cover image The Cookie Book: Celebrating the Art, Power, and Mystery of Woman’s Sweetest Spot

The Cookie Book: Celebrating the Art, Power, and Mystery of Woman’s Sweetest Spot

Maritza Breitenback. Hunter House (PGW, dist.), $17.95 trade paper (224p) ISBN 978-0-89793-606-4

This approachable, borderline cutesy paean to all things vagina takes a playful and educational approach while discussing issues of terminology, anatomy, cultural concerns, hygiene, grooming, disease, and stage-of-life changes, targeted at a novice audience that may be shy about frank discussions of bodies and sexuality. Appealingly illustrated with classical and contemporary paintings of nude women, lovely portraits, and brightly colored displays of every conceivable vagina euphemism (flowers, cookies, fruits, seashells), the book fails its subject matter by omitting actual genital photography and helpful, anatomical diagrams, leaving the reader to figure out the colors, shapes, and structures of the vagina or the identification of STDs from the text descriptions. In many cases, Breitenback’s choice of material undermines her desire to reduce shame and fear, putting focus on topics like virginity proof practices, female genital mutilation, and cosmetic labiaplasty even as she rails against them, or focusing on the fear of episiotomy during childbirth while omitting information about the natural elasticity of the vagina, and taking an outdated sex-negative attitude in her discussion of STDs. As a handbook that could form the jumping-off point for a women’s group discussion, this might be an effective enough tool, but the gaps in information make it an inadequate choice for self-enlightenment. (Dec.)