Another encyclopedic tome from the renowned sex experts, loaded with research findings, practical advice, and statistics but little that's new, different, or controversial. This single volume, with its numerous illustrations, tables, and lists, covers just about everything imaginable on heterosexuality, starting with love and intimacy, for which the authors include three scholarly theories of love, nine run-of-the- mill tips on maintaining love, and some cautionary advice on excessive intimacy; followed by sensuality, which has a five-step exercise program and a ten-item list of no-no's; and sexual response, which features not only ten practical pointers but a simple magazine-style self-assessment quiz. A similar pattern is followed in chapters on ejaculatory disorders, impotence, and female sexual dysfunctions. The chapter on compulsive sexual behaviors does have four case studies, albeit of a rather mild nature (``The Underwear Bandit,'' ``Telephone Sex,'' etc.). Meanwhile, the discussions of conception, contraception, and abortion are up-to-date, including information on Norplant, approved by the FDA in 1990, and RU486, not yet approved in the States. Infertility gets cursory treatment, but this section does refer readers to sources for further information and counseling. Much of the material on AIDS, which is treated separately from other sexuality transmitted diseases, is taken from the authors' 1992 revision of Human Sexuality. Their views on adolescent sexuality will dismay the religious right, but others may find them realistic and helpful, and their comments on aging and sex are both reassuring and practical (e.g., ``Use it or lose it''). Finally, extramarital affairs get the standard treatment: a mix of research findings, quotes, and statistics; no practical tips here, though. As sensible, reliable, and familiar as a comfortable old pair of walking shoes—and about as exciting.
Pub Date: March 30, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-019041-8
Page Count: 464
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1994
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
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