17. Beautiful Lego

Book: Beautiful Lego

Author: Mike Doyle

Number of pages: 267

What I’m watching: TV: The League

What I’m playing: Skyrim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            When I was growing up, nothing could make me lose all sense of time quite like Legos. Whether I was adventuring or battling with my band of Lego people or crafting some new design for a fort or flying car, I would spend hours playing.¹ I still have a bunch of Legos. My fiancé and I recently date-nighted building the Millennium Falcon set. So, a coffee table book of Lego art? I’m über excited.

            It’s hard to not just show a hundred pictures from Beautiful Lego and say, “Holy crap! That’s amazing!” But…

Holy crap! Can you imagine the scale of that sculpture? It’s a city of skyscrapers on a mountain surrounded by all those teeny village houses. The detail! It looks incredible. That is definitely worthy of the cover art. I also love Micah Berkoff’s NES.

He took something I love and recreated it artistically using another something I love.
            The book gives a survey of many different artists’ works and includes a few words from some of them about Legos. Its cool seeing all the different things people do with Legos: what they build, what pieces they use and how, the scale they use, their style. Ramón and Amador Alfaro Marcilla mention listening to music while crafting their Lego art and having that influence the piece’s “mood” (6). I totally get music playing during a longer delve into my Legos. Sometimes, the artwork can be a bit creepy, like one model of Shakespeare or the Marcilla Brothers’ “The Doll.”

The diversity in artists within this book not only demonstrates all the different approaches and styles of LEGO art, it showcases all the different subjects that people choose to LEGO-ify. Even if I’m not always crazy about the finished project, some of my other favorite subjects found in Beautiful Lego include Harley Quinn, Audrey II, The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, V, Bilbo Baggins with Gollum, Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse, Stephen Hawking, and these guys²:

            It’s also fun finding unique Lego pieces being used in the artwork. A glow-in-the-dark magic wand creatively becomes a star on top of a Christmas tree. Parts of one Bionicle warrior (I’m pretty sure at one point I owned all of them) help build an awesome-looking archer.

 

It’s like a Where’s Waldo!

            The only problem with a book of Lego sculptures is that the pictures only display one angle of 3-dimesnsional art. There’s more to see than can be shown by the pictures. Like in the sculpture “Stairway,” I found another picture of it online and learned the big guy’s got a hole going all the way out his back.

            There was a huge section in Beautiful Lego about spaceships. Unexpectedly, I wasn’t super excited by them. I was more interested in some of the cars. I mean, building Lego cars was the coolest! Wheels were the best.

Reading Beautiful Lego, I get the sense that the wide variety of Lego artwork in the book is hardly wide at all, but a mere tip of a titanic iceberg. Hell, I’ve built Lego art.

This was supposed to be a recreation of Notre Dame de Chartres (a modest one, because my sources were limited). But then I got pictures from the internet mixed up and based the face of the church off of Notre Dame de Paris. So it’s inspired by both. Whoops. I also like to create fantasy creature mounts for my Lego people.

            Like I said earlier, Beautiful Lego is chock-full of amazing pieces of art.³ Too many to show all of them, but there’s a really cool Pegasus, an adorably itty-bitty duck, and a guy vacuuming a ghost, because with Legos, you can build whatever you want.

Verdict (Is the book staying or going?):

 

 

Notes

1. Less fun was the huge amount of time it also took to clean up. Picking up a mountain of Lego pieces off of carpet was the worst.

2. I certainly wasn’t expecting the Spanish Inquisition to appear twice in a row.

3. Or should I say block-full?

 

Works Cited

Doyle, Mike. Beautiful Lego. San Francisco: No Starch Press, 2013. Print.

 

Lego Artwork Credits

(in order of appearance)

Contact 1: The Millenial Celebration of the Eternal Choir at K’al Yne, Odan, Mike Doyle (2013)

Nintendo Entertainment System, Micah Berkoff (2009)

The Doll, Ramón and Amador Alfaro Marcilla (2008)

“Nobody Expects…The Spanish Inquistion!” Iain Heath (2011)

Family Portrait, Nathan Proudlove (2011)/Kathrienna, Eero Okkonen (2011)

Stairway, Nathan Sawaya (2009)

Ford Hot Rod, Dennis Glaasker (2012)/Solar Flare – 1960 Impala Wagon, Lino Martins (2008)

