The Naked Truth

March 15, 2019
A woman's divorce opens the floodgates of sex and desire.After escaping the abusive marriage harrowingly depicted in her debut memoir, Crazy Love (2009), journalist and public speaker Morgan (The Baby Chase: How Surrogacy Is Transforming the American Family, 2013, etc.) found happiness in another union, which lasted nearly two decades before falling apart. In excruciating detail, she writes of her marriage souring once her husband had begun examining her and their children "as if we were companies he was planning to take over and sell within a few years," while she openly admitted to being a different person after gaining weight and becoming embittered. Morgan found herself at a crossroads on the threshold of 50 with two grown children and two failed relationships. Encouraged by friends and family to embrace a fresh beginning, she bought a new Audi and daringly embarked on a dating marathon that sparked a seemingly unquenchable thirst for passion and sexual gratification. Morgan was "ravenous to be held, to be loved, to let a man inside me. To my surprise, the first reward of a starvation diet is that when you're famished, everything tastes amazing." Erotic rejuvenation followed, but so did many missteps, including a gaggle of doltish, commitment-shy, grab-and-go men. Though "the intensity of male energy, after a twenty-year absence, felt as revitalizing as inhaling smelling salts," the "mental gymnastics" spurred by the drama of contemporary dating had her head spinning. Nonetheless, Morgan's exhilaration at her new life and her reinvigorated sexuality make for thrilling reading. She ably translates her simmering sexcapades as a "MILF" with a chorus of randy men while pondering post-divorce womanhood as a single lady on the prowl. A formidable, addictive storyteller, Morgan provides a highly stimulating story of a midlife education in the messiness of modern sex and love.A steamy, liberating tale of self-exploration and self-love that encourages readers to "revel in your sexuality."

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April 15, 2019
What should a recently divorced, 49-year-old mom do? Why not spend a year dating five guys who, she thinks, will make her feel amazing about herself? Morgan (The Baby Chase, 2013) conveys her pain over finding lingerie under her marital bed and her desire to feel desired. Alas, many of her newfound, usually younger hotties lack her way with words. One tells her she reminds him of his wife in all the best ways. It's easy to cheer for Morgan, especially when she seems on track for a happily-ever-after ending with a former high-school sweetheart. After all, she is disarmingly self-deprecating, hoping the candlelight during their first middle-aged encounter hides her cellulite. No spoilers, but she ends with a pitch for self-love being more important than a perfect partner. She follows that revelation with a cheat sheet that urges single ladies to flirt, to be alone and approachable, to get names and numbers, to smile and make eye contact, and to be nice and look for niceness in others. This raunchy memoir is both funny and poignant.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)