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readingstones's review against another edition
medium-paced
2.0
Sadly, I think the narrator of the audio book had a lot to do with bring this rating down to a two. Her tone, and caricature-like impressions of interviewees came across as disrespectful. I appreciate the offer seemingly extensive research and the variety of people she spoke with about the afterlife, but the narrators interpretation of her words really threw me off.
jbabiarz's review against another edition
2.0
I was really hoping to love this book, and I had high expectations. So maybe that's why I was a bit disappointed with it. It was my first book by Mary Roach. She writes about fascinating topics, that I personally have a great interest in. I still plan to read Packing for Mars, but I wasn't that captivated by the way she presented her research in this book.
gracefulhope's review against another edition
3.0
This book provided an interesting overview of research that has been done to try to prove that there is an afterlife of some sort. The stories and anecdotes are entertaining and I appreciate Mary's personal spin on things. It was a little jarring in some instances to bounce between an experience that Mary was having and a historical account, especially if I had put the book down in the middle of a chapter since she tended to sandwich the historical account between her current experience.
angelsrgorgeous's review against another edition
3.0
I was not incredibly impressed. While I finished the book due to it's light-hearted and entertaining style, more than half of the book was a simple re-hashing of past "studies" (and often only anecdotes) that are very well known, reviewing the history of "soul-weighing" and ectoplasm/body cavity parlor tricks. Frankly, quite a bit of the book's beginning (some of the history of science's understanding of conception) didn't seem relate to the book's professed topic (the afterlife) at all. I found that a bit odd.
Overall, (partially due to the topic) almost the entire book focuses on pseudo-science, when I expected that it might explore newer findings in neuroscience, the interplay of mental illness and people's supposed "medium" abilities, the effects of drugs (both legal and illegal) and their correlations with people's experiences and expectations, etc. I simply expected that the book would focus on newer approaches and ideas instead of simply covering historical background.
I much more enjoyed the second half of the book, especially the foray into anesthesiology drugs' effects on cognitive function, clinical death, etc., but this was also fairly consistent with the rest of the book as almost as much of it seemed to focus on anecdotes, when I expected something a bit different.
I would have enjoyed it if she had made more of an effort to understand and explain the aspects of the quantum physics and biology that some of the scientists she interviewed based their theories on, but she carelessly seemed to toss this information aside with weak excuses. True, I understand that Quantum Physics is not something that you simply pick up, but she did have access to (what she considered) some of the world's foremost authorities on these theories. It seems that any good interviewer would have made a serious effort to understand the theories she was interviewing the experts about - to the point that she could have explained them in a simpler way, or at least summed them up a bit better for her audience. It sounds like she instead took some of their work home and, after trying to read it, simply gave up. I would have appreciated more details about these theories that she simply mentioned in passing, as they at least are "reputed" to be based on actual science. (The title says "Science" tackles the after life - right?)
Overall, the book was definitely entertaining - I mean, how could it not be when she has gone to a medium school and legitimately tried to develop her "talents", has subjected her brain to electromagnetic waves, was willing to try a powerful drug known to give people "visions" of the afterlife, and tries her best to record EVC's of the Donner party?
It truly is a wonderfully entertaining, though I think the title is a bit misleading.
Overall, (partially due to the topic) almost the entire book focuses on pseudo-science, when I expected that it might explore newer findings in neuroscience, the interplay of mental illness and people's supposed "medium" abilities, the effects of drugs (both legal and illegal) and their correlations with people's experiences and expectations, etc. I simply expected that the book would focus on newer approaches and ideas instead of simply covering historical background.
I much more enjoyed the second half of the book, especially the foray into anesthesiology drugs' effects on cognitive function, clinical death, etc., but this was also fairly consistent with the rest of the book as almost as much of it seemed to focus on anecdotes, when I expected something a bit different.
I would have enjoyed it if she had made more of an effort to understand and explain the aspects of the quantum physics and biology that some of the scientists she interviewed based their theories on, but she carelessly seemed to toss this information aside with weak excuses. True, I understand that Quantum Physics is not something that you simply pick up, but she did have access to (what she considered) some of the world's foremost authorities on these theories. It seems that any good interviewer would have made a serious effort to understand the theories she was interviewing the experts about - to the point that she could have explained them in a simpler way, or at least summed them up a bit better for her audience. It sounds like she instead took some of their work home and, after trying to read it, simply gave up. I would have appreciated more details about these theories that she simply mentioned in passing, as they at least are "reputed" to be based on actual science. (The title says "Science" tackles the after life - right?)
Overall, the book was definitely entertaining - I mean, how could it not be when she has gone to a medium school and legitimately tried to develop her "talents", has subjected her brain to electromagnetic waves, was willing to try a powerful drug known to give people "visions" of the afterlife, and tries her best to record EVC's of the Donner party?
It truly is a wonderfully entertaining, though I think the title is a bit misleading.
littleghostelli's review against another edition
1.0
I really wanted to like this, but ultimately couldn’t get through the writing, which is definitely of it’s time. What a lot of critics referred to as “wit” or “sharp humor” turned out to just be long, offensive and off-color jokes at the expense of individuals the author has deemed lesser than herself, for seemingly no reason other than not having a college education or belonging to a country she considers uncivilized. For someone who spends a lot of time assuring readers that she isn’t seeking or discredit or debunk, she makes it very clear from the first chapter that any ideas presented in this book regarding the afterlife are only being humored.
katieinca's review against another edition
3.0
There are some images and tidbits from this book that will stick with me for years, and a lot of it was fascinating. It was also a little more random than I expected, and tended to get off theme more than the average non-fiction book (like the author came across stuff in her research that she just couldn't not share - kind of cute, but distracting), but that tendency may have been exaggerated by the fact that I was listening to the book rather than reading it on paper. She says in the introduction that she's not interested in anecdote, and yet that's what much of the book is. Probably that was unavoidable given the subject matter, but ... well... revise the introduction, then.
Mostly it was fun, and interesting, but occasionally annoying, and the reader's tone was a bit too "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" for me at times.
Mostly it was fun, and interesting, but occasionally annoying, and the reader's tone was a bit too "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" for me at times.
dewey_scrapper's review against another edition
2.0
I really enjoyed Stiff, so I was excited to read Spook, but I was disappointed. It just wasn't as good as Stiff. I think the main problem was the reader of the audiobook. I know Mary Roach is known for her humor, but the reader was just over the top with her narration of the book. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more if I had just read it.