Purchase these curated books to expand your sensual horizons. Titles bought here through Bookshop, our affiliate site, help independent bookstores and Wild & Sublime!
Take a look at our Bookshop page or browse through the titles mentioned on the podcast below.
Mentioned On the Podcast:
The Smart Girl’s Guide to Polyamory
Everything You Need to Know about Open Relationships, Non-Monogamy, and Alternative Love
Wild Side Sex: The Book of Kink
Educational, Sensual, and Entertaining Essays
The Monster Under the Bed
Sex, Depression, and the Conversations We Aren’t Having
Mind Play
All kinds of people are secretly (or not so secretly) fascinated by the erotic possibilities of hypnosis. Many of us know that hypnosis doesn’t really have the kind of mind-melting power we see in movies. Still, we can’t help but get turned on at the thought of either controlling someone, or being controlled by someone, into doing things we’ve been told we shouldn’t do … but really, inside, kind of want to. In this book, Mark Wiseman (Wiseguy) will teach you how to put your partner into a hypnotic trance safely and effectively.
A Guide to Erotic Hypnosis
Urban Tantra
If you think sexual and spiritual bliss can’t be found in today’s fast-paced world, you haven’t experienced Urban Tantra. Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Urban Tantra, acclaimed sex educator Barbara Carrellas radically updates the ancient practice of Tantra for modern sexual explorers desiring to discover new frontiers.
Sacred Sex for the 21st Century
In at the Deep End
Julia has had enough. Enough of the sex noises her roommate makes. Enough of her dead-end government job. Enough of the one-night stand who accused her of breaking his penis. The only thing she hasn’t had enough of is orgasms; she hasn’t had proper sex in three years. So when Julia gets invited to a warehouse party in a part of town where trendy people who have lots of sex go on a Friday night, she readily accepts. And that night she meets someone: a figurative artist who also happens to be a woman…
A Novel
Group
Author and interviewee Christie Tate’s absorbing memoir about the quest for intimacy. Group is a deliciously addictive read, and with Christie as our guide–skeptical of her own capacity for connection and intimacy, but hopeful in spite of herself–we are given a front row seat to the daring, exhilarating, painful, and hilarious journey that is group therapy–an under-explored process that breaks you down, and then reassembles you so that all the pieces finally fit.
How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life
Many Love
After trying for years to emulate her boomer parents’ forty-year and still-going-strong marriage, Sophie realized that maybe the love she was looking for was down a road less traveled. In this bold, graphic memoir, she explores her sexuality, her values, and the versions of love our society accepts and practices.
A Memoir of Polyamory and Finding Love(s)
The Art of Receiving and Giving
Why would most people endure unwanted or unsatisfying touch, rather than speak up for their own boundaries and desires? It’s a question with a myriad of answers – and one that Dr. Betty Martin has explored in her 40+ years as a hands-on practitioner, first as a chiropractor and later as a Somatic Sex Educator, Certified Surrogate Partner and Sacred Intimate.
The Wheel of Consent
Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns
Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns will tell you all about sadomasochism. We made it light-hearted and fun to read because SM is fun to do. That’s why we do it. But fun is only SM’s overture; for those who grasp its message, SM is sexual magic. Allow us to guide you through the captivating realms of sensuality, dreamed of by millions, realized by few, and understood by fewer still.
The Romance and Sexual Sorcery of Sadomasochism
The Erotic Mind
Challenging accepted theories about what makes for terrific sex, “The Erotic Mind” is a breakthrough exploration of the least understood dimensions of human sexuality—the psychology of desire, arousal, and fulfillment. A great book for understanding your desires and how to work with them.
Unlocking the Inner Sources of Passion and Fulfillment
Eros the Bittersweet
The insights presented in the volume are many and wide-ranging, recognizably in tune with the subtlest modern discussions of desire (such as triangulation. or loving what others love), yet offering new solutions to old problems, like the proper interpretation of Plato’s Phaedrus. On the frequently discussed effect of literacy on Greek civilization, the book offers a fresh view: it was no accident that the poets who invented Eros were also the first readers and writers of the Western literate tradition.
