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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best popular science books in the past few years, June 30, 2008
This review is from: The Score: How The Quest For Sex Has Shaped The Modern Man (Hardcover)
In one of the episodes of the TV show "Frasier", the lead character, radio psychiatrist Frasier Crane, is having a dispute with his station manager, an attractive female. As he's describing the situation to his housekeeper, Daphne, he remarks that he thinks the manager is using her charms to get what she wants. Daphne says, "Oh, come on now, Dr Crane. It's not like men have never used sex to get what they want," - to which Frasier replies, "How can we possibly USE sex to get what we want? Sex IS what we want."
That certainly rings true, but the interesting question is: why is it true? This book provides an entertaining, extremely readable, and scientifically sound look at the reasons men behave the way they do when it comes to sex. It made me smile, laugh out loud sometimes, nod in agreement often, and shake my head in wonder other times. Faye Flam, science reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and one of the best and most versatile science writers around, wrote a delightful weekly column for that paper, called "Carnal Knowledge", about the science behind sex. Here she expands on that to focus on how the quest for sex has shaped the male of the species, and when I say "shaped", I mean everything from his behavior to his physical characteristics (check her discussion of "fibroelastic" vs "vascular" male equipment for one example).
Flam, who majored in physics at Cal Tech, has written on subjects ranging from genomics to astronomy, so you'd expect her to get the science right, and she does. Based on her previous journalism, you'd also expect her to make that science understandable and fun to read, and that she does as well. The book is written in a clear, enjoyable style that brings the evolutionary biology, human physiology and psychology to life. Chapter topics range from a boot camp for would-be pickup artists to how testosterone determines the male brain and body to why men seem to be attracted to pornography. I learned about alpha males and why they don't always win the competition for sex. I learned about gay sheep. There's a great chapter about the secret life of the sperm. If you're a man you'll understand better why we are the way we are, and if you're a woman, you may realize how difficult it is to change us! Regardless, it's a great read, for the summer or any time.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sex Makes the Man, June 13, 2008
This review is from: The Score: How The Quest For Sex Has Shaped The Modern Man (Hardcover)
If you're at all like me, "The Score" will give you new ideas about men and women and why we men are the way we are. But it may not be the book you think.
Faye Flam, a science journalist who also wrote a newspaper column on the science of sex, here surveys biology, popular culture, zoology, evolutionary psychology, theology, anthropology, neurochemistry, and more to deliver science-based insight into the human male (and females as well).
Flam writes clearly and wittily. She begins at the beginning, with the origin of sex and the sexes, and explains how evolution takes the fundamental difference between male and female (a male makes millions and millions of sperm whereas a female produces but dozens of eggs) and runs with it over eons to produce monogamous penguins, cuckolding chimpanzees, tiny parasite-like male anglerfish, 30,000 sexes of mushrooms--and us, human men and women.
"The Score" is a fun read throughout, never dry or dull, and with the possible exception of the evolutionary psychology bits, sound science too. In the end, this book could change how we think about our humanity. It's already changing the way I look at the world and my place in it.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"The Score" makes major points, June 25, 2008
This review is from: The Score: How The Quest For Sex Has Shaped The Modern Man (Hardcover)
Faye Flam has that rare talent to take something as convoluted as genetic science and make it readable. Perhaps some of the nation's textbook publishers should take note of the way she handles the topic.
Her book is proof that Flam is more than scientist, more than writer: In "The Score," she links us to other creatures, and the one drive we all share -- to procreate. Who can read her account about the sex life of the giant squid and not wonder about the power of that instinct?
Flam has a fine wit, and is not afraid to inject a bit of her own life into the book's pages. Sure, she lampoons men, but she gets a few good jabs in at her own gender, too. And what's wrong with extolling the fact that she has a mate of her own? That's as it should be. She also manages to wrap up the book the way she began it, with her visit to the seduction workshop. Facile? No. Fascinating? Yes.
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