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Bonk

by Mary Roach (Goodreads Author)

3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 · rating details · 19,887 ratings · 2,606 reviews

Few things are as fundamental to human happiness than satisfying sex. Yet the funding for research, always elusive, has dwindled sharply. Bonk is both an ode to a fascinating and vital pursuit and a reminder that there is still much to learn. Sexual arousal and orgasm are two of the most complex, delightful, utterly amazing scientific phenomena on earth.

Paperback, 333 pages

Published June 5th 2008 by Canongate Books Ltd (first published 2008)

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Mar 28, 2013 Manny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, well-i-think-its-funny, blame-jordan-if-you-like, story-review, pooh-dante

(Joint review with JORDAN, who's actually finished the book)

- George?

- Mmm?

- Don't go to sleep.

- Mmm.

- You are going to sleep!

- Mm-mm.

- George, tell me something you did today.

- Um... I read a book.

- That's better! Move around a bit. Yes, that's right, put your hand there. Good. What book?

- Bonk. By Mary Roach.

- That silly book about sex?

- It's not silly! She's really got a lot of interesting things to say!

- Like?

- Ah... I liked the bit about women's orgasms.

- Guess you don't know much about tha...more

112 likes · like · see review

Nov 11, 2008 Trevor rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Trevor by: Ginnie and Mindy

Shelves: science, social-theory, psychology

I’ve never had internet sex – there must be another word for it, cybersex, obviously, but I’m thinking more along the lines of keyboard sex. All the same, a couple of years ago (and purely as a community service, you understand) I started working on a series of words that could be typed using only the left hand. It was another of those projects that I started and fairly quickly lost interest in.

If this book is about anything I think it would be fair to say that it is about the absurdity of sex....more I’ve never had internet sex – there must be another word for it, cybersex, obviously, but I’m thinking more along the lines of keyboard sex. All the same, a couple of years ago (and purely as a community service, you understand) I started working on a series of words that could be typed using only the left hand. It was another of those projects that I started and fairly quickly lost interest in.

If this book is about anything I think it would be fair to say that it is about the absurdity of sex. This is the second of Roach’s books I’ve read lately and I must say sex is much funnier than death. This book was laugh out loud funny.

I have also discovered that I have a special face that I wear whenever the words URETHRA and EXPANDED or INSERTED are used in the same sentence. This is especially the case when the word TOOTHBRUSH is also contained in that sentence – but it is not reserved for the collocation of those particular words. In fact, by the end of the book whenever the word URETHRA was used at all I could feel my face responding in a particularly pronounced Pavlovian fashion.

There were so many interesting bits to this book that it is pointless me starting or I simply won’t be able to stop. And it was funny and fun – so I am going to recommend it and recommend it highly.

The bit I found most interesting was right at the end, where she was talking about tests that were done in the 1970s that found that the people who enjoyed sex the most were homosexual couples – either gay or lesbian. This was because the heterosexual couples tended to see sex as a destination they needed to reach as quickly as they could, while the homosexual couples played more and teased and delighted in each other more. For some reason we seem to have become sold on the ‘sex as performance’ metaphor. At one point she said that many women felt sexually inadequate because they believed themselves to be unattractive and spent the whole time worrying about what they looked like – watching themselves in effect. Sex is about being there with someone else, and is better the more ‘there’ you are – it is a dance, rather than a race or a beauty contest.

Now, this is the second time recently that I’ve discovered just how incurious I am and have always been. The first time was with Mr Fry’s autobiography when he was talking about boys sticking their fingers up their bums. That simply never occurred to me when I was growing up. And to be honest, you could leave me alone in a room for a thousand years and I would never think of having sex with a vacuum cleaner. I am assuming that is not what Billy Bragg means when he has a female character in one of his songs say, “no amount of poetry will mend this broken heart, but you can push the Hoover ‘round if you want to make a start”.

