#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER * #1 INDIE NEXT PICK Named a Best Book of the Year: The Washington Post * NPR * The Atlantic * New York Public Library * Vanity Fair * PBS * Time * Economist * Entertainment Weekly * Financial Times * Shelf Awareness * Guardian * Sunday Times * BBC * Esquire * Good Housekeeping * Elle * Real Simple * And more than twenty additional outlets * BBC * Esquire * Good Housekeeping * Elle * Real Simple * And more than twenty additional outlets
“Staggeringly intimate…Taddeo spent eight years reporting this groundbreaking book.” —Entertainment Weekly
“A breathtaking and important book…What a fine thing it is to be enthralled by another writer’s sentences. To be stunned by her intellect and heart.” –Cheryl Strayed
“Extraordinary…This is a nonfiction literary masterpiece…I can’t remember the last time a book affected me as profoundly as Three Women.” –Elizabeth Gilbert
“A revolutionary look at women’s desire, this feat of journalism reveals three women who are carnal, brave, and beautifully flawed.” —People (Book of the Week)
A riveting true story about the sex lives of three real American women, based on nearly a decade of reporting.
Lina, a young mother in suburban Indiana whose marriage has lost its passion, reconnects with an old flame through social media and embarks on an affair that quickly becomes all-consuming. Maggie, a seventeen-year-old high school student in North Dakota, allegedly engages in a relationship with her married English teacher; the ensuing criminal trial turns their quiet community upside down. Sloane, a successful restaurant owner in an exclusive enclave of the Northeast, is happily married to a man who likes to watch her have sex with other men and women.
Hailed as “a dazzling achievement” (Los Angeles Times) and “a riveting page-turner that explores desire, heartbreak, and infatuation in all its messy, complicated nuance” (The Washington Post), Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women has captivated readers, booksellers, and critics–and topped bestseller lists–worldwide. Based on eight years of immersive research, it is “an astonishing work of literary reportage” (The Atlantic) that introduces us to three unforgettable women–and one remarkable writer–whose experiences remind us that we are not alone.
more
I found the jumping back and forth from one time period to another too confusing to keep following. Sorry to say the premise was good but…..
Not fond of this book!
After reading some other reviews, I was very disappointed in this book. I do not recommend it.
Very well written. Insightful look into unusual choices three women make with a generous dose of authentic empathy.
I found this book more about snivelling women that about pssion.
Informative and eye opening. It made me look at some of the relationships I’ve had with men. Truthfully, there’s a little bit of every woman in 3 women. Things we’ve done, said, put ourselves through all in the name of what we thought was love.
The copy I had gave no clue about what the book was about; it was covered in reviews that in hindsight gave the wrong impression. “Totally addictive” Dolly Alderton said which made it sound like a thriller; it’s not!
I should have read the following which is on the Waterstones website it would have been helpful although the author forward was also insightful.
‘A riveting exploration of female sexuality and desire, and the often yawning chasms between enticing fantasy and cruel reality, Three Women is suffused both with erotic yearning and raw honesty, and serves as a vital document of twenty-first century sexual politics.’
I personally thought the structure didn’t complement the content. It was broken into alternating chapters telling Lina, Maggie’s and the other one’s story bit by bit. In doing so you are anticipating the stories to overlap and come together in some way, but they don’t. It would have been easier to follow if it had been told like ‘Girl Woman Other,’ where you can focus on each person one after the other. Lucky my copy was a paperback so I could keep flipping back to remind myself who was who. This is a book worthy of study so don’t read it if like me you just want something relaxing!
It doesn’t feel appropriate giving this an actual rating. It’s based on the lives of three separate women and I’m sure it took a lot for them to lay bare such personal details.
It was entertaining but not what I expected. It’s described by the New York Times as “the most in-depth look at the female sex drive that’s been published in decades” and I don’t think that is an accurate description of this book at all. It’s not an in-depth look at the female sex drive – it is a descriptive and intimate look into the sex lives of three women. At times the details are almost over-the-top making it very raw and real. I appreciate that these women shared their stories. Parts made me laugh out loud but they mostly made me sad or angry. I wish the author had included stories from more women. It was interesting but I’m not sure whether I would really recommend it to anyone.
Sidenote: beware if you listen to the audiobook. Multiple times the readers would unexpectedly raise their voices and scare the bejeesus out of me
Should be called Three Melancholy White Women
Because this book is acclaimed by many reviewers and writers, including my favorite author, Elizabeth Gilbert, as the most frank, revealing glimpse into the desires of women, and since my upcoming memoir about dating includes sex, desire and longing, I was eager to see how Lisa Taddeo had captured this vital aspect of the three women she selected after interviewing men and women about desire for years. And she does offer the stories of three very different women and how desire shaped their lives, including many emotional truths about women in relation to men, written with honesty and self-reflection. However, what marred the book for me was a persistent melancholy in each of their stories, emanating either from these particular women, or the way Taddeo wrote about them.
Taddeo says that she chose these women for the book because their stories were “relatable and illuminating,” and included desire as “something that could not be controlled.” These are indeed revealing stories and truths about the role of desire in some women, and many women will relate to them. Taddeo makes no claims that these white women (two working class and one middle class) are representative of all white women, let alone women of all classes and race-ethnicities. However, since they have been hand-selected, it seems that Taddeo believes that there is a universal sadness about women’s lives that neither my friends nor I experience.
Where is the joy? Where is the power to change one’s circumstances and create satisfying lives? Taddeo says she wanted to show agency by the women, but these three women feel trapped in their situations and any agency they have is within a narrow sphere. I listened to the whole book, hoping there would be hope or at least salvation for them near the end, but there was none. There are some pointed feminist observations that women are not believed, even by other women, that women give away their power to men and need to stroke their egos, and that men don’t take on household to do lists, but they feel like a feminist lecture tacked onto the tail end of a novel. And for those who are already familiar with those points, this book does not offer anything new except a very intimate glimpse of these three sad women’s lives.
Salacious drivel.
Captivating! I couldn’t put it down. Written so that I felt like I was each character, living their life. Highly recommend!
Not easy to read, but true, realistic stories about three different women and their life struggles.
I’ve never read a book so superb at uncovering the complex world of sexuality for women, that is as different as night and day from the world men move around in.
While I only read this book because I heard so much good buzz about it, I found it to be quite mundane.
It wasn’t so uninteresting because it sort of read like a novel and while I had many emotions about these three women, I mostly felt sorry for them.
A peek inside real lives, not the version we present to others. Taddeo’s story is well-written, so she entertains as she teaches. Anyone who suffers from anxiety will be reassured by the read, as they’ll know they are not alone.
Gloria Squitiro: Author of May Cause Drowsiness and Blurred Vision: The Side Effects of Bravery—YOU, Too! can OVERCOME ANXIETY and live a bigger more carefree life—Become a New and Better You!
#YayWomenWriters
This book creates important dialogue around female sexuality. I loved reading about each character and seeing them explore what being a woman means to them.
Interesting read, very genuine and hard to take at times because you know that they are real women. Read for part of a book club and would definitely recommend for other book clubs for some great discussions.
This book is gritty. By that i mean it displays the inner thoughts of women concerning their sexual lives. Never before have i read a book so honest, from the female’s perspective. It’s a fast read.
Boring. Focus is on highly unusual women with unappealing characteristics and jumps around requiring going back to identify them. I quit half way through – a rare event.
Undecided, not really my favorite kind of read.