An Essay
Kintsugi
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of using gold (and other precious metals) to repair broken pottery. The ritual is complex, intentional, and contemplative. Upon completion, the once-broken vessels are made whole. They are stronger and possess a different type of beauty than before. Kintsugi is the perfect metaphor for healing trauma. This collection is designed to highlight the varying approaches to healing and to honor our individual needs along the way.
Powerful Stories of Healing Trauma
A Year of Mr. Lucky
When Meg Weber–a recently divorced, queer, single parent – realizes she’s ready to date again, she comes across the profile of Mr. Lucky. He’s a smart dominant with similar interests, but not all goes as planned. In her memoir, A Year Of Mr. Lucky, Meg takes us through her journey of erotic encounters, pain and pleasure, explorations of self-worth, submission, yearning, and healing.
The Ethical Slut
The classic guide to love, sex, and intimacy beyond the limits of conventional monogamy has been fully updated to reflect today’s modern attitudes and the latest information on nontraditional relationships.
Third Edition
Science for Sexual Happiness
New scientific understandings of the brain and nervous system can guide us in creating expanded sexual happiness. With accessible theory, real-life stories, and over 100 evidence-based practices.
A Guide to Reclaiming Erotic Pleasure
Come as You Are
Features new information and research on mindfulness, desire, and pleasure that will radically transform your sex life. Recommended in S2 Ep2 and consistently on “best sex books” lists.
The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life
The Come as You Are Workbook
A practical companion to the bestselling guide, filled with new activities, prompts, and thought-provoking examples to help you exercise and expand on the knowledge you’ve learned.
A Practical Guide to the Science of Sex
The State of Affairs
A provocative look at relationships through the lens of infidelity. An affair: it can rob a couple of their relationship, their happiness, their very identity. And yet, this extremely common human experience is so poorly understood. What are we to make of this time-honored taboo—universally forbidden yet universally practiced? Recommended by numerous show guests.
Rethinking Infidelity
Mating in Captivity
A New York City therapist examines the paradoxical relationship between domesticity and sexual desire and explains what it takes to bring lust home. Recommended by numerous show guests.
Unlocking Erotic Intelligence
The Jealousy Workbook
A counselor and nurse specializing in polyamorous singles, couples and groupings, Kathy Labriola has spent many years helping people to understand and manage their jealousy. This book is a compendium of the techniques and exercises she has developed, as well as tips and insights from the polyamory community’s top educators, therapists and authors.
Exercises and Insights for Managing Open Relationships
The Chronology of Water
This is not your mother’s memoir. In The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuknavitch expertly moves the reader through issues of gender, sexuality, violence, and the family from the point of view of a lifelong swimmer turned artist. Recommended by author Christie Tate.
A Memoir
Queer
Activist-academic Meg John Barker and cartoonist Julia Scheele illuminate the histories of queer thought and LGBTQ+ action in this groundbreaking non-fiction graphic novel. Recommended by sex educator Sarah Sloane.
A Graphic History
The Conscious Sexual Self Workbook
Explore your own sexual history, values, and desires to discover the richness and passion of your own unique and dynamic sexuality.
Sexual Outsiders
Sexual Outsiders: Understanding BDSM Sexualities and Communities delves into the unique experiences of individuals in BDSM communities. While misunderstandings surrounding these communities prevail, BDSM sexuality cuts across race, gender, nationality, and sexual orientation.
Understanding BDSM Sexualities and Communities
Wait, What?
Great for preteens and developmentally disabled adults.
A Comic Book Guide to Relationships, Bodies, and Growing Up
S.E.X.
The All-You-Need-To-Know Sexuality Guide to Get You Through Your Teens and Twenties
A wonderfully nuanced and comprehensive book on sexuality for everyone.
Sex for One
Confronting one of our last and most deeply rooted taboos—masturbation—noted sex expert and pro-sex feminist Betty Dodson, Ph.D., takes the shame out of self-love by creating a straightforward and appealing guidebook that reveals masturbation as a satisfying, vital form of sexual expression.
The Joy of SelfLoving
Header photo by Ergita Sela on Unsplash
