Style, Sex, & Substance

When I first picked up the book Style, Sex, & Substance, randomly flipping through the book landed me in the chapter on sex.  After skimming a bit of that chapter I was convinced that this was a book I would truly dislike.  Now that I have read the entire book, I still say it certainly was not the best or most inspiring book I have ever read but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

In Style, Sex, & Substance, 10 popular women writers each tackle one major aspect of being a woman from a Catholic perspective.  The overall perspective of this book can be summed up using the following quote from chapter 3:

We work in the home and in the public square.  We go to Mass every single Sunday (sometimes more), eat bread that we call God and sip wine we call Blood.  We care about what that anciently-robed guy in Rome says, and we spill our sins to another human being.  We mate for life. We shun artificial birth control. Let's face it - we're, umm, different.  We're proudly pope-loving, sterilization-eschewing, Eucharist-adoring, confession-going, twenty-first-century Catholic specimens of femininity who buck societal normal and balk at contemporary expectations.  Yeah, we're the face of the new rebellion.

Each chapter ends with reflection questions to help you pinpoint the areas in your life that might need some extra focus.  These questions would be perfect for allowing you to use the book as part of a group book study since they will easily help spur discussions and thinking.

One thing I often had a hard time relating to in this book was the constant comments about all things girly.  The taking time to do your make-up, buy pretty shoes, wear the right clothes, put on jewelry and sweet smelling lotion to make sure you are pampering yourself properly.  I have never been a girly girl.  Ever.  When I can remember most feeling like myself were the times I was rock-climbing, rappelling, canoeing, running through the mud, spelunking, getting dirty and messy and doing anything other than being "girly."  So these reminders had me almost laughing by the end of book and wondering if perhaps there was something wrong with my way of doing things so I do admit that I wish there was at least one person in the book who mentioned that maybe these things might not work for you.

I still say the chapter on sex was pathetic and laughable.  After reading some of the ideas in that chapter to my husband, he agrees and we now have a few inside jokes that were born in that chapter.  Let's just say having a messy or cluttered bedroom has never hindered our intimacy in any way, shape or form.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Style, Sex, and Substance. They are also a great source for a baptism gifts or first communion gifts.