In Your Own Voice: Using Life Stories to Develop Writing Skills

Ready to occupy a central place on the women's health bookshelf, this comprehensive, quietly authoritative consideration of female sexuality treats its topics, in particular that of desire, with a rare combination of breadth, practicality, strong--though not rigid--opinion and generous respect for individual experience. Davis, a midwife and an author (Energetic Pregnancy), offers a clear discussion of the neurological and hormonal aspects of women's sexuality. Describing daily physical changes during the course of a menstrual cycle, she makes fertility management via bodily awareness seem both possible and appealing (she is also a proponent of the cervical cap for birth control). The chapter on pregnancy and childbirth blends a discussion of physiological effects of these states with comments from a range of women on their varying experiences of desire when pregnant or having recently delivered. The effects of stress, menopause and aging on women's sexuality are matter-of-factly delineated and, thus, demythologized; these explanations are augmented by a broad spectrum of first-person observations. Chapters on sexual dysfunction, abuse and abstinence round out this fully developed, compassionate and uniquely informative work. (Nov.)