After considerable digging FE has compiled a list of 25 vintage erotica and must read modern classics. Some books are classics because they have passed the test of time. Others stand out because they are destined to pass that test.  FE invites you to sample our selections and see if you agree. We think you will.

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

1. The sun and her flowers by Rupi Kaur

 

Divided into five chapters and illustrated by Kaur, the sun and her flowers is a journey of wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and blooming. A celebration of love in all its forms.

this is the recipe of life
said my mother
as she held me in her arms as i wept
think of those flowers you plant
in the garden each year
they will teach you
that people too
must wilt
fall
root
rise
in order to bloom

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

2.  Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

Divided into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose. Deals with a different pain. Heals a different heartache. milk and honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look.

how is it so easy for you

to be kind to people he asked

milk and honey dripped

from my lips as I answered

cause people have not

been kind to me

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

3.  The 100 Best Love Poems of All Time ed. by Leslie Pockell

“He Is More Than a Hero” by Sappho Sonnet 18 (“Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds”) by William Shakespeare “She Walks in Beauty” by Lord Byron Enjoy Old Favorites: “To My Dear and Loving Husband” by Anne Bradstreet “The Owl and the Pussycat” by Edward Lear “When I Was One and Twenty” by A. E. Housman Make Surprising Discoveries: “Your Catfish Friend” by Richard Brautigan “To Alice B. Toklas” by Gertrude Stein “Valentine” by Donald Hall “True Love” by Judith Viorst Carry this book wherever you go. It’s a perfect companion to read alone or to share with that special person in your life. The 100 Best Love Poems of all Time.

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

4.  2 am Thoughts by MacKenzie Campbell

I met you at dusk. We loved till midnight.  Then, you left me. 2am found me at my lowest.  When the sun came up, I dried my tears, found my strength, and went on with my day. The poetry of 2am Thoughts condenses an entire relationship with its untamed emotions and experiences to a single day. As the long hours of the night drag on, so does the love, heartache, and loss. When the dawn breaks, the morning sun brings acceptance, healing, and recovery.

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

5.  Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong

“In his impressive debut collection Vuong writes beauty into—and culls from—individual, familial, and historical traumas. Vuong exists as both observer and observed throughout the book as he explores deeply personal themes such as poverty, depression, queer sexuality, domestic abuse, and the various forms of violence inflicted on his family during the Vietnam War. Poems float and strike in equal measure as the poet strives to transform pain into clarity. Managing this balance becomes the crux of the collection, as when he writes, ‘Your father is only your father/ until one of you forgets. Like how the spine/ won’t remember its wings/ no matter how many times our knees/ kiss the pavement.’”—Publishers Weekly

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

6.  The True Bride by Amy Gerstler

“Once in civics class, he touched my blouse like it was a page he wanted to turn. For a second, I went transparent, lightheaded: a whiff of helium or ether, a sheet of tracing paper or a tea leaf; slight as the exhalation it takes to say my name.”

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

7.  The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition by Emily Dickinsonand R. W. Franklin

Wild nights!

Were I with thee

Wild nights should be

Our luxury!

Futile – the winds –

To a Heart in port –

Done with the Compass –

Done with the Chart!

Rowing in Eden –

Ah – the Sea!

Might I but moor – tonight –

In thee!

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

8.  The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems by Pablo Neruda

Love Sonnet XI

I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day
…hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.

I hunger for your sleek laugh,
your hands the color of a savage harvest,
hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
…want to eat your skin like a whole almond.

I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body,
the sovereign nose of your arrogant face,
…want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes,

and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,
hunting for you, for your hot heart,
like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

9.  The Bones Below by Sierra DeMulder

The Bones Below delicately carries the reader to a place of brutal, beautiful honesty. The writer’s personal revelations complete a touching portrait of the young artist and her fearless exploration of the human experience, bare in its rawest and most tender forms.

“When I took your virginity, I did it carelessly, like a dog left alone in a butcher shop. I taught you the way adults love (quick, dry, no eye contact.) A year later, in the back of your car, you showed me what you had learned, what kind of man I had trained you to be.”

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

10.  The Collected Works of Lucille Clifton ed. by Michael S. Glaser

The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965–2010 combines all eleven of Lucille Clifton’s published collections with more than fifty previously unpublished poems. The unpublished poems feature early poems from 1965–1969, a collection-in-progress titled the book of days (2008), and a poignant selection of final poems.

To A Dark Moses

you are the one
i am lit for.
Come with your rod
that twists
and is a serpent.
…am the bush.
i am burning
… am not consumed.

