Science And The AfterLife -- With Humor

[Madeline]

Mary Roach chooses a broad subject that pretty much everyone's interested in, then investigates the hell out of it in her unique, lighthearted style. No one dissects a topic as entertainingly as she does — I'd have killed to have her for a science teacher. And make no mistake, this may seem like light and jovial stuff, but it's not. It's as precise, thorough and informative as the stiffest, most pompous books on whatever subject her insatiably inquisitive mind is exploring. She just does it without pretense and with a lot of fun. She'll talk to the experts and ask the questions anyone with common sense would like to ask, especially the ones we'd be embarrassed to bring up, and then reports it all with a clear mind, a ruthless eye for self-editing, and a mordant, dry wit. The subject of this particular book of hers — the weird and wacky world of ghosts, mediums, near-death-experiences, reincarnation and the afterlife — is, as with her other books, one that suits her talents (pun alert) spookily well (sorry).

A review of Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, by Mary Roach, paperback, 311 pages, W.W. Norton & Company, list price: $13.95.

Read it? Plan to?

Discuss.