Fever: Sensual Stories by Women Writers

Slung's second anthology of erotica written by women (Slow Hand was the first) embraces diversity-in age and sexual preference-and celebrates desire in many forms. While most tales are concerned with heterosexual love, many passions are explored, from Elizabeth Clarke's lustily defiant ""Queer""-a chronicle of a love affair's beginning, narrated by a multiply-pierced, bisexual stripper-to Marion Callen's sly, seemingly demure ""An Honest Transaction,"" about the ladylike but wildly successful seduction mounted by tea-sipping Mavis. In ""Lilith,"" Francine Falk describes the highly charged relationship between two women, conducted almost entirely over the telephone, while the thoroughly Westernized Indian heroine of Nazneen Sheikh's ""Polishing My Skin"" allows herself to be sensually transformed during a traditional pre-marriage ritual. This pleasing collection reaffirms the joyous notion that love and lust come in a delectable variety of forms. BOMC and QPB alternates. (Aug.)