Cringing and Shrieking: Bonk by Mary Roach (mature topics)

 While home over Winter Break my mother and I got into a scientific discussion about sex because she'd been reading the book Bonk by Mary Roach.    My husband stuck around for a few minutes of the conversation before he deemed the content to mature for him, as he ducked out to catch up on some sports highlights.  In the meantime my mother was stunning me about her ridiculous knowledge about pig sex and she suggested that I might get a kick out of Mary Roach's latest research which brings together sex and science. 

Mary Roach is most notable for her book Stiff which is about the lives of cadavers.  It's a bit gruesome and definitely not for the faint of heart, which I'd also say about Bonk.  At times I found myself shrieking with laughter because the odd things that had been revealed during the various research stages and with the descriptions of sex toys, surgeries and talk of animal reproduction. At other times, I found myself crossing my legs out of sympathy for those poor souls who inadvertently helped out with the research the hard way (no pun intended). 

I found myself reading the book in short doses at home because there were times when I could only handle so much reading about orgasms and erectile dysfunction before someone in public would ask me what I was reading or before it began to feel like work, and sometimes you just don't feel like having that conversation with strangers and you don't want to make thinking about sex into work.  In some ways, I felt it necessary to put the book down because I was afraid it would spoil some of the mystery and almost some of the allure-- but it didn't. Instead, it walked the fine line of being informative without being straight up smut.  Believe me, it was a long way from 50 Shades of Grey, because I didn't want to punch anyone in the face once I was finished (I can't say the same about the characters in 50 Shades) and it was actually quite pleasant to read about couples who would actually give a damn about the other person's feelings and sexual experiences-- rather than being self absorbed and self serving.  

The parts I enjoyed the most about the book were the discussions describing what measures the various researchers would go to to find subjects and get approval for their studies.  It was also centering to have the actual facts on some of the norms regarding sex organ and behaviors and not just some skewed perspective based coming from the porn industry, although the porn industry did seem to be helpful for some of the researchers as they gathered volunteers for the various studies.  

Overall, I'd say the target audience is definitely the mature audience-- particularly those at at least the college level because there were numerous references to research and studies that those who have gone through the research process could definitely appreciate.  Along these lines, I wouldn't want to try to get permissions for teens to be reading it, but at the same time, I definitely think there are worse things for teens to read about since it was so grounded in science and it wasn't glorifying it but was instead approaching it objectively, just like a farmer would about pig insemination.