Dr. Tatiana's sex advice to all creation Book

This exuberantly brilliant book never fails to remind me of one of the more obvious puzzles surrounding those who subscribe to strict creationism. You know, the people who actually believe that the Lord created the universe according to the seven-day timetable laid out in Genesis. Quite apart from the convoluted mental processes needed to accommodate such inconvenient evidence as the entire fossil record, (remember, these people would have us believe that humans and dinosaurs coexisted, Flintstone-like, in some kind of post-Genesis theme park), why would anyone choose such a parched, unimaginative view of the natural world when the reality is so much more glorious? Whether or not one believes in the existence of a divine entity at the back of it all, the fact is that the magnificent variation and huge diversity of evolutionary survival strategies that are explained by Darwin's theory imply a universe that is infinitely more fascinating than the simplistic view of the strict creationists.

Olivia Judson's "Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation" provides a comprehensive, hugely readable, account of one of evolution's most important aspects - sexual selection. Dr. Judson has chosen a particularly delightful conceit to enlighten and entertain her readers - the book is structured as a series of letters and answers, spanning the entire natural world, to the eponymous "agony aunt" of the title, Dr. Tatiana. From the opening letter from a golden potto in the Gabon who wonders why her boyfriend's penis is covered in enormous spines to the scandalized primate in the Ivory Coast complaining about the slutty behavior of the female chimpanzees in the neighborhood, the vignettes presented in this book are informative, wide-ranging, hilariously funny - in a single word, awesome.

The book's thirteen chapters are divided into three main sections:

Part I: Let Slip the Whores of War
1. A Sketch of the Battlefield
2. The Expense is Damnable
3. Fruits of Knowledge
4. Swords or Pistols
5. How to Win Even if You're a Loser

Part II: The Evolution of Depravity
6. How to Make Love to a Cannibal
7. Crimes of Passion
8. Hell Hath no Fury
9. Aphrodisiacs, Love Potions, and Other Recipes from Cupid's Kitchen
10. Till Death Do us Part

Part III: Are Men Necessary? Usually, But Not Always
11. The Fornications of Kings
12. Eve's Testicles
13. Wholly Virgin

This is definitely on my top 5 list of science books published within the last decade. It is funny, imaginative, informative and hugely entertaining.
So much so that one is forced to break out the most repulsive of reviewer cliches - Dr Judson's accomplishment represents a true tour de force.