Cathedral de Notre Dame, Sam Shircel (2010)

Fire Dragon/Lizard-Rider, Sam Shircel (I Don’t Remember)

16. Knightfall, Vol. 1

Book: Batman: Knightfall, Volume One

Author: Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, and Alan Grant

Number of pages: 635

What I’m watching: TV: Spoils of Babylon, Bones, 30 Rock, Community, Portlandia, The League

Movies: Constantine, Inception, The Perfect Host, Full Metal Jacket, Batman Begins, Pocahontas, Company (2011 Stage Recording)

What I’m playing: Bulletstorm, Oblivion, Rainbow Six Vegas, Iron Brigade, Flowerz, Journey, Skyrim

 

            I think I first heard about Knightfall from some Top 10 Batman graphic novel list on the internet. But it’s freaking Batman so it’s probably going to be awesome no matter what.

So, I already knew that this was the original “Bane breaks Batman’s back” story arc.¹ What’s lame is that the back cover references The Dark Knight Rises. You know what, not everything Batman is awesome. I’ll say it: I didn’t like that movie. Why the hell doesn’t Bane blow up Gotham once he’s got the bomb? Why does he sit with his thumb up his ass for months driving the bomb around Gotham? It made absolutely no sense. I’d have more to complain about but I haven’t seen it since theaters so I forget. Oh wait: Robin Drake?! Whatever…what I didn’t already know is that Knightfall (1993) is the introduction of Bane. That means Bane is younger than I am and that all the Bane episodes of Batman: TAS were some of the first Bane stories.

            Being the first story of Bane explains why Knightfall opens with a 50-page story of Bane’s whole pre-Gotham life. Born and hardened in a prison with a life sentence, Bane envisioned and strived toward a mentally and physically perfect self. So, originally, Bane was both a genius and a strongman. So often, I feel, the former gets forgotten.

In prison, he overcomes his fear, which is coincidentally represented by a bat. Bane hears about Batman from another inmate and is immediately obsessed with the need to take down Batman. I mean, I get how fighting Batman represents overcoming his fear, but I think having Bane’s fear be a bat is too easy.

            Well, it’s page 47 and I finally see Batman, and he looks awesome.

Sometimes artists get a little weird with their character depictions. Really, everyone looks great. Bane and The Bat’s first confrontation blew my mind, occipital style.²

Sometimes, the artwork is funny, too.

And yet, as much as I love the character Det. Bullock, what the hell is he wearing?

He looks like the lovechild of Dick Tracy and a clown. And speaking of clowns, Batman takes down some thugs named the Manklin Brothers. Are their first names Larry, Curly, and Moe?

            Anyway, Bane’s plan to defeat Batman is to loose all the Arkham villains out into the city. Batman then has to essentially run a gauntlet of rogues, wearing himself and his spirit down, allowing Bane to step in at the right moment and crush Batman. A smart plan? Yes, but kinda cowardly in my opinion, especially since Batman was already ill at the start of the story.³

            So, the physical book itself is a story arc built from several Batman comic series. Unfortunately, that means I’m picking up in the middle and I’m a little out of the loop on some things. Like who’s Jean Paul, and why is he hanging out with Robin?  It sounds like I missed Bane beating up Killer Croc and Riddler getting pumped up on Venom while fighting Batman. It’s not too much that I can’t follow, but they’re things I would’ve liked to see. At one point Batman mentions Vicki Vale like she died, but I looked into it online, and I guess he just dumped her. There are a handful of other characters that come and go who I don’t recognize: Film Freak, Cornelius Stirk, Lt. Kitch, Leopold, and this person who pops up:

I thought maybe she’s Batgirl. Turns out the thugs she’s beating up don’t recognize her either, so I don’t feel so bad about it. I wasn’t sure how far along the Batman storyline was in the early 90s. Was Barbara Gordon still Batgirl? Nope. She shows up later in Knightfall as Oracle, which makes sense because there were a few references to The Killing Joke which I picked up on. Speaking of being chronologically confused: with all the tension and headbutting between Batman and Robin, I was certain that Robin was Dick Grayson. Nope again. It’s Tim Drake. Dick shows up later as Nightwing. Going to back to the girl in purple and blue for a moment: looking at her makes The Hawkeye Initiative come to mind.⁴

Anarky pops up for an issue or two, looking like the Spanish Inquisition.

