Bonk The Curious Coupling of Science & Sex

The best-selling author of Stiff turns her outrageous curiosity and infectious wit on the most alluring scientific subject of all: sex.

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.

"The New Yorker dubbed Roach the funniest science writer in the country....[E]ven if there were thousands of science-humor writers, [Roach] would be the sidesplitting favorite....[S]ome of her best writing." Booklist (Starred Review)

"A lively, hilarious and informative look at science's dirty secrets." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

"Readers will find that Roach's informative and witty footnotes skillfully anticipate questions the text will stimulate....Highly recommended." Library Journal

"It's odd that Bonk arouses less morbid interest than Ms. Roach did with her earlier books....Ms. Roach...clutter[s] Bonk with so many long, chatty footnotes that she underscores how spotty and disorganized her material is." Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"[A] greatly satisfying romp. And as a woman who could make an earthworm evisceration riveting and a hemispherectomy seem downright jolly, Roach can't be faulted for having fun with sex. Even if purely for the purposes of research." Pamela Paul, The New York Times Book Review

"Bonk is a fun and enlightening go at a subject that could stand a great deal more productive investigation, in labs and in bedrooms." Chicago Tribune

"An irrepressible eagerness shines throughout Bonk, the joyful urge to show off the fruits of the journey....[A] wonderful read..." The San Francisco Chronicle

"[R]ich in dexterous innuendo, laugh-out-loud humor and illuminating fact. It's a compulsively readable, informative history of the scientific inquiry into the hows and wherefores of engorged tissues and sweaty palms." Los Angeles Times

The best-selling author of turns her outrageous curiosity and infectious wit on the most alluring scientific subject of all: sex.

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.

Mary Roach is the author of four previous books: Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, and Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. Her writing has appeared in Outside, Wired, National Geographic, and the New York Times Magazine, among others. She lives in Oakland, California.