A Curious History of Sex

This book climaxed too quickly and finished fast! Kate Lisser dove into a general historic overview of a variety of sexual topics such as: vibrators, sex dolls, menstruation, contraceptives, abortion, prostitution with a lot of solid academic research. Her writing style is not on accessible for a casual reader but also peppered with an excellent sense of humor. The topics are broken into short chapters that are easy to breeze through, however I was seduced into reading more. 

It is eye opening to realize that a lot of the sexual things that we want to perceive of as edgy in our culture have indeed been around for quite some time. For example, I did not know that Victorians were utilizing dildos or that the first evidence of sex dolls are 36000 years old. After learning that lavendar was used as an aphrodisiac in the middle ages, I was forced to examine my obsession with using lavender all around my house. (Whether or not it is an aphrodisiac is for my husband to decide...)

But the book went beyond the kind of trivia that may make me sound like a bookworm that reads  brainy pornography after I have a few drinks with friends. It also highlights the scientific progress we have made. Lysol was originally stronger than it is now and was utilized as a spermicide and a douche before doctors realized this was poisoning women.  And while I always felt that the harmful effects of some of the older methods of abortion had were well known when we are living in an era where some states are wanting to eliminate legal abortion the fatal effects of hone remedies and the rates of infanticide that history is filled with can not be ignored.

I can't stress how much I loved this book. It was like a slow seduction...enough to keep me enticed and coming back for more. Yes, it is more of an overview and many of these subjects are worthy of being studied with much more depth. But as I am dating around for non fiction subjects that feed my intellectual thirst, this book definitely hit the spot for me!