Bane sounds a little like Ivan Drago.

What’s more, near the end of Knightfall, Bullock references Rocky.

            In a nutshell, Bane’s gauntlet works and he defeats Batman by breaking his back but decides to let Batman live. That Jean Paul guy turns out to be Azrael, some kind of trained assassin from a religious order. Jean Paul takes on the Batman mantle to keep Gotham in order, but seems to be reckless and takes things too far. He builds some kind of super-suit to battle Bane. Meanwhile, at stately Wayne Manor, Bruce Wayne is recovering until he discovers that a close doctor friend and Tim’s father have both been kidnapped. He leaves the country on a search for them with Alfred. In a final confrontation, Jean Paul almost kills Bane, but leaves him for GCPD.

            Knightfall provides a lot of action, a great showcase of the rogues gallery and the Batman family, awesome art, and great stories. Zero sharks, though.

 

Verdict (Is the book staying or going?): Staying.

 

Notes

1. The cover’s kind of a giveaway, anyway.

2. Maybe it helps that blue is my favorite color.

3. It is kinda lame seeing Batman so weak right off the bat.

4. Look it up.

Works Cited

Moench, Doug, Chuck Dixon, and Alan Grant. Batman: Knightfall, Volume One.

            New York: DC Comics, 2012. Print.

15. The Reason I Jump

Book: The Reason I Jump

Author: Naoki Higashida

Number of pages: 149

What I’m watching: TV: Bones, Community, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Movies: Battle Royale 2, The Man Who Knew Too Little, Sabrina, The Aristocrats

What I’m playing: Dead Rising 2, Little Big Planet, Beyond: Two Souls, Bulletstorm, Dark Souls

 

 

            I heard about The Reason I Jump from The Daily Show. It’s about autism by a young teenager from Japan who has autism. For a long time now I’ve been learning about the disorder. I forget how I first heard about autism. Probably Rain Man. The autism spectrum came up a number of times in high school and college psychology courses. When I was a teenager myself, I read Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, a fictional novel written from the perspective of a boy with autism. Haddon had experience working with autistic people which helped inform his writing. To keep it brief, Curious Incident is my favorite book of all-time and I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone. I found it immensely moving, both funny and sad and, to my understanding, an insightful depiction of a person’s experience with autism. Now, The Reason I Jump provides a real-life personal account from a young person with autism, a rare case because difficulty communicating is a big part of autism.

            David Mitchell¹ introduces the text. Turns out the main audience the book is geared toward is parents caring for an autistic child. That explains why I found this book in the “Children with Special Needs” section at Barnes & Noble. I don’t have any kids, but the number of children with autism seems to be rising.² So I figure, whether or not it affects my immediate family, I’m better off better understanding autism.

            Communication is very limited for people with autism, so Naoki describes learning a special technique his mom created to help him write. It was difficult for him, but he writes that “what kept me hammering away at it was the thought that to live my life as a human being, nothing is more important than being able to express myself” (7). Already, I find Naoki’s account incredible.

            The general format of the book is a Q&A. Naoki answers questions about different aspects of autism, often asking why he does certain things or how he feels about certain other things. Interspersed throughout are short stories written by Naoki because he’s also a creative writer, which I think is pretty cool. The first batch of questions concerns communication and talking, like “Why do you ask the same questions over and over?” and “Do you find childish language easier to understand?” When Naoki answers the question “Do you prefer to be on your own?” I think he hits on a very essential part of autism:

     I can’t believe that anyone born as a human being really wants to be left all on their own, not really. No, for people with autism, what we’re anxious about is that we’re causing trouble for the rest of you, or even getting on your nerves. This is why it’s hard for us to stay around other people. This is why we often end up being left on our own.

     The truth is, we’d love to be with other people. But things never, ever go right, we end up getting used to being alone, without even noticing this is happening. Whenever I overhear someone remark how much I prefer being on my own, it makes me feel desperately lonely. (27)

Autistic people want to join in and communicate, but the stress and the struggle make it hard. Autism is not the same as introversion. They may want to talk to others, but they can’t.

            Next are questions about emotions and behavior. Naoki discusses his memory and attention. Throughout his answers, Naoki repeatedly brings up that he is aware that his autism places stress on his family and how bad that makes him feel. That’s tough.

