From the award-winning, sell-out live event series, Sex Talks: London's hottest new book club, The Pleasure Shelf.
What emerges when we stop performing sex and start listening to what we truly want?
This month's book club pick is The Dry Season by Melissa Febos which explores the topic of celibacy, reframing it not as absence but as a practice of self-reclamation. Woven through the book are questions of desire, addiction, and the ways women are taught to give our bodies away before we’ve even learned to inhabit them.
Expect a discussion that examines addiction and sexual freedom, the cultural scripts that shape women’s intimacy, and why memoir remains one of the most radical forms women can write.
Whether you’re a writer, a reader, or simply curious about the possibilities that come with saying “no” - to sex, to silence, to someone else’s story - this is an evening to spark new ways of thinking about desire, creativity, and self-possession.
So, join us [online] for a conversation with one of today’s most celebrated memoirists as we delve into the total triuph that is The Dry Season, as well as Febos' wider work: from the raw brilliance of Girlhood to the unapologetic craft lessons of Body Work.
Can't wait to see you there! xxx
Book Club Members can attend this event for free. Sign up to Substack to become a member here.
A bit more about The Pleasure Shelf
Every month join host, writer and journalist Emma-Louise Boynton, as she sits down with fellow book worms and authors to deep dive into genre-defining reads covering feminism, intimacy, romance and of course, the politics of pleasure... all the juicy stuff.
