The Restless Supermarket
Book
It is 1993, and Aubrey Tearle's world is shutting down. He has recently retired from a lifetime of...
Music for Chameleons: New Writing
Book
At the centre of Music for Chameleons is Handcarved Coffins, a 'nonfiction novel' based on the...
Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos: The Scientific Quest for the Secret of the Universe
Book
Back Bay takes pleasure in restoring to print the first book by the author of Einstein in Love....
Merissa (13942 KP) created a post
Apr 27, 2026
The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez
10.0
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Book
Painstakingly researched over three years, based on nearly one hundred hours of exclusive interviews...
Bluets
Book
Suppose I were to begin by saying that I had fallen in love with a color ...A lyrical,...
My Misspent Youth
Book
Meghan Daum is one of the most celebrated nonfiction writers of her generation, widely recognised...
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex in Books
Sep 15, 2018
Even her chapter titles are giggle-inducing - with titles like "The Princess and Her Pea - The Woman Who Moved Her Clitoris, and Other Ruminations on Intercourse Orgasms" and "Re-member Me - Transplants, Implants, and Other Penises Of Last Resort."
Roach writes about some truly awkward sexual encounters in the name of science:
On the bed are a man and a woman. They are making the familiar movements made by millions of other couples on a bed that night, yet they look nothing like those couples. They have EKG wires leading from their thighs and arms, like a pair of lustful marionettes who managed to escape the puppet show and check into a cheap motel. Their mouths are covered by snorkel-type mouthpieces with valves. Trailing from each mouthpiece is a length of flexible tubing that runs through the wall to the room next door, where Bartlett is measuring their breathing rate. To ensure that they don't breathe through their noses, the noses have been "lightly clamped."
Another passage mentions two gymnasts who have sex in an MRI tube. (For science!) I'm impressed these people can perform under these conditions at all!
There's only one passage that squicked me out a little bit - there's a few paragraphs describing a urologist performing surgery on a penis and it's...a little disturbing. That aside, though, this is a delightful book on an uncommon topic. It's an easy read, which I don't say about much nonfiction. It might be awkward to explain why you're snickering over this book, though!
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process
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The long-awaited guide to writing long-form nonfiction by the legendary author and teacher Draft...
Essays Writing