Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream: A Day in the Life of Your Body

I've been reading Jennifer Ackerman's work for more than a decade, since I ran across her insightful and beautifully written first book, NOTES FROM THE SHORE. I keep it on my shelf that holds Annie Dillard's PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK and Thoreau's WALDEN and Henry Beston's THE OUTERMOST HOUSE. Her freshman access to my club of household gods meant that from the first I thought that Ackerman had style and a voice and staying power. Immediately I knew that I would have to watch the rest of her work evolving over the years. Her natural history of heredity, CHANCE IN THE HOUSE OF FATE, proved that she could handle larger thematic approaches as beautifully as she wrote first-person anecdotal natural history. In her latest book, she merges the two, creating a larger thematic overview of a day on earth in personal, up-close terms that make all the science relevant to everyday life. In SEX SLEEP EAT DRINK DREAM, Ackerman marshals an impressive amount of research, keeps it relevant and part of the narrative that we relive every day, and does all this work for us in an elegant, lucid voice. As someone who loves good writing about nature and science, but who picks up and puts down a lot of science books, I have to ask, "What more do you want from a writer?" To respond to the cosmos with a sense of its mystery, to use the tools and discoveries of science to launch a meditation on meaning and significance, is to rise above ordinary science writing and create literature. That some science nerds will complain about the art may itself be a testament to the art.

As a psychiatrist with a special interest in sleep and wake disorders, I thought I wouldn't learn anything new in "Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream". Was I wrong? Absolutely, this is a book that we all should read. Ms Ackerman talks about bodily functions that we never think about - with elegance and wit. Her literature citations are up-to-date and relevant. Even those with a Y chromosome will appreciate the beauty in her prose (except Mr. Reid). I strongly recommend this book to the lay public and health professionals alike. LPL

This book is the first I have read that really gave me insight into the basic things that govern our waking (and unconscious) lives. I could easily see myself and others when the author outlined in detail what is happening in our bodies at any given time during the day and night and how we (differentially) respond. No other book I have read ever laid it out like this, hour for hour. Does that make getting up in the morning in the winter any easier for me? No! But at least now I have the ammunition I need when others, i.e. those chipper morning types who try to make me feel guilty about my morning moping, make me feel inadequate. The author depicts things in a wonderfully direct and often personal manner that really makes it easy for the reader to relate. I found this an enjoyable and fun read, even if unsettling at times. We don't want to think that we are slaves to our hormones or circadian rhythms, and yet this book teaches us that we ignore these fundamental aspects of our nature at our peril. A wonderfully informative and insightful read. This is an author who really speaks to me; I am eager to read her other books and articles.

This is my favorite type of science book: detailed, full of terrific information and odd facts, accessible AND literary. The structure makes perfect sense and I found myself sailing through the book with sheer fascination. The writer must have a background in literature, as well as science, though she wears it lightly. The result is nourishment for the heart and mind. So long Diane Ackerman. I'll be hunting for Jenny Ackerman's next book!

All I did was read the prologue of this book and I was hooked. I decided to take a "sick day" so I could read it without interruption. It is written with great wit, style, and is a veritable page-turner. I work in Health Services and I am going to highly recommend this book to all my clients. It is informative, fascinating and fun. I am going to give it to everyone on my list for Christmas!