Dr.Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation : Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex - Softcover

Judson, Olivia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099283751 ISBN 13: 9780099283751

Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, 2003

Synopsis

If you have ever wondered why women always bite your head off or why one guy gets all the girls, if you have ever pondered why some men bring you balloons while others leave you their genitals, then "Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation" is the book for you. It explains all this and much more. It discloses the best time to have a sex change, how to have a virgin birth, when to seduce your sisters or eat your lover. Quirky and brilliant, it takes as its starting point all creatures great and small worried about their bizarre sex lives, and the letters they write to the wise Dr. Tatiana, the only agony aunt in all creation with a prodigious knowledge of both natural history and evolutionary biology.

About this title

Review:

Finally, a how-to guide, in the guise of a Q&A advice column, for marching, flying, or slithering into the battle of the sexes, whatever your species. In this entertaining and informative book, evolutionary biologist Olivia Judson presents "letters" from sexually frustrated animals, birds, and insects who ask "Dr. Tatiana" to explain some sexual oddity. For example, "Don't Wanna Be Butch in Botswana" writes, "I'm a spotted hyena, a girl. The only trouble is, I've got a large phallus. I can't help feeling that this is unladylike. What's wrong with me?" Each question leads Dr. T. into a fascinating explanation about the sex life of this species, sprinkled with sprightly stories about other species with similar attributes or behavior.

You'll learn why one stick-insect copulation lasts for 10 weeks (to prevent other males from gaining access to the fertile female) and why the black-winged damselfly's penis has bristles (to scrape out his rival's sperm). You'll learn that male and female orangutans masturbate with sex toys fashioned from leaves and twigs, that slugs are hermaphrodites with penises on their heads, and that females in more than 80 species eat their lovers before, during, or after sex. You'll also ponder human sexuality when you learn that "monogamy is one of the most deviant behaviors in biology" (although jackdaws, chinstrap penguins, California mice, and some termites swear by it) and "natural selection, it seems, often smiles on strumpets."

Highly recommended--you'll read this through just for the fun of it and have plenty of odd facts with which to dazzle your dinner companions. --Joan Price

About the Author:

Olivia Judson received her PhD in biological sciences from Oxford University before joining The Economist where she wrote about biology and medicine and won the prestigious Glaxo Wellcome/Association of British Science Writers' award. She holds a research fellowship at Imperial College, London.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0099283751
• ISBN 13: 9780099283751
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320