Noteworthy titles.

Best Black Women's Erotica Edited by Blanche Richardson Cleis Press, May 2001, $14.95 ISBN 1-573-44106-6 and

Best Black Women's Erotica 2 Edited by Samiya Bashir Cleis Press, February 2002 $14.95, ISBN 1-573-44163-5

These two anthologies offer a roster of talented black female writers who celebrate and explore the glorious power of sexuality and sensuality. (Also, see "Mating Calls From the Sisters," BIBR, July August 2003).

Black Satin: Contemporary Erotic Fiction by Writers of African Origin

Edited by J.H. Blair, Berkley Books July 2004, $14, ISBN 0-425-19516-X

Excerpts from the fiction of 30 writers, including ashe bandele, Bebe Moore Campbell, Eric Jerome Dickey, Nuruddin Farah, Charles Johnson and Toni Morrison, represent the wide-ranging styles and voices in which love, passion and sex are expressed to stimulate the readers' imaginations.

Four Degrees of Heat: A Collection of Sexy Summer Escapades

by Brenda L. Thomas, Crystal Lacey Winslow, Rochelle Alers and ReShonda Tate Billingsley, Pocket Books, July 2004, $13.00, ISBN 0-743-49145-9

This collection of four steamy stones by these popular writers is sure to turn up the heat, even as cold weather approaches.

Playthings by Faith Graham March 2004, ISBN 0-954-48664-1;

Scandalous by Angela Campion March 2004, ISBN 0-954-48662-5

In Playthings, a young professor attempting to uncover the details of an unexplained murder is lured in to a menage a trois Scandalous, a story about a woman's search for sexual fulfillment, is inspired by the life of the legendary, daring entertainer Josephine Baker. Both titles are published by Brown Skin Books. a new London-based publishing company that focuses on "intelligent, erotic fiction written by women of colour." For information about Brown Skin, log on to www.brownskinbooks.co.uk.