So, what did I learn? Well, besides that gays make the best lovers, that it is best not to rush into a room when you hear a man calling out “Titan, Titan, Titan” on a video your wife is watching and if God has a place it certainly isn’t in the bedroom, I think that the best of this book – like Stiff – is acknowledging that life, death and sex are all a bit absurd and for that we really should be very grateful.
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45 likes · like · see review

Mar 12, 2013 Aerin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sociology, audio, humor, nonfiction, science

This book is about SEX, and it is by MARY ROACH, so you know it's going to be lurid and entertaining. And it is. But it's more anecdotal than educational; like so many pop-history books it leaves out the nitty-gritty foundations and contexts in favor of the entertaining details, the funny asides, the eccentric personalities, the surprising trivia. So while you won't come away with any sort of comprehensive understanding of the science of sex, you're at least unlikely to be bored. There are entir...more

16 likes · like · see review

Apr 10, 2008 Sandy added it

One in every 5000 women is born without a vaginal canal.
who knew?

this is the kind of fact mary roach loves to ferret out of medical journals and research papers--and then, she loves to create puns and laugh out loud smarty-pants remarks about the sexologists and their crazy ideas and inventions. she's a science writer for the masses who footnotes like a fiend.

but hey, it's not all penis cameras, pyrex tubes and statistics about ER visits for 'object retrieval'. Roach visits implant surgeons in...more

9 likes · like · see review

Jun 26, 2008 Lori Whitwam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

(Review starts with a recent blog post, written mid-book, then my conclusion)

Well, maybe it is, just a little bit.

As I've often stated here, I read very little non-fiction. Too dry, too dull, too fact-intensive. Just too. A couple of months ago, I read Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. Roach's good-natured obsession with researching anything and everything that interests her is infectious. Plus, I'm fairly morbid, so the topic appealed to me. Seriously, I can watch surger...more

8 likes · like · see review

Jul 24, 2008 jess rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008

i audiobook'd this, the third feature-length scientific expedition of mary roach. i love! love! love! mary roach. i have bought multiple copies of her first book, stiff, and have managed to permanently "lend" every one of them out. audiobooking the curious couplings of science and sex, however, was a very strange experience. picture this: i am walking around downtown pittsburgh, just like every morning, and there are strangers passing me left and right with serious or sleepy looks, briefcases an...more i audiobook'd this, the third feature-length scientific expedition of mary roach. i love! love! love! mary roach. i have bought multiple copies of her first book, stiff, and have managed to permanently "lend" every one of them out. audiobooking the curious couplings of science and sex, however, was a very strange experience. picture this: i am walking around downtown pittsburgh, just like every morning, and there are strangers passing me left and right with serious or sleepy looks, briefcases and plastic bags, and i am listening to a chapter on Lady Boners. i'm stuck in traffic, the way i most despise spending my time, and learning about the erotic rituals of artificial insemination of pigs in norway. very! strange!

if you're looking for a forthright and humorous scientific break-down of erotic encounters, the clit, the g-spot, the erection.... well, this may not be the book for you. roach focuses her special, special attentions on the sex researchers that have changed the landscapes of our bodies and our bedrooms. quick, tell me, which sexologist used his research as an outlet for his attraction to men? whatever happened to the dildo cams constructed decades ago for sex research of vaginal arousal? what do you know about the discovery of the g-spot? have you ever read a graphic description of the surgeries performed to provide erections for men with erectile dysfunction? what do you know about the distance between the clitoris and the vaginal opening, and the orgasmic capacity therein? interested to find out which sex researchers had to perform their studies under the cover of nightfall? read BONK.

roach explores the ways that funding moves (or not) through research facilities, the stigma and social implications of being involved in sex research, and the feelings of grown-up children of researchers. we visit the institutions that are supportive and not. roach pieces together the changing times and cultural notions of sex, and how our perception of sex restricts or facilitates collection of data and ability to publish. she produces a clear picture of the historical variance in our cultural acceptance of sex research. basically, the book is a lot of the grimy politicking that happens when people are jostling for funds and the neighbors might not approve of your research. it's an entertaining ride through the scientific research industry. along the way, i learned that sex researchers are both flawed and fascinating, and have both the purest and most dubious intentions and methods. and some of them actually seem likable (cindy mestin, for example!)

of course, we learn the most from the exceptional cases, and roach brings enough material from the margins to make your head (or sphincter) spin. i appreciated her examinations of the roles that prostitutes played, especially in the early days of sex research. i loved the tales of wild sexual encounters in a rented attic for the sake of science. i loved that mary roach talked her husband into having sex with her in a lab for the sake of science. i am not sure that i could talk my spouse into that, even for the sake of science. i was enthralled by the last chapter's mention of the scientific proof of better sex between gay couples than straight couples. i'm biased, i guess, but i agree.(less)

21 likes · like · see review

Jun 29, 2012 rachel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own, 2012

One of my favorite parts in Fifty Shades of Grey -- by which I mean, one of the parts that gave me the greatest WTF glee -- is the part where Ana, still a virgin, is watching Christian Grey become aroused and is wondering how it's going to fit, and he says to her, "Don't worry. You expand too."

