Rating: 
Summary: Dang!! Ms. Ackerman's already spoken for...
Review: As a nearly constant rule, I can count on reading and enjoying
a work based solely on the ink on the page and it's effect on
my mental processes and wanderings.
Not this time--Not this writer.
Between her knowledge of enough Science to make me want to
dig for more, and her Art, which will drive me to more of her work, it's probably best that we live on continentally-separated
coasts. I believe I would LOVE to know this person. I'm also
pretty sure that I could become an ambulatory poster boy
for the well-used cliche about Old Fools.
What a wonderful subject upon which to loose a mind of such
incredible sensuality.
I'd recommend this book [and do] to anyone who retains even
the tiniest door open to curiousity and wonder.
I'm not even finished with the book...
I thought that it might slip off a bit at the end. Wrong again,
the next-to-last chapter, 'Synesthesia,' left me unable to continue highlighting passages...the notations extended past
paragraphs, past pages.
Just buy, read it...it's fourteen bucks you'll be glad
you traded for art.
Lee
[Ms. A., fear not, I'm too old to stalk, too mentally buzzed
to still-hunt.]
Rating: 
Summary: Delightful prose and broad brush strokes of wonder!
Review: DA has a wonderful writing style that makes reading her book a sensory pleasure in its own. At the risk of sounding sexist, it must be mentioned that the power of this book lies in the wonderfully delicate and detailed descriptions of the various senses and their experiences. While DA has chosen a subject that is reasonably biological, it is her descriptive flair for the minutiae, her almost artistic way of writing and her sense of joy and wonder which she conveys; all make this book a wonderfully engrossing tale about our sense organs. While DA succeeds at opening our eyes (and ears, nose.... etc) to the world around us, perhaps the only shortcoming of the book lies in creating expectations in the reader of a rigorous treatment in the biological/evolutionary development of the sense organs. The reader seeking such a detailed analysis of the senses and their development would be served better by looking elsewhere. However, this book is a tasty little morsel and food for thought. Definitely worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: Adventures in sensuality.
Review: Diane Ackerman not only explains why the fall leaves are changing colors outside my window (p. 257), but why the prairie dogs also living here are color-blind to the change of seasons (p. 265). In her fascinating study of the human senses, Ackerman, a poet and naturalist, demonstrates her talent for blending art, history, anthropology, psychology, literature, and natural science to define one of life's biggest questions: what it means to be human and fully alive. In understanding "the gorgeous fever that is consciousness," she explores the origin and evolution of the five senses, how they vary culturally, their limits and taboos, their folklore and science, and "what they can teach us about the ravishing world we have the privilege to inhabit" (p. xix). Along the way, obviously in love with the mysteries of life, Ackerman explains such things as why eating chocolate reproduces the sense of well-being we feel when we're in love (p. 154), why eating $500-a-pound truffles "make one's loins smolder like those of randy lions" (p. 161), why we close our eyes when we kiss (p. 230), and why we spend forty-nine million dollars on a van Gogh painting (p. 268). Reading A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SENSES brought me to the edge of my senses. This book is among the best books I've ever read. G. Merritt
Rating:
Summary: Adventures in sensuality.
Review: Diane Ackerman not only explains why the fall leaves are changing colors outside my window (p. 257), but why the prairie dogs also living here are color-blind to the change of seasons (p. 265). In her fascinating study of the human senses, Ackerman, a poet and naturalist, demonstrates her talent for blending art, history, anthropology, psychology, literature, and natural science to define one of life's biggest questions: what it means to be human and fully alive. In understanding "the gorgeous fever that is consciousness," she explores the origin and evolution of the five senses, how they vary culturally, their limits and taboos, their folklore and science, and "what they can teach us about the ravishing world we have the privilege to inhabit" (p. xix). Along the way, obviously in love with the mysteries of life, Ackerman explains such things as why eating chocolate reproduces the sense of well-being we feel when we're in love (p. 154), why eating $500-a-pound truffles "make one's loins smolder like those of randy lions" (p. 161), why we close our eyes when we kiss (p. 230), and why we spend forty-nine million dollars on a van Gogh painting (p. 268). Reading A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SENSES brought me to the edge of my senses. This book is among the best books I've ever read. G. Merritt
Rating:
Summary: Well Done
Review: Do not confuse this book for science or hard fact. 'A Natural History of the Senses' is a well done book of lyrical prose that is meant to be relaxed with and enjoyed. Diane Ackerman is quite possibly a lyrical stylist that, much like any past writer, uses the conciousness of her time to bring alive the beliefs, feelings, and concerns that she and others face in their lifetime. Using delightful and fascinating information integrated with insight and stunning language, she makes one become more aware of the senses that we sometimes take for granted.