            The Reason I Jump ends with a longer short story by Naoki about a boy who dies and goes to Heaven. At first it reminded me of The Twilight Zone, but then it was more like What Dreams May Come.³ So the kid’s in Heaven, except he can’t enjoy it because he knows how much his parents are suffering in their grief, especially his mother. So he decides to be reborn as their next kid, which means sacrificing his identity to give his parents some happiness. It’s a touching good story.

            All in all, The Reason I Jump wasn’t the mind-opening experience I expected. I was already fairly familiar with autism, but for someone first learning about the disorder, this book would be incredibly helpful. Still, Naoki Higashida’s book is a wholly worthwhile contribution to the literature of understanding autism.

 

Verdict (Is the book staying or going?): Staying.

 

Notes

1. I wanted to see Cloud Atlas when it came out, but I never got around to it.

2. Now more than 1 in 100 children in the US.

3. Both of which I love.

Works Cited

Higashida, Naoki. The Reason I Jump. Trans. KA Yoshida and David Mitchell.

            New York: Random House, 2013. Print.

14. Lamb

Book: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal

Author: Christopher Moore

Number of pages: 444

What I’m watching: TV: How I Met Your Mother, Bones, Dexter, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Colbert Report, Red Dwarf, Friends, The Victor Borge Show

Movies: Night of the Living Dead, The Goonies, The Artist, Heart and Souls, Easy A, When Harry Met Sally, Tangled, The Notebook, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

What I’m playing: Terraria, Batman: Arkham Origins, Skyrim, Bioshock, Bioshock 2, Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Dead Rising 2, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Injustice: Gods Among Us

 

            Well, it’s the Christmas season, so why not a book about Christ? I remember one of my brothers reading Lamb a few years ago and claiming it was his favorite book. With that praise, I bought the book a bit later, but never read it. Now my fiancé just finished it, and she also really enjoyed it. Her second opinion pushed me to reading my copy of Lamb.

So the premise of the novel is that Jesus had a lifelong friend since childhood named Biff. An angel resurrects Biff in order for him to write a gospel chronicling Jesus’s life, filling in the 30 years between his birth and his ministry. Christopher Moore makes it abundantly clear that though he put real research into the novel, it should not be taken seriously. He has a blessing at the beginning, but I think his back cover photo and “About the Author” say enough: 

CHRISTOPHER MOORE is the author of seven novels, including this one. He began writing at the age of six and became the oldest known child prodigy when, in his early thirties, he published his first novel. His turn-ons are the ocean, playing the toad lotto, and talking animals on TV. His turn-offs are salmonella, traffic, and rude people. Chris enjoys cheese crackers, acid jazz, and otter scrubbing. He lives in an inaccessible island fortress in the Pacific.

And with that, I have no idea what to expect in this book.

            First off, Jesus is called Joshua throughout Lamb, because “Jesus is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Yeshua, which is Joshua” (8). So the first part tells the story of Biff and Joshua growing up in Nazareth. They play out stories from the scripture, they do a little apprenticing with their dads, Biff hits on the Blessed Mary, Josh performs some minor miracles, and other 10-year-old stuff. They make a fast-growing friendship with the new kid in town, Maggie – Moore’s version of Mary Magdalene. There’s also the neighborhood bully, Jakan, who I totally predicted would become one of the high priests who’d have it in for Joshua when they grew up. One of Josh, Biff, and Maggie’s adventures involves attempting to circumcise a statue of Apollo:

Joshua took a quick swipe with the mallet and the chisel slipped, neatly severing Apollo’s unit, which fell to the dirt with a dull thud.

“Whoops,” said the Savior. (60)

The three of them also witness a murder. This first part of Lamb totally feels like a coming-of-age story, like Tom Sawyer, Bridge to Terabithia, Sandlot, IT, Simon Burch, and I’m sure a ton more.¹

            Moore infuses his humor into his writing style, which makes me really like the book. There are a lot of masturbation/sex jokes, which I’m fine with, but there are A LOT. Biff starts out as a young boy going through puberty, and he never seems to mature out of his horniness.

            Periodically, Moore shows what is going on to the resurrected Biff while he’s writing. For awhile I was more curious to see what happened to present-day resurrected Biff than 2000-years-ago Biff. That lessened as I read more, but they’re both interesting.

