—4.5—

What a great book!  Mary Roach has redeemed herself following the (in my opinion) less-than-satisfying book Spookwith a phenomenal third work Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex.  As the title hints, this is a fascinating and funny book in which Roach explores the history of sex research.  In Bonk, Roach goes beyond Kinsey to try to explain to us readers what we really want to know: what exactly is an orgasm? Can paraplegics have sex?  Is orgasm linked to fertility?  Why is Viagra useless for women?  And she answers some things we didn’t have questions on before, but are good fun to learn about anyway, such as why Panda’s have such a crappy sex-life, and how female pigs are inseminated.  Roach also explores why it has taken so long for sex research to catch up with other forms of medicine, although it is just as important, just more taboo.  She makes the point that can be quite difficult to get funding and approval for sex studies, cause they do often seem a little perverted, despite their good intentions.  Plus, where do you find subjects?

If you enjoyed Spook or Stiff, I definately recommend you pick up Bonk.  And if you haven’t read either of the other two, pick it up anyway!  Roach is definately one of the most unique and funny science authors out there.  And as always, her almost always irrelevant footnotes get the biggest laughs!  Can’t wait for another book by her.

4.5/5

Check out my review of Spook as well!