Many of us pursue fitness because we want to remain attractive to partners and potential partners, and we stay healthy so we can continue to have sex with those partners. But why do people care so much about sex? This book, written by an evolutionary biologist, explains how all the weird quirks of human sexuality came to be: sex with no intention of procreation, invisible fertility, sex acts pursued in private--all common to us, but very different from most other species. Why Is Sex Fun? asks us to look at ourselves in a brand-new way, and richly rewards us for doing so.


From Library Journal
This book speculates on the evolutionary forces that shaped the unique aspects of human sexuality: female menopause, males' role in society, having sex in private, and?most unusual of all?having sex for fun instead of for procreation. Through comparative evolution, biologist and science author Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies, LJ 2/15/97), poses credible and thought-provoking yet entertaining factors: the lengthy period of dependency of human infants, sex for pleasure as the tie that helps bind a mother and a father together, and menopause as an evolutionary advantage that, by ending the childbearing years, allows females to pass wisdom and knowledge on to society and succeeding generations. Recommended for most libraries.?Gloria Maxwell, Kansas City P.L., Kan.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Review of Books, Steve Jones
Diamond's case is that our sex lives are better understood in terms of genetics than of grand opera. He is among the best of a talented bunch of writers on evolutionary biology. This book is (like his earlier work on the same theme, The Third Chimpanzee) engaging and interesting to read. It is much more than yet another infantile attempt to use a string of unconnected anecdotes to explore the human spirit through the eyes of nature. Why Is Sex Fun? contains many strange and memorable tales of our sex lives and those of our relatives. It is guaranteed to keep a potential partner amused and amazed at the vagaries of what people--and animals--get up to when it comes to passing on their genes.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Why are humans one of the few species to have sex in private? Why do humans have sex any day of the day of the year -- including when the female is pregnant, beyond her reproductive years or between her fertility cycles? Why are human females the only mammals to go through menopause? Why is the human penis so unnecessarily large? Why do we differ so radically in these and other important aspects of our sexuality from our closest animals and ancestors?

There is no more knowledgeable or compelling authority than Jared Diamond to answer these intriguing questions. With wit and fascinating scientific expertise, he explores the mystifying evolutionary forces that gave shape to our sexual distinctions and shows how they contributed to what it means to be uniquely human.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal