RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewHigh-velocity, high impact ... Part sweeping saga of mammalian history; and part clapback against the tendency of much evolutionary thought to place men, and their furry mancestors, at the center of the action ... Bohannon has a poet’s voice...and a reporter’s eye. Eve is an endless source of dinner-party trivia, much of it inappropriate for actual dinner parties ... Also suggests a new way of thinking about one’s body ... Reframing human history is an ambitious job, and some of Bohannon’s concepts inch ever farther out on their speculative branches ... A love letter to the ancient, creaking wonder that is evolution. As we come off the hottest summer on record, the dream is that we continue to evolve, our species continually transforming — if we get the chance.
Eliza Reid
PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewReid’s story is riveting in and of itself ... Reid is careful to point out the ways in which Iceland falls short ... Why Iceland has been more willing than, say, the United States to create a social safety net for its citizens is a question that doesn’t get answered here — but Reid makes a compelling case that there can be no equality without one ... At its heart, Reid’s book is also a \'love letter\' from an immigrant to a country afflicted with the insecurity she labels \'Small Nation Complex\'. And like all love letters, it shines when it’s personal. The most vivid sense of Iceland’s unique approach to gender comes through Reid’s own experiences ... Throughout, her newcomer’s delight in Icelandic details will charm readers ... The catalog of people and issues does in places start to feel like an obligatory political listening tour, as the pressure to be a first lady — attuned to the people’s story and not her own — creeps in at the expense of this particular first lady, who happens to be a lively writer with a tale of her own to tell. At one point, she writes, \'But none of this is about me.\' It’s a tribute to her voice that you hope her next book is.
Peggy Orenstein
PositiveThe New York TimesTo really fix things, you’ll need bigger solutions, and it’s tempting to wish Orenstein would put down her reporter’s notebook to write a more focused sexual bill of rights that girls themselves, and not just their parents, can get behind. Girls & Sex is full of thoughtful concern and empathetic questions: What if girls learned that their sex drives mattered as much as boys’? What if hookups took place sober? What if? But Orenstein is uniquely positioned to do more than ask questions; you want her next book to tell us: Here’s how. Let’s go.
