Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol. 33, No. 2, April 2004, pp. 169–177 ( C  2004) Book Reviews Human Sexuality. By Simon LeVay and Sharon M. Valente. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachu- setts, 2003, 628 pp., $88.95. Reviewed by S. Marc Breedlove, Ph.D. 1 Searching amazon.com for books about “human sexual- ity” calls up over 3,200 entries, so we all have plenty of reading to catch up on. Presently, the bestseller of the bunch is Five minutes to orgasm every time you make love, and I suppose taking this advice would leave us with more time to read all those other books. Since interest in sex re- mains rampant we need not worry about zero population growth for the near future. But you could make the case that knowledge about sex is far from widespread; other- wise, why would a book suggesting using your hands and fingers during sex be a bestseller? What next, Use heat to boil water? So, there is plenty of room to teach young people about sex, and this new textbook offers a thor- ough, authoritative, and entertaining resource for teachers or anyone who wants to understand more about sex. Perhaps the best thing about this book is the writ- ing style: concise, clear, and engaging, with just enough humor to keep you turning the pages, but not so much to mar the serious, scholarly perspective behind it all. The biggest challenge a textbook offers for any college instruc- tor is getting the students to actually read the material. That problem disappears with this text—you feel like you are having a lively conversation with a pleasant, articulate ac- quaintance who happens to be very, very well informed. The authors also pass the important test of being explicit without being judgmental, being interesting without be- ing exploitative. For example, the final chapter, “Sex as a Commodity,” soberly asks whether money really can buy you love. They note that if you accept the assertions of evolutionary psychology that females tend to choose mates who have plenty of resources, then “what we call prostitution—engaging in sex for pay—is merely an un- varnished and extreme expression of something that goes on in many or most sexual relationships” (p. 600). This level-headed willingness to explore sexual topics is per- 1 Neuroscience Program and Departments of Psychology and Zool- ogy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1101; e-mail: breedsm@msu.edu. fect for provoking discussion among undergraduates, who may have come to the course thinking they had already considered every important issue about sex. The book is also very funny sometimes, such as when the caption for a photo of William Shockley, the Nobel prize winner whose “superior” sperm was widely marketed, asks whether you have “seen a younger version of this man ... in your neigh- borhood? Maybe it’s one of the tireless sperm donor’s offspring” (p. 303). Another example is the advertisement for “PMS Chocolate Bars” done in the lurid style of 1950s horror comics (p. 112). Given LeVay’s extensive career as a neuroscientist, it is no surprise that the text is very neuroscience-heavy. There is no shying away from naming the neurotrans- mitters affecting erection, the names of nuclei in the central nervous system, or the steps in neural develop- ment that are affected by steroid hormones. So the text is ideal for someone like me, a neuroscientist who takes it into her/his head to teach Human Sexuality. Likewise, the book is very biologically oriented in general, with dis- cussions not only about anatomy and physiology, but also about the evolution of sexual reproduction and behavior. You will learn about microscopic animals that have not had sexual relations for millions of years, female lizards that have sex and reproduce without bothering with males, and males of other species who get pregnant or lactate. I also appreciated the extensive chapter on sexual develop- ment (sexual differentiation), including clear descriptions of instances of “atypical development.” Even in my own fields of interest, I could find no errors of fact. In addi- tion to the biological material, there are good discussions about psychological approaches, including cognitive sex differences, development of gender constancy, and sexual fantasy. There is also plenty of detail about the history of studies of sexuality, the broad range of attitudes about sex across cultures, and the modern struggles for sexual liber- ation. There is also ample coverage of both sides of issues that remain controversial even among scientists, such as surgical attempts to transform babies born with an intersex phenotype into “normal” boys or girls. The authors dis- cuss many widespread myths about sex (blackout babies, penis captivus, recovered memories) and explain how we know they are not true. There are boxes scattered throughout the book deal- ing with “Society, Values and the Law,” and “Personal 169 0004-0002/04/0400-0169/0 C  2004 Plenum Publishing Corporation