How Sex Works: ... || Insert tab P into slot V and repeat
Written: Aug 29 '09 (Updated Aug 29 '09)
Product Rating:
Pros: Important information and some fun facts/factoids. A 'quickie' of a read.
Cons: Sorry, no pictures. All over the board, ranging far from my expected target(s).
The Bottom Line: Most readers will find an info-nugget or ten they did not know before reading. How valuable that bit/bits of 'sexual trivia' might be to them is questionable.
sleeper54's Full Review: Sharon Moalem - How Sex Works: Why We Look, Smell,...
... Let me tell you 'bout the birds and the bees And the flowers and the trees the moon up above And a thing called love. —by Herb Newman, performed by Dean Martin
Any young pre-teen or nervous parent of the same is surely anticipating (or not..!!) the 'birds and bees talk' ...that moment when Mom or Dad sits down with daughter or son and explains the 'facts of life'.
Fact is, 'sex' is a lot more complicated than 'birds and bees' or 'naughty bits' and getting them all hooked up together. How Sex Works: Why We Look, Smell, Taste, Feel, and Act the Way We Do addresses biological processes and cultural beliefs that influence how individuals and society play out this thing called 'sex'.
Perhaps the first thing you need to realize about How Sex Works is that the author, Dr. Sharon Moalem, is a male ...not a female as I assumed. It did clarify some of his early thoughts when I realized that 'she' was a 'he'. Hey, Sharon is a female name to me..!!
Basic to the mechanics, evolution, and value of the human sex act is the idea that female eggs are expensive and highly valued while male spermatozoa are cheap and easy to produce, assuming everything works as planned. Moalem frequently injects that idea into his discussion of many of the biological factors influencing sex as we know and experience it.
How Sex Works: covers all the basics you might expect: genetics, inheritance, puberty, menarche, breast size, penis size, sexual diseases, sexual attraction and arousal, orgasm, sexual organs structure, heredity, condoms, circumcision, contraception, puberty, oral sex, anal sex, menstruation, nipples, pubic hair, boners, nitric oxide, sperm and semen, female ejaculation... gawd, this is gonna be a killer search engine paragraph.
How Sex Works: also covers some topics you might not expect: evolution, the genetics of HLA and its effect on your choice of sexual partners, the sense of smell and how 'the Pill' might make the 'wrong' mate attractive to you, HIV and AIDS, other venereal diseases, pornography, Margaret Sanger and her racist and eugenic beliefs, voles, infanticide, baculums (penis bones), and much more.
There is an extensive Notes section at the end. But it is tied so tenuously to specific textual points as to almost render it useless. A short Index is almost not divided enough to be useful. I mean, 30-some sub-points under 'reproduction'..??
So does it all work..?? As might be expected, with such a large subject area, some of the topics seem lightly covered while others take too much time and too many paragraphs. I really question the relevance of many topics to the exploration of 'how sex works'. There is a prolonged discussion of various inheritable chromosomal abnormalities and how they influence apparent and assigned sex of a newborn. The discussion was confusing for me ...and I have a background in topic.
Similar pages are devoted to the multitude of sexual diseases, their history, treatments old and new, and the increasing problems faced by sexually active populations due to them. Certainly important stuff . . .but, again, seems off-topic in an exploration of 'how sex works'.
The Bottom Line There would seem to be a fine dividing line for the reader who would get the most from reading How Sex Works: Why We Look, Smell, Taste, Feel, and Act the Way We Do. A reader new to the topic will be underserved by generalities and overwhelmed by the sheer number of topics and amount of information discussed. While the knowledgeable reader will find it all a bit too shallow and too basic.
Do I recommend it..?? Tough call. I am sure any reader will find an info-nugget or ten they did not know before reading. But how valuable that bit/bits of 'sexual trivia' might be to them is probably limited.
Check it out at the library or bookstore before ordering this one.
Medical maverick and New York Times -bestselling author of Survival of the Sickest Moalem takes readers on an insightful and engaging voyage through t...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.