Bound: A Daughter, a Domme, and an End-of-Life Story

(Paperback)

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Description

34.2 million adults in the US have provided unpaid caregiving for an adult age 50 or older in the past year. 42% of them cared for a parent.

75% of all caregivers are women.

40% of people between 65 and 80 are still sexually active and 57% say that sex is important to their overall quality of life.

36% of adults in the United States use masks, blindfolds and bondage tools during sex. Worldwide that number is only 20%.

AUDIENCE:

Women between 30 and 60 who are concerned about caregiving for aging loved ones either because they are doing it, have done it, or are worried about doing it in the future

Baby boomer women who are concerned about maintaining their sex lives as they age and struggle with issues of independence

Readers who enjoy unconventional stories about commonly experienced personal challenge

Professionals in fields touching on this story: sexuality educators, geriatricians, social workers, nurses and doctors, especially those who specialize in oncology, palliative care, or rehabilitative medicine in hospitals and rehab settings

People interested in BDSM/Domme sexuality, especially those over 50

Reviews

2020 National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist in Caregiving

2020 National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist in Death & Dying

2020 International Book Awards Finalist in Heath: Cancer

2020 International Book Awards Finalist in Health: Death & Dying

2020 Readers' Favorite Book Awards Honorable Mention in Non-Fiction: Grief/Hardship

"Sex, death, and family are some of the hardest topics for any writer to take on. Elizabeth Wood gracefully and fearlessly explores all three in this moving memoir."

--Lux Alptraum, author of Faking it: Lies Women Tell About Sex--And the Truths They Reveal

"In this fascinating exploration of a complex mother-daughter relationship, Elizabeth Wood comes to terms with her mother's flaws and eccentricities in order to make peace with her impending death. Wood also shines a necessary spotlight on the myriad bureaucracies within our health care system that make navigating illness challenging and often dehumanizing. A smartly written, thought-provoking read."

--Heather Frimmer, MD, author of Bedside Manners

"Elizabeth Wood puts a human face on our health care crisis. She offers a loving testimony to her mother--who lived life exuberantly as an elder dominatrix--and an indictment of the way our health care system treats those least able to advocate for themselves."

--Joan Price, author of Naked at Our Age: Talking Out Loud about Senior Sex and the forthcoming Sex After Grief: Navigating Your Sexuality After Loss of Your Beloved

"Bound is a deeply honest, unflinching portrait of a daughter's relationship with her mother at the end of life. In this affecting memoir, the intimacies of an aging woman's lifestyle of kink and bondage become fascinating metaphors for hospital life, medical care, and physical dependence during illness and dying. Bound is both a brilliant meditation on helplessness and power and a stirring testament to the strength of bonds between people who care for each other."

--Victoria Pitts-Taylor, PhD, author of The Brain's Body: Neuroscience and Corporeal Politics

"Told with courage, honesty, humor, warmth, and insight, Bound offers readers a front-row seat to the negotiations between a daughter, her unconventional mother, and other family as they face the medical-emotional whiplash of terminal illness. Wood offers wisdom and perspective that is sure to help others as they straddle the painful space between what they want and the inevitability of loss. This book is filled with love and promises to be a wonderful companion for anyone faced with caregiving for a loved one."

--Virginia A. Simpson, PhD, FT, award-winning author of The Space Between: A Memoir of Mother-Daughter Love at the End of Life

"Bound explores the complexities of caregiving in the context of a unique mother-daughter relationship. This personal story triggers universal emotions and offers insights that will help you understand your own caregiving journey."

--Iris Waichler, MSW, LCSW, author of Role Reversal: How to Take Care of Yourself and Your Aging Parents

". . . a frank and refreshing exploration of the continued importance of sex and pleasure, even when facing a life-threatening illness . . . a rewarding read."

--Dallas Voice

Author Bio

Elizabeth Anne Wood is a SUNY Chancellors Award-winning professor of sociology at Nassau Community College in Garden City, NY. She is also Senior Strategist for Woodhull Freedom Foundation, the nation's only human rights organization working full time to protect sexual freedom as a fundamental human right. She earned her PhD at Brandeis University in 1999 and has written critically about sexuality and society ever since. Born on an Army base in Kentucky, Wood grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and now divides her time between Queens, New York and Jamaica Plain, Boston. She is a devoted fan of Amtrak and an avowed cat person.