The Sexy Librarian's Big Book of Erotica

Caraway, best known for the Kiss Me Quick's Erotica Podcast, invokes her role as the Sexy Librarian to bring together 22 erotic stories that range freely over a multitude of genres and styles. She takes the premise one step further by prefacing every selection with a title card reminiscent of library card catalogs. "Book Swap" by Rachel Kramer Bussel is listed under the BDSM category, with the subjects of Bratty Sub, Airplane, and Spanking. Readers will know ahead of time whether they're in for Greek mythology (Janine Ashbless's "Three Legs in the Evening"), Romance (Chase Morgan's "The Secret Game"), Fantasy/Horror (Kristina Wright's "Vivi and the Magic Man"). While the selections vary wildly in tone and theme, they're almost uniformly hot; sensuality, playfulness, indulgence and exploration abound, as do fantasies fulfilled and appetites satiated. Every story is worth mentioning, but standouts include "Sensate Silicone" by Lillian Douglas, in which a porn star tests out a prosthetic dildo that grants full sensation; Lynn Townsend's voyeuristic "Full-Frontal Neighbor"; and Michael Lewis's playful "The Contest." The selections are overwhelmingly heterosexual with a few lesbian encounters, but the wide range of stories means there's a little something for nearly everyone, and very little will disappoint. (Aug.)