I would love to hang out with author Mary Roach. Reason numero uno? She is the queen of inside jokes. I feel that, if she is in conversation, anything like her writing style, we would be the obnoxious people at a dinner party who keep laughing and, when someone inquires as to the joke and we tell them, they don't get it because they weren't there twenty minutes ago. Or last week. Or the last dinner gathering.
That's the way I feel when I reading a Mary Roach book. Sly, insanely clever, and perfectly timed, as a reader you often feel you are right along side Roach, as she investigates various bizarre and seldom researched topics, when she leans over and whispers something inappropriate in your ear.
I recently finished Roach's second book, Spook, about scientific investigations into the supernatural. I was introduced to her through her spectacular first piece, Stiff, about what happens to human cadavers after family members bid their farewells, and Bonk, about the science of sex.
Each of these books takes Roach on a tour of studies near and far, to fully funded by legitimate organizations and not-so-much experiments, meeting all types of investigators - scientific to just curious, all in the goal of getting to the bottom of often ignored or misunderstood corners of science. Writing intelligently, but also for the layman, Roach does a phenomenal job of making the method of science accessible and interesting to everyone. Have a I mentioned she's funny?
Sergio del Limonar
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