Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 111
 A very light read on sex November 8, 2009
Paulina
In the Roach tradition, "Bonk" looks at the topic of sex from many different perspectives, often esoteric ones. Some may find this annoying. I find it an enjoyable, light read. It is much more a history book, or an 'odd facts about sex and sex research' book, and it is funny and lighthearted.
 Bonk by Mary Roach October 14, 2009
I. BRONDZ
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Curious, different, I was recommended this book as an easy weekend read. It was. Nothing more than that.
A Dream Date for Saturday Night September 24, 2009
Sambo Gonzales (Undisclosed Location)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Mary is the dream date for a horny, sexually-normal bachelor, living in San Fagcisco. She doesn't live far away - just across the Oakland Bridge. This lady is obsessed with sex. She flew to China in order to hold and feel the penis of a man taking part in a sex study there. She climbed inside a MRI scanner to have sex so that her sexual responses could be analyzed by a group giggling researchers. She is very particular regarding the structure and appearance of a penis. Not just any old penis will do. She describes exactly how the internal configuration must be in order for successful, orgasm-effective, thrusting. She has discovered that it takes a force equivalent to opening a swinging kitchen door in order to enter a vagina. If you can handle this then give her a call.
Eye witness reporting on the body, as it happens. September 24, 2009
Dan E. Nicholas (Aptos, California, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As science writing goes, you got to love a woman who will drop everything and fly to Texas to watch the government drop dead bodies from various heights in the name of NASA research. Or coax her husband, Ed, to England to make love in a special electronic recording tube while a clipboard in hand lab coat sex researcher doc--Dr. Deng--looks on.
If it's the body or it is science dead or alive, this woman is on it. Bonk is a NYT bestseller following on the heels of Stiff (dead folks) and Spook (spirits of dead folks). When asked if she is primarily a science writer, an entertainer, a humorist or a researcher, she says: "All of that. Of course." And she has no qualms about framing herself as a bit off the chart perverse or even kinky. She reports what she sees. But thankfully she's into seeing things most of us miss.
Mary Roach is serious about her job as the funniest science writer on the planet. For a down to earth academic she also has a welcomed stage presence as demonstrated by her recent TED interview on the web about orgasms and everything you didn't know about them; like how to arouse a Denmark pig to climax using a cowboy boot just prior to artificial insemination; or like whether dead bodies can have orgasms. Ms. Roach makes sex and science fun. And she writes about it all like she's had some.
I miss the spiritual side of Ms. Roach which she seems to keep to herself. But maybe the poetry and godology she brings is in her humor and in being able to invoke the Muse in ways most of us wouldn't dream; like inspiring her husband, Ed, to come along on an occasional science outing. She admits to being compulsive about research, dedicated to the first hand, eye witness journalistic accounting of things as they happen. Far from the style of a web surfing blogger, she flies there. She sees. She listens. She takes notes. She'll jet to Cairo in a heartbeat to get stood up by a shy prostitute and an apologetic, one-of-a-kind Arab scientist, plying the trade of sex research in a Muslim land where you can't even say the word on TV.
Yes, get the book if for no other reason but to come out as a sexual person. And a science person. Put it on your coffee table. It's about time your mother-in-law saw it there and realized that you really don't care what she thinks about you anyway.
Facts with a good dose of fun September 17, 2009
Robin Crawford (Independence, IA USA)
I really enjoyed reading this book. It was fact filled, but has a nice twist of Mary Roach's dry wit.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 111
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