October Staff Pick – Bitch: On the Female of the Species

Bitch: On the Female of the Species by Lucy Cooke (Basic Books), picked by bookseller Riona Jean

Do you love weird animal facts? Do you love academia? Do you love sticking it to the patriarchy?

This book boasts all three with panache and grace.

Cooke is an accomplished zoologist who interviews a bevy of scientists across the globe in order to expose the glaring gap in knowledge about the female of any species (from insects to mammals to birds). Her writing is feisty, fierce, and witty without being grandiose or over-embellishing facts.

Learn about murderous meerkats, polyamorous birds, and frisky bonobos, all while discovering how scientific studies contradicting the patriarchy have been dismissed, hidden, or unfunded. I can’t get this book into your paws fast enough!

~ Riona Jean