::CLEFT PALATE::

My mom bought The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier, a book I'd just read about and put on my reading list, for my dad for Father's Day. As she is wont to do, she bought the book featured with it on Amazon: Woman: An Intimate Geography, also by Natalie Angier. She gave it to me.

And, seriously, I have never relished a nonfiction book as I have this one. I'm in the middle of chapter three; I already recommend this book to everyone. It's written with such reverence and joviality, such detail and jocularity, that I know I'll need to read all of her books.

At least one sentence per page features a phrase-turn that makes me gasp, giggle, or grin.

For example:

"A phallus [symbol] doesn't give you much to play with, metaphorically, and it doesn't lend itself to multiple interpretations. A hose is a hose is a hose."

and

"Stationed at the outskirts of the genital habitat, the sebum acts as the first line of defense, the Great Wall of Vagina, to thwart disease organisms that seek to colonize the rich world within."

Read up.