My first reaction: Sexay! My second reaction: sadness for the fact that for whatever reason, there are other girls and women who also lack the knowledge of basic sexual biology because, as I lamented in my...more One of my favorite parts in Fifty Shades of Grey -- by which I mean, one of the parts that gave me the greatest WTF glee -- is the part where Ana, still a virgin, is watching Christian Grey become aroused and is wondering how it's going to fit, and he says to her, "Don't worry. You expand too."

My first reaction: Sexay! My second reaction: sadness for the fact that for whatever reason, there are other girls and women who also lack the knowledge of basic sexual biology because, as I lamented in my review of Fifty Shades, the subject is so laced with shame.

This book is a little more than basic. It's Intermediate Sex Ed, for people who know the names of parts and how they work (and certainly that they fit), but doesn't know the exact mechanics of that working, perhaps. Mary Roach teaches us these things in great detail. For example, what layperson knows that vaginal fluid is plasma secreted through the vaginal walls, its source being the blood that rushes to fill the walls during arousal? (I mean, maybe you reasoned that out, but nowhere in high school sex ed do they say "here is what makes up vaginal fluid," you know?)

Who knew that people could think themselves to orgasm, that orgasms can temporarily relieve the spasms and pains of neurological disorder? That quadriplegic and paraplegic persons who are capable of having orgasms -- 40-50% of them -- may feel it not just in their heads and genitals, as those who are not quadriplegic or paraplegic do, but potentially in their chests, arms, shoulders too?

Who knew that women experience involuntary symptoms of arousal while watching any sort of sex (homosexual, heterosexual, even sex between animals) but men generally are only aroused by the type(s) of sex they're oriented towards? So much for that oh-so-feminine insult of frigidity.

There's also a delightful human element to the book. The fact that the woman who volunteered to publicly demonstrate a sex machine at a convention is in her sixties and wearing bookish glasses. Roach and her husband in hospital gowns, doing it whilst having their genital responses imaged, for science. The accusation of one of Kinsey's biographers that there was a perverse gleam in his eyes as he hovered his face inches away from a copulating couple (also FOR SCIENCE).

I guess my complaint would be that there's not enough of that human connection to the genitalia detailed in the book. Not enough of the human connection and communication that -- as Roach concludes in the final chapter, to the surprise of no one -- enhances our sexual experiences. I mean, it's kind of good to get to a point where you've read the word "clitoris" so many times it seems as dirty as reading a symbolic logic textbook. But that effect also makes the book about as exciting as symbolic logic at points, so. (less)

13 likes · like · see review

Sep 01, 2011 Coco rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: couldn-t-finish

In a few words, this book is poorly written and less than informative. The information, IF YOU CAN FIND ANY, in this book is mostly trivial and/or useless. (The actual amount of info in the book might have made a long magazine article in Cosmo.) The book is shamelessly padded with jokes and cutesy side remarks, found both in the text and in anecdotes in textual footnotes. Since they often have nothing to do either with the book's subject or the material on the page at hand, they quickly become f...more

7 likes · like · see review

Apr 15, 2009 Books Ring Mah Bell rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-med-psych

This book has it all!!!!
-A little history of studies on sex (Kinsey! Masters and Johnson)
-Erections
-Use of erections in martial arts (go rent Iron Crotch!)
-Surgery for erection enhancement. (Graphic. It made my stomach churn)
-Dildos (or use of electric toothbrushes as dildos.)
-Orgasms (and a lady who has orgasms when she brushes her teeth… awesome!)
-Failure to orgasm (Princess Bonaparte blamed it on a distant clitoris for the ladies. If the clitoris is more than an inch away from the vagina, cha...more

5 likes · like · see review

Nov 02, 2008 Meen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Oh, everybody, it's just that much fun!

