What Women Want
  • Published: 14 May 2024
  • ISBN: 9781529156072
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $24.99

What Women Want

Conversations on Desire, Power, Love and Growth

Formats & editions
Paperback
14 May 2024
EBook
2 Apr 2012
Tr. Paperback
2 Apr 2012
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An intersectional exploration of female desire narrated from the psychotherapist's couch.

'Full of wisdom and insight ... I cannot recommend it enough' Julia Samuel

'Brilliant' Katy Hessel

'Fascinating ... a valuable contribution to a wider debate about how women are permitted to own and express their desires' Guardian

From a young bride-to-be struggling to accept her sexuality, to a mother grappling with questions of identity and belonging, and a pensioner falling in love for the first time, What Women Want is an enthralling and deeply intimate examination of womanhood.

With empathy and bravery, psychotherapist Maxine Mei-Fung Chung delves into what makes us who we are. Through her conversations with her patients, she lays bare our fears, our secrets, our wants, and ultimately, our capacity for healing.

To desire is an action. This extraordinary book liberates and empowers us to claim what we truly want.
  • Published: 14 May 2024
  • ISBN: 9781529156072
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $24.99
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About the author

Nelly Thomas

Nelly Thomas is an Australian comedian and author. Her award-winning career began in stand-up comedy in 2002 and has taken her all over the world. She now prefers the quiet life of author, speaker and radio personality. Nelly is a well-known regular on ABC Melbourne Radio, Radio National , News Breakfast and elsewhere. She was listed as one of Australias 'Most Innovative thinkers' in The Age Newspaper and was featured on the ABC's Big Ideas; The smartest stuff on TV, Radio and Online. Nelly is thee author of four books including three children's books Some Girls [2017], Some Boys [2018] and Some Brains; a book celebrating nuerodiversity [2019]. She also published What Women Want [Random House 2012] and is currently working on two more. Nelly lives in Melbourne with her partner Lachlan, their two daughters, a grumpy poodle and a very dense Labradoodle.

portrait photo of Nelly Thomas

Praise for What Women Want

This début from a leading psychotherapist is an enthralling, intersectional investigation of female desire

Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller

I couldn't stop thinking about these women's stories. The best book on female desire and longing since Three Women

Abigail Bergstrom, author of What a Shame

Maxine's book is insightful, tender and brilliant. I am enraptured by these women's stories.

Katy Hessel, Sunday Times Bestselling author of The Story of Art without Men

A rich and intimate examination of female desire, Maxine's book is full of wisdom and insight. I cannot recommend it enough

Julia Samuel

A compelling read

Sally Huband

Brave, deeply honest, and beautifully written, What Women Want makes the personal universal.

Joanna Briscoe

A call to arms [...] This is a gripping debut that is searing in its honesty and vulnerability [...] Exploring trauma, gender, sexuality and mental health, the insight on female desire is so thought-provoking, the stories dealt with in a captivating and gentle way. Read it.

Glamour

Fascinating [...] Makes a valuable contribution to a wider debate about how women are permitted to own and express their desires in a patriarchal culture that still prefers us quiet and non-disruptive.

Observer
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