It's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Linda Holmes. The new essay collection, wanting women writing about desire, might sound like a sex book. And it's not not a sex book. But it's strange that the word desire conjures sex so specifically when people want so many things. Love and money, health, children, travel, adventure and security,

company and solitude. That's what Margo Khan and Kelly McMasters, who edited the collection,

wanted to do. They wanted to broaden the idea of desire and show the ways in which it can be

both a source of joy and a cause of pain.

They told NPR's Elsa Chang about some of the essays in the book and this elusive idea of wanting.

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Women want to want.

That is the starting premise of two women who have put together an anthology of essays

that explore the different shades of female desire.

Make no mistake, this book is about more than sex.

It's a book that delves into how women define what desire is to them,

what rules they want to shed, to give into their deepest longings, and what it's like to

articulate those desires out loud and unashamed. All these essays are written by women,

and this new book called Wanting is edited by Margo Khan and Kelly McMasters,

who join us now. Welcome to both of you.

Thanks so much, Elsa. We're so excited. So I want to know how the idea for this book first came

together, including the decision to focus on the vantage point of women. Tell me.

This is Margo. For me, this book started with a sort of silly

story. My family had the great dog debate a few years ago, whether or not we should get a dog.

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