Bodies is the eleventh book in the Critical Geographies series edited by Tracy Skelton and Gill Valentine. The series is intended as a forum for innovative engagement between geography and the other social sciences. In keeping with this theme, Longhurst's volume presents some unique case studies where critical geographical perspectives on public, private and corporeal spaces intersect with contemporary anthropological concepts of embodiment and materiality.

In the two introductory chapters, Longhurst draws on a broad base of contemporary and historical anthropological, geographical and feminist literature. Her review of the ‘body craze’ in the social sciences and humanities makes her subsequent discussions widely accessible to university students as well as academics from disciplines across the social sciences.

Bodies revolves around the three central case studies. Each is based on qualitative research conducted by Longhurst in New Zealand, and each can be read either independently from the others, or as a part of the book. The first case study is on pregnant bodies in public places. Longhurst argues that it is the ‘leaky’ nature of pregnant bodies that results in attempts to control them. By threatening to expel matter and cross the physical bodily boundary, pregnant bodies threaten to disrupt the social system. As a result, they are required to remain in private space. In the second case study, Longhurst focuses on heterosexual ‘white’ males in domestic bathrooms. Bathrooms are seen as functional, feminized spaces, and the men in her study avoid reference to fluids and flows that represent the breaching of bodily boundaries. She explores men's discomfort with bodily fluids, and their avoidance of sharing bathroom products for fear of contamination through the flow of substances. The third case study is on managerial bodies in public spaces. Tailored suits function to seal bodies and make them appear impenetrable. Managers discipline and control their employees' bodies by shaping the workplace ‘look’. Employees are being increasingly required to physically embody qualities such as flexibility and fitness. Longhurst argues that discourse about flexibility and fitness disadvantages many groups, including women and people whose physical appearance does not reflect the qualities of character most valued in the workplace.

Longhurst concludes by drawing on all three case studies to argue that, while both bodies and spaces are socially constructed, their everyday materiality should not be overlooked. The fluid materiality that is central to Longhurst's three case studies demonstrates that both bodies and spaces are, to a certain extent, ‘neither clearly separable nor stable’ (p. 7). Both permeate the socially constructed boundaries that separate them. Continuing to overlook bodily fluidity, Longhurst argues, perpetuates masculinism and the objectification of female bodies. Longhurst's book is a fascinating analysis of disciplinary and bodily boundaries, and the leaks and flows between them.