Prime: Adventures and Advice on Sex, Love, and the Sensual Years

In a world where men and women both tend to be dishonest or silent about their sexual lives, it's refreshing to read such an honest and self-searching book. This book is zestful and sensitive at once--more Tom Jones than Jane Eyre, thank god, with Dr. Pepper playing a female Tom Jones. Yes, there are sad parts. And accounts of the kinds of emotional mistakes we all seem prone to. It's much more personal than academic, and that's great. It's not so easy to be frank (and vulnerable) about the volatile and rather mysterious mix of lust and love that moves us all into our relationships, and while you may or may not identify with Dr. Schwartz's gregarious and wide-ranging sexual and social style, there's so much in this book that's life-affirming, brave and supportive of female efficacy and freedom, that I highly recommend it to any women who's in transition, or facing growing older and all the limiting messages we get about that, or simply wanting to make sure she keeps her mojo in good working order.

As soon as my wife finished reading her copy of Prime, with that luscious cover, I grabbed it and starting reading. What a remarkable book!! What a remarkable woman! Dr. Pepper Schwartz, a highly regarded academic sexologist takes off her professorial robes (literally) and shares her most intimate experiences, discoveries, and evolving wisdom as a single woman exploring sex and love in what she comes to view as the prime of her life. This is a great read,not just for single women in their "prime," but for men and women of any age.

If you were (safely) married when the sexual revolution began and went back into the dating world as a divorced woman in the years that followed, you know how difficult it was to ignore all those messages from the Fifties about how 'nice girls don't." Most of us who are single in this stage of our lives did anyway, and still do, but in case any of those messages are still holding you back, a few pages of this terrific book will convince you not to waste any more time before you make the most of the opportunities for sexual adventure and sensual gratification that are all around you. And while you don't have to go to Bali (although who wouldn't?) to get what's yes, still coming to you, it's lucky for us that Pepper Schwartz did. There will be critics caviling that what the lady really wanted was love, not sex, but as the onlooker in the classic scene in "When Harry Meant Sally" said of Meg Ryan's restaurant orgasm, "I'll have what she's having." Brava, Dr. Pepper!

Prime is delightful, entertaining, encouraging. I have recommended it to women in my life from age 21 to 70. As Debbie Siegel describes on her blog, it defines one (wonderful) end of the lust continuum. I'm all for it.

Prime is a good read with accurate information and advice woven into it. The concept of "two handed massage" and a get-away to Bali reads like friendly advice over coffee, but in reality it is also sound couples counseling. The theoretically advice is cloaked in wonderful erotic adventures that can be a guide book for any women who wants to continue to be sexually responsive. When I turned 60 everyone was saying it was all over. Pepper has confirmed my belief that a fulfilling sex life is not just for the young of age, but the young of heart as well. For women, love and sex go together like pie and ice cream. Pepper tells us that ice cream can be great all by itself .