Ben Waber reviewed Bitch: On the Female of the Species by Lucy Cooke
An Entertaining, Research-Infused Tour Through Female Biology
4 stars
Cooke brings an extremely entertaining style to this wide-ranging tour of female biology and reproduction. Rather than drill down on a single species, Cooke brings in experts of species from across the animal kingdom on different aspects of sex, starting from its biological complexity and going through mating and child rearing behaviors and strategies. What emerges is the plethora of strategies that different species take, which can even differ radically between those that are closely related, and the degree to which recent human cultural biases have driven the study and interpretation of these behaviors. The book is a bit light on scientific rigor, with Cooke using interviews with scientists rather than digging into the papers themselves. This is a somewhat minor complaint - I think most people won't mind skipping the details. Highly recommend
Cooke brings an extremely entertaining style to this wide-ranging tour of female biology and reproduction. Rather than drill down on a single species, Cooke brings in experts of species from across the animal kingdom on different aspects of sex, starting from its biological complexity and going through mating and child rearing behaviors and strategies. What emerges is the plethora of strategies that different species take, which can even differ radically between those that are closely related, and the degree to which recent human cultural biases have driven the study and interpretation of these behaviors. The book is a bit light on scientific rigor, with Cooke using interviews with scientists rather than digging into the papers themselves. This is a somewhat minor complaint - I think most people won't mind skipping the details. Highly recommend
