Browsing books can be a very personal experience. I always valued the checkout people at Powell's Books who kept their mouth shut about my book choices, and of course, at the library, since you can checkout all by yourself, so nobody can judge you based on your choices. In this hilarious scene from the movie Norman, Is That You? Ben Chambers played by Redd Foxx tries to discreetly inquire about books on homosexuality after discovering that his son is gay. At first he tries denial, "Son, you can't be homosexual, you must be on drugs! Thank God my son is on drugs!" But after Norman storms out, Ben decides to learn everything he can about homosexuality by reading about it. Unfortunately, the salespeople at the bookstore are less than sympathetic to his plight.

While browsing the library's fourth floor I stumbled across this book, The Sexual Paradox by the sister of renowned evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker, author of The Blank Slate, How the Mind Works, etc. I was impressed by the fact that nowhere on the dust jacket does she  mention her kinship to Steven, preferring to stand alone rather than seek to ingratiate herself with Steven's huge following. Her book is an excellent look into the reasons why "equality" just doesn't seem to be panning out the way that feminists might have wanted. Instead of women flocking to the highly paid careers of science and engineering, despite the likes of Intel, Microchip and others desperate to show they can hire women to fill the roles that men traditionally have filled, women still make up less than 20% of these lucrative positions, and the excuses offered such as discrimination or lack of degrees just don't hold up. Susan's book is an excellent look at this conundrum that defies solution, and because she is both a woman and a mother, she speaks from a position of authority on this topic. A great read, look for it.