Aroused

Epstein's intelligence and wit sparkle through these well-researched and enlightening tales of hucksters and heroes, freak shows and murders, hot flashes and thousands of pickled pituitary glands. -- Anna Reisman, Director of Yale University's Program for Humanities in Medicine We tend to associate hormones with puberty, childbearing, and menopause but, as Randi Hutter Epstein points out in this important, informative and immensely enjoyable book, they're actually involved in every aspect of being human. An enchanting storyteller, Epstein draws on examples from medical history to today's news in exploring the amazing chemicals that affect how we eat, sleep, grow, look, hate, love, and think. -- Suzanne Koven, Writer in Residence at Mass General Aroused, Randi Hutter Epstein's witty, riveting, and untrammeled romp through the social history of hormones, engages you with one astonishing story after another. . . . An irresistible narrative tapestry tracing the shimmering threads of hormones as they run through our bodies and lives. -- Harriet Washington, author of Medical Apartheid Hormones today can seem a bit like angels and demons in earlier times-invisible agents mysteriously responsible for everything in our lives. In her funny, eye-opening book, Randi Hutter Epstein demystifies these molecules, while taking away none of their amazing power. -- Carl Zimmer, author of She Has Her Mother's Laugh and Parasite Rex Hunger. Lust. Maternal love. It's hard to believe our biggest human dramas are written by tiny molecules discovered only a century ago. Randi Hutter Epstein spins a fine medical history of the hormones coursing through our blood, the hucksters who hawk them and scientific visionaries who changed the way we think about who we are. -- Florence Williams, author of The Nature Fix A sweeping, glorious story of hormones, threaded through with sex, suffering, neurology, biology, medicine and self-discovery, Epstein's book manages to excite the imagination as well as calm it. The story is grippingly told, and Epstein manages to bring a whole system of science alive to her reading public. -- Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Gene: An Intimate History