Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

Nov 26, 2007

Review: Guilty Pleasures

Filed in Reviews

I picked up this little book through BookCrossing. Inside its 135 pages are around forty mini essays about women and their “guilty pleasures.” A writing group decided to write down their obsessions and this book is the result.

Guilty Pleasures is about doing what one wants, no matter what society thinks of it; about indulgence for its very own sake. Some of the stories might shock you, others might make you wince (the one about marrying for money did that for me). Some resonated; others did not.

For me, “Being a Bohemian” had the strongest emotional tug, while the one about shoes made me want to run away screaming.

The book is short, so it won’t take long to read, but it’s worth taking one’s time over each essay and having a really good think about what it says. How do you feel when you read it? Does it stir something hidden, or leave you cold? This can be used to drill into your own obsessions, come what may…or just for the entertainment value.

I was fascinated by, rather than enjoyed, this book. There is something dark about those hidden pleasures, the things that we won’t admit to anyone other than ourselves…

…None of the essays are “signed.”