3 out of 5 Stars
Hello Everyone!!
Welcome back to another Sexy Sunday with me and my lovely, wonderful, talented friend Vanessa at Food in Books! Please go and check out her thoughts on this book, as well! First of all, thank you to Fred at This is my Place, my favourite au natral blog, for suggesting I try some Anais Nin! I’ll absolutely be checking out more of her work!
*WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT*
Synopsis
Evocative and superbly erotic, Little Birds is a powerful journey into the mysterious world of sex and sensuality. From the beach towns of Normandy to the streets of New Orleans, these thirteen vignettes introduce us to a covetous French painter, a sleepless wanderer of the night, a guitar-playing gypsy, and a host of others who yearn for and dive into the turbulent depths of romantic experience.
My Thoughts
Well, this book definitely has it all! One thing I loved about it is that no matter what your kink is (so, if you don’t know, IT’S TIME TO LEARN!), Anais Nin will have a short story for you! Little Girls? Strangers? Sisters? Women? Men? Three ways? Voyeurs? IT’S ALL GOOD!!
“María’s own controlled sensuality flared up, free for the first time. When she took off her clothes, she revealed a María new to him, a María illumined with passion, abandoned as in the paintings, offering her body shamelessly, without hesitation to all his embraces, striving to efface the paintings from his emotions, to surpass them.”
I did like the no holds barred look at sensuality. I liked that Anais was so open to everything and everyone, and I won’t say that it wasn’t sexy!
“Each motion of this mouth had the power to awaken the same motion, the same undulation in the sex of a man, as if transmitted by contagion, directly, immediately. As it undulated, like a wave about to curl and engulf one, it ordained the undulation of the penis, the undulation of the blood. As it grew moist, it drew out my erotic secretion.”
What I DIDN’T like was how many of the stories seemed really demeaning to women. I feel like there was a lot of objectifying, talking about women as whores, and a lot of “she was asking for it” sort of talk…. that got to me a little. I don’t mind a little fun hard play and dominance. And, I’m a pretty open and accepting person!! But, there was so much of it that it got a little tedious…
“The women who are unabashedly sexual, with the womb written all over their faces, who arouse in a man the desire to fling his penis at them immediately; the women for whom clothes are only a means of making certain fragments of the body more prominent, like the women who wore bustles to exaggerate their asses, and the women who wore corsets that thrust their breasts out of their clothes; the women who throw their sex out at us, from the hair, the eyes, the noses, the mouth, the whole body—these are the women I love.
A woman friend of mine who was followed and annoyed by a man complained to the policeman at the corner. He laughed and said, ‘You’ll be sorrier the day no man wants to annoy you, won’t you? After all, you should be thankful instead of getting angry.’ And he would not help her.”
“I like a whore best of all because I feel she will never cling to me, never get entangled with me. It makes me feel free. I do not have to make love to her.”
I’m definitely willing to give Anais another try (actually, I already have her book “A Spy in the House of Love” that I’m going to get to, so don’t discount this one entirely! I just wanted a little less harshing on women! (and, I’m the LEAST feminist woman in the world… so, THAT’S SAYING A LOT!!)
Try it out for yourself!!
Amazon U.S.
Amazon Canada
Amazon U.K.
Little Birds is Best Served with A Piece of Ass
Well, a sexy book needs a sexy drink…. SO HERE IT IS!! Fitting, as EVERYONE is getting a piece of ass in this book!!!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 oz Southern Comfort
- 1 1/2 oz Amaretto
- 2 oz Sour Mix
- Garnish with a cherry
Directions
- Fill Glass with ice
- Pour in liquor
- Top with sour mix
- Stir
- Garnish with Cherry
- CHEERS!!
A lot of books demeaning women like that. That’s why I avoid erotic books with bdsm – a romance thirller or suspense that borders erotica is alright, but one that lacks a catchy plot wont do for me.
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I don’t mind BDSM because that’s a choice. Although someone may be submissive, they WANT to be submissive. With these women it was not a choice (in some of the stories). THAT’S what I don’t like.
