Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy are a feisty duo of killer sex writing. They have written a bunch of other books, such as The Ethical Slut, When Someone You Love is Kinky, The Bottoming Book, The New Bottoming Book, and hey, they even wrote this book before, sans the "New" part. Lucky me, I get to read the second draft!

Easton and Hardy always write as a team, using the first person plural (us/our/we) to refer to themselves, and together have a very enthusiastic and nurturing tone. I'm never sure who is writing what, but it doesn't matter, because it seems that you have a whole team on your side. They are clearly in agreement, and are able to do great work together.

In fact, these two ladies have been lovers and play partners for at least a decade. In the book, they share much of their personal experiences playing together. They are knowledgeable not only about topping, the raison d'etre of the book, but about bottoming, and come at the topic from both perspectives.

Overall, I'd say these ladies are more than qualified to be dishing out advice on topping, having been part of the BDSM community for years, played their hearts out, and conducted their lives thoughtfully and compassionately. Their style is peppy and personable, and the language is completely transparent and comprehensive.

This book sets out to be the ultimate go-to book for the aspiring top. And I daresay it succeeds. Now, "top" may mean Dom/me, Mistress, Master, sadist, Daddy, Mommy, or even switch. The book is incredibly inclusive, not only towards the top rainbow but to the orientation rainbow as well. And, they are pretty good at using pronouns judiciously--as in, the top isn't always "he" and the bottom isn't always "she," or the other way around. It does not directly affect trans issues or use gender neutral pronouns, which would have been lovely, but is not ultra-relevant to this book. Thus, the audience is anyone under the sun wishing to know more about topping, whether it be for empathy or self-education.

I am not sure how informative this would be if you were a long time top. I think that it would be thought-provoking, but not particularly educational. There are a bunch of BDSM 101 type sections, like the one on toys and networking. However, the authors' devotion to good ethics could make this book a good refresher for those who want a reality check because they want to stay kind and thoughtful.

The content of this book is as follows:
-Intro to BDSM and topping
-Ethics
-Inspiration
-Troubleshooting
-Info about toys and activities
-Cruising and Relationships
-Darkside/Deep/Shadow play
-Spirituality
-Resources

All of these sections are extremely thorough, useful and informative.

One of my favorite aspects of the book were the "interludes." There are four in all, which are narratives of scenes featuring the top skills that they teach. What I really liked about this is that they are inspirational. It's great to have all this information, but it is relatively abstract. The interludes bring it down to earth, and give you an idea of what you'll be doing when you're actually playing. Further, they cover a bunch of different play styles and gender couplings.

This book is a thin green paperback, with the words "topping" and "book" crossing eachother on the cover, with a butch-looking woman with a riding crop over her shoulder. There's no nudity, but it's not exactly discreet, although I guess a naive vanilla person might think topping means sprinkles. But they they'd pick it up and go ooooohhh....

So basically don't keep this out for the kids/parents/in-laws/vanilla friends/bosses to find.

A side note: Thank you sooo much to whomever designed this cover. Thank you for refraining from plastering a thin white woman's T&A all over it. Cause while I know we all like to see that, it's just too ubiquitous, stereotypical and all kinds of -ists. This cover, with the butch person, who actually looks like a top, is just so refreshing.

No book can teach you everything you need to know about BDSM. It's a very personal thing, and the best thing you can do is practice, practice, practice. What's more, no book can turn you into a good top. You need to find it within yourself, be brave, make mistakes, and learn. I think this book is a great resource for anyone interested, and even though I think it is the holy grail of topping books and couldn't be much better, it isn't magic. It's not all you need. You need an open mind, personal responsibility, kindness, ethics, and practice. So get out there, guys.