I’m not really sure why I decided to order The Ultimate Guide to Oral Sex. I don’t really feel I need any help and I have gotten plenty of ideas from other articles and personal experience. I honestly feel as if I have learned nothing after reading this book.

The book, written by Jane Merrill and published by Sourcebooks, is in paperback format with 190 pages. The author has written articles for magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Redbook, and Vogue. The book is a pretty good size, measuring 7 inches tall and five inches wide. The font is clear and easy to read. The actual design of the book, all pink and black, is pretty and goes well with the pictures throughout it. All of the pictures depict male-female couples holding each other or looking at each other lovingly. In most of them all of the models are in their underwear, while the rest show fully clothed couples. The pictures don’t really follow along with what the book has in each section.

There are 50 mini-chapters held within five sections: Introduction, Oral Sex 101, Using Your Body to Thrill His, Getting Down and Dirty, and Oral Sex and Love. Each mini-chapter within the sections is from 1 page to maybe 6 or 7 at the most. The information is divided into each section and chapter pretty well.

While the book has a lot of information, I found that I really do not like her tone all too much. A few parts actually had me pretty upset, such as when she compares spitting out your man’s come to him spitting out a fancy dinner you slaved over. That is not the same, at all. I had my boyfriend read that part, too, and he agreed it’s a terrible comparison. On some subjects, like swallowing or not, she seems pretty forceful that it’s the RIGHT thing to do, even if a lot of people may not feel very comfortable with it. She does not even seem to consider that some people do not want come in their mouths at all.

She has a very strange way of writing. Some of it seems pretty eloquent and maybe a bit older fashioned, then she throws in lines like “Rub his dick around” and stuff in random bursts. She also refers to both male and female genitals with several different names, so it’s hard to keep up. Female genitals are occasionally called “love mounds.”

At some points, she brings her past relationships in to compare with what she is trying to say, apparently to support her ideas. I know at one point, she said that none of the guys she had been with liked teeth even gently rubbing on their penises, so no man would like it. That’s just pretty irrational and I would think polling random men on their likes/dislikes would have been much more informative than just going off of her experiences.

Honestly, she does have some good information in here. She recommends some different massage oils or lotions to try on him. There is plenty of information on how to really use your whole body to give oral sex, which can be helpful. She has some different oral sex techniques listed, too, and has a good section on how to help him to get over going soft, which is pretty much just ignoring it and focusing on other parts of his body until he is hard again. Really, there is some good bits, they are just clouded by way too much “This is the RIGHT way to do it” opinions.

I would only recommend this book to someone who is just interested in reading a little bit more on oral sex. I would NOT recommend reading this as an introduction to the idea. I don’t recall her ever saying anything about using condoms for oral sex or anything, which could be hazardous to someone’s health. I felt confident in my skill before this book and felt somewhat confused about her forceful writing after reading this. Also, I would probably recommend this for a woman in a relationship with a man. It seems much more aimed at female readers than maybe a gay male reader, for example, discussing rubbing your breasts or clit against him to turn him on.

I was just flipping through this book a bit as I went through my bookshelf. I still don't particularly care for it. While I understand that no book is going to give great tips that can apply for everyone, I do feel this could have actually enthused me to try out something new I was thinking of or something.