Woman: An Intimate Geography
by Natalie Angier
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Book Reviews of Woman: An Intimate Geography
Book Review: I am WOMAN...
Summary: 4 Stars
I love this book. From the history of hysterectomy to the evolution of the breasts, this book covers at least a thousand things you (especially if you're a woman, too) really ought to know about biological womanhood. Even better than that, it's written by a (female) science writer who can really write, and while it does at times get difficult (well, it's a science book), having to reread a paragraph every once in a while won't kill you -- in fact, it'll help you understand yourself. Better still, this is an empowering book. Natalie Angier is no 1960s feminist theorist; she's a thoroughly modern lady scientifically pointing out why the female body/mind is different, similar, complicated beyond our wildest dreams, ultimately beautiful and eminently worthy of praise.
Drawing on anthropology (my thing, so I loved that), biology, psychology, genetics, and a host of other fields, Ms. Angier introduces facts, fallacies, theories, hypotheses, and the data itself, and while she sometimes draws her own conclusions, a great deal is left for the reader to make up her (or his -- men can read this book too!) own mind. She includes a healthy dose of speculation, but -- and this is crucial -- she recognizes in the text that she is speculating, she points out the actual data, and again she leaves us to agree with her, modify her ideas, or not.
Bottom line: WOMAN is a treat and a half.
Book Review: Informative, mostly readable science
Summary: 4 Stars
As a woman who is generally "science-phobic", reading Woman: An Intimate Geography" was at times challenging. But I am most glad that my book club chose this book. The bottom line is that I read 364 page of science (about 360 pages more than I do most years). Not only that, I learned many useful things about how my body works. Even better, I had a few good laughs along the way.What works best in this book is often a question of where the reader is at in her life. The younger women in our group were very interested in the sections (many) on reproduction. The aging boomers in the group were more fascinated by the sections on hormones and a wonderful chapter on why post-menopausal women may be a key factor in why man evolved beyond the apes.
Still, I'm taking one star off for inconsistent writing. Angier wanders between "plain english"/journalist writing and science writing. The Ph.D's in our group thought there was too much "silly" writing. We non-scientists agreed that there were segments that seemed to be written in a foreign language. No wonder there's so much contraversy in the reviews.
Bottom-line: A good read for women who know they know far too little about the uniquely feminine part of their biology.
Book Review: A must-read.
Summary: 4 Stars
Angier writes in a way that speaks to women of all ages, experiences, and classes. The information flowing from the pages of this book blew my mind; and I had always considered myself fairly well-informed about my body, and how it worked. Turns out, I didn't know squat. She poses facts, theories and ideas in a way that is provocative, yet easy to digest. At times she can get a little wordy, perhaps a bit "out-there," with her suggestions and explanations. But I find it humorous, even endearing, as I can definitely see where she is coming from. She wouldn't have been able to hide her femenist agenda even if she wanted to, and while other authors might have allowed this to serve as a detriment to their work, Angier's only enhances the message(s) she is trying to convey.
I think it's a fabulous book that every single woman should read. I think it should in fact be required reading in school, right up there with "Our Bodies, Ourselves." Raging against the male-dominated field of science with political motives is one thing. But at the very least, modern society has shown us that our young women, generation after generation, are in desperate need of better educations about how their bodies work. I think this book is a good first step.
Book Review: A book for "parity" of women
Summary: 1 Stars
I don't think there is anything remarkable in this book. All of the knowledge can be readily found in any textbook for first-year colloge student in "Human Sexulity" course. For more depth and professionally precise infomation, any medical textbook on gynecology contains infomation on female anatomy, physiology, and sexuality -- presented professionally and with authortiy. (But textbooks mentioned above usually are not displayed in commercial bookstores. But you can find them in Amazon.com). That's why to many laymen this book sounds like a new discovery of female. It's not. Also regarding the question of "what women want", Natalier Angier guesses it's a satisfaction of "a desire for emotional parity" (parity = equality in status, pay, rights, etc). That's a nonsense. "...a desire for emotional parity is widespread and profound. It doesn't go away, although it often hibernates under duress", Angier wrote in a New York Times article last year. It sounds that women are pitifully under oppression! That's again a nonsense. By the way, the really authoritive persons qualified to write about women physiology and psychology and anatomy is medical doctors and researcher like Williams Masters, etc....Book Review: A must read or re-read for every woman or man who loves women
Summary: 4 Stars
What do you really know about female biology. Author Natlie Angier a Pulitzer Prize winner takes on everything from organs to orgasm. She goes into such topics as menopause, female anger/aggression and evolutionary ideas. She writes about biology for the NY Times and knows her stuff. A great book for a college student or pre-med student or a senior citizen. Start with how one perfect solar cell forms and what is involved in female chrosome. The author covers a whole chapter on the Clitoris and all of its 8000 nerve fibers and moves on to talk about the Uterus and the breast and breast milk. Ovaries get their due and hormones estrogen, testotsterone and women and desire all get their own sectins. Why muscle not fat. And what role does evolutionary psychology play in making women vs men. Bonding and oxytocin --complex female bonding stuff and more.