Rachel Feltman is a bisexual science writer married to a cis heterosexual man. I don't like reading sex scenes in books, but I like reading nonfiction about actual sex. Her assurances that whatever you like sexually from no sex at all to polyamorous sex was fine didn't do much for me. I don't need assurances, but I imagine many of her readers do. What I loved was her accounting of all the ways sex has presented itself in nature from homosexual acts among bison and cattle (leading to a discussion of homosexual pairings among cowboys) to animals that change their sex depending on the environment to just why there is sex in the first place. Nature is full of wonders and possibilities, yet we narrow our lives down and think that a good thing. ( )

Definitely an exploration of sex.

From what can be gleaned from her comments throughout the book, the author grew up in Evangelical Christianity and purity culture and now identifies as a queer woman.

She has considered a lot of history and modern scientific research and explores a good number of the domains of sexuality: courtship/dating/premarital sex, marital sex, extramarital sex, same sex relations, toys, kink, contraception, abortion, etc.

What she presents certainly challenges predominant views about what sex and sexuality should be. Those from a religious and/or culturally conservative background will find much of it licentious and provocative, and yet it remains important to grapple with differing views and be willing to see where our views might well be more culturally conditioned than we'd care to have previously admitted.

Definitely provocative. The author does not hide her perspective. But you might learn some things.

**--galley received as part of early review program ( )