Welcome to Litsy!

I mean, you‘re not going to get the answer you may want, but it was a well-written book. Entertaining exploration. “Pick” for what it is!

This has languished on my TBR! I planned on listening around Halloween- but I‘m glad I didn‘t because there‘s nothing spooky about it! Usually I find Roach‘s writing to be a combination of fascinating & fun, but this one frankly fell flat for me. It‘s dull-& quite mean-spirited to a wide variety of organized religions & looser spiritualities. I‘m glad this isn‘t where I started because I doubt I would have read more from her & I‘d have missed out!

I adore Mary Roach‘s‘ work and this is book is no different.

Her quest to find out whether there is life after death takes her to all sorts of places.

The point of this was thought provoking and arguments are given and supported for and against the continuation of life after death.

Does the soul weigh 21g?

Mary‘s work is always insightful and interesting and captures my imagination, it‘s always a pleasure to read one of her books.

This podcast is so scary! I love it! #Scarathlon2020 #TeamHarkness
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Total: 236

Not my favourite Mary Roach book. Maybe because I don't really believe in the afterlife. Still I do appreciate the lengths she goes to in the name of research.

#Screamathon 😱 @4thhouseontheleft

Completely disappointed. Her bias (she‘s clearly not a believer at all) shows through, which might be okay (everyone has biases) had she not thrown shade and insulted everyone she‘s researches and interviews. Not what I call professional.

On top of that, I thought the book, which proclaims to be about science (right there in the subtitle), spent more time on what she was doing instead of the science. I also found it poorly written & unorganized.

#weekendreads

1. tagged
2. 🤔 I think I chuckled out loud at Beach Read, but I can‘t remember the last time I just laughed out loud.
3. The Belgariad Series or HHGTTG

Per her usual, Roach‘s writing is fun and very engaging. Also, there are some amazingly funny anecdotes in this book. However, overall, the topic itself isn‘t one that I am interested in so the book never really grabbed me.

Complete! 💪🏻 #AuthorAMonth2020

I don‘t think this style of NF is for me but I did appreciate Roach‘s warmth & wit making what could just be textbook-y research much more palatable.

PS - can you see my crazy tan line halfway down my foot (right)?!? Audio walking everyday has given me weird tanlines 😭😂

It‘s definitely spooky & grey outside so I brewed a cup of cherry pie tea and have tried to plough ahead with the tagged for #AuthorAMonth2020. It‘s tough going tho...altho the chapter I just finished about regurgitations & faux “ectoplasm” did make me rethink my tea choice. 🤣🤦🏻‍♀️

I thought that this would be a good follow up read to Roach‘s book Stiff, sadly I didn‘t enjoy this book as much. There were a few things mentioned that I found interesting, but for the most part I found the overall information lacking and was left wanting more. I also didn‘t find as much humor in this as other books by Roach. #AuthorAMonth #AAMMR

Mediums, mysteries and NDEs (near death experiences)!! Roach (with tongue-in-cheek savvy) investigates the afterlife, the soul, and the fate of consciousness upon death - tempered by a healthy dose of Occam‘s Razor 🤔
#authoramonth2020 @Soubhiville
#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

Not my favorite Mary Roach book, unfortunately. This one was a little slower than the others of hers I've read; perhaps my expectations. were too high. Her writing is fun and interesting but this one was jut a bit of a “miss“ for me.

Redeemed some rewards points and got 3 books that have been on my TBR for ages:
Spook; In Other Words; and The Assistants.
#newin

Roach explores lots of different theories of the afterlife- from reincarnation, mediums, and people who purposely “die“ so they can be brought back with tales of beyond. Like all that she writes, Roach is thorough and hilarious.

#24B4Monday #Readathon #LitsyPartyofOne #MrBook1inaMillion #NFNov
@mrbook @Andrew65 @TheReadingMermaid @Clwojick

💀My current listen (my phone with American Fire on it was charging in another room, so I downloaded this on the computer while I continued to do online work). So far, Roach has explored reincarnation, the weight of the soul, and now into ectoplasm. 💀
#Readathon #24B4Monday #litsypartyofone #mrbook1inamillion
@mrbook @TheReadingMermaid @andrew65

I‘ve read almost all of Mary Roach‘s books now. This one wasn‘t my fav. I continued reading it more for Mary‘s callbacks and one-liners than for the content. Do you believe in an afterlife? If so, do you believe it‘s something that science can prove or disprove? 💀👻

I spent a few hours today flagging my #tbr books on cloudLibrary, favoriting books on Hoopla, and tagging books on Litsy. Now it‘ll be faster to decide what to read next. #cloudlibrary #hoopla #litsy #ebooksforall #ebooks #audiobooks

Just got these babies. It‘s spooky season!!

I don't think this is Mary Roach's best book, but that's a high bar. This one, like all the others, is laugh-out-loud funny and full of great “hey didja know“ moments to annoy everyone around you with.

