Why Do Men Have Nipples?

This book . . . collection . . . performance . . . is strange, funny, occasionally perverse, and even, at times, informative. Some of the strangeness comes from Mark Leyner being both narrator and co-author, and therefore getting to narrate in lurid detail his own activities at a party one hopes was fictional. More of its strangeness comes from the questions asked and the trills the two men put on the factual responses. Leyner's delivery is always clear and professional. He often sounds on the verge of laughter, and the presence of such open amusement helps carry listeners over into laughter. As a result, this is probably better on audio than in print. G.T.B. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

July 25, 2005
Urban legends and perennial wonders get a witty treatment in this lighthearted guide to largely inconsequential yet intriguing aspects of the human body. Leyner, a novelist whose writing appears regularly in the New Yorker and GQ, and New York physician Goldberg address food and the body (does coffee stunt your growth?), "body oddities" (what are goose bumps?), folk remedies (does breast milk cure warts?), drugs (does marijuana help glaucoma?), bathroom humor (why can you ignite a fart?), medical media (is the show ER accurate?), old wives tales (can lip balm be addictive?) and aging (why do old ladies grow beards?). And then there's the sex chapter-definitely the one where the subtitle is most applicable, with questions like "can people in wheelchairs still have sex?" and "do the kind of underpants men wear affect their fertility?" The book includes e-mail interactions between the authors, which are sometimes funny. Some of the authors' answers are unsatisfactory and, as a whole, this is much more of a humor book than a health one. The truly curious will find better, more in-depth answers on medical Web sites, but those looking for a good laugh will have some fun with this book.