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

11.  Lust and Other Stories by Susan Minot

The author of Monkeys and Evening focuses her observant eye and lyrical voice on the delicate emotional negotiations of young New Yorkers.  As in a series of deceptively simple watercolors, these stories uncover small moments that yield larger truths–about the ways in which women and men come together and come apart again, about the disappointments and hopes of lovers who know what they want but don’t always know how to keep.  A deeply poignant meditation on the nature of desire and loss.

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

12.  “Lust” by Yusef Komunyakaa from Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems

If only he could touch her…

He’d do anything…

He longs to be an orange, to feel fingernails

Run a seam through him.

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

13.  Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence

Lady Chatterly, longing for physical love following a devastating war injury to her husband, satisfies her desire with the game keeper, Oliver Mellows. A classic story of class difference, love and lust arguing that love can only be fully satisfied when mind and body combine.

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

14.  The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

Natasha is a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. She’s definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when her family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be her story.

Daniel always been the good son, the good student, living up to his parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when he sees her, he forgets about all that. Something about Natasha makes him think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of them.

Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

15.  Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory

Dating is the last thing on Olivia Monroe’s mind when she moves to LA to start her own law firm. But when she meets a gorgeous man at a hotel bar and they spend the entire night flirting, she discovers too late that he is none other than hotshot junior senator Max Powell. Olivia has zero interest in dating a politician, but when a cake arrives at her office with the cutest message, she can’t resist—it is chocolate cake, after all.

Olivia is surprised to find that Max is sweet, funny, and noble—not just some privileged white politician, as she assumed him to be. Because of Max’s high-profile job, they start seeing each other secretly, which leads to clandestine dates and silly disguises. But when they finally go public, the intense media scrutiny means people are now digging up her rocky past and criticizing her job, even her suitability as a trophy girlfriend. Olivia knows what she has with Max is something special, but is it strong enough to survive the heat of the spotlight?

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

16.  Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

Dating is the last thing on Olivia Monroe’s mind when she moves to LA to start her own law firm. But when she meets a gorgeous man at a hotel bar and they spend the entire night flirting, she discovers too late that he is none other than hotshot junior senator Max Powell. Olivia has zero interest in dating a politician, but when a cake arrives at her office with the cutest message, she can’t resist—it is chocolate cake, after all.

Olivia is surprised to find that Max is sweet, funny, and noble—not just some privileged white politician, as she assumed him to be. Because of Max’s high-profile job, they start seeing each other secretly, which leads to clandestine dates and silly disguises. But when they finally go public, the intense media scrutiny means people are now digging up her rocky past and criticizing her job, even her suitability as a trophy girlfriend. Olivia knows what she has with Max is something special, but is it strong enough to survive the heat of the spotlight?

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

17.  All the Things We Never Knew by Liara Tamani

From the moment Carli and Rex first locked eyes on a Texas high school basketball court, they both knew it was destiny. But can you truly love someone else if you don’t love yourself?

A glance was all it took. That kind of connection, the immediate and raw understanding of another person, just doesn’t come along very often. And as rising stars on their Texas high schools’ respective basketball teams, destined for bright futures in college and beyond, it seems like a match made in heaven. But Carli and Rex have secrets. As do their families.

 

 

 

18.  The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon

Samiah Brooks never thought she would be “that” girl. But a live tweet of a horrific date just revealed the painful truth: she’s been catfished by a three-timing jerk of a boyfriend. Suddenly Samiah — along with his two other “girlfriends,” London and Taylor — have gone viral online. Now the three new besties are making a pact to spend the next six months investing in themselves. No men and no dating.

For once Samiah is putting herself first, and that includes finally developing the app she’s always dreamed of creating. Which is the exact moment she meets the deliciously sexy Daniel Collins at work. What are the chances? But is Daniel really boyfriend material or is he maybe just a little too good to be true?

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

19.  The Is Kind of an Epic Love Story by Kacen Callendar

Nathan Bird doesn’t believe in happy endings. Although he’s the ultimate film buff and an aspiring screenwriter, Nate’s seen the demise of too many relationships to believe that happy endings exist in real life.

Playing it safe to avoid a broken heart has been his MO ever since his father died and left his mom to unravel—but this strategy is not without fault. His best-friend-turned-girlfriend-turned-best-friend-again, Florence, is set on making sure Nate finds someone else. And in a twist that is rom-com-worthy, someone does come along: Oliver James Hernández, his childhood best friend.

