Books make awesome holiday gifts: They can be mailed directly from Amazon et al if you remember someone at the very last minute; they won’t cause weight gain or allergy attacks; they show more thought and insight than a gift certificate; and they’re easy as anything to wrap (ever try gift-wrapping a cactus plant?). We’d like to think that our manual SEX: How to Do Everything makes the perfect gift for everyone, but we know we don’t live in that sort of world. So here are our ten best suggestions for sex-related books to give to those special folks in your life whom you’re not sleeping with.

1. Our Bodies, Our Junk by the Association for the Betterment of Sex: This book won’t do much to improve your sex life, and your partner might not appreciate the message of receiving a sex manual that makes for ideal bathroom reading. But your roommate/best friend/gym buddy certainly will.
2. Good Porn: A Woman’s Guide by Erika Lust: Not for  your kid’s pre-school teacher or your outstanding female employee…obviously. But for your best female friend since grade school who knows more about your sex life than you do and who is always lamenting the lack of good porn out there? Check. FYI, single and coupled female friends alike will benefit from this book, though the latter gals — particularly if they are on the sensitive side — might not necessarily agree with you. Then again, they’re the ones who need it most.
3. Sex Degrees of Separation by Irad Eyal: For your celebrity-obsessed friend (preferably one who doesn’t get a headache from complex spreadsheets and flowcharts). Probably acceptable for your kid’s pre-school teacher or your employee, assuming you don’t live/work in the mid-west.
4. i know i am but what are you? by Samantha Bee: For anyone with a sense of humor, and especially friends who will appreciate the facts that (a) Bee once worked in an erectile dysfunction clinic; (b) she’s an outspoken proponent of pubic hair; (c) she’s 40 and sexy in a totally non-cougarific kind of way.
5. I Don’t Care About Your Band by Julie Klausner: For your single female friends who need to be reminded that dating can always get worse (and probably did get worse for Klausner) — but fortunately, the worse the date, the better the story it’ll eventually make.

Read the rest of this list on SUNfiltered