Book cover of The Seeds of Life

Book description

Why cracking the code of human conception took centuries of wild theories, misogynist blunders, and ludicrous mistakes

Throughout most of human history, babies were surprises. People knew the basics: men and women had sex, and sometimes babies followed. But beyond that the origins of life were a colossal mystery. The…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Seeds of Life as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Here's a simple question: when did people learn exactly where babies come from?

As a historian and father of three, I'm embarrassed to say it never occurred to me to ask, despite all the times I've spent tracing the lives of people in the past and all the pre-natal visits I joined my wife for. The answer is it was shockingly recent.

Until the late nineteenth century, the only certainties were that sex sometimes led to pregnancy, that women had a monthly cycle that was somehow involved, and that men contributed a fluid "seed."

Everyone knows that ultrasounds are a…

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Book cover of The Rosewood Penny

The Rosewood Penny by J.S. Fields,

2023 Queer Indie Award Nominee!

The dragons of Yuro have been hunted to extinction.

On a small, isolated island, in a reclusive forest, lives bandit leader Marani and her brother Jacks. With their outlaw band they rob from the rich to feed themselves, raiding carriages and dodging the occasional vindictive…

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