Bitch: On the Female of the Species

A fierce, funny, and revolutionary look at the queens of the animal kingdom

Studying zoology made Lucy Cooke feel like a sad freak. Not because she loved spiders or would root around in animal feces: all her friends shared the same curious kinks. The problem was her sex. Being female meant she was, by nature, a loser.

Since Charles Darwin, evolutionary biologists have been convinced that the males of the animal kingdom are the interesting ones--dominating and promiscuous, while females are dull, passive, and devoted.

In Bitch, Cooke tells a new story. Whether investigating same-sex female albatross couples that raise chicks, murderous mother meerkats, or the titanic battle of the sexes waged by ducks, Cooke shows us a new evolutionary biology, one where females can be as dynamic as any male. This isn't your grandfather's evolutionary biology. It's more inclusive, truer to life, and, simply, more fun.

Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 06/14/2022
Pages: 400
Weight: 1.33lbs
Size: 9.48h x 6.25w x 1.12d
ISBN: 9781541674899


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 03/14/2022
Library Journal 04/01/2022 pg. 103
Booklist 04/15/2022 pg. 5
Kirkus Reviews 05/15/2022
Shelf Awareness 06/23/2022
Choice 11/01/2022

About the Author
Lucy Cooke is the author of The Truth About Animals, which was short-listed for the Royal Society Prize, and the New York Times bestselling A Little Book of Sloth. She is a National Geographic explorer, TED talker, and award-winning documentary filmmaker with a master's degree in zoology from Oxford University. She lives in Hastings, England.