            Moore also incorporates the actual Bible stories of Jesus in when he can, although with his own spin. Of the episode with young Jesus at the Temple, Biff had to say “in retrospect, after having grown up, somewhat, and having lived, died, and been resurrected from the dust, I realize that there may be nothing more obnoxious than a teenager who knows everything” (98).

Before too long, Josh leaves Nazareth to find the three magi who found him in Bethlehem and learn about being the Messiah. Biff tags along, but Maggie has to stay behind. Pretty much all the unaccounted years of Josh’s life get spent with the magi. There are some mini-adventures in between and during. Each of the magi lives in the East, so Josh learns a lot of Eastern philosophy, religion, and meditation. Biff learns some of that too, but mainly has sex. They become Buddhist monks for a while and train in martial arts.² I actually really like how Joshua integrates so much Eastern wisdom into his ministry later on.

I don’t want to go into much more detail on plot or give every instance of why I think Lamb is funny, because that’s a lot (but I will mention it is a great scene when they run into Legion). I feel that Joshua’s character is a good portrayal of Jesus; he is a close representation of how Son of God is usually viewed, which I think is important to the story. I liked seeing how Moore characterized all the apostles. I liked Bartholomew right away at the beginning, but in the latter half of Lamb, he becomes pretty flat and one-tracky. They reunite with Maggie. A lot of the scenes from the actual Gospels like the Sermon on the Mount and the interrogations with Pontius Pilate and Herod Antipas happen in the story, but not firsthand, probably because we already know what happens, though Moore did leave me guessing to the very end about Josh’s death on the cross. I recognized Joy’s – and subsequently Biff’s – phlebotinum vial pretty quickly, but wasn’t sure how it would play out. I’m remaining vague on this point to not spoil anything.

            Lamb is a funny, thrilling, clever, honest, absurd, and wholly entertaining take on the life of Jesus.

 

Verdict (Is the book staying or going?): Staying.

 

Notes

1. Speaking of Jesus and coming-of-age stories, for your consideration, please observe the similarities between Jesus from Godspell and Sloth from The Goonies.

2. Looks like The Matrix got its Jesus/Neo parallel dead on.

Works Cited

Moore, Christopher. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal.
            New York: Harper Perennial, 2002. Print.

13. Spook

Book: Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife

Author: Mary Roach

Number of pages: 311

What I’m watching: TV: Bones, Red Dwarf, The Critic, Angel, Once Upon a Time, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Movies: Batman: Year One, Justice League: Doom, The Langoliers, What About Bob?, Memento, Hocus Pocus, Nosferatu, Ghostbusters

What I’m playing: Pokemon Red, Pokemon Stadium, Magic 2013: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers, Dead Rising 2, Terraria, The Last of Us, Batman: Arkham Origins

 

            With only one book remaining of my six, I turned my eyes to Spook. Honestly, the order of the six ended up exactly the order I wanted. A big novel followed by a light read, two shorter analytical non-fiction, a quick return to a more narrative book, and finishing with a book that I’ve had for I don’t know how long that I’ve been meaning to get to but kept putting off. Now, I’ve finally picked it up, and what better timing for Halloween than a book called Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife.¹ Mary Roach has another book that I own and love called Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. In it, Roach is one part researcher of weird science history and one part hands-on anecdotes of weird science now. Right off the bat, I recommend Stiff; it is a humorous look at a strange scientific area. And right off the bat, I could tell by the title of Spook that the book’s scientific subject would be even stranger.

            Roach’s “Introduction” didn’t get off to a good start with me. She begins by stating how she’s skeptical of religion because there’s no proof. She says “science remains the most solid god I’ve got” (12-13). It bothers me when non-religious people say that. I won’t go into it, and there’s more than one reason, so to keep myself short and not ranting, it irks me when people make it seem like a choice: you have to either accept science or religion as true. And the assumption is that if you choose religion, you’re stupid. The two are not mutually exclusive! But Mary Roach is also skeptical of science, because it too sometimes fails to provide real proof behind its answers. I’m not bothered by her skepticism – it can be a good trait to have. I just find it demeaning of my religion when people misuse the term “god.” And again, to Roach’s credit, her skepticism never comes off as close-mindedness.

