The book showcases Brian Boyd--the Vladimir Nabokov expert and author of the well-received On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction--in brilliant conversation with Brian Boyd, the voluble and energetic reader of evolutionary biology. Boyd-lit offers subtle and capacious readings of the sonnets' playfulness, their ways of challenging and attracting four centuries of readers. Boyd-bio explores the affinities between the sonnets and science: from terror management theory to male mating efforts, from cognition research to Maori battle songs...The risky leaps that Boyd-bio takes are breathtaking, and open Shakespeare's art to fresh enquiry...The admirably informed Boyd-lit offers crisp and clear readings of sonnets...Boyd's valuable syntheses of literature and science range beyond those of A. N. Whitehead, beyond Nabokov perhaps, and certainly beyond the cutting remarks of scientist T. H. Huxley. -- David Gewanter Times Higher Education 20120426 Boyd proves a delightful guide to t...