Understanding Human Sexuality,   ISBN:9780073210940

Customer Rating: 

I ran into many problems with this experience on ordering my book. I don't believe it was the sellers fault, the United States Postal Service lost my package and refused to remburse me for it. I am still talking with the seller to see if they will remburse me because I never received their product and ended up re-purchasing the book through Barnes&Noble on a Friday and received the book from B&N on the following Tuesday! Thank you B&N

So this was an unpleasant experience that I hope never happens to anyone else again!

Customer Rating: 

The seller shipped the book very quickly - I had it in my hands well before school started. The book itself is in good condition, and the writers are not your usual textbook writers. It's entertaining to read.

Customer Rating: 

This textbook is well-written and explains the material well. Furthermore, it is very interesting: when giving examples of concepts, it uses relevant yet fascinating examples from American and other cultures (for example, in chapter 2 it explains how the social learning theory helps explain sexuality; its example was how the Sambian boys adjust to heterosexual marriage after they spend 7 - 10 years in strict homosexual living conditions!).

The only downside to this textbook is that the liberal bias in this book is very apparent. Even though I agree with virtually all of the stances that they take, the authors could have done a better job to at least present the right wing's side. In addition, they even go out of their way to praise Democrats and make the Republicans seem entirely wrong and ignorant (the passage that comes to mind is when they dedicated a whole page to political issues in Chapter 2, and they threw out all of the right's dirty laundry, but only showed the accomplishments for the left).

In brief, the book gets the job done, and it gets it done interestingly; however, I think that the book would be infinitely more effective if it presented just academic knowledge without any political spin.

Customer Rating: 

Buy either the 8th or 9th edition. I bought the 8th edition Understanding Human Sexuality with Student CD ROM and PowerWeb and compared my text book with a friend who bought the 10th edition. All that's different is the chapters are spaced differently. All the information needed is still contained within the past editions. I passed my class with a 98%. Save yourself plenty of money and buy past editions for classes you can get away with it in. (For example, human sexuality or anatomy. Chemistry and Math do need current editions since the problems change.)

Customer Rating: 

While this book does contain some good information, particularly in the chapters detailing the physiological side of sexuality, it greatly oversimplifies the subjective aspects of sexuality. Throughout the text, the authors present a married, monogamous, nuclear family lifestyle as the most valid expression of human sexuality, despite the fact that fewer and fewer people are choosing to structure their lives according to this standard. This attitude is particularly apparent in the chapters discussing sexual orientation, sexual variation, commercial sex, and other deviations from this ideal, always assuming that the reader isn't a member of any group discussed in these chapters and often presenting cliches about these groups as facts. While the book doesn't come out and espouse bigotry against any sexual minority groups, it also doesn't do much to challenge the stereotypes that inform such bigotry, either.

In short: buy this book if you want to know about anatomy, reproduction, contraception, or STIs. Don't buy this book if you're more interested in the psychology of sex.