Mouth to mouth, body to body . . . When it comes to sex, nothing should get in the way of unbridled carnal pleasure. And this summer three of erotic romance's boldest new voices show you exactly why barer is better in three novellas that will take you to the heights of naked desire . . . "China Doll" by Sunny When Rand and Anna meet in the lush heat of an Indonesian hotel, it's strictly one night only for two strangers looking to banish the ghosts in their pasts. But more than their skin is bared when they come together in the tropical heat, and before long they're aching for more . . . "Tempted" by Jami Alden Friends as well as coworkers, Lauren and Tony have maintained a strict hands-off policy with each other-until an out-of-town party gives them an excuse to share a hotel room. And when they do, their clothes come off-and the new rule is definitely hands on . . . "Hot Wired" by Valerie Martinez Spending a summer in San Francisco before starting her career, Lola is looking for fun. And when she meets the driver of a fire-engine red pickup-a guy with plenty of muscle under his own hood-she finds herself in for the hottest, hardest ride of her life . . . Sunny's nationally televised appearance on Geraldo At Large introduced The Hard Stuff, the Aphrodisia anthology that featured her first story, and she went on to appear on CNBC and Boston's Channel 7. Sunny is a family practice physician and graduate of Vassar. She lives outside New York City with her husband Da Chen, a New York Times notable author. Valerie Martinez is a proud San Franciscan native. She moved to New York to attend Barnard College where she graduated with a Creative Writing degree. She currently lives in Brooklyn.

Skin on Skin

Literature & Fiction

Sunny

Alden, Jami

Martínez, Valerie

United States

Aphrodisia

In her second collection of poems, Valerie Martínez builds on the artistic command of language that characterized her award-winning first volume, Absence, Luminescent. Taking on not only such familiar themes as love and loss, family and culture, but also the creative act of poetry itself, World to World crosses new boundaries to chart a mature poet’s awareness of her own voice and style. Martínez explores the dynamic of creation/dissolution in original and intriguing ways. Here are the strange and provocative landscapes of the body and its disappearance . . . of matter and the absence of matter . . . of what is formed and what is falling from form. Throughout this compelling cycle, her deft manipulations of poetic structure disclose the boundaries where flesh, matter, and language become spirit, space, and "cataractical brilliance." In charting the relationships between time, form, body, language, and emptiness, World to World maps the territories where the visible and the invisible meet, offering unexpected discoveries for discerning readers.

World to World

Poetry

The University of Arizona Press

In 2004 twenty-eight women and young girls were murdered in Ciudad Juárez and the surrounding areas. The tragedy escalated to fifty-eight murders in 2006, then again to eighty-six in 2008, and current estimates top four hundred deaths. Now poet Valerie Martínez offers a poetic exploration of these events, pushing boundaries—stylistically and artistically—with vivid poems that contextualize femicide. Martínez departs from traditional narrative to reveal the hidden effects and outcomes of the horrific and heart-wrenching cases of femicide. These poems—lyric fragments and prose passages that form a collage—have an intricate relation to one another, creating a complex literary quilt that feels like it can be read from the beginning, the end, or anywhere in between. Martínez is personally invested in the topic, evoking the loss of her sister, and Each and Her emerges as a biography of sorts and a compelling homage to all those who have suffered. Other authors may elaborate on or investigate this topic, but Martínez humanizes it by including names, quotations, realistic details, and stark imagery. The women of Juárez, like other women around the world, are ravaged by inequality, discontinuity, politics, and economic plagues that contribute to gender violence. Martínez offers us a poignant and alarming glance into another world with these never-before-told stories. Her refreshing and explosive voice will keep readers transfixed and intrigued about these events and emotions—removed from us and yet so close to the heart.

