[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Just finished reading Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach. The book was in turns both informative and hilarious, frequently both at the same time.

Spoiler:

Right from the dedication in the front of the book, I suspected this one was going to be special. At the very least, I thought it was quite appropriate.


Reading this book is a wonderful way to discover things about sex you might never want to know, such as:

If that's not enough detail about life on a pig farm:

I'll bet that's a mental image that will stay with you a long time.

But, of course, it's human sexuality that takes center stage, as she focuses her attention on sex researchers past and present. On Kinsey, she writes:

You will learn history:

Her own insights are provided with a healthy dose of wit:

You'll learn many wonderful things in this book, such as the fact that defecating can briefly bring your heart rate down by eight beats per minute, and that men lose their erection when they hold their breath. You will learn how paraplegics have sex. You'll learn about Orgasm-induced defecation. And you'll finally get the answer to that question which has perplexed us all for years: Can dead people have orgasms?

I highly recommend this book. I could give many, many more examples of Ms. Roach's wit and observations, but the post would grow onto unmanageable proportions. I'll close this post with just one more:

Perhaps the best advice in the entire book, no matter what your sexual orientation.

Note: When reading this book, don't skip over the footnotes. They are frequently some of the funniest parts of the book.

Started this, put it down and have yet to finish it but am definitely planning on it. Love her writing style.

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Finished Fellowship of Fear by Aaron Elkins, 1st in his Gideon Oliver, Intrepid Globe-Trotting Forensic Anthropologist series. I got this from Fictionwise for the low, low price of $1.60 during one of their previous 60% off coupon weekends and went back and bought the rest during their most recent one after having read the first half of this.

It's an older amateur sleuth series (the main plot involves said sleuth getting caught up into a suspected spy investigation) and kind of dated in parts beyond the Cold War aspects of the background. But still quite readable and fun in other parts, and some moderately clever misdirection as to to who were the actual guilty culprits.

I especially liked the little mini-lectures on philology and cranial shape as related to identifying the people who were attacking him. But then, I've always liked it when fictional academics bring their fictional academic credentials to bear on practically irrelevant aspects of "all we really need to know is these people are trying to kill you and how can we prevent them from doing so".

Medium recommend. A promising start for the first novel of what seems to have been a moderately popular series (10 books thus far republished as e-books) which hopefully gets more polished as it goes along.

Have read all of these except the last two. LOVE them. Gideon is one of my favorite fictional detectives, ever. Aaron is on my facebook, actually (as are about fifty other authors, LOL). I got a wonderful, gracious note from him when he accepted my friend request, which only made me like him more.

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I tried one of his books, but I don't think it was a series. Opened with someone getting shot by a poisoned dart (more complex than that statement, but yanno). I don't know why, but it didn't grab me. Maybe I wasn't in the mood for the jungle setting or poisoned darts? Dunno.

Actually I think this is one of the Gideon books, it sounds familiar. But he has two more series, and some standalone thrillers. Me, I like them all, but I can see, as ATDrake mentioned, that they might not be for everyone. Even as much as I like them, I don't count them as "comfort" books, like I do Katherine Hall Page (Faith Fairchild series, which I'm re-reading at the moment).

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I finished _All Mortal Flesh_ and Rev Furgesson and Russ Van Alstyne mystery. I'm not sure why but I really like these stories. The are cozy mysteries and move really quickly. There is a small amount of action/adventure to them as well. When I read about all the settings in upstate new york with all the cold and snow I am happy about my decision to relocate to Florida from New England those many years ago.

I have started on the next book in the series _All Mortal Flesh_.

If you like cozy's I think you should give the first in the series a try. I recommend them. If you like Christies stuff I think you will like this too. Although, I seem to like most mysteries I read... so take it with a grain of salt.

BOb

I do like these, too, BOb. Only read the first two thus far, though the rest are on my ever-growing TBR pile.

Okay, so as I mentioned, I'm re-reading my way through Katherine Hall Page's Faith Fairchild series. That all started because I won a copy of her cookbook tied to the series, "Have Faith in your Kitchen". Once I read that, I decided I needed to refresh my memory on the series. I'm skipping the ones I remember most of the plot, and re-reading the ones I've forgotten. Finished "The Body in the Bookcase" last night. Now not sure if I'm going to go on to the next book in the series or read something else for a break. Thinking now I could insert those two Gideon Oliver ones I've missed.... ATDrake, you are a bad, bad, influence!!