About this title: In STIFF, Mary Roach examined what happens to the body when a person dies. Now she takes the next logical step, and undertakes a humorous, skeptical, but ultimately hopeful search for verifiable scientific evidence of the afterlife and the soul, studying historical accounts and investigating current research into reincarnation and near-death ...
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Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780393329124ISBN:0393329127
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 311 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. Wrinkle on cover and first few pages may have gottem wet /book does not smwll and damage is barley noticeable /lokks like a normal book/fast mail/Informationstation read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780393329124ISBN:0393329127
Description: Very Good. Pages tight and clean. All books have issued dustcovers unless otherwise noted. Pictures always available upon request. All books shipped securely. read more
Description: Fine. 0393329127 Ships next business day. NEW/UNREAD! ! ! Text is Clean and Unmarked! --Be Sure to Compare Seller Feedback and Ratings before Purchasing--Has a small black ink mark on bottom/exterior edge of pages. May have light shelf wear to cover from storage, if any. read more
Binding: Audio CD
Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged
Date Published: 2005-10-10
ISBN-13:9781597378819ISBN:159737881X
Description: New. A great audio cd book in new condition, factory sealed! FREE TRACKING in US and email to you when shipped. Inquires welcomed and we want your complete satisfaction! read more
Edition: First edition. Illustrated.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, New York
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780393059625ISBN:0393059626
Description: Fine in very good dust jacket. not library, not remainder. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 316pp. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. VERY GOOD Condition HARD COVER. Written by Mary Roach. Published by WW Norton, New York, 2005, stated first edition, first printing, 316pp. Not library, not remainder. The text is like-new, it is clean, crisp and bright with no noticeable folds, no marginal notes, no dog-ears, no tears, no underlines, no highlighting. The binding ... read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780393059625ISBN:0393059626
Description: Very good in good dust jacket. Signed by author. Signed on title page by author, text clean and unmarked, dustjacket shows some wear, not extreme. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 311 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780393329124ISBN:0393329127
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Like new! In great condition! Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 311 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Date Published: 2005-10-10
ISBN-13:9781597378796ISBN:1597378798
Description: As New. Type: Audiobook UNABRIDGED audiobook. New, still in publisher's shrink wrap. Probably a remainder, as the bar code has small hole punched in it. Read by Bernadette Quigley. 6 Audio Cassette tapes, approximately 8 hours play time. Confirmation on all Domestic Orders! read more
Description: Very good. 2005 W. W. Norton Publishing Hardcover Editiion. Slight wear to Dust Jacket, otherwise in Excellent Condition! Ships Fast! ! ! read more
"Looking for a good non-fiction read? Ever wonder if there is such a thing as ghosts? Then you can't go wrong with Spook. Mary Roach tackles a scientific analysis of ghosts, spirits, reincarnation, and the afterlife with her trademark realism, with, and humor. I love her writing style - the only thing that lessened my rating of this book was that to me, it seemed a bit disjointed and did not flow as well as Stiff, her prior novel. Also, there is just so much out there to cover on paranormal/afterlife, it was bound to leave things out that I would have liked to have seen. That being said, I still think Mary Roach is one of the most entertaining non-fiction writers I have ever read and this book will definitely keep your attention! One of the aspects of her writing style that I like the most is that while she presents the scientific facts in a very matter of fact way, she never out and out says any one belief or line of thought is 'wrong' or 'stupid' or is derogatory at all. She pokes fun at some, but not in a mean way. Regardless of if you personally do or don't believe in ghosts, this book may not change your mind - but it will give you much food for thought."
"It's fun to believe in ghosts. Everyone has been to that campsite, the mountain house, the desolate beach, and sat around a fire to tell stories of family members that have had supernatural encounters. With the abundant lore out there, it's difficult to be a skeptic. That's exactly the attitude that Mary Roach takes in Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife.
Roach doesn't just sit in a room with a Ouija board and an infrared camera, waiting for things to happen. She starts by investigating the historical search for the human soul, from both biological and philosophical standpoints. She enrolls herself in a course to become a medium (a person through which spirits can communicate with the terrestrial world). She talks to scientists who have performed experiments to (dis)prove the possibility of out-of-body experiences, and all the while, doing it with great wit and occasional wide-eyed surprise.
What I liked most about this book is that it can be a simple, fun read to those people who want one, but it can also be a profound inquiry of humanity's grossly high view of our so-called "immortality". If a scientist seeks to debunk the mysteries of the soul, or to show that there's a permanent road block at the time of our death, it would be a revelation that would contradict the majority of the world's views on the afterlife.
As you read through her findings, you can't help but notice a struggle happening within Roach. There's a palpable tug of war going on between her rational, scientific side, which begs for inimitable proof and her imaginative, spiritual side that longs to believe in voices emanating from beyond the grave. Regardless of which side you will support, I grew a definite fondness for the author, especially given her ironic and often hilarious side comments and footnotes.
This book isn't, in all honesty, that scientific and therefore won't required a PhD in quantum mechanics to digest and enjoy. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in ghosts, which is, I hope, absolutely everyone."
"I guess Spook must be the kind of book I like, because I keep picking up such books: Nonfiction yet character driven, fact-based yet narrative, informative and well researched yet breezy and clever. Much like Soul Made Flesh and Galileo's Daughter. In fact, this book even has a shout-out to Soul Made Flesh and calls the author the smartest guy she knows.
The shout-out is in a footnote, which, in this book, is a highly entertaining device used to impart irrelevant yet hilarious asides, much like in a lively conversation one might briefly interrupt oneself in order to include an extra tidbit of information that just can't be passed by. Wow, that sounds like an annoying trope as I write it, but it's not at all. It's very funny.
At any rate the author here explores various contemporary/ recent attempts to investigate the hereafter through interviews (that is, with believers, skeptics, and researchers, not with the dead) and research. She opens the book by pondering what the soul even is in the first place, and then goes on to investigate mediums, ghostly images, famous haunted places, EVP (electronic voice phenomena, or ghostly voices on audio recordings), out of body experiences, and more. She has chosen a topic that is inherently fascinating and generally creepy, and manages to maintain the former while neutralizing the latter--which I understand might be a down side for those who like to be scared, but is a major plus for me. It's a great read. The one weakness is an occasional tendency to get lost in a story or lost among names and leave the reader wandering for a bit; but soon enough the reader is able to recover the thread and move on."
"I enjoyed "Stiff", also by Mary Roach, so perhaps my expectations were too high for this book. Although I liked Roach's irreverent style in "Stiff", I found it forced and distracting in "Spook". The copious footnotes, that were only sometimes relevant, annoyed me. Perhaps "Stiff" was more interesting because it was full of facts that surprised me, things that made sense, but that I didn't know about. For example, I didn't know that if you donate your body to science it could end up in an experiment helping determine time of death for murder victims. This is valuable information for forensic scientists. Fascinating.
In "Spook", there were a few interesting studies, especially concerning near death experiences, but I didn't find any surprises in Roach's conclusions, unless you count her weak last few sentences, "The debunkers are probably right, but they're no fun to visit a graveyard with. What the hell. I believe in ghosts." The "why not" attitude wasn't very satisfying. The book wasn't fascinating and if I wasn't reading it with someone else, I probably wouldn't have finished it."
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