Since Darwin's day, we've been told that sexual monogamy comes naturally to our species. Mainstream science—as well as religious and cultural institutions—has maintained that men and women evolved in families in which a man's possessions and protection were exchanged for a woman's fertility and fidelity. But this narrative is collapsing. Fewer and fewer couples are getting married, and divorce rates keep climbing as adultery and flagging libido drag down even seemingly solid marriages. How can reality be reconciled with the accepted narrative? It can't be, according to renegade thinkers Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethå. While debunking almost everything we "know" about sex, they offer a bold alternative explanation in this provocative and brilliant book. Ryan and Jethå's central contention is that human beings evolved in egalitarian groups that shared food, child care, and, often, sexual partners. Weaving together convergent, frequently overlooked evidence from anthropology, archaeology, primatology, anatomy, and psychosexuality, the authors show how far from human nature monogamy really is. Human beings everywhere and in every era have confronted the same familiar, intimate situations in surprisingly different ways. The authors expose the ancient roots of human sexuality while pointing toward a more optimistic future illuminated by our innate capacities for love, cooperation, and generosity. With intelligence, humor, and wonder, Ryan and Jethå show how our promiscuous past haunts our struggles over monogamy, sexual orientation, and family dynamics. They explore why long-term fidelity can be so difficult for so many; why sexual passion tends to fade even as love deepens; why many middle-aged men risk everything for transient affairs with younger women; why homosexuality persists in the face of standard evolutionary logic; and what the human body reveals about the prehistoric origins of modern sexuality. In the tradition of the best historical and scientific writing, Sex at Dawn unapologetically upends unwarranted assumptions and unfounded conclusions while offering a revolutionary understanding of why we live and love as we do.

Sex - just what is it all about? Don't other species just get on with it? What are the conflicts and jealousy, pain and disappointments, really all about? The 2010 book SEX AT DAWN tells us that this modern misery is due to our belief in a false evolutionary story about human pair-bonding and nuclear family units. Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jeth� claim that their evidence shows that before 10,000 years ago sexual constraints did not exist, paternity was not an issue, and men and women engaged in fairly free and casual bonobo-like sexual activity. Our ancestors, they argue, not only shared food, they shared sex.Are they right?Using predominantly the same sources, SEX AT DUSK takes another look at that evidence, fills in many gaps, makes many corrections, and reveals something far less candy-coated. Bringing together evolutionary biology, primatology, anthropology, and human sexuality, SEX AT DUSK shows that, rather than revealing important facts about our sexual evolution, Sex at Dawn shrouds it in a fog of misinformation and faulty logic that can only lead us further into the dark.

Nothing will stop Cadeon of the Rage Demons from finding the means to atone for the one wrong that haunts him. But once he captures the key to his redemption, the halfling Holly Ashwin, he finds that the woman he thought he could use for his own ends and then forget haunts him as much as his past. Raised as a human, Holly Ashwin never knew that some legends are real until she encounters a brutal demon, who inexplicably guards her like a treasure. Thrust into a sensual new world of myth and power, with him as her protector, she begins to crave the Cade's wicked touch. Yet just when he earns Holly's trust, will Cade be forced to betray the only woman who can sate his wildest needs - and claim his heart?

Alexander Hunt holds onto two secrets: both could ruin his life, but one could end it. The sudden move from Calgary, Alberta to the outskirts of Jasper during his senior year leaves Alex isolated in a cabin with bickering parents. He copes by taking daily hikes along the shores of Maligne Lake until he meets a young man named Amulii. He’s huge, unkempt, and speaks broken English, but there’s something else uncanny about him Alex can’t quite place. What starts as a frightening first encounter escalates the moment Amulii gives Alex a strange gift and reveals there’s something much wilder about him than meets the eye. Unbeknownst to Alex, this sets off a series of devastating events that sends both of them fleeing from an aggressive, well-armed militia in the forest. As Amulii and Alex escape into the mountains, their bond strengthens as they learn from one another, and what was once distrust evolves into something much deeper. Despite that, there are only two questions burning Alex’s waking thoughts as they traverse the harsh wilds of western Alberta, waiting for salvation: will he be caught and killed, or will he lose the rest of his humanity to Amulii’s mistake?

While Stephanie Cahill is vacationing at a beautiful seaside village in Italy, nearby, archaeologist Grant Peterson has an archaeological dig. But an ancient vampire has just been unleashed by the excavation and the seaside village is plunged into terror...

In the evening of his life, a wealthy man begins to wonder if he might have missed the point. Park Minwoo is a success story. Born into poverty in a miserable neighbourhood of Seoul, he has ridden the wave of development in his country. Now the director of a large architectural firm, his hard work and ambition have brought him triumph and satisfaction. But that all begins to change when he receives a message from a childhood friend he once loved. As memories return unbidden, he recalls a world he thought he had left behind — a world he now realises that he has helped to destroy.

'" Not only is high schooler Tasuku Kaname the new kid in town, he is also terrified that he has been outed as gay. Just as he''s contemplating doing the unthinkable, Tasuku meets a mysterious woman who leads him to a group of people dealing with problems not so different from his own. In this realistic, heartfelt depiction of LGBT+ characters from different backgrounds finding their place in the world, a search for inner peace proves to be the most universal experience of all. "'

At Shadow Falls, teens with supernatural powers bond, fall in love, and learn to harness their abilities. But a shocking revelation changes everything these teens thought they knew about Shadow Falls, and each other... Kylie Galen wants the truth so badly she can taste it. The truth about her real family, the truth about which boy she's meant to be with—and the truth about her emerging powers. But she's about to discover that some secrets can change your life forever...and not always for the better. Just when she and Lucas are finally getting close, she learns that his pack has forbidden them from being together. Was it a mistake to pick him over Derek? And it's not just romance troubling Kylie. An amnesia-stricken ghost is haunting her, delivering the frightful warning, someone lives and someone dies. As Kylie races to unravel the mystery and protect those she loves, she finally unlocks the truth about her supernatural identity, which is far different—and more astonishing—than she ever imagined. Don’t miss the third book in C. C. Hunter’s riveting, New York Times bestselling Shadow Falls series, Taken at Dusk!

Sex scholarship has a long history in anthropology, from the studies of voyeuristic Victorian gentlemen ethnographers, to more recent analyses of gay sex, transsexualism, and the newly visible forms of contemporary sexuality in the West. The Anthropology of Sex draws on the comparative field research of anthropologists to examine the relationship between sex as identity, practice and experience. Sexual cultures vary enormously and, while often the topic of tabloid titillation, they are more rarely subjected to strict cultural analysis. The Anthropology of Sex is the first work to critically synthesise over a century of comparative expertise, knowledge and understanding of diverse sexual forms. - Explores sexuality from diversity to perversity and asks how diverse sexual practices are linked. - Probes the cultural and comparative context of contemporary sexual practice and belief. - Examines the shaping of sex by global and globalizing forces. The Anthropology of Sex will be key reading for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in anthropology and related disciplines.

Anuradha Patwardhan, a legendary beauty in 1920s India, marries handsome and well-to-do doctor Vardhmaan, but their married years are challenged by the death of their child and the arrival of a mysterious girl.