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Rating: 
Summary: An amazing book
Review: . . . that covers an amazing variety of times, cultures, beliefs, and ideas. It does all that without becoming unwieldy. Indeed, it touches on most of the prominent gender/sexuality theorists while remaining approachable to readers who haven't heard their names-a true feat! At the same time, it is an impressive work of literary and cultural scholarship that stands with Judith Butler's Gender Trouble and Monique Wittig's A Straight Mind as some of the most mind- and gender-bending work of the late 20th century.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing book
Review: . . . that covers an amazing variety of times, cultures, beliefs, and ideas. It does all that without becoming unwieldy. Indeed, it touches on most of the prominent gender/sexuality theorists while remaining approachable to readers who haven't heard their names-a true feat! At the same time, it is an impressive work of literary and cultural scholarship that stands with Judith Butler's Gender Trouble and Monique Wittig's A Straight Mind as some of the most mind- and gender-bending work of the late 20th century.
Rating:
Summary: really interesting reading
Review: It's unfortunate that this book probably will be read mostly by people who don't need convincing of its arguments. But those of us who do read it will gain some fresh ways to articulate what we knew all along -- that bisexuality is sexuality, period. It's an excellent book -- 500 pages of anaylsis, argument, discussion, anecdote, research... in a style that reads better than many novels. This is the kind of book you can get a lot out of. It's a serious work by a scholar, but not a bit boring. Whether you're interested in your own sexuality, or that of someone you know, or that of people you see, read this book.
Garber asks us to consider that maybe sexuality isn't perfectly categorized into "homosexual" and "heterosexual". She asks us to think about the categories and how exactly we define them and whether they cover all the options. If a person does X or thinks about Y or looks like A, what shall we label that person? There are times when what a person labels herself is not what others label her; what does this tell us? Garber's answers are fascinating; the anecdotes (stories from books, movies, psychologists, magazines, research, famous folks and not-famous folks) are thoroughly engrossing and perfectly blended with the logical analysis. Fascinating discussion of sexuality through history, too. It's just a heck of a good book.
Rating:
Summary: Beyond Words almost
Review: This book affects me daily. It asks me: to probe deep inside my mind for the why. It asks me: what my actions will mean to what labels I have chosen. It asks me: to refine and/or reject certain ways I once thought about historical people. It preaches nothing and for that I am thankful.
Rating:
Summary: Beyond Words almost
Review: This book affects me daily. It asks me: to probe deep inside my mind for the why. It asks me: what my actions will mean to what labels I have chosen. It asks me: to refine and/or reject certain ways I once thought about historical people. It preaches nothing and for that I am thankful.
Rating: 
Summary: A very detailed history - but perhaps overdetailed in places
Review: This book is a comprehensive look at bisexuality in human culture, from ancient history to the present day. In particular, it looks at how bisexuality has been written out of history and excluded from study -- from the myth of Tiresias and triangular relationships in ancient Greece, through to modern-day movie stars and their closet bisexuality. Stylistically, it's very readable; the one problem is that it is simply too detailed for my taste. After ploughing through twenty or thirty pages discussing Sigmund Freud, I really didn't want to hear any more about his theories of universal bisexuality. Similarly, I just wasn't that interested to read about the Bloomsbury authors' romantic entanglements, or the Taos artists' unconventional relationships. A few sections really caught my attention, however: The LaVey "gay brain" study is demolished ruthlessly and effectively, along with other similar pieces of "scientific" research; a surprising comparison between bisexuality and interracial relationships illuminates some of the psychological reasons for biphobia; and the bisexual subtext of vampire myths is entertainingly teased out. If you're bi and in search of a culture and history you can relate to, this is the book for you. If you want to know more practically what it means to be bi, this probably isn't what you're looking for. If you're straight, this book might just convince you that bisexuals really do exist...
Rating:
Summary: A very detailed history - but perhaps overdetailed in places
Review: This book is a comprehensive look at bisexuality in human culture, from ancient history to the present day. In particular, it looks at how bisexuality has been written out of history and excluded from study -- from the myth of Tiresias and triangular relationships in ancient Greece, through to modern-day movie stars and their closet bisexuality. Stylistically, it's very readable; the one problem is that it is simply too detailed for my taste. After ploughing through twenty or thirty pages discussing Sigmund Freud, I really didn't want to hear any more about his theories of universal bisexuality. Similarly, I just wasn't that interested to read about the Bloomsbury authors' romantic entanglements, or the Taos artists' unconventional relationships. A few sections really caught my attention, however: The LaVey "gay brain" study is demolished ruthlessly and effectively, along with other similar pieces of "scientific" research; a surprising comparison between bisexuality and interracial relationships illuminates some of the psychological reasons for biphobia; and the bisexual subtext of vampire myths is entertainingly teased out. If you're bi and in search of a culture and history you can relate to, this is the book for you. If you want to know more practically what it means to be bi, this probably isn't what you're looking for. If you're straight, this book might just convince you that bisexuals really do exist...
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