Woman: an intimate geography

Angier, a Pulitzer Prize^-winning New York Times science writer, takes her readers on a fantastic voyage deep inside the female body and kicks over myriad misconceptions about womanhood. She begins with the source, the egg, and travels on from there, celebrating the awe-inspiring complexities of the ovaries, uterus, vagina, breast, and clitoris. Angier's science is exacting yet high-spirited, and her prose is zestfully descriptive and inventive. Her dismantlement of sexist assumptions about everything from lust to women's muscular strength is deft and witty, and her analyses of the mechanics and experiences of menstruation, pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, mother love, the aggressiveness of girls, and relationships among women are thorough, thrillingly candid, and wholly celebratory. As Angier marvels at and demystifies the transformational powers of the female body, she focuses on the pleasure principle, revealing just how essential the nurturing comfort of touch and the blissful chemistry of orgasm are to our species' survival. Every woman reader will be astonished at all that she didn't know about her own body, and every man will find his admiration and fears confirmed, and all will be edified by Angier's knowledge, lucidity, reasonableness, and warmth. --Donna Seaman

Did postmenopausal women invent the human race? Are males more similar to females than females are to males? These are among the many stimulating questions at the core of Angier's provocative "scientific fantasia of womanhood," a spirited and thoroughly informedÄif admittedly biasedÄstudy of how the body is "a map of meaning and freedom." Angier (The Beauty of the Beastly; Natural Obsessions) presents new theories on the evolution of women's anatomy, physiology and social behaviors. She points out, for example, that the X chromosome has a "vastly higher gene richness" than the Y, which by contrast is "a depauperized little stump," and she champions the argument of anthropologist Kristen Hawkes that the role of postmenopausal grandmothers, who could help younger females nurture their weaned but still dependent offspring, "invented youth.... And in inventing childhood, they invented the human race. They created Homo imperialis, a species that can go anywhere and exploit everything." With wit and verve, Angier discusses such topics as ovulation, conception and birth; the social and physiological functions of breasts; orgasm, mate selection and child-rearing behavior; the complex workings of estrogen; hysterectomy; muscle strength; and female aggression and bonding. Her wide-ranging celebration of the female body engages the intellect but, more importantly, also offers a rigorous challenge to male-oriented theories of biology. BOMC selection; author tour. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

A Pulitzer Prize winner for the New York Times on being female, both physically and mentally. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Passion and intelligence meet in a gorgeous book about what it means to be a woman today, yesterday, and forever. Pulitzer Prize'winning science writer Angier's (The Beauty of the Beast: New Views of the Nature of Life, 1995, etc.) ``geography'' ranges from the south pole of the mons veneris and associated vulval landmarks to the high peaks of the brain in her exploration of female anatomy, physiology, psychology and countless other -ologies across the life span. By turns she is serious, angry, joyous and loving; at times hortatory and didactic, other times confessional. And always she displays the high style and metaphor that New York Times readers have come to expect. The result is a book rich in information, from the microanatomy of the egg cell and the X chromosome to the cultural heritage that perpetuates the Madonna-whore dichotomy for women. She is extremely good at detailing the hormonal changes in the menstrual cycle and in pregnancy, on the wonders of the uterus, the placenta, breast milk, and breasts in general. (She puts Desmond Morris and others in their place'no, the breasts are not misplaced buttocks). Of special interest is a chapter on love, with the observation that at least one hormone, oxytocin, may in part subserve the emotion. Angier speaks frankly of her own sexuality, pregnancy, and childbirth, of the war between mothers and daughters and of aggression as the other side of love. Her voice is a bit too strident in condemning the medical profession for treating menopause as disease: Not all docs urge hormone replacement therapy on their female patients. The voice also reaches crescendo peak in preaching the virtues of exercise. Okay, already! But herein lies a fund of knowledge beautifully conveyed, as well as questions that have yet to be answered. Women should rejoice'and so should men. (First serial to the New York Times Magazine; second serial to Self; Book-of-the-Month Club/Quality Paperback Book Club selection)

/*Starred Review*/ Angier, a Pulitzer Prize^-winning New York Times science writer, takes her readers on a fantastic voyage deep inside the female body and kicks over myriad misconceptions about womanhood. She begins with the source, the egg, and travels on from there, celebrating the awe-inspiring complexities of the ovaries, uterus, vagina, breast, and clitoris. Angier's science is exacting yet high-spirited, and her prose is zestfully descriptive and inventive. Her dismantlement of sexist assumptions about everything from lust to women's muscular strength is deft and witty, and her analyses of the mechanics and experiences of menstruation, pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, mother love, the aggressiveness of girls, and relationships among women are thorough, thrillingly candid, and wholly celebratory. As Angier marvels at and demystifies the transformational powers of the female body, she focuses on the pleasure principle, revealing just how essential the nurturing comfort of touch and the blissful chemistry of orgasm are to our species' survival. Every woman reader will be astonished at all that she didn't know about her own body, and every man will find his admiration and fears confirmed, and all will be edified by Angier's knowledge, lucidity, reasonableness, and warmth. ((Reviewed March 1, 1999)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews

The Pulitzer Prize-winning Angier has prompted a lot of type with this funny and insightful mapping of women's history through our beastly, complicated bodies--from our popular breasts to our slippery DNA. This keen-eyed, provocative study challenges some of the mythology asserted by evolutionary science to date. (LJ 2/1/99) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

A Pulitzer Prize winner for the New York Times on being female, both physically and mentally. Copyright 1998 Cahners Business Information.

Much is written about the meaning and essence of womanhood. Angier, a Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer, approaches this subject from a unique point of view. Using basic biology as a starting point (she notes that all embryos are unisexual until the ninth week of gestation), she discusses specific organs, hormones, and physiological phenomena, analyzing current scientific theories and providing her own interpretations. The result is a creative, thought-provoking book unlike any other. Whether speculating that women are the original humans because Adam was created from Lilith's rib, delighting in the fact that the clitoris has twice as many nerve endings as the penis, or discussing the importance of older women in society, she provides original material that is fascinating to read. This will be a popular addition to all collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/98.]Barbara M. Bibel, Oakland P.L. Copyright 1999 Library Journal Reviews

Did postmenopausal women invent the human race? Are males more similar to females than females are to males? These are among the many stimulating questions at the core of Angier's provocative "scientific fantasia of womanhood," a spirited and thoroughly informed if admittedly biased study of how the body is "a map of meaning and freedom." Angier (The Beauty of the Beastly; Natural Obsessions) presents new theories on the evolution of women's anatomy, physiology and social behaviors. She points out, for example, that the X chromosome has a "vastly higher gene richness" than the Y, which by contrast is "a depauperized little stump," and she champions the argument of anthropologist Kristen Hawkes that the role of postmenopausal grandmothers, who could help younger females nurture their weaned but still dependent offspring, "invented youth.... And in inventing childhood, they invented the human race. They created Homo imperialis, a species that can go anywhere and exploit everything." With wit and verve, Angier discusses such topics as ovulation, conception and birth; the social and physiological functions of breasts; orgasm, mate selection and child-rearing behavior; the complex workings of estrogen; hysterectomy; muscle strength; and female aggression and bonding. Her wide-ranging celebration of the female body engages the intellect but, more importantly, also offers a rigorous challenge to male-oriented theories of biology. BOMC selection; author tour. (Apr.) Copyright 1999 Publishers Weekly Reviews