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The I Index

Maybe someday

41

/100

I Index Overall Rating

Readers

69/100

Critics

13/100

Scholars

N/A

Author:

Kate Lister

Publisher:

Unbound

Date:

April 14, 2020

An eye-opening exploration of the weird and wonderful things human beings have done in pursuit (and denial) of the mighty orgasm. Lister debunks myths and stereotypes and gives unusual sexual practices an historical framework, as she provides valuable context for issues facing people today, including gender, sexual shame, beauty and language.

What The Reviewers Say

Gerard DeGroot,
The Times (UK)
Buckle your trousers, fasten your seatbelts, here comes Kate Lister. Her curious history of sex is a wild ride, made all the more enjoyable by a wonderfully irreverent approach. If she ever tires of being an academic historian she might try stand-up comedy. I’ve never had so much fun learning stuff.
Zoe Williams,
The Guardian (UK)
This book contains, as the title promises, many delightful curiosities.
Dwight Garner,
The New York Times
...Kate Lister’s first book...is not about libido in times of plague and anxiety. But it’s impossible not to read it now through that lens.
Meg Nolan,
The New Statesman
One of the prime pleasures of Kate Lister’s lively A Curious History of Sexis getting a sense of the continuum between ourselves and our ancestors. It can be difficult to conceptualise people who lived centuries ago as vivid, funny individuals, but being horny, it turns out, is a great leveller of time. The major accomplishment of this history is to share enough arcane, surprising information about sex and sexual mores to make it a riot to read, while humanising the participants by way of their own silliness, abjectness and randiness.