Recommended to Meen by: It was on the $1 shelf at Page & Palette

Shelves: social-science, not-so-social-science, sexy-sexy-splashy-splashy, own-it

Unlike any science book I've ever read--enlightening and hilarious! I can't remember the last time I laughed so much with a book. (OK, I don't really read a lot of funny stuff. Occupational hazard?) Almost every footnote made me LOL and want to mark the page so I could post it on GR somewhere, but there were just too many good ones. But you know what stuck with me most about this book? How revolutionary it is for women to have control of their bodies, sexually, reproductively, to be intellectual...more

7 likes · like · see review

Apr 29, 2008 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fancypants

okay i didn't REALLY read the *entire* thing. But I read like 85% of it and skimmed the rest. And for the most part it was pretty hilarious. I had some problems with it thought. I felt like I spent the whole book waiting for her get to the point about people having different kinds of sex. The book, supposedly, is about sex. But it's never really clear how she defines sex. She (and scientists) seem to be working mostly from a sex-as-intercourse assumption. This was most clearly illustrated when s...more okay i didn't REALLY read the *entire* thing. But I read like 85% of it and skimmed the rest. And for the most part it was pretty hilarious. I had some problems with it thought. I felt like I spent the whole book waiting for her get to the point about people having different kinds of sex. The book, supposedly, is about sex. But it's never really clear how she defines sex. She (and scientists) seem to be working mostly from a sex-as-intercourse assumption. This was most clearly illustrated when she and her husband volunteered to have sex in a lab so scientists could take an MRI of it. But then when she described it, it really didn't sound like what i think of as sex at all. I don't want to project feelings on to her too much, but it didn't sound like she was involved or turned on by it at all. It didn't sound like two people having sex. The way she described it, it sounded like she could have been a doll that her husband was having intercourse with. Orgasm was certainly never mentioned in that scenario.

Point being, she spend a lot of time talking about the mechanics of sex, but what IS sex exactly? There are so many different kinds, and she really only talks about intercourse and the orgasms that come therefrom. At the very tiny little squeak of an end she mentions queer sex (or "homosexual," as she very clinically puts it), but only as an aside to illustrate that Masters & Johnson found that queer people have better sex than straight people. But does she go on to say anything more about queer people or queer sex? No no. Instead she talks about the implications of this tidbit for straight people. You can practically hear the underlying "we" when she talks about how far "heterosexuals have come" (no pun?). No mention of any of the implications for queer people. There's so much othering going on I almost can't keep track of it all.

It is shocking to me that a book that purports to be about sex has such a severely limited definition of what sex entails. When I got to the chapter about implants and sexual modification I thought that surely, finally, there would be a mention of queer people, at the very least of people who have undergone gender reassignment surgery. NOTHING! It's appalling. The book is funny and entertaining, but for a book that claims to be about sex, it is heterosexist and cisgenderist (is that even a word?) in the extreme. Not even just heterosexist, interesting-sex-ist (e.g No discussion of all the different ways for just straight ppl to have sex other than intercourse). Disappointing.(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 27, 2009 Shivering William rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: runner-ups

A book about sex. You might not want to read on.

My uncle and I have read all of Mary Roach's books together. We had stomach churning conversations about cadavers at dinner parties and discussed the after life at meant-to-be light-hearted gatherings. He approached me with red in his cheeks after he finished this. "It's raw. But good." And that was the end of our conversation.

This was the kind of book that kept me laughing so hard people around me had to ask, "What, what?" and then I would reitera...more

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Apr 19, 2013 ♪ Jenn added it · review of another edition

Shelves: really-popular-science, abandoned

Ive stopped reading at my last update.

What is wrong with ME!? Nothing. But this time, I can blame it on my childhood (again!!)

Dont get me wrong, because Mary Roach is not wrong. In fact, she is a brilliant science writer, effortlessly connecting with the reader. Smart as a whip and funny to boot, she is exactly what I love about learning odd and wacky facts, figures, and science.

Regardless, I felt there was far more detail than I ever wanted to know. No, this does not make me prude. There are l...more Ive stopped reading at my last update.