Rating:
Summary: Climb aboard "The Magic Schoolbus"....for adults!
Review: Do you remember the day in second grade when your teacher taught the lesson of the five senses? You felt around for some mysterious object in a brown paper bag for touch, you had lemon squeezed on your tongue for taste, you made Styrofoam cup telephones for hearing, you shut your eyes and stumbled around "blind" clinging to the arm of the kid next to you for sight, and you sniffed mothballs for smell. That was about it, subject covered. Now, just imagine if you could learn the lesson over again with the zany fictional teacher Ms. Frizzle of "The Magic Schoolbus" fame, except this time she's teaching adults. Welcome to the world of Diane Ackerman. In a Natural History of The Senses Ms. Ackerman enthusiastically, patiently, and most of all exuberantly reintroduces us to the sensual world from her perspective and shows us how it is so much more alive and kicking than what we learned in grade school. This book is still broken down into five familiar sections of smell, touch, taste, hearing and vision, but in total it is so chock full of intimate detail of the world the reader can't help but see things in a different light for having read it. It is written with the intelligence of a scholar, the fluidity and grace of a poet, and well, as I've mentioned above the enthusiasm of the one and only Ms. Frizzle (and I mean this as the nicest compliment!) This book will certainly appeal to people who love detail as it is well referenced for those wishing to delve deeper into the literature of the senses. Diane Ackerman shares, teaches and reminds us of some of the most simple things in life. Do you know how a butterfly "tastes" sweetness? Can you explain the electrical significance of the corpuscles strategically placed throughout your own body responsible for great sex? If you are saying "so what?" then I ask that you just give it a try. It is a fun romp of a read that may take you places you haven't been for a long time. A good portion of the book is written in the first person, where the author has juxtaposed what she knows with how she lives, and I believe her detractors would comment that she appears self-absorbed for it. Just get over that and realize at the very last she reminds us life can be steered away from its sometimes predictable, even boring, path by something as seemingly insignificant as adding an extra teaspoon of vanilla to the muffin batter. Who knows, you may even dab some on your pulse points and let the rest of the world wonder why you smell so...exuberant. I'm sure Diane Ackerman would expect nothing less.
Rating:
Summary: A Winner for Content and Style
Review: Every time I see a baby make a face I think of this book. So many questions that I never even thought to ask are answered in this beautiful tour through our senses.
Ms. Ackerman breaks down our entire ability to perceive into seven bite sized pieces. In the end, you'll know yourself better than when you started.
The first graph in her chapter on vision is worth the price of the book. She builds a "sense" of drama before the climax of declaring you a predator. The present tense explanation of how we really use our senses is convincingly proven with irrefutable rhetorical questions that prove the universality of how and why we react to stimuli the way we do.
Read this book and the you'll see why your child doesn't eat her brussels sprouts. It's too bad wine is an alcoholic beverage. If it weren't, the best wine critics would be second graders.
Rating: 
Summary: she murders her topic in this book
Review: I agree with another reader who felt that this was a collection of personal anecdotes that seemed at times far-fetched. It should have been more truthfully titled "The Natural History of Diane Ackerman's Senses". I couldn't read the whole thing, it got very cloying and the language tried too titillate more than convey knowledge. I did not care how unruly and sensual her hair is, nor did I care to read about her kissing experiences. You can be sure I'm avoiding her book on Love, too.
Rating: 
Summary: expected more
Review: I can't say this is a bad book, but I don't feel I got my money's worth. It is light on the science. It should be called a celebration of the senses. It gives a bunch of andectodal facts and musings of the author wich I didn't find interesting. I have recently read much better books in the science section of my local book store.
Rating:
Summary: dipped in the well where art & science swirl, mingle, meld.
Review: I have always been a fan of essays, their many ideas and images packed into a tiny bead. You can read each essay and experience so many different ideas that you feel like an actor on the stage. This book does not only that, but more. Diane Ackerman has the ability to mix science and feeling to such a beautiful level that you begin to wonder if there truely is any difference between them. The writings pull you through so many experiences and, often, you find that you feel you have been there yourself. She draws you in with history and science, then immerses you into the very sense... captivating you with beautiful prose. By far my favorite book. If you wish to escape yet dive into life at the same time, read away!
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