A review by cameliarose
A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman

3.0

In A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman explored the five senses we process: smell, touch, hearing, taste, and vision, with a short chapter of synesthesia at the end. Part science, part history, part personal reflections, the style is similar to Bill Bryson, but more poetic and less humorous. The book was gifted to me during my "perfumista" period more than ten years ago. I should have read it then. I do like the chapter about smell, but I find the science is more or less out of date. Over the years I have lost the appetite for any sensational anecdotes, in which the book has several. Besides, back in 1990, was FGM considered some kind of harmless exotic practice?