What is wrong with ME!? Nothing. But this time, I can blame it on my childhood (again!!)

Dont get me wrong, because Mary Roach is not wrong. In fact, she is a brilliant science writer, effortlessly connecting with the reader. Smart as a whip and funny to boot, she is exactly what I love about learning odd and wacky facts, figures, and science.

Regardless, I felt there was far more detail than I ever wanted to know. No, this does not make me prude. There are lots of things I am happy to be ignorant about, like Cook and Serve chocolate pudding with that giant skin that would congeal upon cooking. (Come on, just stiiiir the lump in!)

I'll live my life in Cook and Serve Pudding ignorance. In the same vein, I will still die old and happy fully uneducated by a book with a section devoted to sex and the mechanics and particulars that include an electric toothbrush.

Blissfully happy! Wheeeee!

Bonk was a far cry from the health book I checked out of the library at age 16 because I really, really, really, swearing on my Top Gun poster, wanted to know why I had body parts no one talked about. The library health book covered the subject of body parts and more. Much, much more.

My parents were lovely but "when you get older we'll talk" wasnt enough for the list of sex-related questions rolling around in my teenage head. I blame my curiosities on being homeschooled. Typically with my homeschooled education everything was a lesson on the "hows, wheres, whens, and whys". I knew the concepts of supply side economics. The effects of zero-gravity in space. How the pyramids were built without a single stabila or laser level in sight. However, I could not tell you how babies were made.

Tragic indeed, at 16, when sex-ed at home meant talking about the least embarrasing way to buy feminine products. (Just ask Mom to make Dad go buy them!)

Through college, four children, 20 years with smoking hot hubby, and one giant, whopping health / biology book from the library, its safe to say I'm fairly up to date on all things sex.

For now, I'm comfortable abandoning this book of scientific detail and TMI. It should also be said that my own failure to continue is absolutely no indication of Mary Roach's writing. I'll definitely be reading her other books.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 24, 2011 Architeuthis rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2000s, science

This book review has received a strong 'R' rating for disturbing sexual content. If you are eating, you might not wanna read this review right now.

DON'T go into this book thinking it'll get you in the mood. In fact, it may disturb the mood right out of you.

Did you know? Before Viagra, guys who couldn't maintain a good stiffy would often have "stilts" of some sort inserted inside of their penis skin, and they would essentially wander through life with a half-boner that never went away so they co...more

19 likes · like · see review

Dec 19, 2010 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Roach is a master at taking squeamish topics (cadavers, their stages of decomposition, and the history of their use in research in here earlier work "Stiff") such as the history of research into human sexuality and making it not just dryly informative but hilariously so. She also introduces the reader to the scope of bizarre experiments and cast of researching characters, both historical and current. She gives a good feel for how far we've come in research, how long it took us to get there, and...more

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Jun 20, 2008 Geoff rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Only Hardcore Reserach Nuts

I really wanted to like Bonk. Mary Roach seems joyous in her celebration of the science of sex. It's clear she's spent (and thoroughly enjoyed) her time researching the subject, unfortunately the book never really comes together. Mary Roach's 'signature wit' comes of more as juvenile as she seems lost in her perspective on her subject. Is Bonk a personal essay about her journey through the world of sex research? A portrait of the history of sex and the science surrounding it? Roach never settles...more

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Dec 05, 2008 Kathy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Bonk is an absolutely fascinating book on the physiology sex (mostly) and the people who study it. Roach has a wonderful writing style. She makes the science simple and you actually feel like you've met the people she interviewed. I especially loved her footnotes that provided trivia related anecdotes and humorous comments.

Just some of the subjects and people covered: Kinsey, Masters and Johnson, penile implants, sex toys, turning on and inseminating pigs, monkey sex, why Viagra doesn't work for...more

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Nov 20, 2010 Jayme rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jayme by: 42 Days of Medicine

Shelves: 2010, science

So glad I came across this at the book store. Mary Roach has been on my list for a while, so when I saw it on sale (only $6 for the hardcover!) I couldn't help myself.

This was full of all sorts of things I did and didn't want to know, all of them really interesting. Considering the century we live in it was amazing how throughout the book you get to see how little we really know about human sexuality and how hard it is for scientists to get the funding they need to study these things.

