The author’s summaries of research are never dry. By having sex with lots of males, a female decreases the number of males who might want to kill her baby because, after all, that baby just might be the would-be killer’s offspring. Hrdy theorized that this behavior is “assiduously maternal.” Male langurs have the habit of killing infants in order to lure now-childless females to mate with them. For example, primatologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy studied langurs in India, noting how female langurs often mate “promiscuously,” with as many males as possible. Vignettes drawn from interviews Martin conducted with 32 men and women leaven the book, but the strongest sections are Martin’s accessible translations of academic research. Rather than go through messy, economically disastrous divorces, women find sexual fulfillment on the side so they can continue to tolerate an unsatisfying marriage. Sometimes women cheat to keep their marriages together. As she shows, women are not inherently more monogamous than men, and although Americans talk about valuing monogamy, many of us, including a lot of women, cheat. The title of this “work of cultural criticism” is a double-entendre Martin ( Primates of Park Avenue, 2015, etc.) investigates women who’ve been untrue-i.e., unfaithful-and she debunks popular untruths about female sexuality.

A simultaneously frothy and substantive tour of female sexual desire.

Untrue by Wednesday Martin