What People Are Saying . . .

The Truth According to Sally Miller: Health & Wellness, Sexuality & Relationships
Synergy Press 2009

An exhilarating book, and delightfully refreshing. When I first saw the sizeable volume (260 pages) I thought, “No way am I going to spend time with this!” But flipping through this book about sex and health I found the essays highly readable and comforting. Since as a writer my main focus is on Sex, I read that section first, but the Health essays were just as interesting.

Many times as I was reading the work I was forced to go back and once again find the passage that stirred me. The book is a good yellow sheet Post-it book; I’ve just about expended mine.

The parts I loved — “Here-and-Now Mother,” “The Chinese Restaurant” — were ideal as essays; in the mother parts about her own mother on the edge of Alzheimer’s the love and tenderness Sally Miller shows us were beautiful. Her essays on ovarian cancer, which the author had, are gems, though some of her intense explorations on cancer (her  husband died from cancer) can be grueling to say the least.

This is a very personal book, as Sally Miller — publisher, quilt maker, chef, philosopher, sex therapist — is scattered throughout the volume. You may think these essays about her children, the art of making blankets, driving in the country, are simply that, personal essays, but they show and reveal a loving, compassionate person it would be a treasure to know.

Please don’t go tearing into this book, reading haphazardly, but instead, take your time, savoring each moment. Read it slowly: Sally Miller has a world to teach you. Do you dare to listen and enjoy? I sure hope so.

 

-- Mykola (Mick) Dementiuk, www.MykolaDementiuk.com

2010 Lambda Awards Winner, Bisexual Fiction for Holy Communion.
2009 Rainbow Awards Winner, Best Overall Bisexual/Transvestite book; 2nd place for Coming of Age / Young Adult Novel, both for Holy Communion.

This is a wonderful collection of essays, The Truth. I loved it, absolutely loved it. The essays on sex were provocative and brutally honest. It was like getting advice from the big sister I never I had, but wish I did. I especially enjoyed "An Intimate Evening with Robert Rimmer" and the "Secret."

Health and wellness was very informative and easy to understand. I especially got into "Power Objects" because I collect crystals, religious medals, rosaries and tarot cards. For the first time I felt like I wasn't an oddball for having such things. There's a lot of great advice in here. What a great collection!

-- Melissa Bradley, www.myspace.com/melbwrites

Author of Maxie Briscoe: Warewolf, Encore Performances, and Michael's Keeper

Health & wellness and sexuality & relationships being interconnected, Sally Miller needn’t separate them in The Truth According To Sally Miller, her 2009 essay collection from Synergy Press. But having two covers to the book, each the back of the other, and having the texts meet in the middle, is not gimmickry – their separateness and physical approach to each other suggests civilization’s persistence in suppressing sexuality and humanity’s persistence in expressing it.

Humans evolved as sexual, healthy, and well animals – in that order, since mammals have no life without sex. The root meaning of "health" is wholeness. Wholeness is impossible to achieve completely in civilization since civilization removes us from our original animal nature. Without physical and mental health, pursuit of the rest – intact extended family, sound nutrition, healthy (whole) ecosystems – is hampered at best.

Sally here gives the gift of experience. Sounds easy, but how many of us really do it? Share with readers unknown – harder still, known! – the inner and outward struggles that define our humanity, our familial triumphs and disruptions, our bodies’ adventures and ravages? Much in The Truth is helpful on a practical level – meditation, mindfulness, mindful breathing, food choices, finding the right partner, and more – but ultimately the experience is spiritual, the connection to the universal other in whom we see ourselves.

If you might like a reading adventure offering idiosyncrasy routinely excised by sterile mass-audience publishing institutions, without forfeiting writing quality, grab a copy of The Truth. You might not see another copy at beach / campground / waiting room, but that is everyone else’s loss.

-- David Cantor, Responsible Policies for Animals, Glenside, Pennsylvania, USA
 

Sally Miller's latest book, "The Truth According to Sally Miller," is actually three books in one. Two of them are obvious. The first is named, "Health & Wellness." When the reader finishes that, s/he flips the book over and finds the second book, "Sex & Relationships."

The third book is actually woven into the other two. I particularly liked "The Pink Babydoll Pajamas" and the three stories that followed it. These chapters deal with everyday experiences in Sally's life that take on profound poignancy. Sally and her mother, who had Alzheimer's disease at the time, take a drive to find a rainbow. Even when they don't, they're all smiles. In another they go to a Chinese restaurant and sit near another elderly woman, her daughter, and son-in-law. Sally writes, "When the old lady and her daughter leave, I excuse myself from the table I share with my mother, and go out with them to the lobby. I hug the daughter, with her face puffy from crying, and hug her husband. Then I hug the old lady, who thanks me in her bewilderment."

She writes of having sex for the first time, later thinking she was still a virgin because the boy withdrew before ejaculating. She tells of helping an old man face death. And she tells these stories with the restrained passion of the finest fiction writers.

When it comes to sex, there are more famous authorities, but none are more knowledgeable or more experienced in dealing with those needing help and advice than Sally Miller.

Every reader will find a lot to love about this book. I enjoyed it immensely. I never realized how polished a writer Sally is -- many of the chapters are truly works of art. She also reveals a great deal about herself. In fact, I'm thinking, "I have never met Sally Miller until now."

-- Robert Bahr, author of 13 books, including The Virility Factor (Putnam) and The Hibernation Response (William Morrow). President of Factor Press.

"10 Best Kept Sex Secrets" from The Truth According to Sally Miller (as seen in Clean Sheets)  is nice and short to the point. I, a 61 yr. old woman, have known these secrets since I was in my 40's. I just love sex and the more I know the better it is. I find the G-spot more intense than any other way. For me trying to stop it makes it so much better. I can't ever see me not wanting to have sex in whatever form.

-- "Cat", Philadelphia PA