After a painful mix-up when they were little, Nate finally has the chance to tell Ollie the truth about his feelings. But can Nate find the courage to pursue his own happily ever after?

 

 

 

20.  I’m Perfectly Happy by Sharina Harris

Nathan Bird doesn’t believe in happy endings. Although he’s the ultimate film buff and an aspiring screenwriter, Nate’s seen the demise of too many relationships to believe that happy endings exist in real life.

Playing it safe to avoid a broken heart has been his MO ever since his father died and left his mom to unravel—but this strategy is not without fault. His best-friend-turned-girlfriend-turned-best-friend-again, Florence, is set on making sure Nate finds someone else. And in a twist that is rom-com-worthy, someone does come along: Oliver James Hernández, his childhood best friend.

After a painful mix-up when they were little, Nate finally has the chance to tell Ollie the truth about his feelings. But can Nate find the courage to pursue his own happily ever after?

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

21.  The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases—a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.

It doesn’t help that Stella has Asperger’s and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice—with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can’t afford to turn down Stella’s offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan—from foreplay to more-than-missionary position…

Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but crave all of the other things he’s making her feel. Their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic…

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

22.  Make Me Stay by Rebecca Brooks

Samantha Kane is about to solidify her father’s legacy by developing sleepy Gold Mountain into the most profitable ski resort in the country. There’s one man standing in her way though. One very sexy, rugged man. When she shows up to convince Austin Reede to sell, she has no intention of hiding her identity. But with a body like his, she’ll take a few risks to get closer.

Austin was the fastest skier on the U.S. Olympic team, until he shattered his knee. Gold Mountain became his refuge—and now Kane Enterprises is threatening that home. When he meets Sam, he has no idea she’s the one to blame, he just knows the attraction between them is one he hasn’t felt in years. A scorching hot one-night stand is just what he needs. Little does he guess that it will change everything…

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

23.  A Bollywood Affair by Sonali Dev

Mili Rathod hasn’t seen her husband in twenty years—not since she was promised to him at the age of four. Yet marriage has allowed Mili a freedom rarely given to girls in her village. Her grandmother has even allowed her to leave India and study in America for eight months, all to make her the perfect modern wife. Which is exactly what Mili longs to be—if her husband would just come and claim her.

Bollywood’s favorite director, Samir Rathod, has come to Michigan to secure a divorce for his older brother. Persuading a naïve village girl to sign the papers should be easy for someone with Samir’s tabloid-famous charm. But Mili is neither a fool nor a gold-digger. Open-hearted yet complex, she’s trying to reconcile her independence with cherished traditions. And before he can stop himself, Samir is immersed in Mili’s life—cooking her dal and rotis, escorting her to her roommate’s elaborate Indian wedding, and wondering where his loyalties and happiness lie.

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

24.  Beginner’s Luck by Kate Clayborn

A university research scientist, Kit Averin is practical to a fault. Even after she and her friends Zoe and Greer win the lottery, Kit doesn’t want the windfall to change her life in any way except one: she’s finally buying her first real home. Now, between work and her new fixer-upper house, she has more than enough to keep her busy. But then an unsettlingly handsome and determined corporate recruiter shows up in her lab—and manages to work his way into her heart.

Ben Tucker is surprised to find that the scientist he wants for Beaumont Materials is a beautiful, sharp-witted young woman. Talking her into a big-money position with his firm is harder than he expects, but he’s willing to put in the time, especially when sticking around for the summer gives him a chance to reconnect with his dad. What begins as a chilly rebuff soon heats up into an attraction neither Kit nor Ben can deny. Suddenly finding themselves lucky in love might just be priceless . . .

 

 

 

25 Vintage Erotica and Must Read Modern Classics

25.  Intercepted by Alexa Martin

Marlee Harper is the perfect girlfriend. She’s definitely had enough practice by dating her NFL-star boyfriend for the last ten years. But when she discovers he has been tackling other women on the sly, she vows to never date an athlete again. There’s just one problem: Gavin Pope, the new hotshot quarterback and a fling from the past, has Marlee in his sights.

Gavin fights to show Marlee he’s nothing like her ex. Unfortunately, not everyone is ready to let her escape her past. The team’s wives, who never led the welcome wagon, are not happy with Marlee’s return. They have only one thing on their minds: taking her down. But when the gossip makes Marlee public enemy number one, she worries about more than just her reputation.

Between their own fumbles and the wicked wives, it will take a Hail Mary for Marlee and Gavin’s relationship to survive the season.