I've read many of these essays in slightly different form on Scientific American and Slate, and it reminded me how incredibly enjoyable and enlightening Jesse Bering's work is.

My only real complaint is that some of these essays are far too short and thus I kept asking myself, "Why bother writing it at all?" For instance, the essay on female orgasm (lasting a scant six pages) didn't really inform me much at all...not that, as a gay man, it's a topic particularly of interest to me!

The essays on suicide are especially great. This book also covers a lot of fringe sex topics, religious discussion from a psychological point of view, gay psychology, among others.

Funny and informative, full of puns and dad jokes, which was the best thing about this collection of essays. But I couldn't help but see a few issues with how he frames the research.

Early in the book, when talking about how sperm contains antidepressants, he gave this as the reason why gay men engage in "barebacking". He went on to criticize authors of a study who explained this predilection with social reasons, "promoting closeness" etc, by saying, well, come on, don't we think it's obviously more likely biological evolutionary reasons than the "postmodern" reasons given by the authors? Wellll.. that's problematic. These a priori arguments don't really work in science like that. It kind of set the tone for how he framed other research, especially all the stuff on gender differences. Hey, haven't neuroscientists been telling everyone for decades to stop using brain differences as evidence of biological determinism because the brain is shaped by a person's history and experiences?

Another thing that made me take pause was his insistence that hebephilia is only a problem in a moralistic society, that it's perfectly accepted in many societies in the world, and a person can be a hebephile and an upstanding member of society, just look at Roman Polanski... well, let's look at Roman Polanski, because I don't think anyone really has ever said that the problem with him is that he is a hebephile. The problem with him is that he acted on his attraction by drugging a child and raping her, and the problem with that is the lifelong emotional and maybe physical trauma that such a deep violation of body integrity early in life can cause.

(Tbh this sounds just like those anthropologists who claimed there was no rape in certain societies, only for it to be discovered by a woman that they just didn't have a word for "rape" because women mattered so little that their consent wasn't even on the radar).

How thorough is this science, how complete is this data, if we completely ignore an entire side of the story, if we only center our perspective on men's desire? How accurate are you if you say women are biologically less prone to physical violence, if you ignore an entire lifetime of being told certain kinds of behavior are inappropriate?

I enjoyed reading this book because it was funny and there were some laugh out loud moments, but as for the science I think it left quite a bit to be desired.

Fun, interesting, and well written

There were some chapters that were a little cutesy, but some that were difficult for me to make sense of, because of the technical jargon. When the author started describing theories on suicide as an evolutionary probability/calculation I was in a little over my head. There may have been just too many topics for Bering to offer a more plain-spoken volume. I think the glue that was supposed to hold all of this together was that there is an evolutionary explanation for everything? Or maybe there wasn't really any "glue" other than these are all descriptions of human behaviors and physical characteristics?
I read this about two pages at a time, and it took me nearly six weeks to finish. The topics seemed mostly interesting, but somehow I just didn't click with the writing. I've read three of Mary Roach's layman-friendly science books and she was much easier for me to understand.

This was an interesting book, on an interesting topic. It being a collection of previous essays, however, made reading it difficult and repetitive. Had the Author edited his essays in order to make them more smooth (or, you know, hired a decent editor) it would have been far more enjoyable.

The author is a GOLD STAR GAY. He wants you to KNOW. Every essay, every mention of female reproduction gets an explanation of HOW GAY Dr. Bering is. Great. Good for you. It's largely irrelevant. And now I'm irritated. It gets reexplained in every essay, even the ones not about reproduction. I generally don't introduce myself to everyone with "hello! I'm a Kinsey 4!" The author seems to.

Also, the author thinks he's punny. I didn't. It got old, real quick.

Overall, I was very interesting in the subject matter, and the author does a very good job of explaining in laymen's terms the results of many psychological and scientific studies. But I think I would have rather read the studies.

Divided neatly into essays, I enjoyed learning about why the testicles hang away from the body, why pre-mature ejaculation would be biologically advantageous, and learning about female ejaculate. Great questions in science that aren't really talked about.

Very funny, research heavy book on all things human. Author was hilarious and the topics were odd and intriguing. Would definitely recommend.