I'm appreciating that you can see the seeds of some of Mary Roach's later books on this one, as well as how this one evolved from Stiff. There's more discussion of digestion and the products thereof than I expected in a book about the afterlife, and that line of thinking clearly evolved into Gulp. I haven't read Bonk yet, but there's one passage in this one so far that would probably fit nicely there as well.

I may have to get hold of a physical copy of this book at some point, because the kindle edition has a bunch of pages that just say “Images in this book are not displayed owing to permissive issues.“ Weird phrasing and also a bummer.

I'm traveling this week, and I find Mary Roach's books are perfect for work travel. They're fun and engrossing (emphasis on the GROSS, although this one possibly less than some of her others), easy to read but not such page-turners that they keep me up too late reading and leave me groggy and sleep-deprived the next morning. I know that sounds like a backhanded compliment, but I honestly mean it as a sincere compliment.

My favorite Mary Roach book thus far! Amongst other things, she explores mediums, reincarnation, near-death experiences, ghostly visits and ectoplasm, oh my! With an open mind, she visits people with first hand encounters along with university professors and scientists which tends to balance everything out with no one side proclaiming victory. An entertaining and insightful read!

Interesting observation!
#IAintAfraidOfNoGhosts

Final stack from CT. The Book Barn is the best.

Finished this one recently, too. As with all Mary Roach books, I adore her footnotes. Next to #terrypratchett, her footnotes are the best! Fascinating topic, told in a totally approachable and respectful (because we all know how quickly this topic of conversation can go sideways) manner. Love Mary Roach!

#littlefreelibrary #riotgrams

So I can‘t actually take a picture, as it‘s the United States Postal Service, but we‘ve got a little library exchange set up where we all drop off audiobooks to pass around, cuz 8 to 12 hours is a lot of time to fill. 😂

I‘m really grateful for my library‘s overflow book sale, and I‘m looking forward to dropping these off in the next couple of days!

Spook examines the long history of the good intentions (& frequently disastrous results) of the scientific efforts to locate the soul & prove an afterlife. This is an unusual book for Roach, since the subject is so, well unscientific, this is the least conclusive. She still manages to infuse it with her trademark wit & it has quite possibly my favorite ending of her books that I've read.

😂😂😂

My current read is about the scientific proof (or lack thereof) of an afterlife. #Mysteriousways indeed
#MusicalNewYear
@Cinfhen

Mary Roach is the best.

Not even close to as good as stiff. I was hoping for more verity of ideas of the afterlife. And not just the western idea of ghosts. It started well but made body shaming jokes on the way that have not aged well. A skip.

I thought it might be fun to get see what spooks everyone in preparation for #Spooktober! Here are my answers:
1. The Shining
2. Nightmare on Elm Street
3. The sound of crunching leaves and the way my dog loves them (photo)
4. I did not care for The Great Gatsby 😵😲😮
5. @CoffeeNBooks

#SpookyAutumn @amb

I know tagging me doesn‘t work well, if at all, but I think you can copy/paste from above?

Flowers and sunshine on my #audiowalk today. The tagged book is much more lighthearted than you would think too. Definitely recommend this on audio.

Realizing I have 3 days to squeeze in another nonfiction book to make my goal of at least two a month. 😱 Gonna try and sneak some reading in today at work.

Can‘t wait to start this one! I love Mary Roach, if this is anything as good as Stiff then I‘m in for a treat! Anyone read this? Thoughts?! #TBR

Stiff is still my all-time favorite Mary Roach but Spook was perfectly enjoyable! It was an interesting look at the people who are scientifically studying the paranormal and at the history of some different ideas about life after death. It dragged in a few spots and I felt weird about her descriptions of people/events in the India chapter but overall I‘m a fan of her writing style and was kept enthralled by all the new fun facts I was learning 👻

Guess I should get going on this since the bookclub for it is in a week ;)

Continuing on my lazily-paced quest to read all the Mary Roach with this one 👻

5 am gym shifts are good for something at least... Hope everyone‘s 🐪 day is off to a good start!

For #Spooktober, I craved narrative nonfiction on all things spectral: ghosts, spiritualism, and the existence of life after death. Mary Roach‘s amiable investigations into the above cracked me up, took me down strange pathways, and left me with plenty to consider on those topics and more. Roach can write about ANYTHING in a compelling way, and the afterlife provides great scope for her talents. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I‘ve always wanted to read this one! @emilyhaldi , everything on this box was perfect! #FallBookExchange #HalloweenGoesPostal

#spooky #uncannyoctober

A ghostly look at the afterlife, covering reincarnation, spiritualism, mediums, near death experiences, and communication with the dead. #uncannyoctober 👻

I didn‘t have a second of reading time yesterday so going to try and make up for some of it today! Starting with this #spooky read - my first book by Mary Roach 👻 Also, #pumpkins!

#spookyoctober
#hallowreads

Between #botmchallenge #ripxii #lonedove & #tbrbingo I think I'm covered for #fallreads #autumnreads 😂😅

#fallintobooks
#autumnreads

This was my first Mary Roach book. Once I got used to her snark, it was an informative and enjoyable read, mostly about the shortcomings of studying the paranormal. This was a #blameitonlitsy pick.