Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife

Warning. The kindle version does not have pictures. That is not made known upfront. There is a sentence before every chapter that says "Images in the book are not displayed owing to permissive issues" Also took a removal and re-download to get the footnote links to work.

Love her writing!

This book was not nearly as entertaining and informative as the other books by this author I have read. She seemed from the outset to be skeptical of claims of supernatural experiences, and even though at the end she wrote that she'd changed her mind, I doubt it. The style and the voice were still there, but there is so little in the way of verifiable fact to support these claims that the whole subject seems to live only in the murky regions of unsupported belief.

To heck with the "survival theory"--I think it is incredible the author survived chapter one... This book is a hoot! Clever and witty from page one all the way to the end. I really loved reading this book. I liked the author's Last Words at the end. Well done!!!!

Thoroughly enjoyable read.
But the store's marketing of the Kindle edition is less than straightforward: the images introducing each chapter are not included, and this is not made clear in the description of the book.

Well written, but not what I was expecting. I was hoping for a book that looked at all aspects of the supposed afterlife, like ghost hunting and hauntings and things. This book is all about mediums. Like that's all it talks about the whole time. I found myself bored and struggling to finish, hoping the subject would change a bit. Nope. Just mediums. It was frustrating because I feel as though mediums have been thoroughly debunked for quite a few decades. I wanted something fresh and new.

I was disappointed. This really didn't deliver what I thought it would. I hoped for a scientific explanation of some of the things about death that people don't discuss, don't understand. I didn't get that -- just a kind of desultory interviewing of some supposed experts and scientists.

Of all the Roach books, including Stiff and Gulp that I have read, this is my favorite. .I thought I would love Gulp the best but bored with it . Spook made me laugh out loud and reread funny passages. Its a keeper. The rest are recycle. Surprise!

Read the first 3 chapters (109 pages) of long.very detailed rambling that said nothing of any value about the subject if the book I.e. the "afterlife". Her other books are good. This one is a " bomb".

Lots of tidbits of history around things people tried in order to learn about the afterlife. Enjoyed the author's running commentary. Will probably read another of her books. Downside - lots of asterisks to footnotes; tough to hit when reading on an iPod.

Mary Roach is an excellent author of three books. This book is a great examination of the "unknown" component of the afterlife. The scientific slant is very weighty, but Roach adds a great deal of humor and her own take of her beliefs.

A good book about all the stories, myths, urban tales , and even some true facts about the often asked questions about an after life. Real science has tried to find some answers and the author goes into all the various facets of afterlife research. . What is actually (maybe) occuring, what has been done; the facts and the fakes are all nicely detailed here in a easy to read entertaining manner.Even a good explanation of what the current Ghost Hunters find with their gadgets- Is it all in your/their minds?

MARY WILL NEVER MATCH HER GREAT BOOK,<STIFF>. NO MATTER WHAT SHE WRITES ABOUT,AND SPOOK WAS A LITTLE LONG WINDED,SHE WILL NEVER REACH THE RATINGS (STIFF) RECEIVED. STIFF WAS A GREAT BOOK THAT MADE U THINK WHEN U VISIT UR DR. AGAIN,OR HAVE ANY FACIAL WORK DONE. SOME OF THE ANTIDOTES OF THINGS THAT HAPPENED OR PERFORMED BY SCIENTISTS CANNOT BE TOPPED.I HAVE READ OTHER BOOKS AND THEY DO NOT REACH THE CLEVERNESS AND CAREFULL STORY TELLING STIFF REACHES.

I love Mary Roach. Somehow she manages to convey a very dry sense of humor through writing, and it occasionally caused me to laugh out loud (while reading late at night. Causing my partner to wonder what the hell I was doing). This isn't my favorite book of hers (I think Stiff is), but it's still a must read for fans. She takes a heroically balanced, non-judgmental tone throughout, which must have been tough given the many... lets call them eccentric... people she had to interview. I couldn't have maintained such decorum.

