Vagina: A New Biography

I picked up Naomi Wolf's Vagina: A New Biography when I saw that she was following me on Twitter. I was ecstatic when I saw my new follower. Naomi Wolf?!? I love her! I kept thinking. Then to prove it, I rushed out to get her latest book, one I had meant to read since it came out but hadn't gotten around to actually picking up.

I am grateful that I did and grateful for Wolf and her insanely insightful book. Wolf set out on a journey to understand the vagina and its connection to the female brain after suffering from a medical crisis. She discovers a wealth of information about female sexuality and creativity and shares it along with cultural history and her own personal experiences. The result is a book that is intelligent and wise, personal and engaging and one hundred percent worthwhile to read. I feel as if I understand myself better in a comforting way, a hey, maybe I'm not crazy, maybe that was a biological response kind of way. This book is a wealth of important information, so much I am tempted to start summarizing some of it... but everyone (male or female) should check it out for themselves. Or at least the last chapter. Wolf gives men the lowdown on pleasing a woman that more or less condenses all the information from each chapter into segments such as "tell her she's beautiful" or "gaze into her eyes." It's a definite worthwhile read, even if you just take the Cliff Note version in the last chapter. I will likely be rereading it myself in the future.