Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation

Summary from the Publisher...

book cover

Funny, quirky, and wonderfully informative, the book comprises letters from all creatures worried about their bizarre sex lives to the wise Dr. Tatiana (a.k.a. Olivia Judson), the only sex columnist in creation with a prodigious knowledge of evolutionary biology. Fusing natural history with advice to the lovelorn, blending wit and rigor, she is able to reassure her anxious correspondents that although the acts they describe might sound appalling and unnatural, they are actually perfectly normal -- so long as you are not a human. In the process, she explains the science behind it all, from Darwin's theory of sexual selection to why sexual reproduction exists in the first place, and, applying the standards of the human world to the mating habits of the natural one, in the end she reveals the wonders of both.


Discussion Questions

Taken from: http://www.erin.utoronto.ca/~w3bio152/

  1. You have one minute to convince your neighbour that your answer is correct…
    All things being equal, which would “win”?
  2. why is sexual selection part of natural selection yet is sometimes at odds with natural selection?

Links

Dr. Tatiana's Home Page
A fun website with reviews, excerpts, and FAQs (and some copulating blue bugs with moving antennae).
A Review
A review by Valeria MacEwan.
Ask Dr. Tatiana: Sex Is War!
Dr. Tatiana's inarugural column in The Economist, Dec. 18, 1997.
Move OVer Dr. Phil!
A review at Salon.com by Susan McCarthy.
NPR Interview
Listen to the NPR interview with Dr. Tatiana.
Dr Olivia Judson's Animal Magic
Interview with the author by the Newspaper of the Imperial College of London.
Updated: 10/25/2004