Crazy Little Thing - book discontinued by Cleis Press Inc. - review by Ryuson

This author has a very interesting voice in this novel. The way that she has written and organized the chapters, she learns with us from the bottom up about the neurological causes for affection and lust. By speaking the way she does, she makes the reader feel calm and engaged. If you know nothing about this topic, she speaks as to not make you feel undereducated, and if you do know what she's speaking about she still has interesting points to make.

I really enjoyed her voice in this book. It may be because many books on this topic that I have been reading have been text books, but she makes everything easy to understand and puts medical terms into a vernacular that everyone should be able to easily read.

This book is about the neuroscience behind love, lust, attachment, and heartbreak. While this has been a well researched topic the last few years, this book is up to date and accurate. Through both her personal anecdotes and third party stories, she keeps the book engaging and fast-paced.

I feel like this is a great book to pick up if you have little to no knowledge about neuroscience, psychiatry, or don't keep up on the scientific studies in these fields. If you have an occupation that requires vast knowledge on these topics you may find yourself skimming over parts and definitions, but the stories themselves are still charming and worth the read.

The book itself is organized into chapters and sub-chapters. The opening of each chapter is brief introduction to the concepts within, and then each of the subchapters go into more detail about a specific idea. An example would be chapter 10 on Spiritual Love, with the subchapters "Divine Madness," "Not all Bliss Is Domestic," "Mark and Patricia," "Do You and God Have Any Chemistry?," ect. This allows you to easily re-find a section that you wanted to reference.

Within these chapters are also small, more clinical blurbs in a smaller print and within a border. These are more "Trivial Pursuit" type of facts that are good ways to start conversation (if your dinner group is into the "Did you know that up to 4% of all children have different fathers than are listed on their birth certificate?" conversations).

This book involves both male and female perspective, and also both hetero and homosexual perspective. At one point she touches on homosexuality in animals and what it could mean in humans, but there was no specific (or controversial) conclusion drawn such as "So gays should be able to marry in the church" or such. It also touches on religion, but again, it isn't saying "Atheism is crap/correct" or singling out any one religion (Though it does focus more on the one, all-powerful deity of Jewish origin than Native American nature spirits or religions with multiple gods). Overall, I feel it has something to offer everyone.

This book is lain out in a very easy to read way. The font is clear, and I appreciate that the smaller, stand alone blurbs use a different sized font. The paper is heavy and classy, and the pages are easy to turn. The cover is discreet, but also may attract interest if left on your desk. Overall, this is a great quality book.

This book is a really good read to introduce people not commonly interested in neuroscience to topics that they may have considered to be 'over their heads.' I appreciate the way that the author doesn't make you feel undereducated or naive for not knowing these things, but instead creates a comfortable voice and environment for you to become more educated. Too often I read books that take on a 'holier than thou' voice.

While this book wasn't lifechanging, it does make you consider love and affection in a different way, especially if some or all of the knowledge is new news to the reader. It is a topic that I have always been fascinated in. I also highly appreciated the professional way that she approached everything. She spoke of shamanism, Yettie, homosexuality, evolution, BDSM, and the Jewish god and his place in relationships with almost no bias towards them and without telling the reader weather it was right or not. It is a scientific overview of these things, how they affect people, and how they are all related to the topic at hand. If you believe in some of these but not the others, none of these, or all of these you can feel safe that you will not be offended.