Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex

by Mary Roach Narrated by Sandra Burr

Overview

The study of sexual physiology-what happens, and why, and how to make it happen better-has been a paying career or a diverting sideline for scientists as far-ranging as Leonardo da Vinci and James Watson. The research has taken place behind the closed doors of laboratories, brothels, MRI centers, pig farms, sex-toy R&D labs, and Alfred Kinsey's attic.

Mary Roach, “The funniest science writer in the country” (Burkhard Bilger of The New Yorker), devoted the past two years to stepping behind those doors. Can a person think herself to orgasm? Can a dead man get an erection? Is vaginal orgasm a myth? Why doesn't Viagra help women-or, for that matter, pandas? In Bonk, Roach shows us how and why sexual arousal and orgasm-two of the most complex, delightful, and amazing scientific phenomena on earth-can be so hard to achieve and what science is doing to slowly make the bedroom a more satisfying place.

Editorial Reviews

The New Yorker called Mary Roach "the funniest science writer in the country," a strange accolade perhaps for someone best known for books on death and its aftermath. With this book, the author of Stiff and Spook finds a topic guaranteed to make us giggle: sex. Bonk leads us on a zestful romp through the scientific study of lust, ecstasy, and the co-mingling of genitalia. Roach shows that the apparently tireless work of sex researchers often skirts some very funny boundaries.

Pamela Paul

In her previous books, Stiff and a follow-up, Spook, Mary Roach set out to make creepy topics (cadavers, the afterlife) fun. In Bonk…she takes an entertaining topic and showcases its creepier side. And then she makes the creepy funny. Intended as much for amusement as for enlightenment, Bonk is Roach's foray into the world of sex research, mostly from Alfred Kinsey onward, but occasionally harking back to the ancient Greeks and medievals (equally unenlightened). Roach belongs to a particular strain of science writer; she's interested less in scientific subjects than in the ways scientists study their subjects—less, in this case, in sex per se than in the laboratory dissection of sex.
—The New York Times

Rick Weiss

In keeping with her popular previous volumes Stiff and Spook, Bonk shows Mary Roach to be a meticulous researcher with a passion for the details most likely to make you queasy…Roach is funny and…as insurance against a dull cocktail party, Bonk can't be beat.
—The Washington Post

Kirkus Reviews

Wondering whether orgasms make sows more fertile? Turn to Roach for the answer. One of the funniest and most madcap of science writers, the author has approached sticky subjects to hilarious effect in her two previous books. Stiff (2003) looked at the many uses to which human cadavers have been put, while Spook (2005) told of science's attempts to understand the afterlife. Her latest is no less captivating or entertaining, as she flings wide the closed doors behind which the scientific study of coitus has traditionally been conducted. Roach details the careers of sex researchers Alfred Kinsey, William Masters and Virginia Johnson, Marie Bonaparte (Napoleon's great-grand-niece) and porn-star-turned-Ph.D. Annie Sprinkle, among others. Such researchers "to this day, endure ignorance, closed minds, righteousness, and prudery," she writes. "Their lives are not easy. But their cocktail parties are the best." Emulating her subjects' daring spirit, Roach displays a firm belief that there is no question too goofy to ask-or, barring that, to Google. What happens when you implant a monkey testicle in a man: Does he get more vital, or does he get an infection? She explores centuries of research into such questions as how penile implants work (a pump could be involved); whether surgically relocating the clitoris can lead to better sex (no); why the human penis is shaped as it is (to scoop out competitors' sperm); and what exactly is going on when it enters a vagina (shockingly, there is still much to learn). Apart from its considerable comic value, the book also emulates its predecessors by illustrating a precept of scientific research: The passion to know, in the face of censure and propriety, iswhat advances our understanding of the world. A lively, hilarious and informative look at science's dirty secrets. Agent: Jay Mandel/William Morris Agency

From the Publisher

"Roach ferrets out basic truths and endless absurd details amid mountains of dry science on her chosen subject. . . . It’s a wonderful read, sprinkled with facts you can quote to amaze your friends."— San Francisco Chronicle

"[Mary Roach] is a bold, tenacious, and insatiable reporter. . . . A greatly satisfying romp."— New York Times Book Review

"Roll over, Kinsey. Mary Roach has done it again.... Bonk proves that full-bodied research can be riveting."— O, The The Oprah Magazine

"Roach is a fearless and witty reporter."— Wall Street Journal

"[An] account that is at once revealing—alarmingly so—and very very funny. She studs (forgive me) her journey with a multitude of knee-crossing bits of fact that will enliven bedtime conversation everywhere."— Erik Larson, author of Devil in the White City

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172695445
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	04/07/2008
Edition description:	Unabridged

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