HEROTICA 5

An eclectic batch of 23 stories mark the Herotica series' tenth anniversary—and it appears that erotica, at the approach of the millennium, really does offer something for everyone. Here, women of a variety of ages, races, and sexual preferences transform their desires and fantasies into fiction—and, as editor Sheiner says in her brief introduction, Herotica's authors ``have the courage to write exactly what [they] think.'' The collection's opener, Joan Leslie Taylor's ``The Knitting Circle,'' is a kinky knock-off of today's trendy women's-sewing-group books; ``Dragon Cat Flower,'' by Cecilia Tan, is an Asian fairy tale with a lusty finale; and Serena Moloch's ``Casting Couch'' puts a spin on sexual harassment in this woman/woman tale of domination and servitude. New Age aficionados with libidinous tastes will relish Jolie Graham's ``Drowsy Maggie''; ``The Appliance,'' by Michelle Stevens, is about two relationships, a woman's with another woman and a woman's with her 900-watt vibrator; and Karen Minn's ``Sauce''—one of the many tales here with a lesbian spin—takes two women who love the same movie, Fried Green Tomatoes, and shows them living vicariously through the characters of Idgie and Ruth. All in all, Sheiner has assembled stories that, for the most part, have little in common with one other beyond their use of explicit erotic material. A user-friendly, accessible collection that's more sentimental in tone and subject than hard-core, despite the graphic sex. (Quality Paperback Book Club selection)