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Thank you for reminding me that never got around to reading this book all the way through. Time to pick it up again.
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Oooo! Let me know what you think!!
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I think I read this way back when,obviously didn’t stick though 🙄
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I feel like EVERYONE read this way back when! Lol! Apparently, it’s how a lot of people learned about sexuality…. I don’t know what I think of that! 😅😅
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Not me, I was well on the way 🤣🤣🤣
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Ha ha!!! As it should be!! 👍👍
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Lord, I learned about sexuality from biology texts. Had they known this was on the bookshelf the librarians would have flipped out.
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You learned about sexuality from a text book? Well, I guess we all kind of did. 😊
I already have another of her books lined up, I’ll definitely give it a try.
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I caught the defeminizing aspect as well, although I do think she was only reflecting the cultural mores of that time. And unfortunately, there are still idiots in this world who think a woman should be punished for her sexuality…….I doubt that will ever change. Excellent review and the drink name made me snarf! A Piece of Ass! You are too clever. LOL! Another aspect that I noticed, though I didn’t touch on it because it didn’t permeate all the stories, was the inherent racism of the time. Pretty fascinating read, and I do agree that it would probably benefit from a second reading. A beautiful and very erotic film based on Anais Nin’s writings, (including this one) is called Delta of Venus, with that gorgeous and sexy actor Costas Mandylor. If you can possibly find the unrated version, watch that one instead. I ordered mine on DVD from Amazon, although I don’t think Prime Streaming has the unrated edition, just the R version which is pretty steamy itself. But it really encompasses the feeling of the era in her books, Paris pre-war, artists and models and cafes, etc. Another excellent collaboration, my friend!
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Oh, I defintitely caught the rascism note as well!! I was going to touch on it, but I didn’t want to make my review too long! Ha ha!
I get that it was written to reflect the time. But, that doesn’t mean I have to like it! 😉
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No, I agree completely. Simply because something is reflective of the time in which it happens and is “normalized” does not make it right. That’s why slavery and abuse of women and minorities was so widely accepted for so many years, and it was total and complete wrong bullshit. I am on board with you 100%.
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Damn straight!! 🤜🤛 But, even though some of the content may have been a little uncomfortable, being a reflection of the times, I have to give the woman props. She really did put it out there that “WOMEN ARE SEXUAL BEINGS, TOO!!” 👍👍
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Word.
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The book wouldn’t be my scene, Nicole, but I like the drink.
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The drink was so good! A whiskey sour with amaretto, pretty much! 😍
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You totally made up the name of that drink! Lol.
I hear you on the objectifying. There’s choice and then there’s just taking advantage. It’s a weirdly difficult line when writing in this genre though…
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Ha ha!! I DIDN’T!! IT’S TOTALLY LEGIT! 🤣🤣
And, defintitely a difficult line… 😓
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😘😘
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I’m yet to find someone that does erotica better than Nin! I’ve not read this collection, but is it possible that some of the stories were written for her male patrons (thus the slightly demeaning element)? I know she wrote a lot of erotica to order, so it would stand to reason if there were gross men who wanted specific stories that talked women down, she’d have to deliver on that to get her paycheque. Hopefully you’ll find other redeeming work of hers – I loved her diaries! 😉❤️
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I’m hoping! I’m defintitely going to give her another chance. 😊
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She was reflecting the culture of the time. I don’t think there was intent to demean. She was writing the truth of her day. Ever read The “Delta of Venus” by her? That was also a book of “erotica on commission” for an oil tycoon. It seems that many of her works are only available at this time in the “expurgated” version.
Now, her diary runs 15,000 typed pages and had to be broken down into 7 volumes. She started it when she was eleven. There are two versions, the expurgated and unexpurgated versions. The movie, “Henry and June” came from that diary.
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Like I said, she is on my list to read again, for sure. 😊 I just think I need to read it in a different frame of mind. 🙄
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