That said t...more

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Jan 27, 2011 Meg rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I just read this one in my book club and I am here to tell you that book clubs are not just for ladies bored with cookie exchanges and Tupperware parties or for those with a hall pass to get drunk and catty. In fact I recently joined one filled with funny Kindergarten moms who happen to like wine, a lot, and chocolate (which happens to be brought in Tupperware) while talking about a lot of things, including good books.

We recently sought out a book about sex. We didn't really need a how-too manua...more I just read this one in my book club and I am here to tell you that book clubs are not just for ladies bored with cookie exchanges and Tupperware parties or for those with a hall pass to get drunk and catty. In fact I recently joined one filled with funny Kindergarten moms who happen to like wine, a lot, and chocolate (which happens to be brought in Tupperware) while talking about a lot of things, including good books.

We recently sought out a book about sex. We didn't really need a how-too manual (though we agreed that if we found one, it could be strategically left out for our partners.) We wanted something to spice up a dark Chicago winter and also provide some practical information about sex. After chatting-up our local bookstore owner, we delved into Bonk by Mary Roach. Bonk is advertised as a witty overview of the study of the science of sex. This choice seemed to fit right in with our repertoire of not-quite how-to non-fiction book choices by witty female authors, such as MFK Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf. But unfortunately it was neither witty nor did it deliver any recipes for how to achieve a vaginal orgasm.

We unanimously criticized Bonk for its sophomoric commentary and haphazard litany of sex studies, and it became the first book that the group came to a consensus on--it sucked. Roach misses the mark on describing the ebb and flow of sex research and doesn't even make the reader feel sexy.

We did read that Marie Bonaparte, Napoleon Bonaparte's niece, made great strides in identifying the starring role of the clitoris in female orgasms, (she surgically moved her own twice to optimize hers!) Yet our mothers' generation barely even knew what a clitoris was. This begs the question, what happened to sex research in the intervening hundred years? Perhaps an editor, or even an outline, would have helped Roach organize the studies into an interesting portrait of sex research and help us understand our generation's relationship to sex.

If it wasn't enough to disappoint an entire group of sun-starved Chicago women in January, my husband might have been most offended. He is secretly jealous of our book club for its flavorful mix of smart people and compelling reading list. He was especially happy about this month's book choice because according to his man logic, WIFE + SEX BOOK=LOTS OF SEX. However after the first two nights of squirming uncomfortably while I recounted stories of men ejaculating with toothbrushes up their urethras, or explaining how sows need foreplay from their handlers for successful insemination, he quickly decided that working late would be more productive.

The unfortunate side effects of the book like the absence of pork products in our kitchen and the sharp increase in sexless nights drove him to read the Internet. And after I shared one last detail about penile implants he retaliated with a video about duck vaginas. In this YouTube video, Isabella Rosellini (obviously in full duck dress) explains how a duck's vagina is a labyrinth. Lady ducks can either steer duck penises to mecca and fertilize the egg or to a deserted dead-end. In essence she can reserve the baby-daddy status for her prince charming instead of the first duck to mount her. How handy! With the idea that Rosellini's cinematic choices might make a better book club topic this month, I forwarded the video. Alas the subject "Green Porn," made more people think it was a Canadian pharmacy selling viagra than actually watch it.

Despite my failure to detour the book club conversation, we did not waste much of our time talking about Roach's book, but we did cover our experiences with strip clubs, jerk shacks, birth control, and porn. The night ended as any night might with a group of Moms who spent a few hours with a few drinks talking about sex--"Can you believe this crazy thing that came out of MY vagina?"*

*(Our Kids)
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Apr 07, 2008 Jenne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I might have said this on an earlier review, but Mary Roach is on the top of my list of interesting people to have dinner with...or actually maybe dinner isn't the best idea. Maybe we could just hang out in a non-food-related setting.

This is a woman who is truly dedicated to her work. I won't go into the details, but wow.

4 likes · like · see review

Sep 06, 2010 Meghan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is perhaps not the best book to have put on audio cd. Today as I pulled in to the parking garage and the words orgasm and clitoris were being said loudly, I quickly snapped it off hoping my coworkers in the garage couldn't hear. But it is very interesting so far.

