Tristan Taormino is a sex educator, author of several instructional books about sex, plus an editor of the annual anthologies of Best Lesbian Erotica, from which these 42 stories came.

When I received The Best Of The Best Lesbian Erotica, the very first thing that impressed me was the sheer size of the contents. This book contains 336 pages of steamy stories just waiting to be ingested. It also has an introduction and a short bio of the various authors at the end, edited by Tristan Taormino from Cleis Publishers. All in all, a good, substantial tome.

So, I sat down, a cup of coffee at the ready, and began. The very first story is so incredibly beautiful and sensual that it literally took my breath away. I learned right then and there that this book is not a little grouping of sexy lesbian porn. It is a carefully constructed gathering of literature, written by women who love and understand, lust after and embrace their femininity.

The stories cover a huge range of erotic subjects. Young encounters between Catholic schoolgirls, BDSM, fisting, transgendered individuals, drag kings, and a lesbian tryst involving mature woman. Some are stand-alone short stories and some are excerpts from longer stories.

The first story in the book, the one that left me breathless, is Taking Rita Hayworth In My Mouth by Joan Nestle. It a mere three pages long, yet it is so beautifully written that the words wove around me like a shawl, and I felt like I was right there with the two schoolgirls in the balcony of the movie theater. The excerpt from the longer book Fist by Elaine Miller is edgy, yet sweet at the same time. Unfinished Tattoo by Gerry Gomez Pearlberg, another very short one, portrays the bittersweet longing of a lost relationship. When He Was Mary by Heather Seggel weaves a brilliant close up of a female to male transsexual and the relationship with his girlfriend.

Other than the Joan Nestle story I mentioned, I could never actually pick my favorites, because they are all special in their own ways. I really enjoyed each and every one, and that is amazing in a collection with this many stories in it. I think this is why it is called 'the best of the best,' because it just is. Some of the other authors featured here include Meg Daly, Toni Amato, Cecilia Tan, and Bree Coven.

While the target audience for this book is obviously lesbians, I don’t think it is the exclusive audience. My husband just loved the stories. In fact, we read some of them to each other and it was a very pleasurable experience!

This book is somewhat larger than the average paperback book. The cover features a lesbian couple in an erotic moment. It is a very well-made and substantial book.