REVIEW

Book Review: Bonk - The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach

Written by Mel Odom
Published May 09, 2008
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Another thing I love about Mary Roach is that she’s apparently willing to go anywhere to seek out knowledge and report back to the armchair scientists who can’t afford to go and wouldn’t be caught dead asking such questions. (And that’s one of the reasons I like Mike Rowe on Dirty Jobs.)

For this book, Mary Roach interviewed dozens of people, examined dozens of secret documents, took a tour of a pig farm and watched sows get artificially inseminated, first hand (by hand!), and even enticed her own husband into having sex while being subjected to an MRI. I have to admit, that after seeing Roach in action -- forgive me -- I can’t help but believe that has to be one of the most interesting marriages in the world. I love my wife, but I’m not crawling up onto an MRI table to be watched by scientists for anybody.

Roach goes on to explore several other reconstructive surgery avenues physicians and surgeons have pursued over the year. Just when you think she can’t top the last chapter, all you have to do is turn the page.

If you haven’t discovered Mary Roach, if you think reading Masters and Johnson’s Human Sexual Response has made you an expert in the field, pick up Bonk and become truly educated and amazed. Her chapter on Master and Johnson, and their peers, casts that research in a totally different light and I found myself alternately appalled and amused.

The science field has a new champion ready to educate and entertain the masses, and her name is Mary Roach. I can’t wait to see where she’s going next.

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Mel Odom is the author of over 100 novels. Winner of the American Library Association's Alex Award for 2002 and runner-up for the Christy in 2005, he's written in several genres, including tie-in novels for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Without A Trace, and novelizations of Blade, XXX, and Tomb Raider. Thankfully, he's learned to use his ADHD for good instead of evil.
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Book Review: Bonk - The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach
Published: May 09, 2008
Type: Review
Section: Books
Filed Under: Books: Audio Book, Books: Health, Books: Humor, Books: Nonfiction, Books: Science
Writer: Mel Odom
Mel Odom's BC Writer page
Mel Odom's personal site
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Comments

#1 — May 10, 2008 @ 01:20AM — Phillip Winn [URL]

We interviewed Mary about this book on BC Radio Live, and it was fascinating. All her books are great.

#2 — May 13, 2008 @ 18:34PM — Natalie Bennett [URL]

This article has been selected for syndication to Boston.com. Nice work!

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