Spook
Science Tackles the Afterlife

Roach is the author of Stiff, a raucous romp through the wonderful land of death. It is only natural that she might continue that escapade with a look past the curtain. Are there ghosts? Is there life after death? She examines a host of topics under her conceptual umbrella, looking at reincarnation,......more

I learned a number of interesting things reading Mary Roach's survey of the historical and scientific efforts to prove the existence of a soul. Her discussion of the scientific inquiries into stories of reincarnated children provides an excellent example of the difficulties of trying to objectively......more

Not bad, but Roach reveals her limitations in this book; namely, she writes mostly to entertain. She spends most of her time making fun of mediums from the spiritualism craze in the 20's (which, let's face it, is like shooting fish in a barrel). But you can also sense the places where her unspoken th......more

All of Mary Roach's book have a few things in common: (1) They are brilliantly and exhaustively researched. (2) They are incredibly engaging. (3) They are hilarious without ever being silly. Spook is not the exception. Roach take on the afterlife is a fresh one, aimed at explaining the many similar phen......more