Publication Date July 14, 2026

Add to things I did not know until recently: #1: New York Magazine has a column about sex and dating, in which Alyssa Shelasky writes about the intimate details of various New Yorkers. Shelasky  is a writer, producer and also the author ofThis Might Be Personal and Apron Anxiety: My Messy Affairs In & Out of the Kitchen. (She generally writes about relationships, parenting, sex, celebrity, food, travel, money, and sex – in other words, pretty much everything that isn’t politics, religion, or the environment).  #2: For several years, NBO has had a docuseries based on the New York column, and each episode is a sort of diary, showing the stories of two people over the course of a week. Alyssa Shelasky wrote the column, and she stars in and is the producer of the HBO series. And now she has a book: Sex Diaries! 

What kinds of people and stories are covered?? To quote from the publisher’s blurb of the book of the same name, “A 67-year-old woman keeps a collection of well-endowed lovers in various corners of the world; a restaurant owner is jolted back to life when she gets illicit messages from a married man; an artist attends an overwhelming sex party, only to find themselves feeling reinvigorated after they get to role play as a rock.” 

I’ve read plenty of erotica over the years, and my reaction to these true stories was essentially “Meh.” Interesting for someone curious about polyamory or various other options for adult intimacy, but not particularly anything that would make the reader care about the individuals involved (although that isn’t really the point here, I don’t think!) Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for providing a copy in exchange for my honest review. Three stars.