Forbidden Flowers Book

"My psychiatrist recommended your book, My Secret Garden, for me to read...I wish for better sex. I try. I am frigid, I guess, ..."

Before the internet and amateur pornography became available to the masses, Nancy Friday wrote Forbidden Flowers. Her second compilation of women's fantasies after My Secret Garden, Forbidden Flowers amasses a variety of women's sexual fantasies--everything from sex from a distinguished college professor to seedy sex in the back of an S&M shop with a stranger, to sex with women, to sex with grandpa.

What makes these fantasies interesting to read is that they were written by real women, many of whom experiencing some level of sexual discomfort or desire to share: her husband is emotionally and verbally abusive and refuses to acknowledge her sexuality; she was raped and has extreme anxiety about sex; she is a 40-year-old virgin and wants to know what's wrong; she just loves to masturbate and the first set of fantasies made her want to contribute to the second. These women are connected to a community of other women in a safe space (all of the contributors have pseudonyms and little personal information is shared) who are sharing their most intimate sexual fantasies.

Intermittently, Friday provides her own transitions from fantasy to fantasy and analysis of the contributors of the fantasies. These segues provide a smooth continuity and help the reader to move with a little more fluidity through the novel.