9/6/10: I enjoyed this book. At times it was somewhat explicit. At others it lingered on certain topics for too long. But it was interesting to see that due to morality and people's general uptight treatment of sex, it has not been...more

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Sep 20, 2011 Amy or "Ames" rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: psychology, laugh-out-loud, non-fiction, read-in-2011, health-physical

After getting over the giggles and settled down to read this seriously, I found this book educational, interesting and jaw-dropping. If I'd recorded the soundtrack of me reading this it would be full of giggles, gasps, oh my gods and ewws. Anyone listening would assume I was Bonking, instead of reading about it.

Mary Roach fully immerses herself in her research, even taking part in some studies to experience the experiments for herself. I feel for her husband. Being married to her can mean findi...more After getting over the giggles and settled down to read this seriously, I found this book educational, interesting and jaw-dropping. If I'd recorded the soundtrack of me reading this it would be full of giggles, gasps, oh my gods and ewws. Anyone listening would assume I was Bonking, instead of reading about it.

Mary Roach fully immerses herself in her research, even taking part in some studies to experience the experiments for herself. I feel for her husband. Being married to her can mean finding yourself chatting to a strange man watching you having sex with your mad wife inside an MRI machine.

Her witty commentary on the history of sex research shows the people behind the white coats weren't all perverts and had a genuine scientific curiosity about sex, the most taboo subject in the world no matter time or place you live in. The negative effect this had on both their careers and their personal lives was sometimes staggering.

However, some of the experiments on animals...err...well, they were uncomfortable to read. Roach only reported on the humane ones but even those -I was questioning where the line between science and bestiality is, if there is one. I'm sorry, researchers but there was a gigantic EWW! moment involving a female primate. It was too weird.

Being female I was most interested in the female chapters than the male which tended to drag for me although penis re-attachment surgery was most...enlightening. *coughs to hide smile*

Certain statistics, anecdotes and trivia (e.g. items removed from naughty places that can't be explained without embarrassment) were spread throughout the book, many of which were in the footnotes so whatever you do, pay attention to those even if you, like some, don't particularly like Roach's writing. Her sense of humour won't be to everyone's taste, for me it's more hit than miss but I can understand why some see it as forced, trying too hard to evoke a laugh from her audience.

In an ideal world I'd want to give this to teenagers as part of their sex education. Anyone who might assume this is just some smutty perverted book just by looking at the cover, is wrong. Neither is it dry and boring, there will be no Zzzz's whilst reading this. If anything I'd warn people: You must have a strong stomach. There are graphic descriptions of surgical procedures that will have you involuntarily crossing your legs in sympathy.

So if you want to read about how men get erections, why some women orgasm and others don't then this book is for you. Have fun and try not to puke.(less)

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Apr 18, 2013 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, read-in-2013, authors-mary-roach

This book was good and several times had me laughing at loud. It was informative and interesting and very well done in dealing with a sensitive subject. But I kept waiting for, well, more talk about sex. It was a lot about the mechanics of sex and I was hoping for more about the meaning of sex. Different laws of attraction, why people respond the way they do, etc. So for me this was a bit too textbook. Very interesting and entertaining but not what I wanted out of the book. As always Roach is ti...more

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Apr 10, 2008 Ann rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This woman knows how to do research! And to think of the years I wasted putzing around with soybeans...

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May 20, 2013 Jas rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Disclaimer: This review is highly male oriented

this book has everything

sex in every form... every cringe worthy, OMG, terrified, and enlightening aspect of such a wonderful experience

(fertility statue)

from what makes people tick sexually (hormones, positions, and implications on sexual function and arousal, etc)

To the anatomy—muscles, structure, non-typical reactions, biology, spinal cord injuries and their impact on sexual relations—.

An assortment of horrifyingly stunning—scope, findings...more

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Aug 21, 2008 Jamie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mary Roach's Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex is a book about sex. Well, sort of. It's not erotica. Or a how-to manual. Or an exploration of sexuality in our culture. Or an examination of sex in the media. Rather, while it does touch briefly on some of those topics, Bonk is the history of the scientific study of sex. It's also very funny.

