I only wish some of the chapters were longer or the book twice as long. It was fascinating!!!

 This was really interesting. I love a history book about a specific topic and this was really well put together. Each chapter covers a different topic and it was really easy to read. Lister's writing was witty and engaging and I liked the way she related historical attitudes to modern society. 

3.5 Stars! This is quite an interesting compendium of the interesting and unique history of sex, sexual practices and reproductive health. It’s written with a sort of academic matter-of-fact, “did you know” humour, that passes interesting facts whilst acknowledging the limitations of source data. It’s funny with its running collection of euphemisms around sex and reproductive health, but never puerile, in-depth and I suppose somewhat explicit at times by virtue of the subjects, but never in a titillating way- it’s very scholarly- kind of like a nerd-out about the historical intersection of sex and culture. Chapters focus on the relationship between sex and language, sex and sexual organs, sex and food, sex toys, hygiene, reproduction, menstruation, sex work and consent. Of course in any book investigating the history of sex in depth, gender is a sub-theme, from misogyny to queer phobia to erasure, be mindful if these are things you might find triggering.

Overall, I liked this and I enjoyed meandering through it slowly over the past couple of months. I read the book at times and listened to the audio read by the author, at other times and I found both interesting and felt that I learned a lot about the history and anthropology of sex. I recommend this if sex is something that interests you from an academic standpoint. This is entertaining but also filled with a lot of factoids and trivia. For me if there is a down side, it is that whilst there is certainly reference to non-“Western” traditions in this book, I would say to a large extent, this book focuses on Western histories of sex with to a lesser extent some focus on practices from India. And this is understandable because this book relies on (mostly verified) written histories and traditions rather than oral ones. But I would have loved to have more content around Africa and other parts of Asia (other than India) and even other indigenous populations, and I fear those narratives might be lost forever.

Whilst this author editorializes a lot, it never feels like she’s giving too much personal opinion. There is some though. If you’re a fan of the Twitter page, “Whores of Yore,” you’ll probably know the vibe and quite like this book. I recommend if sex is something you want to get nerdy about - definitely check out the cool sources cited. This is definitely a labour of love.