Spook

Despite the fact that Mary Roach prefaces the book by telling you that you won't be finding any answers to the great mysteries of life in this book, I read it with the hope that I would. As promised, I did not get any profound answers, but I did enjoy myself for a little while.

Roach writes with good-humored prose and tackles the weirdness that is the search for life after death with good spirit (forgive the pun). The experiments she participates in were fun to read about, and the history lessons she provides were interesting.

I had hoped for something more, though. The book feels like it only scratched the surface. It didn't deliver any big punches, just little set-up taps. Usually, when I finish a book I like, I'm driven to grab up other books by that author and tear through them. When I finished Spook, I closed it, returned it to the library from which I'd borrowed it, and had zero desire to pick up any of her other books. That's no knock against Roach's writing or the subject matters, mind you. I enjoyed this book very much, but it's just not something that compels me to her other work.