?”

No. Not even that. And for the first 100 pages I was like, “Girl! Just go out and buy a freakin vibrator!” as she carefully, with the detail of a true journalist, logs all of her past sexual relationships, growing up with a sexually open "naked family," and her emotional attachments, or nonattachments, that have prevented her from orgasming. Pretty soon, everyone in her story was telling her to just.go.out, and buy a VIBRATOR too, but for Altman, it was more of a personal journey and exploration. Altman’s quest turned from simply searching for orgasm, to searching for the sexual being in her that would let go of all inhibitions, insecurities and just LOVE being a woman, even with all the grody details that womanhood sometimes entails.

Altman is insightful, witty (even the mere chapter titles crack me up) and delightfully honest. And what keeps the book rolling, page after page, is her secret door into the crazy underworld of sex. I don’t even know where she obtained half the contacts she did, but as she searches for her orgasmic self and the MEANING OF ORGASM, she spends time with sex workers and scientists, goes to sex shows and conventions, takes off on trips with a sex colony, interviews women that have been deemed the original, ALL-KNOWING sources of the female orgasm, and regularly experiments with her “sacred whore.”

You’ll want to read this book, if for nothing else than to kick up your sex vibe a bit – if you read about sex, you’re thinking about sex, and it pretty much makes you want to have sex all the time. I think I wanted to have sex 462 times a day while I read this book. That might be TMI, but nothing like the TMI you’ll read in Thanks for Coming…

So, the book went on sale today, but I have five lovely copies to give away to you, blog readers! Isn’t that exciting? All you have to do is enter the contest by telling me in the comments how many people you’ve slept with!

Joke.

Just leave any comment, no special response necessary, and you’ll be entered. If your comment doesn’t link to a site, be sure to leave your email or send it to me privately at whatjesaid@gmail.com. If you have a Twitter account, and Tweet about the contest, I'll give you a double entry. The giveaway closes on Friday, and I will choose five winners at random and mail out your copy of the book this weekend!

(P.S. The first person to leave a comment automatically wins a book just because your Twitter or RSS skills rock).

Currently Feeling: Groggy. I couldn't stop watching Trading Spouses last night. Those people are craaazy!
Currently Anticipating: Checking out some more sweet condos/apartments tonight. I'm anxious to make a decision this week!
Currently Needing: To get back into The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I opted for lighter reading during vacation, and now I'm not into it.