Eric Berkowitz: Sex and Punishment

Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire. USA 2012, 456 pp., hardbound, € 23.20
Kostenloser Versand innerhalb Europas.
Berkley
From the bedroom to the courtroom - a riveting history of the law of sex. The »raging frenzy« of the sex drive, to use Plato's phrase, has always defied control. However, that's not to say that every civilization has not tried, using its most powerful weapon: the law. At any given point in history, some forms of sex were condoned while others were punished mercilessly. The author used flesh-and-blood cases to evoke the entire sweep of Western sex law, from the savage impalement of an ancient Mesopotamian adulteress to the imprisonment of Oscar Wilde in 1895 for »gross indecency«. The cast of the book includes royal mistresses, gay charioteers, medieval transvestites, misbehaving government officials, lonely goat-lovers, priests, prostitutes, and London rent boys.

Betty White: If You Ask Me (and of Course You Won't)

USA 2012, 206 pp. illustrated, brochure, € 13.79
Kostenloser Versand ab 20 Euro Bestellwert.
Berkley
Seven-time Emmy winner Betty White's wit and wisdom take center stage as she tackles topics like friendship, romantic love, aging, TV, fans, love for animals, and the brave new world of celebrity. Drawing from a lifetime of lessons learned, these memoirs mix her observations with humorous stories from a seven-decade career in Hollywood. Longtime and new fans alike will relish Betty's candid take on everything from the unglamorous reality behind red-carpet affairs, to her beauty regimen (»I have no idea what color my hair is, and I never intend to find out«), to the Facebook campaign that helped persuade her to host »Saturday Night Live« despite having turned down the hosting job three times over the course of her career.