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A Celebration of Animal Reproduction
by Jules Howard
One thousand million years ago, a huge revolution occurred on Earth - sex happened for the first time. From that moment on, the world became ever more colorful and bizarre, ringing with elaborate songs and dances, epic battles, and rallying cries as the desires of males and females collided, generation after generation, in an unbroken chain of sex going back to the dawn of complex life on Earth.
Animal life rings, bleeds, and howls with sex. It's everywhere. Right now warring hordes are locking horns, preening feathers, rampaging lustfully across the savanna, questioning the fidelity of the ones they love. A million females choose; a billion penises ejaculate (or snap off); a trillion sperm battle, block, and tackle. Sex made planet Earth, well, sexy.
Writing in a brilliantly engaging style, biologist Jules Howard leads readers on a guided tour of the how and why of sex on Earth, in all its diversity. From sperm wars to cuckoldry, hermaphrodites, virgin births, "exploding" penises, and mallards' "booby-trapped" vaginas, Sex on Earth explores and celebrates the wonders and peculiarities of animal reproduction.
"Starred Review. Howard's wit and clear explanations of the birds and the bees make this volume ideal for all readers. An excellent pick for those who enjoyed Mary Roach's Bonk." - Library Journal
"Though there's little that groundbreaking in Howard's scientific content, the infectious optimism of his fascination with an Earth full of beings doing exactly what they need to to go on gives the reader a comforting sense that, in the grand scheme of things, everything is right with the world." - Publishers Weekly
"Howard demonstrates that there is much to appreciate about the rites and rituals that govern the when, where and how of species perpetuation." - Kirkus
This information about Sex on Earth was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jules Howard is a zoologist, nature writer, and blogger (www.juleshoward.co.uk). He is a regular contributor to the Guardian, the Independent, and BBC Wildlife Magazine. This is his first book. Howard lives in Northamptonshire, England.
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