Had a friend recommend this who likes nonfiction books that describe how and why different body process work and happen. This broke down what is going on in male and female bodies and in various animals. The most fascinating parts were when animal processes were described and explained and how similar to humans they are (duh we are animals too.) This books discusses more studies and scientists, psychologists, other research professionals than I can count. Basically this book is what an anatomy o...

In one word: “fascinating”. First of all, this book is not a text book but it could easily serve as a primer to any undergrad: Introduction to Evolutionary Human Sexuality.Secondly, Dr Moalem is an accomplished MD, PhD, and award winning Neurogenetiscist who harbors an intense passion for his field of study; and this factor shines brilliantly in this creation.And lastly, my personal opinion is: the author is truly a master of finding the subject’s marrow; stripping the clinical down to its most

Very interesting read. Sex, attraction, monogamy, puberty, etc. are all approached from a purely clinical and research based perspective.

This book starts out much more strongly than it finishes. In its earlier chapters, the ones in which the author goes about the business of explaining the mechanics of sexual response, the writing is clear and still extremely relevant though the book was written not quite a decade ago. But both the science which the author explores and the viewpoints the author expresses definitely show their age increasingly as we get further along in the text. Some of the authors references to Queer issues and

I won this in a "First Reads" giveaway, and am so excited to dig into it soon!So I finished this and I really enjoyed reading it! It definitely gave me quite a bit of food for thought.Many topics related to human sexual activity and reproduction were covered here, and at times it felt unfocused. I think the biggest underlying theme related back to the evolutionary purpose of everything we do sexually, but that covered quite a bit of territory! I might have preferred this book if it were more nar...

+ Sharon Moalem. How Sex Works: Why We Look, Smell, Taste, Feel and Act the Way We Do I give this one 4 stars. Moalem is a neurogeneticist whose writing about sex is almost as fun to read as the genuine article is itself! In nine chapters, he presents an evolutionary history of human sexuality that is engaging and written in an easily readable style. Some readers may think it too lightweight and lacking in depth. It is, undoubtedly, a work of summary, giving an overview of the latest...

I was very surprised by how much information is in this book. The author, Dr. Moalem does not dwell on one topic for long. Because of this, the book kept my interest. Some of the information shocked me (not in a bad way, just I never heard of it), and I was so surprised I looked it up the internet to confirm (or deny) his research.

This is a well-written, interesting book. If you read science articles frequently, most of what you read is not new. I still ended up learning how female ejaculation is still a mystery to many doctors. Warning: while most of the book is not graphic, a couple passages gave me pause. I learned that while I am not a homophobe, homosexual duck necrophilia really, really grosses me out.

Excellent book summarizing our current understanding of sexual behavior, reproductive biology, among other things. Different chapters covered female orgasm (and ejaculation), birth control, and the connection between pheromones and the immune system. Although I'd learned many of these facts in previous classes, the author did a good job of both explaining and summarizing the research in an understandable fashion.

This is one of those occasions where I wish I could give half stars, because I really enjoyed the book more than 3 stars.How Sex Works was a First Reads that delving into a foray that I don't typically read. If I was well versed in the science of sex, I may not have been as impressed. But I truly believe that it would be hard to make the subject boring and How Sex Works is definitely not that. The book covers a range of facts and curiosities, starting with Health class basics and later hitting o...

Great book about sex. Moalem brings a nice balance to the discussion. Using a lot of traditional ideas about sex (e.g. sperm is plentiful and eggs are rarer) as well as more updated ideas (e.g. human males' large balls serve as refrigerators for sperm that are ready to compete), Moalem wrote the book about sex I have been searching for. Usually books about sex involve what Gould calls "just so stories" in which evolutionary psych people go to extraordinary lengths to hold onto outdated ideas tha...

Definitely not for the prudish, but also not a prurient book. It's a scientific (though not clinical and boring) discussion of reproduction, sexual identity, and sexual attraction. I found it fascinating.

This book was somewhat informative. It would have helped greatly to have diagrams to accompany some of the descriptions. As a woman trying to better understand my body on a scientific level, I would have loved to have something to look at while reading that could show me exactly where the parts he was discussing were located. After reading Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality , I would say these two book pair nicely together. Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sex...

OK, I liked this because it reviewed some of what I had learned as a kid in sex education - glad to be part of the comprehensive sex education through the school [health class, fyi] as well as through the church AYS [that's AYS & OWL if you happen to need a program] and The Joy of Sex etc..mixed together with stuff I actually didn't already know. Its nice to learn new stuff and the occasional review really does help prevent 'forgetting what we've learned'. Now, please understand that I was an av...

How Sex Works takes us on a tour of sex – its biological costs and benefits, its anatomy, why we’re attracted to the people we’re attracted to, homosexuality, and the genetic disorders that result in ambiguously sexed individuals. Reading this was like being allowed to smell your favorite food – there’s just enough to tantalize you, but not enough to satisfy your interest/craving. Dr. Moalem’s narrative is easy to follow and very readable, but he just doesn’t delve into things. A lot of what he

An author can't go wrong, I'd guess, by including the word "sex" in his or her book's title. It helps if said author's bio mentions appearances on CNN and The Daily Show. It helps if some of the blurbs on the cover are by the authors of books whose own titles include The G Spot and The Technology of Orgasm.Still and all, by the time you finish How Sex Works: Why We Look, Smell, Taste, Feel, and Act the Way We Do, you may be left wondering: what the heck kind of book did I just read?Consider the

How could I not read a book with that sort of title? Much of the information was a repeat from other books I’ve read, but Moalem also covered a lot that I appreciated, such as a chapter on homosexuality. My main grudge with books like these is that they’re so focused on reproduction that they tend to ignore the fact that desire doesn’t necessarily always follow reproduction, even if we’re biologically hardwired to be a certain way. I just don’t buy all that stuff, and Moalem writes about studies...

I'm a big fan of Sharon Moalem's other books "Survival of the Sickest" and "Inheritance" so I looked forward to reading this but I felt it lacked structure, with random facts popping up all over the place and chapter titles having only a sparing relevance to their contents. It was worth a read.

Okay, so I thought: should I post this title or shouldn't I? I liked this book! I tend to be medically/scientifically-minded in my approach to things, so when I read this title, I knew it would be up my alley. Yes, the first chapter was a drag as he leaned heavily on evolution, but after I put that into context in my mind, I found his medical explanations for things very enlightening. I liked how he was tasteful in his commentary (Moalem has is PhD in something or other to do with the topic...I

Who knew I was doing so many things wrong???No, actually this isn't quite that sort of book. It's a scientific discussion of many different things related to sex, including the dispelling of many myths that I have heard (and sometimes believed) through my life. While much of the information was not entirely new to me, there were definitely things I had not known before, and even for the things that I did feel I knew, the confirmation of my information was nice. And I only occasionaly felt squeam...