Rose Caraway

The Sexy Librarian's Big Book of Erotica contains twenty-two short stories, with literary tones ranging from exotic romance to sordid porn, although favoring the former, and diverse genre settings including science fiction, supernatural horror, and superhero action, along with more "mainstream" narrative situations. All but three were written by women, and one of the male-authored stories was my least favorite of the set. BDSM emphasis is present in only a minority of the pieces.

I enjoyed most of these pretty well, but none of them floored me and left me hoping to hunt down more from their particular authors. They are all short enough to be read in a lone sitting, or a shared reclining. I can recommend the book for filler entertainment, but can't consider it a prize volume in my library.… (meer)

Unlike most of the erotica collections I've come across, this one is filled with stories which are both varied and wonderfully written, stories that are worth reading and engaging on a human level, and not just included to balance out others or on the basis of particular scenes. All told, even the stories here which were (far far) beyond anything I'd find erotically interesting were still so well-written and so cleverly executed that I didn't have any desire to skim over them or skip them entirely, as has always been my instinct with some stories in other (similar) collections. Rather than seeking out a best-of collection the next time in the market for a collection like this, I'll look instead to works edited by Rose Caraway.

If you're looking for a collection of erotica, or want to know whether erotica can be literary as well, this might just be worth your while.

For what it is? Recommended.… (meer)