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Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
by Mary Roach
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About This Book
ISBN13: 9780393064643 |
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Powells.com 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.
Recommended by Lorraine, Powells.com
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Synopses & Reviews
Publisher 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.)
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...clutter[s] Bonk with so many long, chatty footnotes that she underscores how spotty and disorganized her material is." Janet Maslin, The New York Times
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
About the Author
Mary 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 Saying
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Average customer rating based on 3 comments:
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Melissa Kinsey, May 27, 2008 (view all comments by Melissa Kinsey)
Sorry to fall into the author's own trap of overdoing sexual innuendo but I might have enjoyed this book for its unusual and fascinating content were it not for the author's continual, distracting and, yes, disturbing verbal masturbation.
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Jeff Taylor, May 26, 2008 (view all comments by Jeff Taylor)
Don't be put off by the NYT's sourpuss comment about Ms. Roach's chatty footnotes. Will Cuppy, the funniest historian ever to write books, also used the footnote technique for risible effect. (I'll bet everything down to my last loincloth that the NYT reviewer has never read one damn word of Cuppy's. Or would be able to identify Cuppy or name one book he wrote.)
This book is about a fascinating, universal, but subject, and Ms. Roach's tone is perfect. One to read a dozen times and share with friends.
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Michael Riley, May 11, 2008 (view all comments by Michael Riley)
If you liked Mary Roach's Stiff and Spook, you're gonna love Bonk. Bonk covers areas of a topic that is near and dear to probably all of us. Of course, we're talking about sex. Roach's style of writing draws you into an arena of clinical discussions and humor about this topic. I found myself laughing out loud at points in the book while also thinking "so that's why that happens" in other points.
I highly recommend this fun read to anyone (within the age of consent.)
View all 3 comments
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780393064643
- Subtitle:
- The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
- Author:
- Publisher:
- W. W. Norton & Company
- Subject:
- Life Sciences - Biology - General
- Subject:
- Sex (biology)
- Subject:
- Life Sciences - Human Anatomy & Physiology
- Subject:
- Human Sexuality
- Subject:
- Sexuality
- Subject:
- Biology
- Publication Date:
- April 2008
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Grade Level:
- General/trade
- Language:
- English
- Illustrations:
- Y
- Pages:
- 319
- Dimensions:
- 8 x 6 in
