A comparative-lit PhD writes a science book: entertaining, but not very good science. Contains a lot of conjecture, a number topics the author obviously isn’t qualified to discuss, and has a weird chatty tone disguised as feminist (many eye-rolls). I had some fun and learned a lot, but I learned to take everything with a grain a salt until I looked at the study the author referenced (if there even was one). I’m happy she’s secured the bag but god damn, pop-nonfiction is poor. ( )

The story of human evolution, focused on female bodies and what their owners would have wanted. I didn’t love the flippant tone, but YMMV; there was a lot of interesting stuff there about, e.g., how breastfeeding developed, what fat is for, and how male and female human hearing differ (and why that might be). I also liked the point that the “prostitution narrative” for how monogamy developed—males would provide more regularly for babies they thought were surely theirs—had big downside risks for females and their babies; if males are sure who’s the daddy, then they predictably kill the infants that aren’t theirs whenever there is a power shake-up. Thus, monogamy only plausibly makes sense when females can be relatively sure that such tectonic events are unlikely. ( )

This is a hard book to review, and part of the reason is that I'm still not sure what exactly it was. Was it a book about evolutionary biology focused on women? An anthropological study of female/male relations? A look at modern cultural norms and how they influence our lives? Pop science? Serious science? Comedy?

Did I almost throw it aside in contempt several times? Yes. Was it also true that by reading a few more lines I was hooked back in each time? Yes. So I'm confused.

Here's what I know. Bohannon organized her book into nine sections that are loosely organized by one evolutionary step that our bodies, minds, or culture took and focuses in each on how the womens' bodily or societal needs were really the driver for that evolutionary step. The first section looks at developing milk glands and the ability to breastfeed. The second is about the development of our womb and growing our babies inside instead of laying eggs. The third is about our senses - much of this seems to have evolved to raise our very needy young. The fourth is about strength vs. endurance. The fifth about our use of tools. The sixth about our intelligence. The seventh about the timbre of our voice. The eighth about why in the world it would make sense from an evolutionary standpoint for women to experience menopause and lose the ability to produce offspring for such a large portion of their lives. And the last about love - monogamy, rape, sexual constraints placed on women.

I bet just reading that brief description sounds a bit overwhelming. I don't usually do a ton of highlighting in my kindle books, but in this one I highlighted 88 passages! There is a ton of interesting information in this book and I think it will end up providing a lot of background context that I use in many other places. It's one of those books that I'd love to see read and reviewed by some other LTers. I'm just not sure it achieved a cohesive tone or synthesized all the fascinating information very well. But in the end, I think I'm glad I spent the time on reading it. ( )

Had to give up on this due to squeamishness. The graphic descriptions of birth, feces, breastfeeding and other assorted biological processes were a bit too much for my tender sensibilities.
I also found it a bit jarring the way the author jumped between fanciful imaginations of the life of ancient species and settings, and very scientific language and concepts. The evolutionary ideas that she drew on were very interesting, and I would happily have read a whole book going into more detail on those - the idea that for example a beaver inherits not only a set of genetics from its parents, but also a build environment which is part of the species evolution.

Interesting ideas about how mammalian reproduction has shaped human evolution