I'm writing this for Stream of Consciousness Sunday over at All Things Fadra.
Here's part of my day described in five short minutes. BELIEVE ME! I could have written about this far longer as you will note after reading. This is an unedited, five minutes of writing beginning now:
**********************************************************
While
away this weekend, I took the opportunity to go through some things that I have
meant to attend to for 7.66 years. It was time to drag out some of my mother-in-law's stuff and decide what to keep and what to dump.
She
and I shared a love of books always bringing one to exchange whenever we saw
the other. While going through her boxes of books, I found two very interesting
selections. See below.
Take a look at chapters 12-16. Interesting
don’t you think?
My
MIL was a very prim and proper woman as are/were all of her friends. I know they were all avid readers and shared all their books with one
another. The spine of this thing is cracked and pages almost falling out...over read, perhaps?
I can’t wait to see one of them, a dear friend of mine over Memorial
Day weekend and ask her about these.
The
book is 192 pages long and published in 1969 and was the perfect length for me to get through on a
2.5 hour drive home. I did skim just a bit but not much. (Small pages, large
print)
A
girlfriend and I always use this expression and I believe it applies here. You don’t know what you don’t know!
******************************************************
I'd like to share, outside the five minute time allotment, the review from the back of the book:
The author
of this book is not
especially pretty.
Before "J" became "The Sensuous Woman" she went through life unnoticed.
It's very different now. "J" is called "ravishingly sexy" by some of the world's most exciting males. They describe her as "all woman, maddeningly exciting, a modern Aphrodite, a perfect bed-mate and life-mate."
Now "J" reveals her secret, step-by-step program that allows every woman to free her body, train her senses, and realize her tremendous feminine capacity for giving and receiving pleasure.
"'J' is unmistakably female; no man could possibly be so exquisitely knowing about how a woman can make the most of what she's got." - Playboy Magazine
20 comments:
It sounds to me as thought your mother in law God rest her soul was a complex woman of many dimensions...with some interesting taste in books!
She actually was and also one of my best friends. I learned bunches from her about all kinds of things but not this.... Her favorite type of books were biography's. I suppose this is along the non-fiction lines.
Those are some really interesting chapter topics! I wonder what she would have had to say about them, or if she read them...
I have a copy of 'The Sensuous Woman.' I got it at a library used book sale - apparently it was quite popular in the '70s. Mine has the exact same cover. Since I sometimes write nonfiction articles about sex, I have a collection of "vintage" sex guides for reference.
I never heard of 'Gumdrop, Gumdrop, Let Down Your Hair,' though. I'm glad your MIL and her friends enjoyed it. Everybody needs an occasional trip to fantasyland.
I thought they were interesting as well. I wish I could have asked her. She would have had a good story about it, I'm sure.
Oh! It's quite obvious by the condition of the book that it's been read a time or two or ten!
It has No. 1 Best Seller right across the front. I'm going to ask my mom about it. She's a huge reader and maybe she ran into it way back when.
I'll read 'Gumdrop, Gumdrop, Let Down Your Hair' that's for sure. You are absolutely right! We all need a trip like that more than occasionally, too.
Isn't it amazing what we discover about people from the books they read?
Diva,
I absolutely agree. Amazing AND surprising at times. Being a person not to judge, good for her!
Gina
I actually read the first book in college, although I am not sure where I got it. Probably one of those crazy college bookstores!
I did a little research this evening and, apparently, it was all the rage in the early 70's. Quite interesting and it was very much the time, I suppose!
Loving everything about this - and the grapes, was that a red herring? Well as they say it's the quiet ones...my mother-in-law recently showed us pics once of her in a negligee on a waterbed with her husband up in the Poconos ....not sure what all that meant...
Me too! The grapes made me burst out laughing. It meant bring your own date in case you weren't interested in anyone else. Bizarre!
Oh my! That is hysterical! TMI???
I remember The Sensuous Woman book!!!! I read the whole thing in high school...I don't remember where I got it...I forgot about it until just now...interesting!!!
I had never heard of it before. Interesting read for you in high school. Probably got it from a friend then smuggled it into your house.
I read it on Sunday. Would have been slightly controversial back then but maybe not.
i find it fascinating the different stages of life and how we can become what we were not when we were younger. if i saw this book at a used bookstore, i'd certainly flip through it:)
I think much/most of it is self confidence. If you feel good about yourself, how ever that may be, you radiate that to others. I hope you run across it. It's pretty saucy for it's time (well for now too).
I was going to ask about the grapes and saw you mentioned it in another comment. I love it. I am definitely googling the gumdrop book. I love these older books that reflect the culture at the time. Really fun insight (and into your MIL as well!)
Hi Fadra,
I haven't read the "Gumdrop" book yet but I definitely will. Yes, the insight into my MIL is a riot. I plan to ask one f her friends about I all in a few weeks. That should REALLY shed some light. See you for SOCS tomorrow.
Gina
Hi Gina,
I came across your blog because I googled the book How to Become a Sensuous Woman. My sis-in-law gave me a copy back in the eighties. I was newly divorced. I read the book in no time and have since used the advice of 'J'. I really would like several copies to give to my daughters and several other women I can think of. The woman knew what she was talking about. Her techniques and words of wisdom have men extremely hooked and all the time trying to figure out why.
Sherri,
I apologize for only noticing this comment today! Thank you for visiting however you got here. I was just describing the essence of this book, in very general terms, to a friend this week. When I first discovered it, I did go through the exercises, step by step, to see if what she taught, the wisdom she imparted in the 70's, held water today. Yep! It is almost as spicy, and probably controversial, today as it was then. "J" knew her proverbial stuff!
It is awesome that you want to pass this along. And the last line of your comment, "Her techniques and words of wisdom have men extremely hooked and all the time trying to figure out why." had me laughing and nodding. We all like to keep a few tricks up our sleeves for our men, don't we? ;-) Oh, and to keep them guessing every now and then, too. Unpredictability lends mystery.
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