Despite its title, Block’s book is essentially an extended gloss on the results of a survey she conducted of 164 cis (straight and queer) women, asking about their experiences, practices, and thoughts about masturbation.

And that’s why it appealed—despite the titillating “how to” book branding, the book really is a humane snapshot of one group of people’s experience with masturbation as captured by their first-person anecdotes.