S
chwartz, a sociologist at the University of Washington and sex and relationship adviser (The Great Sex Weekend
) starts off with a question she had to ask herself: what should a woman do when she’s suddenly single again after 23 years of marriage, hoping for another long-term relationship, or at least sex and companionship? “I feel as sexually alive as I did when I was 25, but the number and availability of men for me has changed,” Schwartz writes. Her candid and sexy memoir, targeted toward women in their 40s, 50s and 60s, is both a highly entertaining sexual autobiography and an account of her romantic liaisons in the five years after her divorce. The book is an unusual and appealing mixture of realistic dating tips and shrewd relationship advice interspersed with cautionary tales of Schwartz’s rocky relationships with a succession of alpha males Despite the continuing thud of her romantic disappointments, Schwartz doesn’t regret the risks she took. Ultimately, she learns to savor the pleasure of just being alive in her own body. For someone who admits that she can let her “hormones create fake intimacy” in her relationships, it’s nice to see Schwartz finally enjoying an authentic relationship with herself. (June)
