In the spirit of the Slow Food movement, Daedone introduces the Slow Sex movement, which urges couples to take time to investigate a woman’s genitalia and her responses to contact.
A 10-day life-changing starter program of Orgasmic Meditation, or OM, is designed to educate both partners about the female body and what it wants. In specific, vivid detail, the author provides instructions for exploring the different means of clitoral stimulation, while describing sensations and how to build, then ground, sexual energy. The benefits extend beyond the obvious: Women cultivate the ability to communicate during intimate moments, furthering their ability to state their needs outside the bedroom. While it all sounds wonderful, it may present a challenge to practice; OM requires a partner dedicated to a potentially awkward process and open to discussion of his technique. However, bonus chapters on Slow Oral (His and Hers) and intercourse provide sensuous counsel more universally applicable. At times far-fetched, other times keenly perceptive, Daedone offers astute insights but also makes a few questionable claims—e.g., an orgasm that lasts four months, or that every woman can be orgasmic—that are validated when she redefines “orgasm” so it is no longer synonymous with “climax.” Encouraging testimonials from practitioners scattered throughout offer hope, yet lack the warmth and veracity of the few personal stories the author shares from her youth. Real-life lovemaking advice from a sex specialist entangled in an idealistic program.
Pub Date: May 25, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-446-56719-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
The former First Lady (First Lady from Plains, 1984, etc.) offers advice, support, and pats on the back for all those who feed, clothe, bathe, and comfort sick friends and relatives, for those who insert the feeding tubes and empty the bedpans. In her introduction, Carter explains: ``I have written Helping Yourself Help Others to hopefully ease the trauma associated with caregiving and to help you feel not quite so alone.'' In a tone that hovers somewhere between the maternal and the institutional, Carter reassures home caregivers that their complaints about having no time of their own are not expressions of selfishness and that fatigue is not failure. She offers strategies to avoid burnout and depression and advice on how to deal with the problems that caregiving can cause in a marriage. It's not just care for the old and infirm that she addresses. Carter's talking to those who care for developmentally disabled children, people with AIDS, the injured, and anyone else who might require long-term care in the home. Much of the data used in the book comes out of the Rosalynn Carter Institute at Georgia Southwestern College. (Author tour)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-8129-2370-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Times/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
An engrossing, informative, and sometimes-frightening medical account that ends on an inspirational high note.
A debut memoir explores love, cancer, and learning to live in the moment.
On June 29, 2012, Slaby and her husband, Michael, were preparing to finish work (she at a Chicago law firm, he with the Barack Obama re-election campaign) before boarding a plane for New York to attend a friend’s wedding. But first she had to see her doctor. She had been suffering from shortness of breath. Her physician detected a heart irregularity and insisted she see a cardiologist immediately. What followed became a nightmare medical saga. X-rays and CT scans revealed a grapefruit-sized tumor pressing down on her heart: “My tumor was pushing on my heart, which reacted to protect itself by filling the sac where it lives with fluid. There was so much fluid, however, that my heart was under attack from its own protection.” The author was diagnosed with stage 2 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Chemotherapy, the prescribed treatment, first involved discussions of how to preserve her fertility. She was only 33 years old. While the tumor was not removed surgically, chemotherapy successfully shrank it. And then a December 2012 follow-up PET scan showed her thymus lighting up. It could be nothing—the tumor, now one-quarter of its original size, may have wound around her thymus. Or it could be something dire. The ensuing surgery involved cracking open her chest. Then a medical error almost caused her death. Slaby’s narrative is about much more than cancer. Although the unusual complexity of the sequential medical emergencies the author endured, which she details in lucid, graphic prose, threatens to overwhelm the memoir, she also presents a tender love story. Slaby deftly intersperses portions that recall the shifting up-and-down dynamics of her long relationship with Michael. These sections, despite the periods of great turmoil, offer readers respite from the grueling medical drama. As she worked toward physical, psychological, and emotional recovery, the author meticulously documents how difficult it was for her, a self-described “control freak,” to let go of the past and find “grace and kindness inside the unexpected.”
An engrossing, informative, and sometimes-frightening medical account that ends on an inspirational high note.Pub Date: March 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63331-028-5
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Disruption Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 14, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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