Sadly Sex Siopa didn't come away with a prize this week after competing in the County Finals for Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur. However I've got loads of cool stuff to announce!

• I'm going back to Kilkenomics! Ireland's economics and comedy festival is back again this November, and for some reason they've decided to let myself and Peter Antonioni give a talk about the economics of sex. We had great craic on our panel discussion last year, so we decided to follow up on it - this time with graphs and numbers and stuff! 

• Bare - A Collection of Irish Women's Sexual Fantasies is out this week! I am so proud that I was invited to write the foreword for this very important book. As I said in my interview with the Sunday Independent, we see male fantasies in every facet of society. It's rare that we ask women what their fantasies are, and even rarer that we talk about Irish women's fantasies. You can pre-order the book here, and we'll send it out as soon as we get the books off the boat later this week.

• Speaking of books, Paddy has added a few more titles to the Siopa that we think you're going to love. He's been flying through books as of late and picked 3 great works of non-fiction that are informative and sciencey whilst also fun and irreverent. Why is the Penis Shaped Like That? by Jesse Bering is a collection of his most popular essays from Slate and Scientific American exploring many questions about the history of sex and what it means to be human. Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Sex and Science by Mary Roach is essentially it is a brief history of sexology. Although its primary focus is from the 50s and Alfred Kinsey onwards, it looks at our understanding of the physical and psychological aspects of sex, and societies attitudes towards sex, and those who study it.  What do Women Want? by Daniel Bergner looks at and forces us to reconsider long-held notions about female sexuality and arousal. 

• And finally, I'm happy to announce that Sex Siopa is up for 3 awards this month!Sex Siopa made it to the finals for 3 awards this month! 2 for Web Awards which will be held on the 15th, and 1 for the Blog Awards which is on the 22nd. I know I've said it before, but I'm going to say it again. It's such a wonderful feeling to be recognised for all the hard work you've put in. And as any self-employed person will know, the phrase "hard work" is an understatement. Myself and my partner Paddy, who likes to work silently behind the scenes, have put in countless hours to build a site that's not only functional, but also makes for a warm shopping experience that welcoming to all genders and sexualities. When we write about a particular subject we're passionate about on the Sex Siopa blog, we throw ourselves into research mode and do our best to bring you guys stories, information, and links that we hope you'll find as interesting as we do. So I hope you'll all keep your fingers and toes crossed for us this month as we go for these awards!