Backlist Love is an informal series on “older” books that I hope you’ll find interesting. These aren’t so much reviews as quickie recommendations, so check out your favorite book review sources if you want more info.
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach (2008)
In Bonk, the best-selling author of Stiff turns her outrageous curiosity and insight on the most alluring scientific subject of all: sex. Can a person think herself to orgasm? Why doesn’t Viagra help women — or, for that matter, pandas? Can a dead man get an erection? Is vaginal orgasm a myth? Mary 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 make the bedroom a more satisfying place.
Sperm Wars: Infidelity, Sexual Conflict, and Other Bedroom Battles by Robin Baker (2006)
Sperm Wars is a revolutionary thesis about sex that turned centuries-old biological assumptions on their head. Evolution has programmed men to conquer and monopolize women while women, without ever knowing they are doing it, seek the best genetic input on offer from potential sexual partners. If you’ve ever looked upon sperm as a little army of white-coated soldiers setting off to sack and pillage a barely pregnable fortress… well, you’d be right, according to Dr. Robin Baker, who has studied sperm and cervical mucus in much greater detail than anyone would’ve thought necessary and has come to some startling conclusions.
Why I liked them
Well, you know, the actual subject of intimate human relationships is and always has been kind of a hot topic. But beyond that, I just really like well-researched narrative nonfiction that can take an embarrassing or taboo subject and present it in an interesting or even humorous way.
Bonk is probably the best of the bunch — or at least the funniest. Mary Roach has a well-deserved reputation for writing approachable and fun nonfiction, and this book is no exception.
Sperm Wars is also fascinating, but to be honest it kind of goes off the rails at some points. The author got a little too, uh, excited about the fictional scenarios he made up to illustrate certain points, for one thing. And even though his points are putatively based on scientific research, the conclusions presented in this book should be taken with several very large grains of salt; they tend to rely on oversimplification of human psychology and outdated social norms.
Who I’d recommend them to
I’d recommend Bonk to just about anybody, or at least anybody who has a sense of humor about human biology.
I’m a little more cautious about recommending Sperm Wars, though. Only read this one if you can stand to wade through unadvertised erotica and can recognize/contend with occasional pseudoscience.
Links
Bonk
- Mary Roach’s official website
- Articles about Mary Roach from NPR
- TED Talk by the author: “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Orgasm”
Sperm Wars
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