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More copies of this ISBN:Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sexby Mary Roach
Staff Pick
Following her usual template, Mary Roach finds a subject in the scientific community that is equal parts fascinating and scandalous, and writes an extensively researched and thoroughly amusing book about it. Beyond the initial titillation stemming from a frank book about sex, in Bonk, Roach entertains and informs, both hallmarks of a successful popular-science writer. Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:The best-selling author of Stiff turns her outrageous curiosity and infectious wit on the most alluring scientific subject of all: sex. The study of sexual physiology — what happens, and why, and how to make it happen better — has been a paying career or a diverting sideline for scientists as far-ranging as Leonardo da Vinci and James Watson. The research has taken place behind the closed doors of laboratories, brothels, MRI centers, pig farms, sex-toy R&D labs, and Alfred Kinsey's attic. Mary Roach, "the funniest science writer in the country" (Burkhard Bilger of The New Yorker), devoted the past two years to stepping behind those doors. Can a person think herself to orgasm? Can a dead man get an erection? Is vaginal orgasm a myth? Why doesn't Viagra help women—or, for that matter, pandas? In Bonk, Roach shows us how and why sexual arousal and orgasm, two of the most complex, delightful, and amazing scientific phenomena on earth, can be so hard to achieve and what science is doing to slowly make the bedroom a more satisfying place. Review:"Roach is not like other science writers. She doesn't write about genes or black holes or Schrdinger's cat. Instead, she ventures out to the fringes of science, where the oddballs ponder how cadavers decay (in her debut, Stiff) and whether you can weigh a person's soul (in Spook). Now she explores the sexiest subject of all: sex, and such questions as, what is an orgasm? How is it possible for paraplegics to have them? What does woman want, and can a man give it to her if her clitoris is too far from her vagina? At times the narrative feels insubstantial and digressive (how much do you need to know about inseminating sows?), but Roach's ever-present eye and ear for the absurd and her loopy sense of humor make her a delectable guide through this unesteemed scientific outback. The payoff comes with subjects like female orgasm (yes, it's complicated), and characters like Ahmed Shafik, who defies Cairo's religious repressiveness to conduct his sex research. Roach's forays offer fascinating evidence of the full range of human weirdness, the nonsense that has often passed for medical science and, more poignantly, the extreme lengths to which people will go to find sexual satisfaction." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Book News Annotation:The best-selling author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife obviously gravitates toward
the unusual. In tracing the history of sex research, Roach provides a
balanced review of its quirkier aspects (e.g., sex machines, the Eros
Clitoral Therapy Device, and the effects of polyester pants on sexual
activity in rats) with a primer on sexual functioning in the
able-bodied and disabled. In the interests of science, she and her
husband "bonked" under lab conditions. The book is well-referenced
but lacks an index.
Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Review:"The New Yorker dubbed Roach the funniest science writer in the country....[E]ven if there were thousands of science-humor writers, [Roach] would be the sidesplitting favorite....[S]ome of her best writing." Booklist (Starred Review) Review:"A lively, hilarious and informative look at science's dirty secrets." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review) Review:"Readers will find that Roach's informative and witty footnotes skillfully anticipate questions the text will stimulate....Highly recommended." Library Journal Review:"It's odd that Bonk arouses less morbid interest than Ms. Roach did with her earlier books....Ms. Roach... Review:"[A] greatly satisfying romp. And as a woman who could make an earthworm evisceration riveting and a hemispherectomy seem downright jolly, Roach can't be faulted for having fun with sex. Even if purely for the purposes of research." Pamela Paul, The New York Times Book Review Review:"Bonk is a fun and enlightening go at a subject that could stand a great deal more productive investigation, in labs and in bedrooms." Chicago Tribune Review:"An irrepressible eagerness shines throughout Bonk, the joyful urge to show off the fruits of the journey....[A] wonderful read..." The San Francisco Chronicle Review:"[R]ich in dexterous innuendo, laugh-out-loud humor and illuminating fact. It's a compulsively readable, informative history of the scientific inquiry into the hows and wherefores of engorged tissues and sweaty palms." Los Angeles Times
VideoAbout the AuthorMary Roach is the author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. Her writing has appeared in such publications as Salon, GQ, Vogue, and the New York Times Magazine. She lives in Oakland, California. What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!
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