The body of work that comprises Annie Oakley's Working Sex is really a mixed bag - and not necessarily what the subtitle and back cover promise. Within the volume Oakley has included a wide range of literary genres that moves beyond the expected personal accounts to short stories, rants, poetry, a short play, and even an interview with a political advocate of women in the sex industry. When I purchased the volume I expected to find a collection of nonfiction work focused on different experiences and viewpoints of individuals working in the sex industry, and instead found that many of the authors included seem to be using their experience as sex professionals as an excuse to write material that would otherwise find little audience. As such, most of the material is greatly lacking in merit, and does not have the strength of reality and first-person narration to support the lack of effort. In general, most of the collection is simply bad writing: bad poetry, pointless ranting, and armature stories.

However, not all of the material is mediocre. There are several strong essays and stories included within the work, including Annie Oakley's own introduction and Siobhan Brooks' "An Interview with Gloria Lockett ", that make a reading of the volume worthwhile. As a complete collection I find Working Sex to be wanting, and a reader's enjoyment will really come down to each individual work. ( )

Check it out--a sex worker anthology! More recent with a hipper cover than [b:Whores and Other Feminists|114944|Whores and Other Feminists|Jill Nagle|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4189X16BDFL._SL75_.jpg|487991] and [b:Sex Work: An Anthology|216183|Edgeworks 4 Love Ain't Nothing but Sex Misspelled/The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World|Harlan Ellison|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1223640987s/216183.jpg|209293]. Cool, okay, so let's see--we've got the non-sex-worker Brown graduates doing their dissertations on real sex workers--at least we've got them actually interviewing them this time instead of lensing what they've said--we've got the hilarious and sympathetic phone girls, strippers, the dommes, we are lucky and [a:Stephen Elliot|6101|Keith Elliot Greenberg|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] gets TWO essays, an essay from a real pimp, Vaginal Creme Davis lyrics. OK women of color representation, OK trans and male sex worker representation. Amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing, secret treat essay by [a:Anna-Joy Springer] that you should read even if you have to stand looking casual next to the bookcases in Barnes & Noble to do it. It's near the back of the book.I feel like there should be a big sticker on this that says, "Only approximately 35% San Francisco bullshit!" ( )