Each and Her (Camino del Sol)

University of Arizona Press

Review\n"Martínez’s brilliance, beyond her lyrical lines, is her querencia, her deep love of people and place, which moves us to a deep longing. Through the poet’s personal narration, science, and mythic story, we also understand even more deeply the drastic impacts of climate change."—Terrain.org\n"Count is deeply moral, but never moralizing. Reckoning with grief, responsibility, and a deep love of nature, it manages “a delicate balance of beauty— / willows, bea-ver dams—and warning.”—Commonweal Magazine “I cannot think of a timelier book than Count. And I wouldn’t trust such a book from a poet who’s not as attuned as Valerie Martínez to the urgencies of environmental issues and their inextricable bond to social justice. Martínez has shaped a poetics that weaves the ecological with the mythical with the personal.”—Rigoberto Gonzaléz, Camino del Sol Series Editor\n"Simply put, this breathtaking book-length poem tells 'the story of water'—in all its epochs. It 'hovers in all its forms, a behemoth / pulsing through' us. It is literal: a 'book of mudslides, book of super-//storms,' but also linguistic: 'Times Square lifts a tide of cell phones' or 'a sea of brittle trees bursts wildly into flames.' In other words, it is a cautionary epic that we ignore at our peril, one which urges us to be “reverent and disciplined, to live / on the edge of great balance—the sum of incalculable beauty.'"—Francisco Aragón, author of After Rubén\n"Count is forty-three poems written in couplets, poems full of water and also full of the act of counting. It is also a book that stuns with its attentions and its wisdoms as Valerie Martínez captures so much that is beautiful in this world, as she notices so much that is at risk."—Juliana Spahr, author of That Winter The Wolf Came\n"After describing several of Earth’s spectacular, ordinary creatures—aspens, mice, katydids, Atlas moths—Valerie Martínez asks, 'Have we ever thought to count these out? / I mean, count?' Again and again, her brilliant book-length poem Count probes history, mythology, the environmental crisis, asking us to take account—to 'be reverent and disciplined, to live / on the edge of great balance—the sum of incalculable beauty.'"—Ann Fisher-Wirth, author of The Bones of Winter Birds and Mississippi\n"Through elegant parataxis and interspersed narratives, Valerie Martínez’s eco-poetics blends Indigenous mythos, science, performance and installation art, and the author’s keen insights stemming from her own communion with the rest of the natural world. Her book-length poem, like Pando—'47,000 aspens / grown from a single seed, a single root system,' enacts this interconnectedness while also asking devastating questions: 'How much does it weigh to be 25 years in the world at this fateful witnessing?' Throughout, Martinez counts: steps down a mountain trail and along a 54-mile endangered river walk, rises in sea levels and Earth’s temperature, endangered and extinct species, millions of climate migrants. But as she counts down the days to our extinction, she invites us to walk with those who are learning 'to live on the edge of great balance' and blaze trails to a sustainable future."—Brenda Cardenas, author of Boomerang\n“In Count, Valerie Martínez tethers science, art, memory, myth, and narrative to the exquisite language of poetry. Confronting the devastating effects of climate change, these miraculous poems exude the multiplicity of Count’s Spanish-language cognate, contar, reminding us that to count is not simply to make a calculation. It is to tell a story, to observe, and, above all, to witness. Martínez’s poems bear unflinching and rapturous witness to our natural world in distress and our denial in bloom.”—Mia Leonin, author of Fable of the Pack-Saddle Child\nCount is a powerful book-length poem that reckons with the heartbreaking reality of climate change. Forty-three sections of myth-gathering, flora and fauna, accounts of climate devastation, personal na

Count (Camino del Sol)

What would you do if your child was diagnosed with a rare, debilitating disorder?Author Lisa Lopez faced that battle and has lived to tell about it here in Coping with Landau-Kleff ner Syndrome, A Family Story. From visiting doctor after doctor to doing research on her own to discover the uphill battles she was facing, you'll see how one mother faced each moment step-by-step and fought for her son and her family.

Coping with Landau-Kleffner Syndrome: A Family Story

Lopez, Lisa

Martinez, Pete

Religion & Spirituality

Trilogy Christian Publishing

Poetry. Winner of the Four Way Books Levis Poetry Prize.

Absence, Luminescent

Four Way Books

Sur la nuit de ta peau

Romance

J'Ai Lu

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Martínez, Valerie. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Martínez, Valerie