            So, Mary Roach’s approach in her book is to look into different scientific studies of what happens to a person’s soul after death, both historical research and contemporary research. What I love about her books is how she inserts herself into what she’s writing about. For her first section of Spook, which deals with the idea of reincarnation, she not only describes how cases of claimed reincarnations get studied, Roach follows along with an Indian scientist who investigates these claims. Roach has a very natural, flowing, and easy-to-read writing style, which helps greatly to make some of the subject matter more accessible. She transitions smoothly between her research and her personal experiences. So, she and Dr. Kirti Rawat meet a boy who claims to be the reincarnated soul of a young man who died recently a few villages away. They also talk with the boy’s family and the family of the deceased man about anything the boy knew, said, or did that made them believe he’s the real deal. I never gave any thought to the investigation of possible reincarnations, and it’s an interesting read. I guess it’s kind of like priests investigating the occurrence of possible miracles to see if they’re really miracles.

            Roach’s next chapter discusses the scientific history that studied the beginning of life – as in, where do babies come from?² Scientists had some strange answers, even after sperm and ova could be seen via microscope. Leeuwenhoek, the first person to find them, believed that sperm were pretty much mini-people and the woman’s egg was just something for the sperm-man to eat.

But then, if sperm were little animals which ate, then there also had to be little sperm poops. See? Science was pretty weird. Roach ties all this early biology into her book by discussing ensoulment – the moment the soul enters the forming prenatal life. Roach also tells the history of people searching for the soul’s location in the body.

            That leads into her next chapter, as she writes about experimental studies about the weight of a soul. Since some people believed that the soul had weight, a study was done in 1901 which weighed people as they died to see if they lost any weight the moment they died. It’s difficult for me to showcase Roach’s humor without quoting long passages setting up the context. Her humor is built into her writing and is often contextual or based off of an earlier statement, like a running gag. Her wit carries throughout the book. What I can showcase is the oddity that is the history of science.

            Mary Roach goes to Cambridge University to find the sample of an alleged ectoplasm from a 1939 séance. Ectoplasm, which I first learned about in Ghostbusters, is left-over ghost residue. It can also be found in the Elder Scrolls games.

But the ectoplasm that Roach examines comes from the medium Helen Duncan. Back when séances were a thing, I guess it was common for the medium to end up covered in ectoplasm after communing with the spirits. However, these ectoplasm samples appeared to be cloth or animal intestines. Not weird enough yet? In order to prove the authenticity of their ectoplasms, mediums underwent rectal and vaginal searches prior to séances to show they weren’t hiding these things up there and just whipping it out during the séance.

I think that is sufficiently weird.

            Roach’s section of psychic mediums culminates with her taking a 3-day course on being a medium. Props to her for really making herself a part of her research. This part reminds me of the South Park episode about John Edward. Mary Roach meets her roommate for the weekend, who is “propped on her bed, reading a romance novel. We make small talk for a minute, and then she says, ‘I foresaw that you’d be an American. Blond and chubby.’ I’m hardly blond or chubby, but I feel it’s too early in our relationship to mention this” (172). Ha!

            Next, Mary Roach investigates EVP: electronic voice phenomena. She visits the place of the infamous Donner Party with a group of people with tape recorders and tries to catch ghost voices on tape. She writes about the history and validity of people hearing words out of white noise. Also mentioned is the research of people trying to record the voices that schizophrenic individuals hear, in case they aren’t hallucinations but are really ghosts.

            She also experiences first-hand electromagnetic pulses and infrasound waves, which both may induce audio and visual hallucinations. The science behind it is fascinating, and it’s cool to see how these two scientific principles can be applied to explaining famously “haunted” places. Her final research deals with studies of near-death experiences in which people claim to have out-of-body experiences. So, the idea is that the soul can leave the body and does so after death. Roach doesn’t experience this first-hand, but she does witness a participant in one such study.

            All in all, Spook is informative, entertaining, clever, and definitely worth reading. There’s much more information and humor in Spook that I didn’t cover, and I recommend reading it. Want more weird science courtesy of Mary Roach’s research? Cambridge University performed one study which involved a man dressed in a white sheet running through a porno theater to see if anyone believed it was an actual ghost. Almost half the people didn’t even notice.

 

Verdict (Is the book staying or going?): Staying.

 

Notes

1. Plus, it’s the 13^th book. Spooky, right?

2. Lebanon.

Works Cited

Roach, Mary. Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. New York: W. W. Norton &

          Company, 2005. Print.