You may be unsurprised to find out that sex as a research subject has a history of taboos and upturned noses once you stray outside of reproductive...more Mary Roach's Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex is a book about sex. Well, sort of. It's not erotica. Or a how-to manual. Or an exploration of sexuality in our culture. Or an examination of sex in the media. Rather, while it does touch briefly on some of those topics, Bonk is the history of the scientific study of sex. It's also very funny.

You may be unsurprised to find out that sex as a research subject has a history of taboos and upturned noses once you stray outside of reproductive and making babies territory. Studying the practical plumbing of the human reproductive system is generally on this side of acceptable, though Roach does point out that aspiring gynecologists used to have to learn their crafts by working on cadavers and even when graduating up to the real thing they had to work by feel without looking. But the study of sex and sexuality for their own sake is more hush-hush and got a much slower start thanks in no part to the many weird and unconventional places it goes.

And go there you shall, curious reader. Roach is fearless and unapologetic in her exploration of the field, and she shines her light right up into some pretty shocking places. This was both great and not so great for me. For example, I found the chapters on sex machines and the people who make them weirdly fascinating, and the chapter where Roach talks her husband into experiencing first hand (so to speak) a study that used ultrasound machines to get cross-sections of their coital act was hilariously awkward. She also throws herself into the research in other places, such as touring a prosthetics factory (and by "prosthetics" I mean "prosthetics" here), and getting personal with attendees of a meeting people who build homemade sex machines. But then again, there was only so much discussion I could take when it came to monkey orgasms, genital surgery, and other things I'd rather not even write about here. I'm no prude, but it didn't take long for me to get my fill of those topics, which Roach goes into with incredible detail.

The best part of the book, though, is Roach's style, because she is the most entertaining science writer I've come across this side of Bill Bryson. She is possessed of a sharp wit and great sense of humor about all this, which goes a long way towards keeping the weird and traditionally private topics approachable and easier to relate to. And it's not of the sophomoric "boobies, tee hee!" variety, either (well, sometimes, but not often). Instead, Roach makes effective use of footnotes and asides to make jokes about not only the people she's reporting on, but also to make self-deprecating quips at her own expense since she's not as far out there as the people she's researching. In short, Roach manages just the right mixture of factual science reporting and wry humor. I laughed out loud many times during this book, and that's got to count for something.(less)

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Jul 02, 2008 Alexis rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

i want mary roach to be my friend. here's what sealed the deal:
"Likewise, we are going to ignore the erectile tissue in the lining of the nose - which does, very occasionally, expand when its owner is sexually aroused. It too is made erect by increased blood flow. Nasal congestion is an erection inside your nose."
can't you just hear her giddy smile while writing that?

overall roach's research bent is more hetero than i would have liked. another reviewer on here said she wanted to hear more about...more

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Jun 02, 2008 Don Rea rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you're interested in sex - and I do know people who claim not to be, so don't laugh - and you have a healthy curiosity, or a sense of humor, or both, you'll definitely enjoy this book. Roach writes very much the way I think, with long, digressive footnotes and frequent humorous asides, so maybe I like her writing better than I ought, but this wide-ranging survey of human sex research surely has something for almost everyone.

Unless you're an expert on everything there's bound to be something h...more

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May 23, 2008 Katie Abbott Harris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sex, sex, sexity, sex, sex, sex! Bonk is hilarious and informative as it explores all types of sex research from a scientific perspective. The studies referenced include a variety of humans, animals, and mechanical devices. The reader gets an inside look at many diverse topics, from the artificial insemination of pigs, to masturbatory techniques, to sex following a spinal cord injury. Roach's style, as seen in her other books, is blunt and honest, sparing no one, including herself and her husban...more

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Apr 19, 2008 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A book about science and sex written by Mary Roach really should have inspired me to more than three stars, but I felt she was so amused by the little tidbits that she was constantly wandering away from her own topic. And for all the times she was laughingly talking about how early sex scientists stripped their research of any titillation, I found this book very dry as well. As Mary states several times in the book, science has mostly found that the best sex is decidedly more than simple bodily...more

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About Mary Roach

Mary Roach is the author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. Her writing has appeared in such publications as Salon, GQ, Vogue, and the New York Times Magazine. She lives in Oakland, California.

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Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011

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“It is the mind that speaks a woman's heart, not the vaginal walls.” — 26 people liked it

“Hormones are nature's three bottles of beer.” — 22 people liked it

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