Why We Love: Behind Our Closest Relationships

Author Anna Machin, an Oxford-trained evolutionary anthropologist, dives into the sticky situation of love. Manchin uses the most inclusive possible definition of the word "love," considering friendship, family, polyamory, chosen families, queer love, and even the love we feel for pets, celebrities, and deities. There is also discussion of the dark sides of love--addiction, manipulation, coercion and so on.  Using a wide array of frameworks including biology, chemistry, psychology, sociology, and evolution, Machin's research takes our understanding of love many leaps forward.