Topless Summer Love Girls; A Gentleman's Guide to Women, Relationships, and Breasts

From looking at the cover of this book you would think this was just a book of topless ladies, and it is... but it is a lot more. If you are male, have played the dating game unsuccessfully (I've been playing for almost 40 years), and never even got a hint of interest, then this book may give you answers you are looking for. In between the funny articles and photos there are some articles that make common sense. While I not going to paint all women with the same brush this book presents (I just seem to find the "bad" ones), there is much here that helps us nice but "passed by" guys understand why. Personally this book has helped me drop the incessant search for a woman in my life and let me be myself -- with woman as friends and not as conquests.

Think you know women? Find the female physique alluring, do you? Well, get set for this latest, most personal offering from the great designer/writer (and thinker and wag extraordinaire) Leslie Cabarga. TOPLESS SUMMER LOVE GIRLS will show you that, no matter how many innings you've played in the game of sexuality, you don't know nearly all you think you do, and almost certainly have not appraised, scrutinized and pondered upon the female animal nearly as carefully as has our intrepid author. TSLG is a breathtaking, politically incorrect, no-holds-barred foray into the birds 'n' the bees---especially from the male point of view---using a mind-bogglingly psychedelic compendia of cartoons, photographs, diagrams, gags, essays, advertisements, studies, poetical rhapsodies, quizzes and quotes. No centimeter of the female body---or mind!---goes uncommented or unquantified. But which seemingly authentic images, factoids, clip art, ads, and journalistic ephemera are authentic, and which are scintillating send-ups and fabricated follies from the satiric, sex-addled noodle of Cabarga will have you guessing 'til the very end. Drawing from his own sexual education of midcentury, the look of TSLG is lavishly colored by Cabarga's comprehensive knowledge of 20th century graphic art styles---Victorian, Deco, beatnik, 1950's lurid "girlie" magazine, 60's-au-gogo, 70's trippiness and much more---they're all represented here in a Monty-Pythonesque tour-de-farce guaranteed to tickle the funny-bone of the modern gentleman who will want this illustrated, R-rated encyclopedia for his bedroom, study, or... bathroom. Men (and some of you bolder women) of all ages will derive many wolfish pleasures, naughty larfs---as well as many Ah ha! moments of truth---from this irreverent portrait of the human sexual beast.

I was presented with this book as a gift and I was immediately drawn to the books artful 60's style cover. I wasn't sure what to expect after noting the title, but after reading "how this book came to be" and the hilarity that followed ("papa was a stolen Rhone....") I was hooked ; laughing and chuckling with each page. The author does a great job describing with both historic fact and his own life lessons a fun, fanciful, farce written as a road map for the male species.

Leslie Cabarga has produced another wonderfully designed, beautifully selected collection of images, this time on one of my favorite subjects. His design, typography, and illustration books are treasures that reward regular revisitation--accessible to practitioner and layperson alike--and in this volume he turns his attention to one of the most attention-arresting subjects of all. While containing an abundance of fleshy pulchritude in the form of new candid photography and illustrations and cartoons salvaged from obscurity, it all is presented in the service of a very personal and humorous sensibility, one that explores our cultural fixations with women, beauty, youth, and the relationships between men and women that are molded by these forces. When I bought this book I expected some high-quality cheesecake, and instead I actually got a full, complex meal of art and essay that left me far more satisfied. Once again, Mr. Cabarga has exceeded my expectations.

Leslie contacted me about this book and in full disclaimer I am mentioned on page 211. I told him I'd take a look at it but was initially skeptical. I figured it was just pictures and nothing I really needed to examine. Yet my first impressions were very wrong! To say that it tells you all you want to know about breasts is a serious understatement. The gentlemen's guide is a 250 page academic endeavor. The reason it's so expensive is that it brims with photo plates and many of them I'd never seen before. They're all quality reproductions. The one thing I never expected is how informative it is. Top.Summer is as much analysis and education as entertainment. Also, it had me laughing quite often, particularly his "General Introduction to Titonomy." Lastly, I loved the vintage nude photos and all the cartoons. They are not just sexually appealing but aesthetically appealing. For example, Twinsey Bubbles is a person you can gaze at all day long. This is a very complete book and would make an excellent gift for just about any man you know.