A fresh, funny, sex-positive book that effectively destigmatizes sexual disease.
A guided tour through the science of sexually transmitted infections.
Park, a physician who specializes in STIs, begins with an explanation of terminology. “The subtitle…uses STD, as I felt that term would be most recognizable….But I use STI as much as I can throughout the book, because that is where I think we are headed eventually.” Within this alternatingly fascinating, perplexing, and stomach-turning report, the author nonjudgmentally illustrates how STIs are one of the unfortunate forms of “interplay between sex and society as far back as the 1500s.” She begins with genital herpes, a “sneaky” virus that hides in nerve cells and reemerges as a recurrent “unwelcome guest.” A research conference in Brazil is the perfect setting for Park’s meditation on the pros and cons of “pubic landscaping” while a scientific glance at vaginal microbiomes reveals the vulnerability of women to undesirable bacterial compositions. The author never glosses over a topic; each chapter is a thoughtful combination of scientific study and informative anecdote. Park’s exuberance is obvious throughout, whether she is discussing how orgasmic meditation can mitigate the risks of STI contraction from sexual activity with multiple partners or the University of Washington’s “two-week-long boot camp on STIs and HIV.” Via lively, creative efforts to diffuse the lingering stigma surrounding genital warts, gonorrhea, syphilis, and other maladies, Park generously shares her knowledge and clinical experience, some of which is quite sobering—e.g., the possible connection between HPV and anal cancer and the more recent proliferation of terrifying antibiotic-resistant “superbug” STIs. The author also demystifies a variety of relevant issues, including HIV prevention and “female condoms,” weaving in knowledgeable input from public health experts, vaccine researchers, focus groups, and even a network of contact-tracing “sex detectives.” Fans of witty, meticulously researched chronicles of intriguing popular science topics—think Mary Roach—will devour this fluid mixture of scholarship and levity.
A fresh, funny, sex-positive book that effectively destigmatizes sexual disease.Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-25020-662-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and...
A dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later.
In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. of Memphis) demonstrates that for every human cell put under a microscope, a complex life story is inexorably attached, to which doctors, researchers and laboratories have often been woefully insensitive and unaccountable. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of five, was diagnosed with what proved to be a fatal form of cervical cancer. At Johns Hopkins, the doctors harvested cells from her cervix without her permission and distributed them to labs around the globe, where they were multiplied and used for a diverse array of treatments. Known as HeLa cells, they became one of the world's most ubiquitous sources for medical research of everything from hormones, steroids and vitamins to gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, even the polio vaccine—all without the knowledge, must less consent, of the Lacks family. Skloot spent a decade interviewing every relative of Lacks she could find, excavating difficult memories and long-simmering outrage that had lay dormant since their loved one's sorrowful demise. Equal parts intimate biography and brutal clinical reportage, Skloot's graceful narrative adeptly navigates the wrenching Lack family recollections and the sobering, overarching realities of poverty and pre–civil-rights racism. The author's style is matched by a methodical scientific rigor and manifest expertise in the field.
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and Petri dish politics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4000-5217-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
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