I purchased the kindle edition and discovered that none of the books illustrations were included. There was no warning before purchase that I saw. Normally book illustrations are no big deal. But given this particular author's wry sense of humor, and the weird subject matter, I have a hunch that I was cheated out of an important aspect of the book.
.
Adding insult to injury, the missing illustrations were blank pages bearing this explanation:

Images in this book are not displayed due to permissive issues.

I thought the store hired literate people, seeing as how they're a bookstore n' all.

The phrase that the the store editor is struggling to find is:

Due to intellectual property restrictions, images in this book cannot be displayed.

While I'm on this rant: I have a kindle PaperWhite. I read a lot of history books. They tend to have lots of maps. The paper white display is so small that the maps are unreadable. There is no zoom capability. C'mon, the store, I'm starting to get tired of supporting your incompetencies.

Mary Roach is hilariously irreverent. Who would have thought that the serious attempts at contacting the dead could be so knee-slapping, knickers-wetting funny! Mary does do due diligence and follows the route of proper research and interviews but it is her asides that had me splitting mine. I do think she is a bit too sceptical and there are some interesting scientific efforts to look at this issue but nonetheless it's a good read.

For some reason I just could not get through this one. I really liked some of her other books and was very disappointed. The amount of research she does is very obvious and all of the books she writes.

"Spook" is a gentle and humorous look at the broad spectrum of supposedly-supernatural phenomena. It does not attempt to debunk all supernatural events as rubbish, but it does show how ordinary people can be easily seduced into attributing supernatural attributes to events that can be explained scientifically.

A terrifically entertaining book filled with human stories and events that should touch everyone. I'm now better prepared for the afterlife.

This was a particularly good book for me to read when I was recently mourning the death of a dear friend, so it may be for others too.

A very interesting, entertaining and well researched book. I think that Mary Roach does a very good job of trying to shine some light on the unexplainable-and she does it with a great sense of humor which made the book more enjoyable. I look forward to reading more of her work in the future. Recommend this book to anyone with a curious and open mind.

Whatever the topic or format, Ms. Roach brings to her work a wonderfully wry sense of irony. This book is no exception; it will keep you laughing and leave you wondering how we humans survive our own bizarre preoccupations and ambitions. Ms. Roach also has a unique gift of compassion and empathy, seasoned with rigorous skepticism, and is apparently completely without pretense. She gets quickly to the heart of any matter without ever losing heart or rubbing the noses of fools in their own folly.

This book is similar in format to her first book, Stiff; it is comprised of a series of chapters in which Ms. Roach looks over someone's shoulder as that person goes about business. In Stiff, we learned of the many ways cadavers are used; in Spook, we learn of attempts to validate the existence and nature of the soul, or some entity that endures beyond a single body's mortal life. While the subjects in Stiff were mostly to be admired for pursuing valuable science no matter how revolting, the subjects in this book are often far afield anything most readers would call science or, in some cases, reality. To appreciate the work of the denizens of Spook, one must value the subjects for their hearts and aspirations instead of appreciating their scientific contributions.

In Stiff, each chapter brought us to a new and different question of scientific process and ethics. In every new setting, a remarkable wealth of collateral information, fascinating asides, and thoughtful consideration illuminated the purpose and value of some individual's unique and arcane pursuit. Spook is similarly packed with information, all of it delightful and surprising. Due to the nature of the topic, the author's research took her to a far broader set of disciplines than just science and ethics. This is truly a work of cultural history and psychology as well as a study of how people use and abuse scientific methods.

Whether your background and affinities lean towards or away from science, this book will entertain and inform you. It is a delightful consideration of, and example of, the human capacity to explore, connect, hope, dream and laugh.

A Shallow and ... Somewhat Non- finished, a non inspiring collection of loosely connected looks like personal stories over a drink in a rainy afternoon when nothing else to do... . Promises maybe but not deliver... Definitely .. .I want my 45 minutes of life back! :-)