Having received a call from a magazine publisher friend who's starting up a new, ahem, lad's mag, and is looking for some sample articles, I signed up to do a few book reviews. This meant that I had to go and look for books that boys would read. I know, I know, it' isn't right on many levels to assign gender to a book in that way, but we have to admit that not a lot of guys are going to read the latest Stephenie Meyer--at least not in public. But the following book was so compelling--and the topic of interest to pretty much every adult I know--that I'd write a review of it for any type of magazine.
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, by the same Mary Roach who wrote Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, isn't just about the history of the study of sex--ineresting enough on its own--it's funny as well. Roach gives a quick rundown on the whos and whens of sex study over the last couple hundred years---and oh, thank your lucky stars that you weren't around for the "good old days" of embarrassed patients and squeamish doctors delivering babies by braille! You learn why we think we know what we know about sex, and why we don't know what we thought we knew. In the name of scientific research, Roach even signs up for a few research studies herself and experiences firsthand what contemporary subjects go through to help science figure out how the birds and the bees, well, work. Overall, it's quick, engaging read that doesn't need to be hidden in a plain brown wrapper.
Tiffani
2 comments:
Can't wait to read him!!
Wonderful! Thanks for letting me know that Mary Roach has another book out. I'm not ready to say that this will replace STIFF as my favorite non-fiction book, but it's a very, very close second.
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