Every month, we do a spotlight feature on an Australian author and Rachel Hills is our chosen author for August. Her new book, The Sex Myth: The Gap Between Our Fantasies and Reality, will change the way you think about your sex life.

What’s the book about?

Fifty years after the sexual revolution, we are told that we live in a time of unprecedented sexual freedom; that, if anything, we are too free now. But beneath the veneer of glossy hedonism, millennial journalist Rachel Hills argues that we are controlled by a new brand of sexual convention: one which influences all of us - woman or man, straight or gay, liberal or conservative. At the root of this silent code lies the Sex Myth - the defining significance we invest in sexuality that once meant we were dirty if we did have sex, and now means we are defective if we don’t do it enough.

Read an excerpt from the book

What’s the story behind the book?

We asked Hills why she thought it was important to write this particular book. She said: “In a media landscape filled with tales of hook-up culture and hot new sex positions, sex seemed to be a given, something that everyone was having – and if you weren’t, there was something wrong with you. These narratives left me feeling insecure and ashamed of myself, but they also annoyed me.”

Read Hills’ full response

What are the last five books Hills has read?

We also asked Hills to tell us about what books she’s been reading lately. Describing Abigail Ulman’s Hot Little Hands, Hills said: “A collection of short stories about young women on the brink of adulthood, I found it emotionally rich and stark and devastating all at the same time. ‘Warm-Ups,’ about a group of teenage Russian gymnasts who travel to the United States for a competition, left me needing to lay on the couch for a good half hour to recover.”

Find out which our books Hills has last read