The book definitely has an agenda, which is to demonstrate that "natural" sexuality (i.e. among animals) includes a wide variety of sexual orientations and combinations of partners' genders and sexual orientations - well beyond female-male relationships. For example, in some animals, there are more than one male and/or female genders; in some animals, individuals may change their gender during their life cycle; and in some animals same sex relations are very common.
Thus, the author - herself transitioned from male to female - is intent upon challenging - or better, attacking - the notion of homosexuality or other than male-female relationships being "unnatural".
Was it good?
The book definitely presents a very compelling case in favor of the case the author has set out to make. Indeed, the author presents an astonishing collection of quite surprising sexual behaviors, including gender changing phenomena, prevalent in the animal kingdom.
One could say that the book even slightly overdoes in this regard, because the compilation of examples is so overwhelming.
Thus, the book would perhaps be more enjoyable, if it focused only on some 20% of the empirical material - or did it with more condensed style - because I started to a bit forget the original point of the book while plowing through the biological details.
The main take-away for me?
I certainly did not know before reading the book that animal sexuality is so very, very varied. In this regard, the book really opened an entirely new world for me.
Moreover, according to the author, animal sexuality still is an understudied and poorly understood phenomenon in all its variety.
Who should read the book?
I would say that the book would be good reading for basically everyone, if the biological enumeration was substantially more economical. Currently, I suspect that a heightened interest in the subject matter is required to appreciate the contents throughout. However, if an abridged version of the book was available, I would recommend it to everyone.
The book on Amazon.com: Evolution's Rainbow
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