Bonk: The Curious Coupling Of Sex and Science

New
Paperback
2009
$11.60

Few things are as fundamental to human happiness as sex, and few writers are as entertaining about the subject as Mary Roach. Can a woman think herself to orgasm? Is your penis three inches longer than you think? Why doesn't Viagra help women - or, for that matter, pandas? Does orgasm boost fertility? Or cure hiccups? The study of sexual physiology - what happens, and why, and how to make it happen better - has been taking place behind closed doors for hundreds of years. In this fascinating and funny book, Mary Roach steps inside laboratories, brothels, pig farms, sex-toy R&D labs - even Alfred Kinsey's attic - to tell us everything we wanted to know about sex, and a lot we'd never even thought to ask.

Synopsis

Few things are as fundamental to human happiness as sex, and few writers are as entertaining about the subject as Mary Roach. Can a woman think herself to orgasm? Is your penis three inches longer than you think? Why doesn't Viagra help women - or, for that matter, pandas? Does orgasm boost fertility? Or cure hiccups? The study of sexual physiology - what happens, and why, and how to make it happen better - has been taking place behind closed doors for hundreds of years. In this fascinating and funny book, Mary Roach steps inside laboratories, brothels, pig farms, sex-toy R&D labs - even Alfred Kinsey's attic - to tell us everything we wanted to know about sex, and a lot we'd never even thought to ask.

$11.60

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Edition: Main
Publisher: Canongate Books
Published: 07 May 2009
ISBN 10: 1847672361
ISBN 13: 9781847672360
Book Overview: The bestselling author of Stiff and Six Feet Over sets her outrageous and insightful gaze on the most alluring scientific subject of them all: sex.

Media Reviews

In this terrifically witty, hugely engaging study of the way we love, Mary Roach does meet some real oddballs, and on almost every page she tells you something to make you gasp aloud or snort with laughter -- Toby Clements * * Telegraph * *
Roach certainly gets full marks for unflinching commitment to the job in hand . . . Bonk contains everything you ever wanted to know about the science of sex but were too afraid to ask. -- PD Smith * * Saturday Guardian Review * *
Roach puts her quick wit to good service in this entertaining romp through sex research. Her unshockability is contagious, and ultimately reassuring. -- Gail Vines * * Independent * *
When Mary Roach is seized by a subject, there is no stopping her: she is full-on, hands-on, and her lab coat is unbuttoned. -- Iain Finlayson * * The Times * *
A bold, tenacious and insatiable reporter, Roach . . . could make an earthworm evisceration riveting and a hemispherectomy seem downright jolly. * * Scotsman * *
Eye-opening . . . compelling stuff. -- Tom Boncza Tomaszewski * * Independent On Sunday * *
Bonkers, but brilliant. * * Easy Living * *
The pithiest, wittiest writer on the subject since Woody Allen * * Saga * *
Hair-raising in parts, hilarious in others. -- Katie Law * * Evening Standard * *
Roach marries enthusiasm and curiosity with unflagging humour while she intrepidly braves the lurching tango of acadame and popular culture , rising to a passionate and playful, if not wholly penetrating, climax. -- Anita Sethi * * Independent on Sunday * *

Author Bio

Mary Roach is also the author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and Six Feet Over: Adventures in the Afterlife. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian, Salon, Wired, GQ, Vogue and the New York Times Magazine. She lives in Oakland, California.